Every industry has good and bad companies that offer their services to the public. The top tier businesses are the ones that set best practices for their field, deal honestly with their customers and provide straightforward answers to questions regarding their methods. Unfortunately, there are then also those companies that profit by taking advantage of everyone they can. The search engine optimization industry is no different, making these four tips to spot the shady companies a necessity for those looking for an agency.
- First Page Rank Guarantees: Consider the number of competing businesses in your field, all pushing for that first page. Now, if any SEO or digital marketing company had found a guaranteed formula to grant that wish they could name almost any price and easily find buyers. Furthermore, the way these companies will often manage initial results are frowned upon. Google, who owns 70% of the search market share, will blacklist pages that employ methods going against the established best practices. The blacklist is not quite the guarantee you want.
- Weak Content: Any search engine optimization service producing poorly filled content, or worse, duplicate content, should send you running straight for the hills. Of course, there are other contributing factors to a site?s placement on a search engine, but content production is vital. With no ability to produce well-written, informative and original content, an SEO firm has no way to produce long-term results.
- Lying With Statistics: Politicians use statistics to support their point when, at best, the use could be called highly misleading. Businesses are capable of such dishonesty as well, although thankfully most do not do so. Always make sure you understand exactly what the numbers you are being presented mean. If a company delivers a confusing, number filled presentation to sell you their search engine optimization service, they most likely want you to be confused.
- Only Some SEO Services: During your process of comparing various companies, you may notice some firms do not offer as comprehensive a list of services as do others. While this may not be a sign of dishonesty, it is a sign of incompetence. Allowing an amateur company without the ability to perform in the ways they should will only mean a poor SEO campaign for your business.
There is no doubt that the functions performed by a search engine optimization service are complex. There are many options, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. With these tips, the bad ones should not be a risk, leaving only a choice between good options.