What Is Your Experience With SEO Agencies?

SEO is just the vehicle for visibility. At the end of the day your website needs to sell your product or service. Often times businesses want to dive into SEO with a website that completely sucks from a branding, conversion and user experience stand point. Website traffic is not the hard part, converting traffic into customers is. Your brand and your website needs to do that.

We can lead a horse to water but we can't make them drink is very true in the world of SEO.

Maciej/ www.brandignity.com

Well, the problem is not SEO, but the sea of unqualified professionals out there. Many of them are even positive about knowing their stuff, they are so convinced that they convince you. Unfortunately the end result 99% of the times is wasted money and time.

Yes to SEO. Just be very careful when choosing your provider.

I've worked with dozens of clients to help improve their SEO, and there are some common misconceptions that come up frequently (I've seen many of them in the replies posted here). Here's the gist:

Unfortunately, there's no way to guarantee that our SEO efforts will land you on the first page of search engine rankings - at least not right away.

SEO is a long-term commitment and that starts with content. By improving the existing content on your website and adding various pieces of new content (i.e., blog articles), you *should* see a bump in organic traffic. But, that doesn't mean after a new blog article and a couple updates on your website you'll be on the first page of search results. SEO is a long-term commitment of monthly updates and consistent work.

It's about Quality over Quantity - The point is not to get just ANY traffic to your website, but the RIGHT traffic. Impressive #'s mean nothing if you're not targeting the right people. And targeting the right people means nothing if your website isn't set up to convert them into paying customers.

If immediate traffic is what you're looking for, we could take the same $ and create display ads (Google and Facebook ad campaigns) that would do that.

We NEVER guarantee clients a consistent #1 spot on Google rankings - and I highly advise business owners to stay away from any SEO agency that does. Because chances are, this is one of the unqualified, "fly by night" agencies people here are complaining about. Because Google's algorithms change all the time, your ranking on search engines may too. The strategies we recommend and implement will help your ranking grow steadily and organically, giving you better long-term results over quick hits.

From Google themselves "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google."

Andrea Gauvin
Digital Marketing Manager, Splash Marketing and Creative
[email address]
splashmarketingandcreative.com
facebook.com/splashmarketingandcreative

SEO isn't rocket science but its a hell of a lot of work to do it right....which takes a lot of time...meaning months (depending on how much or how little has been done previous to your taking on the client).

The biggest problem I see are these little shits that con people into thinking they can be "digital marketers" over night. They are creating hundreds of students who literally BS business owners. They con businesses into believing they're some SEO / digital marketing gurus, charge high prices for the work but have no experience and absolutely no idea how to even do the work. They outsource it all to other people who may or may not know anymore than they do; which is nothing.

I agree with Pablo that its important to advise the client of the probability of the success or lack of it dependent on their demands, their budget and length of time to accomplish the task. But I've had clients who insist on having things done their way. So I advise them that their demands are not going to work and that I'm not going to take the blame when it doesn't work. Refusing to do the job isn't the answer. As long as I explain the consequences, my conscience is clear.

Another thing that becomes a problem is when clients think SEO is the same thing as Search Engine Marketing. Its not. SEO gets your site noticed. Its designed to bring traffic. Its never meant to sell or convert into sales. It may help to do that but products and services that sell are primarily dependent on other things that SEO has no control over. Such as the cost of the item, whether or not there is a market for the product in the first place, poor photography, etc. So selling Christmas decorations in the middle of July isn't likely to sell very well no matter how good your SEO is. Or as I've said in the past, a guy who sells a rock painted like a strawberry has rocks in his head in the first place. No one wants one....and I did refuse to work on his site because it would never sell.

If you do not want to partner with an SEO company, then you might as well buy pay per clicks which will get you to the top pages of Google...but they will cost you. Paying large monthly sums to SEO companies is rediculous. If you are doing that...please buy pay per clicks.

SEO takes time and customers want it to happen tomorrow and depending on the competition that is out there, depends upon whether you show up or not. But, you DO need to SEO your website to even get into the game. Website builders do not SEO websites...well the good ones do, but most just want to design you a pretty website. SEO is all about owning more FREE space online, one page could target a different audience then another page. Pictures need to be SEO'd as well and are a better way to show up online at the top as well. Title of URL, title of page, title in text, title in description...all FREE spaces to take advantage of...but then you have to sit on it a while. Anyone who says, they will SEO your website and you will show up at the top tomorrow are telling you a lie.

