Google Consultant – Should this job title be allowed?
Aug 27
One thing that I keep seeing more and more of are industry professionals associating themselves (wrongly) with Google. Whether this is in the form of calling themselves Google consultants, representatives or even going as far as claiming they have “special relationships” with someone who works at Google!
It looks like a pretty good way to deceive people into hiring your services, just look at Google Re-Sell and the fuss they caused! When I was researching that post I found a lot of dissatisfied customers so chasing the Google brand is obviously an effective marketing strategy!
As an SEO who spends a lot of my time working with Google (in the sense of a third party) I’d consider myself to be pretty well informed on the latest goings on at Mountain View, but I’d never go as far as advertising myself as a Google consultant. To me that sounds like someone’s trying to big themselves up more than they should.
If you Google “Google consultant” you’ll see that there are plenty of websites out there that are actively pushing this keyword/job description. It would be perfectly understandable for somebody looking for an SEO to focus purely on Google rankings/traffic and Google such a keyword. But what would they be getting? They’d be hiring an SEO, but half not much of an SEO… what about all the other factors not associated with Google? What about all the other search engines?!
Do yourself a favour people… Search for an SEO, not a Google consultant! You cant polish a turd!
Great post Matt! And you are making a great point that I never thought before. I am convinced that using Google Consultant as a job title should not be allowed. If it is not already and we both probably don’t know.
By the way how could you tell that the bullshiters are not authorized? I think we should report such stuff to Google. Don’t you think?
By the way, I just tweeted you post and will bookmark on my social media accounts.. We must spread the word buddy so far ever we can.
Cheers John!
Its definitely an error that’s up there with the likes of “guaranteed top rankings” and “we have a personal relationship with Google”. We need to educate people and get the word out about people like this who fleece clients and make them weary of SEOs in the future.
You can tell they’re not authorised because no-one gets authorised by Google, apart from Adwords professionals!
Cheers for the links john… keep the coming! If i can get this post to the top of .co.uk for Google consultant I’ll be happy that I’ve stopped some future searchers from falling for it.
By someone calling themselves ‘Google Consultant’ is a very deceptive tactic and should their service offering not come up to scratch then it only helps to give the seo industry a bad name. Tatcics like this need to be policed in some way, How though I’m not sure. As a worldwide brand name I reckon Google would take a pretty dim view of their name being used to promote other peoples personal interests.
Thats the problem nowadays. Too many people jumpin on the Google SEO band wagon to make a quick buck!
I have had some first hand experience of this, i was recently contacted by someone offering their services using a similar title to the one you mention. So, i decided to quiz him a little about how and why he feels he had a right to use such a title, and his answer was simple, he had passed the Google Adwords Professional Exam, and therefore felt his site was justified. I can’t recall the exact title he was using, but it was something like “Google Approved” or something similar.
Hi nobby. The image above is a photoshoped version of the adwords approved logo! Its easy to see how your average business owner could confuse adwords approved with “google consultant”.
We have na SEO person in the company I work for(Who I can vouch is both ethical and honest), and she has qualfications from google. Could that not fit the job description of google consultant? That isn’t her job title btw, just wondering what the title would be for her, as she obviously is associated with google in some way.
How do Tony! Your SEO is probably qualified by Big G as an Adwords Professional, which is a must if youre providing SEM/PPC services. But as far as SEO goes… What exactly would Google get out of creating an exam and qualification for it? After all we focus on the free listings!
Good post. People should be more aware of how easy it is to get conned.
Website Optimizer thingy isn’t that a logo they use for people who optimize pages for conversion? Otherwise that logo is likelu not legal use of the Google Trademark
Hi Terry. Youre right, you can become an authorised Google consultant for Analytics and Website Optimiser, just as you can become an Adwords Certified Individual. Which is a bit deceiving really! The logo above looks like the company who displays it are authorised by Google to optimise websites, not to help people/companies with the “Website Optimiser” tool!
Think Google are causing more harm than good with that one!
Great post, thanks Matt – do you mind if I trackback from my blog and/or tweet it? The photoshopped image really hits home at how devious some companies can be!
Hi Keith, feel free to trackback and post etc!
The image in the post isnt photoshopped but it is very deceiving! Its meant for companies who are authorised “Google web optimiser” consultants but its easy to see how people could confuse that badge with a general Google approval for optimising websites.
i know of a so called marketing firm in burlington ontario who claims they have a special relationship with google and their clients actually believe this!
Great post, Matt!
I haven’t personally come across anyone trying to use that title, but you can bet that if I do, they’ll hear about it!
The “guarantee” is all too prevalent, though, and it’s amazing how many clients fall for it! I’m kind of surprised that Google hasn’t aggressively gone after some of these clowns that are using the Google name in their ads.
Have posted this link on some do follow blogs
There’s no question of unneccesary deception going on if people are creating badges, such as the on you have up here, which simply dont exist as official google logo’s! Im glad youve taken a stand to let people know about how wrong sites and people like this are!
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place