Whenever there is an industry that is new and little understood by its target market there is ample opportunity for scoundrels to make money ripping people off. Since I manage a Utah SEO firm and pride myself on providing a service to our clients that delivers real value, I get frustrated when I see people who are getting taken advantage of. Sometimes they get sucked in by low prices that I know can’t possibly support a high-quality service, and other times they get sucked into paying more than they need to for high-quality SEO services, and yet they’re still not getting anything of value. I don’t mind losing a client to a competing firm if that firm is delivering a good service, but I hate to lose business when I know the client is being taken for a ride. So here are my tips for knowing whether an SEO company or professional you’re working with is ripping you off, or whether a firm that’s pitching you is going to rip you off. Some of this content is repurposed from a past post on my personal blog about how SEO professionals trick you.

How to Tell if Your Current SEO Firm is Ripping You Off

No analytics installed. One of the first things a competent SEO company or SEO professional should do is configure a website analytics package for your site. While you can pay for sophisticated analytics packages, most companies can do just fine with a free version of Google Analytics. This type of package gives you all sorts of information, including total visitors to your site, which pages those visitors went to, how long they stayed on each page, how those visitors found your website, what keywords they used in search engines to find your site, etc. If you’re paying somebody to do SEO for you and they don’t have some sort of analytics package installed I would question whether they have any clue what they’re doing with SEO. This is basic stuff.

No monthly reports. I’m surprised how often we visit with potential clients who are already working with another firm and they tell us their current firm doesn’t give them any monthly reports. Nada. Nothing. Zip. There are four reasons why you wouldn’t get monthly reports from your SEO firm; they’re extremely lazy, they forgot, they don’t know what they’re doing, or they don’t want you to see what’s in those reports.

You don’t know what they’re doing. Not only do a lot of SEO clients not get formal reports on what their firm is doing for them, but they don’t have any clue what the firm is doing. It’s interesting to watch the awareness spread over a client’s face as they realize they’re paying somebody $2,000 per month and they don’t have any idea what they’re getting for it. Of course if they’re sending you reports and giving you updates but you never read them that’s another matter.

You can’t get a hold of them easily. No reports and you don’t know what they’re doing, so what do you do? You send an email but get no response. You call, but nobody answers nor returns your voicemail. You try for three months and finally you get a hold of your SEO firm, at which point you still struggle to get them to tell you what they’re doing or to get a report out of them. If the three above things have happened to you stop sending the firm money, ask for your money back, and if they refuse threaten them with a lawsuit.

Keywords that don’t matter. We recently met with a potential client whose SEO firm came up with 20,000 keywords for them. The firm said they were going to use all those as a starting point and narrow it down. Gee, sounds like a great way to stretch out a relationship. “Sorry, I know we’re six months into your SEO campaign and you’re not seeing an increase in sales, but we’re making some really good progress on figuring out what keywords are going to work for you. We’re down from 20,000 to only 5,000 now.” A good SEO firm/professional should be able to figure out 100 keywords that are going to be good for you in the first month and narrow it down to 5-10 keywords that are pure gold within 3-4 months. The exception is online retailers who sell thousands of products and therefore have thousands of keywords to focus on. That wasn’t the case in the above example.

A focus on rankings and traffic. But wait, aren’t rankings and traffic what SEO is all about? No, it’s only part of the equation. An SEO firm may be giving you reports, which is a good thing, but if all they’re showing you are great rankings and great traffic then part of the equation is missing, and that’s results.

You aren’t seeing any results. All else aside, all that matters is results. If you’re a law firm that means new clients. If you’re a university that means more students. If you’re a retailer that means more sales. Or you might define results as leads, brand awareness, and perhaps you really are satisfied with just rankings or traffic. Whatever, the case, you should define the results you want and if you’re not getting them, at least talk it over with the SEO firm you’re working with.

How to Tell if an SEO Company is Going to Rip You Off Before it Happens

First off you can quiz them on all of the above. Do they provide monthly reports? Will they install an analytics package if you don’t already have one? Then watch out for these items below.

The long term commitment. If a company wants you to sign a multi-month commitment ask them why and get an explanation that satisfies you. Personally, I don’t think there are many cases where a long-term commitment makes sense. If an SEO firm is worth what you’re paying, then you’ll keep paying them. If they aren’t, then you shouldn’t be locked into another 8 months with them or a buyout clause.

You don’t understand what they’re saying. SEO can be detailed and complex, but a good SEO firm should be able to explain it to you in terms that make sense. If they talk for 45 minutes and at the end you think “I have absolutely no idea what they just said” then they might just have trouble communicating effectively, but they may be trying to pull a fast one on you.

A bad feeling in your gut. Trust your instincts. If an SEO firm or professional gives you a bad feeling, that might be your brain subconsciously picking up on details your conscious mind is missing. The same deal they’re offering you today will be available tomorrow. Don’t respond to pressure. Take the time you need to make the right decision.