The Charlatans And Other Bands Too Prevelant On The Web
Beware The Charlatans, ladies and gentlemen beware.
The Charlatans are far too prevelant on the web.
Of course I am not referring to the excellent indie band of the 1990s but rather their online namesakes.
The Charlatans are plentiful and give the rest of us web professionals a bad name. Some are easier to spot than others – I am not going to name names but I will, hopefully, give some pointers on how to recognise them.
The Charlatans, Telling (SEO) Stories
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx2dpiP7VLQ
The Charlatans are telling stories about SEO and how they can get you to the top of the world, aka Google. Some are harmless and merely miss out the fundamental steps. Others do real damage, which can take months to fix.
Charlatan SEOs: Difficult for the unwary to spot, but if any of the points on my “You need an SEO or a new one if:” post apply, they’re one of the Charlatans.
The Pretenders, Don’t Get Me (Social Media) Wrong
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Bj8wrXslk
With Twitter exploding across the web, the number of overnight social media gurus is rising exponentially. How to spot The Pretenders?
Check the following, follower and update figures on their twitter profile to filter out the Twitter spammers
Don’t get me wrong, checking their Twitter profile is not the end of it, but it will at least filter out the more obvious Pretenders.
Seether, Fake It (Web Design)
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7j2DHUw8SZg
Thankfully this lot of Fakes are easy for everyone to spot. My rule of thumb is that professional web designers do not aim to make my eyes bleed. Garish colours, animated flashing buttons and comic sans are but a few characteristics.
It’s easy to fake it. The design may look shiny but not checking the code could cost traffic, maybe even bandwidth charges.
Nice Weather For Ducks
The amount of ducking filletantes* plying their trade is bound to rise with unemployment skyrocketing.
httpv://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=e8yx4k4tzqE
While they give the rest of us a bad name, they make more work for us in the long run.
Thank you Charlatans, Pretenders, [those who] Fake it and of course the filletantes.
*Shout out to QuoteSnack [Originally linked article no longer exists] for reminding me of the beauty of spoonerisms.
