I was a car salesman once and I know many of the tricks used car salespeople play in order to make a sale.

“This car has no problems” they say, “I guarantee it won’t break down for at least another two years”. Then when you purchase the car, they have you sign an “AS IS” form.

“What is this?” you might ask.

“Well… this is what the state requires we have our clients sign because you’re buying a used car.”

Not true. They sell you the car “AS IS,” which means when you drive off the lot and the car breaks into two pieces, you’re the owner of the bigger piece. And this is only a small trick.

Covering the check-engine light with black tape, selling a car that has an engine with only three out of its four cylinders in working condition and pouring special engine oil  to cover up its noise are some of the other tricks.

But I’ve always believed honesty is more important than making a buck. And I tried to be different as a car salesman. I would tell the client if a car was having issues. I would tell them they could drive the car and, if it broke down within a week, we’d pay the repair fee. This attitude helped us sell more cars than any other lot on Colfax Avenue.

When I entered the SEO world in 2003, I realized a lot of the so-called SEO experts were acting like used car salespeople. The difference was that the SEO experts could get away with it much easier than the car salespeople, as most ordinary people have no clue about SEO (while many people know at least a little bit about cars).

I have previously written on how SEO experts try to trick you and the stupid mistakes people make when choosing an SEO company. These articles rest on just the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more involved in the SEO process than the average person can ever understand.

Only a trustworthy company with a positive track record can help you achieve your SEO goals without giving you headaches.

Soon, I’ll write a post laying down some of the easy ways you can research an SEO company or expert before committing to them.

UPDATE – Dec. 1: The $99 SEO package is now offered for free.

We have a new $99 SEO package that we will start offering on October 1st. Clients who submit their site or blog can get SEO services with an estimated value of $1000, saving $900.

The following services are included in the package:

• Keywords Analysis – We will identify your site’s most critical keywords.
• Complete Web Site Optimization – We will optimize the entire site to improve its Google Ranking. This service includes:

o   Employing Google Webmaster Tools to find site errors and repairing them.

o   Deleting any (X)HTML code blocking Google from freely indexing your Web site.

o   Updating the site’s title tag, description tag, and image tags.

o   Creating an XML site map to your Web site.

• Google Analytics – We will set up your Google Analytics, allowing you to monitor the site’s traffic.
• Reports – We will provide weekly reports showing where the site ranks on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

We are widely known for our Free SEO services and our Top of Google Guarantee package, in which we guarantee to get a client’s Web site to the top of Google or we will repay the client’s money. We do not promise first page placement with the $99 package. But, our services will increase your site’s ranking on Google and other search engines. Your site’s Ranking Report will demonstrate the increase in only a few weeks.

“This is the package for those businesses that don’t qualify for our Free SEO offer and don’t want or can’t afford our Top of Google package,” says Ali Husayni, CEO of Master Google. “Unfortunately, we can only provide these services to 90 sites per month. We sign clients up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Some clients may need to wait for their opportunity to come up.”

We cannot supply the $99 SEO package to sites with these issues:

• Banned or red-flagged by Google.
• Will not open up – for any technical reason.

“Providing the $99 service does require File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access. Such access permits us to optimize your Web site,” says Husayni. “A lot of clients get anxious at the thought of supplying us with this information. However, it will be 100% safe. As many happy clients can confirm, we are a respectable and trustworthy business.”

UPDATE – Dec. 1, 2010: The $99 SEO package is now offered for free. Click here.