It’s 2020 and there’s no doubt your SEO company plays an important role in the success of your business. Well, that’s in an ideal situation where your company is run by professionals who have your business interest at heart.
Unfortunately, though, this is not always the case. Not all SEO companies are run by professionals who understand how search engines work. And some who have SEO experts may not be committed to your success as a business.
The good news is there are signs you would see in the company that handles your SEO that would help you identify whether they are committed to your business goals or not. Also, you would be able to tell if they indeed have what it takes to make those goals a reality.
In a finding by Clutch, an SEO review platform, here are three ways businesses choose the SEO company they work with
- Referrals and previous relationship
- SEO knowledge and expertise of the company
- Online reviews and case studies
Irrespective of how you got your SEO company, they may end up not giving your business the best result. Here are 8 signs your SEO company has been ripping your business off.
- Your SEO Company Refuses to Communicate
You always have to communicate with the company handling your SEO, you can’t help it. They should always have something to tell you just as you’d always have information to send to them. But when it becomes tough or impossible to communicate with the company, then you have your first sign something is not right.
There are different professional communication tools out there that make it possible for people to communicate while working on a project. Trello, Slack and so on.
However, if they have a way of avoiding your questions and enquiries on these channels, it means they either don’t care about your business or are clueless about how they can help you.
- They Don’t Send Reports
This is ridiculous because it’s almost impossible to tell if your SEO company is working without reports. No reports can translate to no service has been rendered.
Interestingly, there are a thousand things to report on SEO – there are data everywhere. Website traffic, organic leads generated, comparison of data between months, keywords tracking and so on. So, your SEO company has no excuse.
Therefore, if your SEO company doesn’t send in reports showing how their work has improved your website performance on the search engine, then that’s a sign.
- They Don’t Optimize for Local SEO
If you’re reading this, there is high tendency your business currently serves people in Canada. Which means you rely on local search campaigns to get traffic to your site, generate lead and drive conversions.
For instance, you run a supermarket in Toronto, Canada. Obviously, your goal would be to generate traffic from Toronto and environs. Website visitors from far away Mexico are irrelevant to your business.
It is therefore on your SEO company to optimize for Local SEO to attract relevant traffic and convert your target customers only (people living close to where your business is located).
If this scenario fits your kind of business and your SEO company is not making Local SEO a priority, you may need to start looking for another SEO company. Your current SEO company is wasting your resources and bringing in the irrelevant result.
- They Promised You Number One Spot on SERP
SEO companies are always in a hurry to make this promise – “give us your website and we will take you to number one spot on Google”. If that sounds familiar, sorry but you may have been a victim.
For starters, nobody cares that much about number one spot anymore when there is featured snippet (number zero). Also, nobody can promise any position on search engine result page (SERP).
What a good SEO company would say instead is promise to use all SEO strategies possible to take your website to the highest position possible. Anything outside of this is just empty promise which may be an indication that your SEO company is only after your money.
- They Have One-Size-Fits-All Packages
Every business is unique with goals and digital marketing needs. So it doesn’t make sense to offer the same package for every business. It’s an indication that your SEO company may not know as much about SEO as they claim.
Reputable SEO companies understand that each business is unique that’s why they always request to have a consultation session where they better understand your business so they can design strategies specifically for your business.
- You’re Getting Unqualified Leads
Generation of leads is an important indication that your SEO company is working. Or is it? Well, it boils down to the quality of leads.
If you are getting leads from outside your niche or business interest, then your SEO company has some questions to answer.
By the way, it’s normal to have some unqualified leads once in a while – less than 20% is still quite fair. However, if about 30% to 50% of your leads are unqualified, then something is not right.
This is one of the reasons local SEO is crucial. When your SEO company doesn’t do well to target the right audience, this is often the result.
- They Promised Thousands of Backlinks
Backlinks are very important to SEO as they are among key ranking factors on Google and other search engines. So, some SEO companies are always in a hurry to promise backlinks in their numbers.
Backlink spamming has been around for years and have yielded positive results in the past. But do they still work now? Absolutely not!
Unlike in the past, the quality of backlinks you get is now as important as the quantity. Getting thousands of backlinks from low-quality websites will end up hurting your website. And if your SEO company is promising you thousands of backlinks, then you can bet they are coming from low-quality sites.
- They Offer Cheap Content Automation
Content is king but an SEO company is offering to provide it cheap and you’re still engaging them? Try all the SEO strategy you know, without quality content you still would have no good result. These contents include blog posts and web copy.
Your contents represent your brand; they tell people more about your brand. You want to have a good face for your business so you shouldn’t be reluctant to invest in content.
Therefore, an SEO company offering to create contents for you in exchange for peanuts is set to give your business a crappy look out there.
9. They Rely Heavily on Paid Advertising
Many SEO agencies often confuse clients into believing that the only way to generate leads of increase website traffic is via paid advertising. It’s understandable considering that most clients want results now. Much like a person who has been leading an unhealthy lifestyle and wants to lose all that weight in one week.
It simply would not work! So SEO companies, due to pressure, resort to paid advertising for quick results. The downside of relying heavily on paid advertising is that it increases your lead acquisition costs.
Moreover, the traffic effects of paid advertising are temporary. It significantly decreases if not completely disappears once you stop spending.
Conclusion
At SEO Marketing Map, we deliver top-notch SEO service that prioritizes your business goals. Your website SEO project with us begins with a free consultation, which you can initiate here. After which we would carry out an SEO audit to check out your website SEO health.
After which we would go on to carry out keyword research, competitor analysis, improve your site layout, optimize your web copy and so on. Get started now for free.