Backlink Transparency with SEO Agency
-
Hello everyone. I recently started working with an SEO agency and today they gave me an updated keyword report which showed some increase in rankings. I was not aware that any backlinks had been created yet so I asked for a report of the links. Their response is below and I am just wondering if this is normal practice being I have not worked with any type of SEO agency yet.
"
Hey Daniel,We release a small report on them which the guest blog team will do soon. We don't reveal all backlink sources unfortunately because people have tried to bother the webmasters we have and basically steal our techniques.
But rest assured you will be ranking at the top of the pack with our methods
" -
This doesn't ring true to me because:
- There are all kinds of ways you can find links to your site (referring traffic in GA, link analysis sources like moz's own tools, ahrefs, majestic etc, and tools like Google Alerts)
- You've already got the link in these cases, so you would have no incentive to "bother" the webmasters
- In general, my experience has been that most providers want to tell you about as many placements as they can!
Add to this some of the phrasing (e.g. "webmasters we have" -- emphasis mine) suggests that there may be payments taking place or other schemes afoot that place these well outside the Google guidelines.
Per the conversation in the other comments - I would recommend that you get at least a statement of work in place to govern what you are expecting for the money you are paying even if you are not committing to a long-term contract. This could include agreements on any of the above (what information they will provide you with, what you will do with that information etc). At the very least, you should want to understand the techniques in use in order to make your own informed decisions about the risks and rewards.
Hope that helps.
-
Thanks for the feedback. Anyone else want to chime in on this?
-
There should be some sort of contract.
You are sharing your private information with the agency and vice versa. Also the contract will govern what services the agency provides and what you can expect from their services. If they write content for your site, the contract will govern who owns that contract.
It is my opinion that you may want to get out of this deal before you are in to deep. They are already shady with a backlinks report. This is only my opinion.
Thanks,
Don
-
There was no contract between me and the agency. It is month to month.
-
Hello,
You can use moz's link explorer to reveal the back links https://analytics.moz.com/pro/link-explorer/home
If they are good quality they usually show up in the index but not always. Another area you can check is google search console.
I do not think it is common practice to give a backlinks report upon request. They may not want to reveal their sources. But this information should not be private to a client. The contract should govern any information that is shared.
Thanks,
Don
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Backlinks from local businesses
Hello, I need to make sure I understand this correctly. Will it help my SEO if I: find local businesses with a good DA & low spam score select businesses that are somehow related to mine (Insurance Agency) offer to guest post and include a backlink on their blog ( ask them if they'd like to reciprocate) For example, businesses such as
Link Building | | laurentjb
Roofing companies
Contractors
moving companies
etc Please let me know if there's anything I'm missing? Many thanks0 -
Media Kit for SEO?
I am working with a company that gets a significant amount of press, but often we do not get links from these articles or the articles do not have the best anchor text. Any suggestion, tools, or articles that help optimize this exposure to for seo benefits?
Link Building | | jkosarek0 -
Backlink from unrelated blogs
Hi I would like to ask Im doing SEO for gambling related website should I post articles only on the relevant blogs, websites related to gambling? I found website with pagerank 4 where you can submit artcile to blog. There is so many articles related to different topics (gambling, sport, finance, health, traveling ) If I submit article this kind of website how google handle with backlink? Does it has positive impact for seo?
Link Building | | centrum0 -
What is the best way to go about building backlinks?
I'm a newbie here and my head is spinning because I don't know where or how to start the backlink building process. My website is 1 month old and I don't have any backlinks yet. what is the best way to go about it? Should I study my competition's backlinks and go from there? I'm so confused I need help! Please help! Any information will be greatly appreciated!!
Link Building | | allie741 -
How long before backlinks take effect?
In general how long would it take for Google to update the SERP after it found the external link activity? Does it depend on the website the link is on as? So for example, after it found a link on the BBC would the SERP update a lot quicker then after a link on a small blog? Maybe Google updates on a certain day?
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Best SEO Friendly URL
Hi. Currently I'm using the following url: mysite.com/this-is-the-news-title/news-1234 The news title followed by the directory and the news id. Same goes to mysite.com/my-name/user-123 I think its better for SEO since the relevant words (news title and name) are to the left of the link. But some people are saying that this is not good for SEO because crawlers can't "organize" the urls in directories. So they say its better to use: mysite.com/news/this-is-the-news-title/1234 mysite.com/user/my-name/123 Cause then the crawler know what is a news and what is a user. What do you guys think? Thanks.
Link Building | | rapchan0 -
How do I see competitor backlinks with SEOmoz?
I want to get a report on all the back links to some of our competitors. How can I filter out competitor back links that also back link to our site? Does SEOmoz have instruction and/or a video on how to increase back links? Where?
Link Building | | lbohen0 -
How Many Backlinks Per Day
I am starting to do some manual back-linking for a medium competition word with high traffic. I plan to start back linking with like niche blogs with non spam comments, like niche directories, like niche forums, and guest blogging. My domain is over 3 years old and ranks for multiple keywords, but I'm going to concentrate specifically on this keyword, but need to know how many links to back-link a day. Again none of these will be spam, but will be of real quality. I was thinking 10-20 a day, but unsure.
Link Building | | treeoflife0