If you want your business to do well, you naturally need to pay attention to SEO. However, it can be difficult to keep track of all the developments and new demands of SEO. So, lots of businesses opt to look for someone to help them. This, unfortunately, makes it necessary to learn how to recognize bad SEO companies. In this article, Movers Development offers you the guidelines on how to do just that. Keep reading to learn how to avoid one of the worst-case scenarios when hiring SEO companies.
They offer ‘guaranteed results’
One of the best ways to learn how to recognize bad SEO companies is by paying attention to their claims. The bad ones will typically make all sorts of boasts, such as ‘hitting the number one on Google Rankings!’ or ‘guaranteed long term top ranking position!’. It is, simply put, impossible to guarantee such a thing. SEO changes with time, which makes it difficult for past content to stay helpful. It is even possible that you might need to rework some past content to stop it from hurting your SEO in the present.
They boast of quick results
If there is one thing that should be well known by now, it is that good SEO results cannot be achieved quickly. Just like moving company advertising takes time, so does good quality SEO. Sometimes, it may take a week or more to really see the results of all your accumulated hard work on SEO. Such companies also tend to frame SEO as a one-time effort. As though it is possible to make one post on your website and suddenly have amazing SEO. Unfortunately, this, again, is not true. It takes a lot of work to improve your SEO rankings, and it is only possible to achieve that through sustained effort over a period of time.
They offer little to no explanation
A way to be sure of how to recognize bad SEO companies is if they do not explain what they are doing to you as their client. It is very important to explain SEO to clients since it is more than possible for them to accidentally work against their best interests. It is only when you know what you are doing that you can properly cooperate with your SEO specialist. So, if they do not explain things to you, or they avoid doing it when you ask for details, you can be sure that something is wrong with the services you are receiving.
They ask for your login details and passwords
No legitimate SEO company will insist on having your passwords and login details. If someone does attempt to talk you into giving them such information, then it is a sure sign that you are not just dealing with a bad SEO company, but a scam. Once they get their hands on your login info, it is possible for them to cause disastrous financial losses or perhaps even get some of your payment and bank account info. Especially if your site features an online shop.
They push you into buying backlinks
If you want to know how to recognize bad SEO companies, then just look for those who push for buying backlinks. Most often, such SEO companies will promote their own backlink sales. Sometimes, however, they can also offer to ‘link you’ with their ‘other clients’, and may even ask for an intermediary fee. Unfortunately, backlinks really need to be earned rather than just straight-up bought. It is, of course, possible to come across opportunities to buy a slot for your backlink on a website. And it may even be beneficial. However, it is still a sign of a scam SEO company if they are trying to pressure you into doing it.
They just push keywords
SEO is much more than just keywords. It involves nearly every aspect of your online presence. If you want to ensure you have good SEO for your moving company, then you need to pay attention to your social media, reviews, website content, website speed, and even moving company website design. It is only when all of your statistics are up to snuff that Google will actually rank your website highly.
Realistically speaking, an SEO company should actually be pushing you to prioritize your website and social media content rather than pushing keywords. It is admittedly possible to artificially inflate Google Rankings if you target an unpopular keyword. Yet this would apply only to your website’s ranking for those specific keywords. So, this would also mean that this is an irrelevant statistic since not many would be looking those up anyway.
Little or poor content on their website
To spot a bad SEO company, just look at the quality of their own website. Poor SEO companies typically have very little actual content on their sites. This means a complete or near-complete lack of features such as a blog or links to social media accounts. Even if they do have a certain amount of content, it is typically of appalling quality – blog posts riddled with nothing but boring content full of sentences thrown together in a way that allows for a higher density of keywords. In such cases, you wouldn’t even need to learn how to recognize bad SEO companies to know you would not want to work with them. Just imagine your own website turning into something like that, and you will want to break off all contact immediately.
They do not ask for details about your business or competitors
SEO is not something that you can just ‘master’ and then apply to all businesses equally. Even SEO for movers needs to be carefully tailored to each company and its needs. So, if an SEO company does not even ask about what your business specializes in and what competitors it is facing, you can be sure that they do not actually intend to do their job properly.
Some final considerations
Now that you know how to recognize bad SEO companies, you should be ready to find yourself a partner. Just remember that there is more to finding a ‘good’ SEO company than just this. They also need to fit into your price range, and you need to be able to properly cooperate with their representatives.
