6 Warning Flags When Hiring an SEO Agency
By Adam Duran.
Digital Marketing Guide
Magnified Media
Thinking about taking on an agency to bring in more clients to your business? This can be a truly make-or-break decision for your business, so we understand the seriousness you are bringing to this daunting task. Unfortunately, this industry like many others, is unregulated and full of companies that promise the moon; but can they deliver them? Maybe, but maybe not…
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We put together this list of warning flags you can use to easily dismiss those agencies without a second thought.
1. Over-promising on time of delivery
Ranking a business takes time. Any agency should be building a company’s Geographical Relevancy and Authority with great content produced properly. If it was a light switch everyone would be doing it! It takes time to rank a business on Google because you are building authority. The authority comes from people visiting your site, reading your articles, and staying on your site. It usually takes about three to six months. Once the authority is built, after having good content, Google will reward you with more visitors to your site.
2. Guarantees of Page One
If an SEO company promises you that they will get your site on top of Google rankings, don’t get fooled. They will get you ranked by going on Fiverr or Legit and get thousands of backlinks to your site, all from Russia, China, and India. All those are garbage links. They tend to fool Google and when they get caught, Google will penalize your site. All those SEO will be gone and it will definitely hurt your business. So, be careful of guarantees of page one. Don’t believe those. Blackhat techniques can get your site ranked quickly but just as easily, do the opposite or worse.
3. Lack of Transparency
As business owners, we want to know how exactly they are going to build an authority for your site in your area. If they can’t tell you how they’re going to do it, then you have to doubt that they are going to do it right. You can ask them to let you see some examples of the content that they are going to produce for your business. You can also ask them what they can recommend on your website.
4. No reporting
Reporting is really important in terms of where you were, where you’re going, and how you got there. They should be asking for access to your Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google Listing account. The majority of the reporting comes from Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Reporting is the way we prove to our clients that what we’re doing works.
5. Their website looks unprofessional
When you visit the website of your SEO agency and see that their website looks unprofessional, outdated, and no articles of their own, you’ll know there is something wrong. An SEO company worth hiring is a company that’s using SEO for its own site. A lot of SEO agency excuses are “I’m too busy to work on our site” or “I’m too busy working on our client’s site.” The keyword here is “I’m.” You definitely do not want a one-person operation because one person can only do so much.
6. They use Gmail addresses in their emails to you.
Gmail addresses are great, but the reason people are using Gmail addresses is because they are free. When it’s free, that could mean that they might no longer be there tomorrow. It’s, unfortunately, a common tactic because, for email lists, they can send out up to 500 emails a day. And, just pumping out emails is unprofessional. Don’t bother connecting with those people.
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Magnified Media is an online marketing agency specializing in online marketing for businesses and small companies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Based in San Francisco & Walnut Creek, California, we are their trusted outsourced marketing solution, focused on doing three things: getting them more online reviews, getting their website seen and creating content for their social media platforms. Focusing on these key areas for our clients means they can run their business without worrying about when or where the next customer is coming. We help build their business through reputation. Interested in seeing what we can do for your business? Schedule your free Online Presence Audit now.
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