The SEO industry is, unfortunately, full of companies that are only out to make — or in some cases, steal — a quick buck. Many business owners are not well-versed in SEO and the technical terminology that goes with it, and so make easy targets for predatory companies and individuals that aren’t truly out to provide any service of real value.
Being able to spot some of the red flags may help you avoid these bogus companies. After all, you stand to lose more than just your marketing budget — these companies can actually do lasting damage to your domain and your brand.
Company 1: SEO Scammers
There is, unfortunately, a whole host of SEO scams out there just waiting to lure in unsuspecting business owners. These “companies” are not out to do any SEO work whatsoever, they simply exist to convince you to give them your money.
Signs that an SEO company may be out to scam you include:
- Non-native English speakers
- Being vague when discussing your SEO campaign
- Lack of reporting on a regular basis
- Unwilling or unable to provide information about other clients
- Inflated or unrealistic promises
SEO is not magic, and if a company sounds too good to be true when outlining what you should expect from their service, then they probably are.
Company 2: The Outsourcers
Outsourcing is a common practice in the SEO and tech industries in general, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. The problem tends to come when that’s all that your SEO company is. If they are taking your monthly budget, hiring a couple freelancers, and pocketing the difference, then they are essentially nothing but a middle-man. Why not pay the workers yourself and save all of that money?
Another issue is that when it comes to outsourced work, you have no control over the quality of work that’s being done. There’s always a chance that they happen to use some rock-star developers and SEO-heads, but more than likely if the work is being outsourced then the results are going to be sub-par.
Company 3: Locking You In
While there’s nothing wrong with a standard service contract (we use them ourselves as well), many SEO companies employ tactics that are specifically designed to lock you in with them regardless of your contract length.
A strong example of this would be building landing pages for your website that aren’t properly part of your domain or haven’t been constructed as a permanent page on your site. Some reasons that SEO companies will give for building external landing pages could be ease of deployment or increased monitoring/analytics. Unfortunately, though, the efforts put into marketing these do not actually translate to SEO on your own website at your own domain. That means that if you terminate service and your external landing pages go down, you’re no better off than before you started.
Similarly, many digital marketing agencies will set up new phone numbers which forward to your business line. If these numbers are being advertised and saved in customers’ phones it means that as soon as they no longer exist, anyone that was using the forwarding number will no longer be able to reach your business.
While there are specific advantages to external landing pages and forwarding telephone numbers in niche cases, for most businesses they will serve only to keep you bound to a shady SEO company.
Company 4: Actually Just Ads
There’s clearly nothing wrong with running an ad campaign. It’s a great idea for many businesses, and we offer PPC management ourselves as well. The problem comes when marketing agencies run ads under the guise of doing SEO. PPC and SEO are not the same thing — while the benefits of organic SEO are slower to manifest, they benefit your business in the long run whereas the benefits of running ads only exist so long as the ads themselves are running.
Some less-than-honest SEO companies will put your monthly budget towards clicks rather than doing real, long-lasting SEO work. This can result in some impressive numbers, and business owners could easily be duped into thinking that they are doing a great job. But in reality, as soon as those ads stop, so does the website traffic and thus cash flow to the business.
An Honest SEO Company
At RankStrats we take a lot of pride in doing things the right way and being 100% upfront with our clients from beginning to end. The expectations we set prior to your campaign will be realistic and achievable, and the increase in traffic that you get as a result comes from real, organic SEO work. This benefits your website and your business over an indefinite period of time and sets you up for continued growth, regardless of where you may take your marketing budget in the future.