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A major frustration of mine and one of the major reasons for starting my agency is that unfortunately many businesses, regardless of size fall victim to independent SEO consultants and even agencies here in Australia. This can occur by engaging in practices that do not align with Google’s webmaster guidelines, and as a result, get penalised.
Over the last ten years in particular, I have aided clients of all sizes from enterprises to micro businesses, out of algorithmic and even one manual Google penalty. Two of these penalties were due to the actions of ‘on face value’ trusted Australian agencies with great “client lists” on their site. To keep costs down and to generate “fast” results, they utilise automated link building programs or offshore “cheap” link builders which engage in what we call “black hat” practices which will get you penalised.
Luckily over the past few years, Google has introduced automated algorithms to weed out those tactics used to “game the system” as such. Focus has changed from keywords and backlinks to a more holistic solution that includes user experience, relevance and quality content across earned, owned and paid media.
So don’t believe it’s just the overseas operators that are not doing the right thing, Australian businesses looking for SEO services need to be cautious and follow some dos and don’ts when hiring an SEO consultant or agency for risk mitigation and business success.
These are my top 3 Do’s and Don’ts to help you when researching and choosing an SEO service provider:
Don’t:
SEO spam emails
We’ve all seen them. While I am an SEO service provider, I get them all the time. What does this tell me? They don’t even look at the type of business; they are blanketly sending these spam emails too. So my recommendation is to ignore and don’t reply to SEO Spam.
Modern SEO does not require you to submit your site to 500 search engines, and 1000 low-value directories will not help you. Buying links is a Google no-no, and you definitely can’t purchase 100 quality links for a small fee of $50.
An ethical and reputable SEO and digital marketing service provider doesn’t need to use these dangerous and low-value tactics nor does it need to send out spam emails to gain customers.
Number 1 ranking – Don’t Fall for Guarantees
No reputable SEO consultant or agency will make guarantees of number 1 rankings or even page 1 on any search engine or keyword. Why? An SEO does not have control over the search engine algorithms or what the competition is doing.
An SEO or developer doesn’t just add some code to your site, sprinkle some keywords to make your site rank. Search engine optimization takes at least six months to a year to start seeing results. It provides long-lasting results, and it’s not something that can be “turned on” like Adwords. If someone tells you AdWords is key to great SEO or makes ranking guarantees, then my recommendation is to run the other way as fast as you can.
Paid number 1 is not SEO number 1
Many people find it hard to define the difference between a paid and organic search engine result. As a consequence, some sell in Adwords or SEM (search engine marketing) where your paid advertisement will sit above all the organic results in number 1 position. “Wow! These guys are amazing! I have number 1 rankings” you tell your friends. The reality is it’s paid advertising, and it works independently to SEO. There is no link nor correlation between paid ads and SEO as per Matt Cutts from as far back as 2014.
Do:
Hire an Expert and ask for References
A common myth about SEO is that its free leads. The fact is it’s expensive, it is detailed, time-consuming work and there is no magic button. Getting out of a penalty is even more expensive as you’ve paid for someone to put you in that situation and now you have to pay for someone to recover you from it. Therefore as a small business, you can’t afford anything like this.
Don’t be embarrassed to ask for references and ring them as you do when you are hiring an internal staff member. Your SEO consultant should become an extension of your team, making reference checking essential!
Specify High-Quality Backlinks in the Contract
To mitigate black hat link building practices, specify high quality and relevant backlinks in your contract. What does that mean? You want backlinks with a domain authority of 30 or above and from relevant themed or topical sites to yours. For example, my website yesicandigital.com.au is themed on the topic of digital marketing services. If I started building links with e-commerce stores selling pet supplies, there would be nothing relevant, and with volume, Google’s algorithm’s will pick up on it, and I could get penalised. My recommendation is secure it in your contract, so that you have something in writing, just in case.
Have a plan and budget
I see this happen a lot with small businesses, where they don’t have a plan or budget in place. Without a plan with clear deliverables and expected dates of delivery, do you even know what you are paying for? The other element is one month the SEO may charge more than you can afford. Before signing a contract, ensure a supply agreement alongside the overall master agreement to ensure expectations and deliverables are set. This avoids miscommunication set in the action plan and ensures no over or under spending occurs, creating better financial management.
My aim here is to provide small businesses the visibility and understanding to ask the right questions, to look for signs to source the right SEO service provider and to ensure business success.
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