How should I look out for and avoid search engine marketing scams?
Search engine marketing can be a valuable asset for your business if it is done correctly by qualified online marketers. However, many SEO marketers are scamming people and their business.
If you are a business owner in the US, I am sure you will receive soliciting callers claiming that they can help you position your website in a short time on Google.
When you get calls from an SEO firm, could you ask them for their phone number and tell them you’d like to call them back? This action separates an actual SEO firm from callers from overseas or call centers.
Other things to ask SEO firms:
- Ask them to show their case studies related to your industry and what they have done in the past.
- Ask them to release the names of previous or current clients and contact those clients directly.
- Ask the SEO firms about their website position on Google. If they claim they can help your website, you have to know what position their website is on Google.
- Ask them to provide sample reports. A good SEO firm always provides a monthly report to their clients. Make sure you can make business sense of the reports.
- Make sure they are local and have a physical office. You do not want to receive SEO from overseas companies since most of them do not follow Google’s standard guidelines.
- Make sure your contract clearly defines what you are getting each month.
- Avoid the ones that promise that they can get you on the first page of Google in less than a month since SEO is a process that will take more than one month.
Keeping these points in mind, finding a suitable and efficient SEO firm will be a simple process.
