Why SEO costs what it does and why you should never hire someone who fills out your lead form and gives their address as @gmail.com
I need to go on a rant here for a minute. Has this ever happened to you? On four separate occasions in the last three weeks someone with an e-mail address@gmail.com with the phone number of 010101 and no website or company, filled out a lead form on my site with a message that went something like this: Want more traffic to your website? We can make your site number one on Google.
My first question to people like this is “What is your website address and where do you rank on Google?” My second question is “What other clients have you done this for successfully?” My third question, “if you’re so good at this why are you wasting my time filling out my lead forms? If you were truly that good, wouldn’t people be calling you? Wouldn’t they be finding you with all your number one positions on Google?”
I hate the fact that there are so many unethical vendors out there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to help someone who called me for help because they were ripped off by one of these supposed “SEO” experts that have no clue what they were doing.
Of course the easiest thing you can do is simply hire Yada Yada marketing, if you really want to do a good job of due diligence, these are a few things you need to ask any SEO company before you hire them so in order to properly assess their reliability and expertise.
Things you should ask any SEO Company before hiring them:
- Can you show me some examples of search engine positions that you have achieved for yourself and for your clients?
- Do you have any clients that would be willing to take a call to recommend you? Sometimes high-profile clients are unwilling to take calls, but you can be shown examples of what has been done, and any written testimonials by the clients. Regardless, they should have at least one or two firms they’ve succeeded with who would be willing to speak with you.
- Do they do enough research before telling you what they can do for you?
- Are they a member of the Better Business Bureau? And if so, what is their rating?
- Are you able to reach them easily?
- Are they easy to communicate to?
If they pass these tests, you are probably dealing with a reputable SEO firm.