Is my SEO company a scam?

[Lilala_Kids]

Hello,

I am rather new to online marketing and because of this employ an SEO company to help with improving my ranking. They have now been working with me for around 6 months and I have not seen an increase in the traffic to my site - in fact it is at it all time low. Yesterday I only had 4 visitors for example.

They keep ensuring me it will take time, and show me reports on how my keywords are ranking, and some appear to be doing okay, but I would have thought traffic would have improved by now.

Why I am a little suspicious of this company is they only seem to be doing back linking. They have done very little, if anything, with on-page optimisation, so much so that I tried to do this all myself following Moz guidelines etc. But even this has seen very little improvement.

I would have thought that as a paid SEO company, they may see that something is clearly not working. Perhaps the wrong keywords? Suggest a different tactic?

I write blogs posts, am social media active but feeling very discourage with it all as seeing very little results.

I continuously hear about scams and get new emails every day saying "we have analysed your site and all these things are wrong... pay us $XXX and we will get you traffic" but who can you trust and how can you find an affordable way to gain traffic as a very small business.

Would be great to get feedback from anyone who may know what is going on.

Thanks

Astrid

[theseostaslker]

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.

[ChristinaRadisic]

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.

[AlanMosley]

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.

[ScottImageWorks]

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.

[Mark-Gebauer]

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.

[Mark-Gebauer]

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.

[Lilala_Kids]

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?

[Lilala_Kids]

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

[ScottImageWorks]

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!

[AlanMosley]

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.

[EGOL]

I agree. If you still have two weeks of work with them, they can use that to take the links down.

[Mark-Gebauer]

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.

[EGOL]

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?"

[Highland]

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.

[ClaytonJ]

Astrid

Do not pay them. I have dealt with several of these companies on behalf of clients.  In Australia they lock you into a 12 month contract.  The fact is at law they have an obligation to provide a product fit for service - and they are not doing that. In fact from reading the blog only it seems they could be doing long term harm typical type operators.

Send them an email along the lines

"As you are appreciate various promises were made to increase site rankings using white hat practices.

Can you please detail exactly what you have done for the money paid to date. No further payments will be made and this contract ceases immediately if not done forthwith.

I have had several SEO experts review the website and the site now has a number of spammy bad links pointed at it.  This is considered black hat practices and is rejected as a sub-standard practice by google webmaster.

I await for your response. If I do not get a detailed report within 7 days I will assume that the contract is repudiated.

I reserve my legal rights in relation to the damage occasioned to the business in relation to the spammy links"

Fight hard... these guys make our lives very hard..

[EGOL]

I get so many companies contact me but so nervous as to who is reputable.

Most of the work on my websites is done by me or a long time employee.  However, most months I receive SEO, programming, design, usability consultations or contract work from an outside person or company.  For the last ten years, all of this work has been done by people I have gotten to know by reading the free advice that they give in forums like Moz Q&A.  In all of that time I have not been disappointed because I have been able to observe their responses on a wide variety of questions.

I would be very hesitant to hire a person or company who contacts me directly.  I get lots of these messages and phone calls for each of my sites and most of them are not offering a service that I would use.

So, if I had a new site for which I needed help, I would post lots of questions here.  See who responds, and the quality of their responses.  I would also read lots of responses from people who answer the questions of others.  Then after I see someone who offers good advice on the topics where I need help, I would send them a message asking if they are available.

I am not posting this because I am looking for work.  I only work on my own websites.  I am just saying how I find the people who do this work for me.  There are a lot of people who post on Moz Q&A who I have gotten to know by reading their posts and who I would trust to work on my websites.

[Mark-Gebauer]

You got it right Astrid. Don't ask them, ORDER them to do so.

You're welcome Astrid.

[Keszi]

I would terminate with them. (even I would use those 6 weeks to have them clean up the stuff they have done).

[Lilala_Kids]

So for example, ask them to delete any backlinks that aren't related to the type of business I do?

Thanks for your compliment re my site...

[Kokolo]

If I was you, I'd terminate now.

2 reasons:

1st, and more important...

... the links they are building for you may only harm your rankings, if Google caught you.

2nd: From what you said, they are not SEO company. They are some scammy marketing (link building) company that probably goes Black Hat. What I believe you need, is more like on-page optimization.

Please, don't lose enthusiasm, blogging is business with **positive feedback loop. **It only goes up and up (if you don't do illegal stuff) and sometime, whenever it is, you will reach the sky.

[Mark-Gebauer]

I believe the most reasonable action is to let them fix all your site issues and delete all irrelevant backlinks before you terminate the contract. So No, it would not be better to terminate them right now, but as soon as they fixed all issues you can terminate them ASAP and move on. Your website is very nice though, I showed it to my wife and she liked it a lot. Cheer up.

[Lilala_Kids]

So another question... as I paid for 3 months service in advance, with about another 6 weeks to go, would it be better to terminate right now or see the end of the term out?

[Lilala_Kids]

Ouch - but the pain I needed to move on. Thank you.

[Mark-Gebauer]

Hi Astrid,

I also made an assumption that the site you are talking about is the one in your Moz Profile.

I've made a little analysis about your site and unfortunately not only the backlinks were awful but your site has a lot of issues as well.

Some of the issues I found were:

22 pages with 4xx status code (refer to http://www.websitepulse.com/blog/what-is-4xx-status-code for status code definition and examples.)

4 pages with frames (Search engines will find it difficult to read pages with frames)

1 Too long URL (This can be rewritten to a shorter version)

28 Duplicate Titles (I don't think this is necessary a big issue but this can be rewritten easily)

32 Too long Titles (this can be rewritten in shorter version)

67 Too long Meta Description (I don't think this is necessary a big issue but this can be rewritten in shorter version)

1 page with 302 & 4 pages with 301 redirect (this can be fixed by redirecting the broken link to existing page or it might just be a typo error)

These are only few of many errors I found. As a SEO Manager, I understand well that optimizing your website comes first before anything else. And, It's unreasonable to start building spammy links here and there. Sadly, this is what you get when you invest in the wrong company.  So I too, look forward for you to terminate your service with them ASAP and move on.

[Kokolo]

**I get so many companies contact me but so nervous as to who is reputable. **

Honestly, the ones that are reputable won't try to reach you. It's more likely that you will reach them, because they are known

[Lilala_Kids]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your prompt response and to be honest I am not that surprised to hear your answer. Can you please give me advise as to what to look for with a SEO company so I don't make this kind of costly response again?

I get so many companies contact me but so nervous as to who is reputable.

Astrid

[TomRayner]

Hi Astrid

I've made the assumption here that the site you are talking about is the one in your Moz Profile, where you're a business owner.  I won't post it here just in case, and please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've been looking at the backlinks that have been built to that site and I'm sorry to say that it is not good news.  The links they have been building are pretty awful.  They all seem to be autoblog spam on websites with hundreds of outbound links per page, linking to all different kinds of sites, with no contextual relevance to your business at all.

I'm not surprised that what they've been doing so far hasn't been working because, frankly, what they've done is crap.

I'd look to terminate your service with them ASAP and move on.