12 Warning Signs of a Bad SEO Company

By Lahle Wolfe

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy

Anyone can write meta data and “optimize” a website. By that I mean, from a technical standpoint inputting meta data into the code of a web page does not require a lot of programming skills. In fact, many web programs prompt you for meta tags and you just type the words you want and the program creates and inserts the code for you.

But creating valuable meta data and optimizing a website does require certain unique writing skills and an extensive knowledge of how robots work. Think of it this way, anyone can write an advertising slogan, but not all advertising slogans will help to sell a product.

SEO (search engine optimization) is more than just naming pages and creating keyword phrases. It is a critical tool necessary to “advertise” your website to robots and helps to compel your human visitors to click through to your site.

If you are considering hiring someone to optimize your website remember what I just said: the technical skills needed to key in meta information is beginner level. There are hundreds if not thousands of people offering SEO services that do not have the real skills necessary to SEO a website.

To mechanically create meta data is easy, but to do it well requires experience.

12 Ways to Recognize a Bad SEO Company and SEO Scams

A red flag should go up anytime an SEO company makes certain claims or promises. The following list of things to avoid will help you detect a bad SEO company and avoid getting scammed:

1. Free Trial Services

“Try our services free for 30 days. Just give us access to your site and see what we can do for you!”

Never, ever, (did I say never?) give your password and access information to anyone who offers you free trials. You might as well give them your car keys and ATM password, too.

2. Under Priced or Overpriced Services

Beware of sites like Elance where bidders come in all shapes and sizes. Someone whose price is not in line with others is generally not to be trusted.

A low quote is likely to buy you low quality work and a price that seems ridiculously high, well, it probably is. A company with a reputation strong enough to warrant higher fees does not need to get business from Elance: they are getting it based on their reputation.