SEO seems generally useless.  In some cases a so-called SEO company promises money for what you’d get for free in any case – a listing in the next 6 months.

However, there must be some mysterious reasons why a site that apparently matches your search criteria in every aspect comes in as entry 34,672 out of 40,000 while a load of sites that don’t even mention any words in your search can be in the top ten.

Someone must have the secret, so anyone with a website that they hope will get the occasional visitor is fair game for any promise of a listing. 

At the same time, learning all the wierd tricks to optimise your search engine ranking seems a difficult step with no certainty of success.