Jenni Walsh Bayshore Solutions

There are many SEO companies out there and it might be difficult for someone who is not familiar with all of the “SEO Lingo” to determine if a company is legit and using best practices. Company A may charge only $250 to optimize your website but Company A may also be using sneaky tactics to trick the search engines. While your website may see some success from these sneaky tactics for a month or so eventually the search engines will figure it out and then your website may be penalized and even black listed from their search results. Below are some “Red Flags” to help identify if an SEO Company is legit:

A legit SEO company will NOT guarantee #1 rankings
Legit SEO Companies know that you cannot guarantee positions so if you are told that a SEO Company can guarantee #1 rankings on Google- BEWARE! SEO takes a lot of hard work and time to be completed correctly and no one can guarantee a #1 position.

A legit SEO company will NOT guarantee a time frame of how “quick” your website will rank
SEO is not magic and there is not a top secret special code that makes your website rank #1 in Google. SEO takes a lot of hard work and research to be completed correctly. So if a company is guaranteeing a top position on the search engines within a certain time frame BE CONCERNED! 

Does the SEO Company want you to pay them for every keyword that makes it to page 1 of Google?
While this sounds like a great idea –the SEO Company is probably going to be tricking you. For example: The company may optimize your website for the keyword “Flower Shop on Westshore Blvd” and get you on page 1 of Google very quickly because there is not a lot of competition for that keyword. But, the purpose of SEO is to drive traffic to your website – How many people are really searching for “Flower Shop on Westshore Blvd”? Don’t you think more people are searching for “Tampa Flower Shop” and wouldn’t it be more beneficial for your business if your website was on page 1 of Google when someone searched that keyword? Don’t be fooled by SEO companies who can get you on page 1 of Google for a 100 keywords because all of those keywords may not bring any traffic to your website if proper keyword research wasn’t completed.

Does the company’s website look professional & do they have a physical office?
Does the SEO Company have a professional website? If you are paying a company to provide SEO services shouldn’t their website look professional? Make sure the companies website doesn’t look to “salesy”. If the website is filled with flashing images saying CONTACT US NOW – SEO ONLY $250 they are probably not going to using best practices. Make sure the SEO Company you deal with has a professional website, good case studies, reputable clients and real office location.

Before you ever engage in a SEO contract with a company make sure you ask the following questions:

• What is your method for SEO and what will you be doing – A legit company will not have any problem telling you exactly what their strategy is and how it will be executed.

• Ask if you can meet someone in the SEO Department or the Account Manager who will be working on your account. While Sales Guys are great it is important to meet the actual person who will be working on your website.

• Do you use any bad “Black Hat SEO” tactics? Some of these tactics include using the same color font as the website background and creating doorway pages.

• What is their link building methodology? If the company says they don’t do link building that’s one red flag to run because link building is VERY IMPORTANT to the success of a SEO campaign. If the company can’t answer, tells you they buy links or says it’s automated then that’s another red flag. Link building should always be a manual process.

A good SEO company will be open and honest about what they will be doing for you and what you should expect. It’s important to remember you get what you pay for! So while Company A may only charge you $250/month will it really be worth it in the end if you don’t receive any traffic to your website or even worse your website gets black listed?If you have any questions or would like to learn more about SEO tactics contact Bayshore Solutions.