SmartWebSEO™
Choosing a SEO Company.

ASTAARA MEDIA

How to Choose the Best SEO Company


SEO = Search Engine Optimization


SEO is an abbreviation for 'search engine optimization'. Many SEO companies provide useful services for website owners, from writing quality content to giving advice on website development to assisting with increasing website traffic and more. However, a few unethical SEO companies do not act as advocates for their clients. These companies only consider what is best for their bank accounts, rather than what is is best for their clients. We want you to be careful and learn to recognize the SEO company that will benefit you the most.

CHOOSE YOUR SEO COMPANY WISELY


While you consider whether to go with a particular SEO company, you may want to do some research on the SEO industry in general, including reading about a few of the disappointments that have appeared in the press. While we don't throw mud on specific companies, we've encountered many firms, calling themselves SEO experts, who indulge in practices that are clearly misleading and costly to the client.

Understand where your money goes.


None of the major search engines sell high ranking in their search results. However, some SEO companies display pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results to give the illusion of success. These SEO companies promise to rank you high in search engines, but what they are actually doing is placing you in the advertising section, rather than in the organic search results. A few SEO companies will even manipulate their bid prices in real time to 'demonstrate' how they control the search engines, pretending to be capable of placing themselves in the slot of their choice. To avoid this, be sure to ask the SEO company you're considering which fees go toward 'organic' inclusion and which apply toward paid advertising and managing pay-per-click.

Ask for examples.


References are a good place start, but the the most useful information should be instantly available to you — through a real-time search on the major search engines. Find out if your chosen SEO company can to point to their successes. Can they show you actual website clients with 'organic' high ranking search positions for meaningful keyword phrases? Can they do this consistently for any of the major search engines? You should be able to look up provided keyword phrases and find the sites they represent on that first page of top-ten listings. Any search listing past 20th place has little value. Most surfers won't go much further unless very determined.

Read your contract.


Request a contract that spells out what to expect from your SEO company. Ask for a money-back guarantee that protects you in case your SEO's actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine's index and they don't immediately correct the situation. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO company to stay within the guidelines of ethical SEO practices.

Regarding guarantees, when it comes to search engine optimization, any guarantee is only as good as the SEO company that offers it. Many guarantees do not promise that you'll end up with high rankings, and they only sometimes guarantee that you'll get your money back if you don't see high rankings. Most that do guarantee high-rankings also make up a huge list of keywords, mostly obscure ones, and then claim the contract was fulfilled because at least one of those reached above a number 30 ranking. Pretty useless.

Be sure to read and understand your contract with any SEO company, especially one that offers guarantees. Often a client believes their SEO contract wasn't fulfilled, but they were not able to get their money back because in reality (and in the fine print) the contract 'was' filled. There have even been cases where the client stopped paying and THEY were sued for breaking the contract! Some of the largest SEO companies in the world operate this way, so buyer beware!

SAFETY TIPS


Here are a few tips that may help you distinguish between a SEO company that will improve your ranking on the search engines and the ones that will only improve their own incomes.

Unsolicited emails.



Perhaps, you've seen emails that say something like :
  • "Dear astaara.com,
    I visited your website today and noticed that you
    are not listed in any of the major search engines..."

These unsolicited emails about search engine optimization belong in the same category as 'no-prescription' pharmacies and verifying your eBay credit card information. They all have one thing in common — the desire to separate you from your money.

Guaranteed #1 ranking.


Avoid any SEO company that guarantees #1 rankings, purports a special relationship with search engines or advertises a priority submit to any search engine.

The truth is, there is absolutely no way to guarantee a number 1 position on any search engine. We will repeat that. There is no sure-fire, magic formula for getting your website listed as #1 on any search engine. It's too 'organic'. Organic means it is relative to each individual website. You cannot place a formula on search engine optimization and expect every website to fit into that formula. Anyone who claims they can... we aren't going to call them a liar, we just want you to be careful of what nonsense is out there.

Even if a SEO company were capable of getting your website to number 1, it could not do so 'immediately' or 'overnight' unless you consider paid advertising as being the same as a search ranking. Paid advertising means pay-per-click. There is nothing wrong with pay-per-click, but it is not the same as search engine optimization. It is an entirely separate service. Pay-per-click on a search engine will cost you each time a person clicks on your link and does not increase your organic ranking at all. Pay-per-inclusion requires an upfront fee and then a yearly renewal to be even considered.

Furthermore, there is no priority submit for any search engine. The only way to submit a site to any search engine directly is through its add URL page, pay-per-inclusion, or its site map program, and you can do this yourself without a management fee.

Submitting every couple of weeks.


None of the major search engines require submission. On the other hand, they do not penalize sites for 'over-submission'. You can submit all you want, as often as you wish — knock yourself out! Just keep in mind the fact that submitting your site over and over will not improve your search ranking. It just takes up your time on a fruitless activity. You are better off improving the content and links of your site.

Here is the best way to invite a search engine to your site. Simply put a link to your site on any quality website (preferably high-ranking, content-related, with a decent PageRank). This totally removes the need to submit to the search engines at all. Your site would be automatically indexed engine the next time each search visited that other site, usually within a month, often much less.

Spam-filled copy writing.


If a SEO company creates spam content (nonsense containing super-high keyword density) on your behalf, or does not behave according to ethical SEO practices, your website could be removed entirely from a search engine's index. Considering that your site's search engine rankings would be connected to the actions of any SEO company you hire, it's best to examine the quality of work it is capable of producing.

FFA pages.


Though they might not admit it, when a SEO Company claims to submit your site to thousands of search engines, what they are really doing is submitting your site to thousands of FFA (free-for-all) pages. These are typically useless, spam-generating exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines — at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive. If you decide to try this, be sure to read our advice on the matter by clicking on the above link.

Browser address bars.


Browser address bars require users to install extra software, and very few users are willing to do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about any SEO company's self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications.

Other common abuses.


One common scam is the creation of a website under the ownership of the SEO company or the creation of a secondary site through which traffic is funneled. The SEO company will claim to be working on your behalf. However, if the relationship turns bad, the SEO company may shut down your domain or redirect it to a different site. If that happens, you will have paid to develop a site entirely controlled by the SEO company.

Another illicit practice is to place hidden spam on your site. The SEO company promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries, which is inherently false and often backfires by getting the website banned from the search engines. More insidious, however, is that these pages often contain hidden links to the SEO company's own web sites, which may include unsavory or illegal content.

Walk Away If the SEO Company:

  • Buys your domain name for you
  • Requires you to buy its book or proprietary software
  • Attempts to change any of your passwords
  • Adds massive amounts of outgoing links and/or spam content
  • Links to other sites without your permission
  • Requires you to buy keywords in the address bar
  • Doesn't distinguish between organic search and advertising
  • Guarantees ranking, but only for obscure keyword phrases
  • Guarantees #1 ranking on any search engine
  • Operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS information
  • Generates traffic through FFA pages, spyware, or scumware
  • Does not have its own website listed on the search engines (anywhere)
  • Has no success stories, keeps secrets, doesn't answer questions
  • Uses an email address not connected to its website
  • Has no physical address or phone number
  • Utilizes only voicemail or an answering service
  • Takes your money and produces nothing

If you feel that you were scammed by a SEO company, we encourage you to report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at http://ftc.gov/ or call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a SEO company in another country, you may file it at http://econsumer.gov.