Someone mentioned not to use the low keywords, obviously you haven't been taught why you go for those. They are keywords that Google says people are typing to find your business, but businesses are not buying those words...that is the why they are low...well those words used the right way could bring you generic traffic in some category.

There are other things you need to do along with SEO to help you show up online. Building the FREE internet directories is one thing, but it also takes time to help you...but directories work with your SEO to help you show up. When you build the directories, you have to get reviews about how you have serviced your customers. The SEO guy can't do that for you, Google wants people to write reviews themselves on their devices or you get bad marks from Google.

Check-in's are big right now. When someone comes to your business are you getting them to check in, if they do...they can also write a review. Facebook has the ability to let them use your internet to check-in where you write them a greeting and show the specials of the day. Your business needs to have drilled into from all of the employee's to use check-in and get reviews. That would help you show up online.

Backlinks to your site help: when you or an employee make a comment about your business online...use the full URL of your business to give you a backlink or on Facebook or anywhere else you are online. Good links to your business will help you. (full URL's are http://www.businessurl

An SEO company can make sure your site is targeting audiences and build directories, but you need to partner with them to make sure the audiences are targeted that you want to hit, not the ones they want to hit. You need to partner with them to build reviews. They can set you up with tools to help you build reviews, but you have to be proactive to build them. You need to do check in's to your business. If you are not willing to get into the game which does not mean that you spend hours on everything, it means that you look over keywords be set up systems to help your business show up online, then just buy the pay per click.

Michael, in the last 22 yrs, we have spent a ton of money on several options that promised a great deal of results, and we never found one that actually delivered on what they promised. Sadly. With the internet sales and social media so big these days, we have actually found it to be easier and more economical to have a full time employee that is dedicated to dealing with all the social media, website, and internet things we have to keep up with. She is a graphics designer too, and that is also an important in-house function. We need a lot of labels, ads, and etc. done on a regular basis. We now have two people in house dealing with all we need. Subcontracting things out to agencies has not worked well for us at all. We may well be unique in that experience, or just had very bad luck. As one of the people said, there are hundreds/thousands of people saying they are the best SEO out there - we get calls every week from them. Sadly, it seems to make it hard for the ones that really are good, and do perform well for their customers. Having the control of in-house gives us flexibility too, and the ability to change ads, images, and a faster response time to things as they occur. We are not submitting to an agency and then waiting for changes to happen. This fits our company, and definitely would not work for all.

The main problem I run into is that MOST small businesses should NOT be relying on search engine traffic to bring them business. I have a friend who was spending $500 a month on SEO when he owned a local restaurant. He had no traditional advertising running, so nobody even knew he was there. When I talked him into putting that money into Digital Ads & Radio, his restaurant filled up.

SEO has a purpose, but MOST businesses should not be relying on search engines for the bulk of their customers.

I don't think the problem is with SEO agencies. The problem is with business owners who refuse to use their rational brain. If somebody promises you 1st page of Google for $500, think how many of your competitors have at least $500. Do you think you are the only one with $500. Do you think after 22 years of the internet as we know it, your competition hasn't figured that out? So you throw $500 at it and expect a massive flow of traffic to crash your server.

Who is at fault? The guy who is selling snake oil or the fools buying it?

We solved the problem for our company by hiring someone in-house to do the website, social media, and internet marketing. The SEO's we have tried in the past were a huge waste of time and money. Did essentially nothing but charged a big fee.

Honestly, SEO is the new "uncharted" territory and should be regulated in some way. There are way too many so called "experts" guaranteeing first page or top of page results and charging outrageous fees to get you there! I must get three calls every month to "increase my google standings" or similar.

This becomes such a murky he said, she said business model, that there is seldom any "concrete" examples to discuss as it is always changing. More excuses than results and no one is ever accountable!

There are some honest and knowledgeable SEO folks out there (like Cadillac SEO) but they are few and far between. Many are simply a money pit!