Blog Post

How To Spot A Bad SEO Company

  • By aga
  • •
  • 14 Jan, 2016

There are a lot of “SEO companies” out there. A search on Google for the term “search engine optimizing” will return over 35 million results. It’s safe to say not all these results are going to be reputable companies. We are writing this article mainly to help people not only choose the right SEO company for them, but also to in an effort to stop people hiring these companies to mess up their websites. It is a lot more work to fix a site that has had some black hat SEO done, than it is to get a website in the search result legitimately.

 

Spam Emails

When choosing an SEO company, the first thing not to do is reply to an email (or even some phone calls) where somebody is telling you they will guarantee top ten results for your website. Here is why;

  1. No SEO company can guarantee results unless they are using black hat SEO methods. That will get your website in the top, but banned when the search engine discovers how you got there (which is just long enough for you to lose money to the SEO company who you can’t sue because they did what you wanted just not for as long as you would’ve liked).

  2. Most legitimate SEO companies don’t need to market themselves, as their clients should be able to find them on search engines. That is what they are suppose to be able to do after all.

Look at the SEO Company’s website

This is the easiest way to tell how they plan on getting your website in the top ten. If their website is full of black hat SEO techniques, then you can be sure that’s how they’re going to optimize your website.

 

What to look for;

  • Gateway pages - These are pages created with search phrases. If you see a website that has a page called SEO and then another page called Search Engine Optimizing and yet another page called SEO services and so on, they are doing this to try and show up for each of these key phrases. This will damage your website when the search engines catch on.

  • Key phrase linking – As with above, if you come across a site that is using multiple search phrases as link text to the same page all over the site, this can also get you a penalty.

  • Read their content – If the text reads something like this: “We are a Bay Area search engine optimization company located in the Bay Area, we offer SEO services, search engine optimization services to our Bay Area clients.” This is called keyword stuffing and it will also get you a penalty.

Bottom line is, when looking at the SEO companies website, if it looks like its optimized, then its over-optimized. A good SEO company will make a site for the end user and not for the search engines.

 

Find out how they plan on getting you in the top ten

 If you are talking to a SEO company or reading their website, look for how they plan on getting you listed in the top ten. The things you don’t want to see or hear are:

  • Link exchange – This is a method where they will have your site listed on 100’s of other websites in an effort to increase your page rank and make it look to the search engines that your site is more popular than it is. This is breaking the search engines rules and can get you big penalties. We do use link exchange, but not to increase page rank,  but rather to put you in a good link neighborhood with other sites like yours.

  • Meta Tags – These are tags in the code of your site that tell the search engine about your page. A lot of SEO companies will use these to stuff with key words to push your site up the search engines. The problem with doing this is, if overdone, the search engine will not trust your meta tags and start ignoring your pages.

  • Gateway pages or sites – These are pages that are created with lots of search terms in them just for the purpose of SEO. These will get your site banned.

The right way to optimize a website is to build a website for your users with lots of unique content that is easy to navigate. Most anything you do just for search engines is going to get you in trouble.

 

Look at their Samples

Most websites will show up in specific searches. For example, if you search for a restaurant by name in the city you know it to be in, it will most likely appear in the top ten. As a SEO company, you should be able to put that restaurant in the top ten for people searching for the type of restaurant like “San Jose Italian restaurant”.  So when looking to see if the SEO company is doing it’s job, the samples you’re looking for should be as follows:

  • Logical searches – The results should be searches that people who don’t know what your business is called will actually type in the search bar and not some random key phrase. A bad example is “network equipment for sale”. A good example is “network equipment” .

  • Number of returned results – If they give you examples, check to see how many other sites came up in the search. If the key phrase is only competing with 5,000 other results, this proves nothing. A good example is 1-10 of 23,300,000 results returned. Anything under a million results is not a good example.

  • Number of examples – Make sure you see at least 5 different sites with at least 4 good results for each site. Anyone can get one site into a good search result. Few can get many sites into many searches.

Before calling any SEO company, make sure you know what to ask them before calling and, if you don’t like even one of the answers hang up. You always have the other 35 million results to fall back on. Oh, and never take a FREE site analysis. It is always going to tell you your website needs a lot of work.

