I see a lot of back ends...the website kind, anyway, in my line of work. I have worked with the majority of control panels and website providers out there but nothing takes the cake like the one I found today.
Although I probably can't reveal the name of the company, I can tell you the shocking and hilarious responses to their FAQ for Search Engine Optimization. There is just too many to list but I'll share with you the most ridiculous ones.
For starters, the customer service stinks. I couldn't find where to change the individual title and 
descriptions for each internal page; only the homepage. So I call (on Wed, left a message, no return call yet by Friday) so I call again. Mr. Sunshine answers the phone and I tell him what I'm doing and what I need. He says in the most monotone voice ever, "where you found it is for every page." ... Really? That's it? So, thinking he misunderstood me, I say again... "no, for each page. I found the homepage meta data, but I want to change his buyers information title to buyers and so forth..." Again, he responds with "where you found it is for every page." Silence. So, you're saying I cannot change each page? That's poor SEO. How do I get him ranked for his individual pages?" And I wait for an answer... like 20 seconds! "Hello?" I say. "Yes," he says. "So that's your answer?" I say. And again, he repeats his mantra, "where you found it is for every page." Well, thanks Buttercup for oozing with customer service. See ya!
So now I am stuck with an uphill challenge of making the content so unbelieveably optimized on the page that Google will need to rank it despite the wrong titles. UGH...
But in searching through the control panel I come across the most interesting list of FAQ's about SEO. You'll see my comments in red. These are the actual questions and anwers from an actual real estate website. You're just going to love this:
Q. What can I do to get good search engine positioning?
A. Everything mentioned on this page. It is better to hire a niece or nephew to do these simple things than to go through a company that sent you an email or letter telling you how they'll solve all your problems. Hype = Lies. No one controls the search engines. (Now, while that last sentence is true - Except for the people that actually DO control the search engines, the rest leaves me laughing.... make sure you go and hire your 10 year old, cause they know everything about SEO.... right?)
Q. I know someone who knows someone who gets tons of business from their website. Why doesn't mine?
A. Most stories like that are exaggerations of the truth. Someone may have a nicely working referral network developed, or maybe their company has a lot of listings, or maybe they are paying through the nose in advertising. If you want to get the truth and not be another spreader of urban legends, then figure out exactly what they are doing. Custom websites with a big monthly search engine optimization fee typically do better for obvious reasons.(Really? They do? Exaggerations huh? Well don't tell that to the hords of ActiveRain folks with very low marketing budgets and do a bang up job!)
Q. Who gets all the traffic?
A. Large real estate portals like realtor.com and homes.com get the most traffic, then comes large national companies like RE/MAX and Century 21, then comes multi-state company websites, then comes large local office websites, then comes broker websites and then comes team websites and then comes single agent websites. Obviously there are many exceptions to this straight forward logic. The point is that the more people that are marketing a single website, the more traffic it will have. Have your friends visit your website regularly. This will help your search engine ranking. (Get grandma and of course, your niece and nephew to sit on your site all day!! You know the search engines won't have a clue!)
Q. Are people really searching the Internet for homes. If so, how can I get a piece of the action?
A. Most of the statistics that you hear are inflated and quite biased opinions from NAR and other organizations so that they look good. That said however, the best strategy is to impress your visitors with a professional looking website that has a message. Loads of agents have a website, luckily for you and us, most are ugly. That means they stay when they visit yours, but will they want to contact you? Just saying the same thing as everyone else won't give you an edge. Cut your commission, improve your service, whatever it takes. People need a reason to pick you. Put yourself in their shoes and say, "what would it take for me to want to talk with this agent or fill in a form with real contact information?". A free dinner, a lottery for football tickets, free brochures about the area? (Ugly, huh? Well, at least it's SEO friendly! and NAR opinions huh? Yeah, the Internet is so 1990.... not that many search online anymore....)
Oh and don't forget their tips on SEO - one of their major suggestions is LINK EXCHANGE... AND they provide you with a list of ten of the top sites to get reciprocal link exchanges between real estate professionals... OK, this was pretty much red flagged in our industry..... ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO!
So the lesson in all of this? Website providers rarely know the truth about SEO. They provide IDX's and websites. I have only found a couple of real estate based website providers that have created a system perfect for SEO. This company however, is not one of them.
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