Is my SEO company a scam?
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Rule #1 in SEO Outsourcing is this
There is no SEO Secret Sauce.
Put another way, there is no proprietary SEO knowledge outside of Google and they aren't selling it. This means that any company doing SEO work on your behalf should be providing you a report of what they are actually doing. If they balk at it, shut them down because it's the surest sign of a scam.
Rule #2 in SEO Outsourcing
NOBODY cares about your site like you do.
Even if I am paid by you to care, I still won't care like you do (or should). I am constantly amazed by people who are shocked by poor SEO going on under their nose by people they paid. There are multiple tools available (paid and free) to you to check on your website. And if you have a feeling that your website is being harmed, do your own research. While a good SEO will try to provide meaningful metrics about what their efforts have generated, they will always put the best spin on it (that's not an ethical lapse, just human nature). Look at your own metrics and make your own decisions. If you don't care about your site, don't be surprised when an SEO you paid runs it into the ground.
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These are good rules. I think that the site owner also needs to get some basic understanding of SEO to evaluate proposals of work that will be done. In addition, the site owner should get advice about proposals from third parties if he/she does not fully understand the work being done or what search engines expect. Even when I work on my own sites, I often get paid consultations from people who have more experience, just asking them... "Do you think that this will work? Is there a better way?"
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What I'm more amaze at is there are people who pay for SEO services without the basic understanding of SEO. I'm not saying this is the fault of site owners alone but their SEO providers too. SEO is a continuous investment, with this in mind, we need to establish good connection to our clients and in order to do so, we must be responsible when marketing SEO otherwise.
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I agree. If you still have two weeks of work with them, they can use that to take the links down.
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sometimes it is better to get a new domain and start again. And do not 301 old domain to your new one.
There are things to consider before doing so, but it sounds like to me your links are crappy,, and who knows what else they have done. -
As everyone else pointed out, you're definitely not working with a reputable company. Even Google receives solicitations from spammy SEOs (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35291?hl=en is an informative page about how to hire an SEO).
If you can, tell them that you want them to use the time they have left to remove or disavow the links they've built. Otherwise, just tell them to stop.
I'd recommend searching for a local SEO company with positive reviews. SEO isn't a perfect science, so be wary of anyone who makes outlandish guarantees and promises fast results. Good SEO just doesn't work like that!
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Hi Mark,
I tried to look into these issues you have stated above but they are all areas I thought I had fixed a couple of weeks ago. Could it be just a delay with getting updated:?
Astrid
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Thanks to everyone who has helped so far... so I contacted the "company" in question and the response was:
"I already told you that relevancy of backlinks does not matter. Still if you want I can replace backlinks with relevant web epigraphs but they will be lesser in number. One web epigraph is equal to 10 backlinks. I will also remove all the already generated backlinks."
Any opinions on this response?
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Hello Astrid,
I don't think there's any delay because if that's the case this 404 page (http://www.lilalakids.com/collections/super-soft-bath-robes/products/copy-of-luxurious-100-organic-cotton-boys-bath-robes) should be directed to the boys sleep wear page. Or if these products are unavailable already, I think you should just say "products unavailable" instead of 404. There are more of these that I found.
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You're very much welcome Astrid,
But seriously, I laughed out loud when I read about your SEO provider claims. If that were the case then the more reason you don't need them anymore. How easy SEO could be if that were true.
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I'm not at all familiar with what an epigraph is in the context of SEO (and a quick Google search wasn't enlightening), so I'd recommend telling them to remove the backlinks they built and leave your site alone.
Their comment about the relevancy of backlinks wasn't even true of SEO several years ago. That's just terrible, unethical, and lazy.
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Links don't have to be relevant, its not to say that non-relevant links don't carry any link juice at all, but it is better to have relevant ones.
But I doubt that this guys links have any benefit at all. And if he is using some black hat schema to get these links, then one day that link network maybe or already discovered and you may get a penalty.
This happened in the past where a large number of link networks that sold links were put out of business overnight.Get him to remove all the links and get rid of him.
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There is a lot here about metrics.
Firstly you need to know what your goals are and when you want to reach them by. This will help your SEO consultant plan how they will reach those goals. They should be able to provide you with a plan of action, then reports on how things are going and if they are on target. This can help you identify who would work best for your business.
SEO companies who contact you are usually very good salesman, but that's about it.
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Hey Astrid
The company you have working for you is rubbish, even if there link were legit to have no increase in 6 months says there no good at this. Also you will find alot of people in here promoting their business.
Take a 30 free trial at moz and have a play, your getting no traffic so you have nothing to lose, get that scammer to remove all those shoddy links and at least your site reputation will be clean
Moz lists preferred suppliers but be warned the price that comes with a quality agency.
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