What You Can Do And What You Should Do

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
There is basically nothing you can’t do on a web site. If you want to have DVD quality video streaming from your home page with multiple flash animations and 3D product demonstrations all on the same page, no problem. However, maybe 10% of your viewers will see it. The other 90% will be sitting looking at a blank screen for a couple of hours until it loads and then it will be dependent on how it plays on their system. The key to web design is not what you can do; it’s what you should do.

Truth About Link Swapping

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
Once you become a site owner you will get a lot of requests to swap links with other sites in an attempt to increase your search ranking and the reciprocal's site ranking. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, however, there are a few things you need to know in order to make this a successful practice.

Guaranteed Top Ranking On Search Engines

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
Bottom line is, this is a myth. No company can guarantee this. The reason being Yahoo, Google and MSN are companies and companies are in business to make money. That is why they all offer their own sponsored links placed at the top or on the side of the search results. This could be pay-per-click, meaning you pay every time somebody clicks on the link to your site or it can be a set monthly fee.

Perception Is Not Reality

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
If you buy software for a MAC and try to run it on a PC, it will not work. The internet is the same. IE (Internet explorer) is not the only web browser out there and what may run great on IE may not run on Firefox or Opera, which makes up an increasing amount of internet users. Even different versions of IE will not display some features of your site.

To Flash Or Not To Flash

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
There is no doubt about it. Flash is the best tool in any web designers arsenal. It is easy to use with phenomenal results. You can create a full blown website in a couple of hours and the file size can be less than the size of your average .JPEG file, but (and this is a big but) it is still a plug-in. This means that you have to download and install the latest flash player in order to view the website. It is really not a big deal if you are an intermediate to advanced user, which is what maybe 60% of Internet users are. However, that other 40% of people may not feel secure having to download and install software on their computer in order to view your site. Another downside of a flash based site is the fact that web crawlers cannot see the text content contained within the file. This means it has no way to index your site, which can lead to poor search engine ranking. Don't be put off with the down sides of flash. There are ways around these problems.

System Requirements

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
If you have ever purchased software, you know you have to read the box in order to find out if the software will work on your system. That is somewhat acceptable when it comes to software. However, on a website, it is not acceptable. A lot of designers out there will take the easy route and build a site that is not compatible with all browsers and then publish a list of plug-ins on your home page you will need in order to view the site. You will see this a lot on multimedia sites that advertise Hollywood movies or websites where you can download multimedia content. This is mostly done to protect the content. However, there are a lot of sites out there that require you to make additional downloads in order to see flat text content or products. You should always follow the guidelines below (or your web developer should be following them) when creating any website.

Batteries Not Included

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
We have all done it - made a big purchase only to find out that we have to make additional purchases to make it work. This should not be the case with a website or any graphic design project. Be sure that when you are quoted for a web site everything is included in the price in order for your new site to be up and running at the end of the project. The price should include uploading and testing the site. This is also true for any graphic project. If it’s a logo design, then you should receive all file types, including .EPS, .JPG, and .GIF, at no additional charge. One way to guarantee this is to make sure it is in the quotation and never, I repeat, never send final payment until you have everything you have paid for.

The Enemy Within

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
There is a common problem with some less than reputable companies creating backdoors into your site in order to obtain access to your Databases and account information with the intention of fraud or theft. This usually happens when you outsource to third world countries because the price is a fraction of what you would pay here. Bottom line here is if something seems to good to be true, chances are it is. Saving some money on development may in the long run cost you tenfold.

Catching The Crooks

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
The internet can be a dangerous place. It has opened the doors for lots of criminals to move undetected. When it comes to web design, there is a certain level of trust that has to be established in order for this process to work. After all, a lot of the time you will be giving a stranger access to account information, your email and your clients' information. I have lost count of how many times clients have told me they have suffered financial loss and even, in some extreme cases, had their safety threatened. However, there are ways to protect yourself.

Myths About Search Engine Optimizing (SEO)

By aga • 16 Jan, 2016
This is what most SEO companies would like you to believe because it means you will keep paying them monthly fees. The truth is, if you optimize the site correctly and stick to the search engines rules, there is nothing more you have to do. Search engines are designed for the consumer and not the company. What this means is, if your site is relevant to the search that the user enters, it will appear in the results. The more relevant, the higher your site will be listed.
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