Hiring an SEO agency can be challenging and frustrating. Therefore, we've decided to explain 8 methods that you can use to detect a fake SEO agency and avoid being scammed.
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Nobody can guarantee rankings! Simply because the decision is made
by Search Engines, and not by Agencies or Consultants. Anyone who
does, is likely to be using dodgy techniques which violate Google’s
guidelines.
‣ Never reply to “Cheap SEO” emails that claim to rank your website for only $199.
‣ Run away as soon as you hear “we guarantee rankings”
‣ Ask for case studies and check their clients’ websites
Advice
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Check out their website. Professional SEOs would have a well-designed
and well-structured website.
Try to answer the following questions by
looking at their website:
‣ Do they stuff keywords everywhere in their content?
‣ Does the website look spammy and unnatural?
‣ How does it rank on Google?
‣ Portfolio? Case Studies?
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Search Engine Optimisation can’t be cheap. It takes time, hard work and
real knowledge. If you decide to hire an SEO agency/consultant, don’t
look for the cheapest solution.
Points to take into consideration:
‣ Be prepared to pay at least $600-$1200 per month (for quality SEO)
‣ Anyone who charges less than $300/month is likely to be using dodgy
techniques that can get your website penalised
‣ How many hours would that include?
‣ What is included? (e.g. On-Site SEO, Technical SEO, Link Building, Social Media?)
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Points to take into consideration:
Anyone who claims to have SEO partnership or some sort of a special
deal with Google, are telling lies.
‣ There is no such a thing as Google SEO partner
‣ Google’s algorithms are kept as a secret
‣ Nobody has insights to Google’s internal operations
‣ There is no secret SEO formula. Anyone who claims that, is definitely planning to
use “black-hat” techniques
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It is 100% acceptable to ask your potential SEO agency for their SEO and
Link Building strategies
Questions to ask:
‣ How are you planning to improve my rankings?
‣ What would you need from me? (Help on content creation?)
‣ Are you going to do any On-Page SEO? (100% they should)
‣ How are you going to earn links for my site? (If their strategy includes article
spinning and blog commenting, you should run away)
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One of the tactical questions you may ask your potential SEO agency is
“Would you need access to my Google Analytics and Search Console?”
Having access to these tools is the only way to retrieve historical
information from your site. Agencies/Consultants who do not require
access to Google Analytics & Search Console, probably have no intention
to improve your website. These tools provide vital data like; search
traffic, traffic sources, bounce rate, time on site, crawl errors, robots.txt
errors and so forth.
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On-Site and Technical Search Engine Optimisation are a huge part of SEO.
If your SEO agency states that “Link Building” is all you need, they
probably don’t know what they are talking about. It is imperative that On-
Site and Technical SEO is carried out in a professional manner.
A professional SEO would:
‣ Carry out an in-depth On-Site SEO (e.g. optimising Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions,
Images, Fixing Broken Links, Improving Structure & Navigation and so forth)
‣ Carry out Technical SEO (e.g. generating & submitting sitemaps, checking
robots.txt, configuring re-directs and fixing technical issues)
‣ Implement Link Building strategy to earn authority for your website
‣ Co-operate with you to produce high quality content
‣ Integrate Social Media and Local SEO
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We’ve talked about “Guaranteed Rankings” but, it is important to mention
that, individuals who guarantee rankings would also guarantee to make it
quick. This is another big red flag. Quality SEO may take more than 4
month to work.
Points to take into consideration:
‣ It usually takes 3-5 month to see ranking improvement
‣ Agencies/Consultants who claim to rank your website overnight, are likely to be
using forbidden techniques
‣ SEO is a long-term investment
