What to Watch Out For When Choosing a SEO Firm

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Using the services of a SEO company can help your business achieve its online marketing goals by making your website more visible in search results for keywords your customers are using. But in order to get the results you deserve at a fair cost, you need to be careful in choosing the SEO firm you do business with. Most are reputable and provide high-quality services to their clients. But just like in any other industry, there are a few bad apples in the bunch. Here are a few warning signs that the SEO agency you’re considering is slightly less than reputable:

They Claim to Have the Ability to Achieve Spectacular Results in a Short Time Frame

Doubledome SEOAny experienced SEO consultant will tell you that SEO is a gradual process. If your website is currently buried under several pages of search results for competitive keywords, there’s just no way to propel it to page one in a few days or even a few weeks. Companies that claim to be able to achieve first page results too quickly often use “blackhat” SEO techniques that work by tricking search engines into giving a page a higher ranking than it truly deserves.

Hiring a company using such unethical techniques will eventually cause more problems than it solves. Search engines like Google have gotten a lot better at detecting attempts to manipulate their ranking algorithms and will penalize websites engaging in such behaviors. Therefore, any results you get will only be temporary, which goes against the basic principles of SEO.

They Guarantee First Place Rankings Before Even Knowing Your Business

No reputable SEO firm can guarantee that they’ll be able to obtain specific rankings, much less first place, before they take a look at your website to know a bit more about where it currently stands and the level of competition specific to your niche.

Any SEO agency that does so should be approached with caution. They’re either flat out lying, or conveniently forgetting to mention that this “guarantee” can apply to any keyword they choose, even a very obscure one with almost nonexistent search volume that is only tangentially related to your business.

They’re Unwilling to Give Details About the Work They’ll Do for You

There are several basic ways for a SEO agency to improve your search engine presence, such as:

  • Optimizing your site’s layout and technical elements (called on-page SEO).
  • Creating high-quality content for your own website or for distribution on reputable third-party sites combined with a backlink to yours.
  • Helping your business grow its social media presence and levels of engagement.
  • Ensuring your business is positively mentioned on relevant directories or review websites.

While different SEO firms may emphasize different approaches to getting the job done, any legitimate one will be committed to transparency by explaining exactly what they’re doing, how and why at every step of the way. Be very wary of SEO companies who are excessively vague or claim to rely on “secret strategies.” Very often, this means they use unethical blackhat techniques that may result in your website being penalized by Google in the future.

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Chris co-founded DoubleDome Digital Marketing, merging his business degree and technical consulting experience with his fondness for all things Internet. Focused on sales & marketing, Chris has led DoubleDome to 20 straight years of profitability. He leads the marketing and sales groups.
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