For any business that has a website, ranking #1 in Google is an ultimate goal. Simply put, ranking high in Google leads to more clicks, more visits, more phone calls, more customers, and more money. So when an SEO company emails or calls a business and guarantees that they can get them to the top of Google, it can be very tempting. After all, why would they guarantee something that they couldn’t do? And if the price seems reasonable, it might seem too good to be true but too tempting to resist.
Truth be told, any SEO company can get you to the top of Google. Actually, I could get you to the top spot of Google today, too. No, really! And I’ll even tell you how: by paying for it. In other words, by buying pay-per-click advertising. You see, the top 3 spots of Google search results, the ones in the pale-colored box, are paid ads. The advertisers bid on those positions, and every time their link is clicked, it costs them money. Depending upon how competitive your market is, you could pay anywhere from a couple of bucks per click to over $50 per click. That gets very expensive very quickly. And as soon as you stop paying for the ads (likely because they caused you to go bankrupt), your ads go away and so does your “top spot” in Google. So could an SEO company get you to the top spot in Google? Sure, by paying for it. But if that’s the case, you don’t need them. You can do that yourself.
But what we’re talking about here are organic rankings, where Google deems your web page worthy of ranking high for certain keywords and search terms. Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous SEO companies out there that prey on small businesses because they know how badly these businesses would love to rank #1 in Google for their keywords. So they make grand promises about being able to get them to the top of Google in a very short amount of time for relatively little money. And some businesses are so trusting and hopeful, and perhaps a little too desperate, that they sign right up. But what they find is that instead of getting rocketed to the top of Google, they end up wasting their time and money with little or no results to show for it. Or even worse, the so-called SEO company’s methods actually hurt their rankings. So how can you tell the difference between a good, reputable SEO company and a bad SEO company that is just trying to sell you SEO snake oil? Here are a few things to consider and compare.
The Promise
All of us have probably received emails from SEO companies guaranteeing us that they can get us to the top of Google. They assure us that they can help us achieve that coveted #1 position in almost no time at all. And they might even list some testimonials from previous clients who verify what they’re promising.
The truth is that no company can guarantee anything when it comes to Google rankings. Google uses its own algorithm to determine how web pages should rank. The algorithm itself consists of over 200 different factors and elements. Google has shared some general facts about the algorithm, but exact details of the algorithm are kept strictly confidential. So no SEO company can guarantee anything when it comes to Google because no one knows the exact science of Google’s ranking system. Not to mention the fact that if you and I performed the same search on Google using the same exact search terms, our results would probably differ somewhat. This is because Google personalizes results, factoring in such things as our geo-location and our previous search history.
Good, reputable SEO companies know this, and they don’t make grand promises about miraculously getting you to the top of Google overnight. A good SEO company may be confident in their abilities, but they will also temper this by letting you know what they realistically can and cannot do for you, and provide you with a reasonable time frame as well.
The Approach
Search engine optimization involves both on-site and off-site factors. Both are important for rankings and neither should ever be neglected. If certain fundamental elements of your website are not correct, it will be difficult to get your site to rank high in Google no matter how hard you try. This is another way to tell the difference between the good and bad SEO companies. A shady SEO company will want to jump right into things and never even mention your website. A good SEO company will make your website their first priority. They will want to analyze your site first and determine what needs to be changed or tweaked in order to optimize it. Only after addressing the on-site factors that are affecting SEO will they begin off-site strategies.
The Methods
One thing that SEO experts have found is that backlinks help a website or web page to rank higher in search results. In simple terms, a backlink is a link on another website that directs people to your website. Google views a backlink as essentially an endorsement of your website by another. So if several other websites are “endorsing” yours, your rankings will benefit. (This, of course is over-simplifying things, but you get the point.) Most SEO companies will therefore work to create more backlinks for your website as one part of their strategy. But just like anything else, there are good backlinks and bad backlinks. For one thing, relevance is important. Let’s say your website sells baby clothes. A good backlink would be from a website that is about parenting or perhaps a family-related website. A bad backlink would be from a site that is about deer hunting. A deer hunting website has no relevance to your site that sells baby clothes. Good SEO companies try to create backlinks only on web sites or web pages that are relevant to yours. A bad SEO company will create backlinks haphazardly anywhere that they can.
So when considering a particular SEO company, ask them for examples of their previous work. Ask them to give you a list of a few of their recent clients as well as the URLs of some of the links that they created for them. Are the sites in which the backlinks were created relevant to the client’s site? If not, that should send up some red flags.
A bad SEO company will also sometimes mention proprietary systems that they use to automatically create backlinks. They might even try to sell you a program or plugin that does everything for you effortlessly. If an SEO company ever mentions the word “automated”, it’s time to end the conversation. SEO involves strategizing and work, and it’s not something that can be set on auto-pilot. If it was that easy, everybody would rank high in Google. But unfortunately, it’s not. Good SEO companies do not try to take shortcuts. They may have efficient ways of doing things, but they also know that to do SEO the right way takes a lot of work by knowledgeable people.
There is not a single business with a website that would not love to be #1 in Google. Most small businesses are not experts when it comes to search engine optimization, so they naturally seek the help of those that are. Choosing an SEO company can sometimes get tricky, especially when you’re tired of seeing your competitors constantly outrank you in Google and an SEO company is guaranteeing you the top spot in Google virtually overnight. But never forget that there are big differences in the promises, approaches, and methods of good and bad SEO companies, and big differences in the results as well. A good SEO company will do the right things that help your website’s rankings not only now but also in the future. A bad SEO company will just cost you money, time, and probably rankings, too. But if you’re ever tempted to hire that SEO company promising you the top spot in Google by tomorrow, just remember the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, ...”.