7 Ways to Identify & Detect Fake SEO Agency/Consultant
Small businesses always look for cheap SEO agencies or consultants on the search engines. Many a time they get a number of spam emails which promises to rank their website on the top of the search results just for a few bucks!
Seriously, this sounds crazy!
These are the kind of bulk emails that are not even filtered and send by people. All the business email addresses present in the database receives such kind of bulk messages from time to time. So chances are there that the companies that have approached you can be a fake one.
Now, this looks a bit alarming, right?
This even turns out to be a threat for the SEO consultants who are genuine and offering right kind of services. So you must check the legitimacy of the company and the different techniques they are following.
So to help you out, here I am with top 7 tips and tricks which can help you identify a fake SEO agency or consultant and save yourself from getting into any kind of losses.
1. Check their website
The first step you should take is to check the website of the SEO agency. A good SEO agency should have a well-optimized attractive website. You should check whether the potential SEO agency has one or not. Is the website stuffed with keywords that rank for SEO? Does the website look incompetent?
2. Guaranteed ranking
Now, this is very fishy! No one can guarantee you to rank on the top of the search results. So if someone makes you such promises then it is time to steer clear of the company. Such a company may be using substandard techniques. They may help you rank on the search engine for long tail keywords which are not at all useful to drive any traffic.
Moreover, if you find any agency claiming to have some insider relationship with Google then let me tell you they are completely fake. Only Google’s algorithm has control over the search page results and no one has control over the algorithms!
3. Recommending black hat techniques
There are a number of SEO agencies which recommends its clients to make use of some shady techniques to get a quick result. Such practices help the websites to rank better and drive in more traffic but, it is a fact that the good days will not last longer.
Google will soon find such websites which make use of black hat techniques and then penalize them. So if you want to rank better and stay in business for a long time, then avoiding such firms is very important.
4. Tools
During the conversation with your potential SEO agency, ask them about the tools they are using to know about your website and track its performance. Ask them whether they need to have access to your search console and Google Analytics to improve your website performance. If they say no, then it would be better for you to leave the company all at once. Understand that it is very important for them to have access to these tools to retrieve information about your company.
5. Costing
SEO is not cheap. It requires hard work and enough time to apply different techniques and come up with results. If your agency is charging you a very minimal amount then they are definitely fake. Chances are there that they may be using outdated techniques or those ones which are not supposed to be used in the current scenario.
6. Tactics and strategies
There is nothing wrong in asking your SEO consultant or the agency about the SEO tactics that they are planning to apply. You should consider it as a red flag if the company refuses to disclose their strategy. It is your website and what they are going to do on it to improve its visibility is definitely your concern too.
Knowing about their link building strategies will also help decide whether they are good for your business or not. If the consultancy is practicing paid links, article spinning or blog commenting as a part of link building then it is a big NO.
7. Reporting
Whenever you decide to choose an SEO agency for your business, you must be clear about the reporting first. On an average, most of the SEO consultants make monthly reporting to their clients, some even offer a weekly update. So you must check how your preferred SEO agency works. You must also check what all are covered in the report and make sure the essential ones like links, traffic, lead information and others are covered.
Investing in SEO is not a small thing and so finding the legitimate one is very important. So better keep these things in mind so that you will be able to catch a fake SEO agency or consultant that comes your way with fake promises.
