As SEO process is on an all time high, so are SEO firms. SEO companies have mushroomed everywhere promising anything impossible.
A clever analysis has to be made before opting for a Search Engine Company. Here are few tips which can help you find a bad SEO company:
- Promises top 10 positions in a month or week for popular keywords. It should be understood that thousands of other huge websites are already out there for that particular keyword and are already spending huge amounts in CPCs and Links for years.
- Commits rankings and traffic before analyzing the website. The website has to be clearly understood and analyzed which would take at least a day depending on the size of the website.
- Mentions that they have a clear understanding of Google Algorithm and have links with employees working in Google and Yahoo to bring in faster ranking. Well, this is one of recent claims by SEO firms to mesmerize in clients.
- The SEO firm does not want to share what they do on a weekly or at least a monthly basis. This clearly means they are not doing anything. Most of these companies do nothing and just send a report at the end of the month. Note that, these reports would not take more than a couple of hours to create.
- Speaks about black hat tricks like hidden texts and cloaking. There are “n” number of ways to bring up the site ethically.
- Works extensively on Meta Keywords, Directory Submissions, link swapping. These are outdated methods and most of the popular search engines do not even check if there is a Meta Keyword or not. It is recommended to go for external links and one-way links rather than Directory submissions and link swapping.
- Recommends you to buy multiple domains, 302 redirects, spend on Directory Submissions, have the same content in multiple domains and copy content from other websites.
- Links your site to other sites which do not belong to your category.
- Places too many third party website links on your website. This can dilute the page rank of your website and subsequently your site position.
- Does not minimize the use of flash, text over images and the user of iframes.
Good SEO firms on the other hand do not promise much but accomplish more than your expectations. They keep you updated on a day-to-day basis or weekly basis on the progress of the site. This would include site position and traffic every week.