You can really consider this as a threat, because your SEO service provider might not be helping you the way you have pretended while selecting them.

We know many small businesses who have shown their trust in a particular SEO agency, but actually they have been penalized through the “Black Hat Techniques”. Thousands of startups have been spending a huge amount of money to get to the skies in ranking, but unfortunately they got scammed.

Here, this article is written to help you save yourself from such situations. We don’t want you to get scammed or cheated neither we want you to destroy money on the wrong SEO agencies.

This article is basically divided in three parts to help you understand things better in this regards:

  • How to identify that an SEO firm is non-beneficial for you?
  • How actually you can know if they are beneficial to you?
  • How to work with an SEO Agency to get maximum benefits?

How to identify that an SEO firm is non-beneficial for you?

You need to know the signs which help you know that they are doing the wrong SEO for you. If you have hired an Agency for the purpose of optimization then that doesn’t mean that you need to sit back and wait for the SEO magic to happen and improve your ranking. That really is an unacceptable thing as far as I am concerned.

Instead of waiting for the SEO Magic and rise in the rankings, you need to know what actually they are doing. It is essential to know this in the first few months. Because if you would track them then and find it out that they are not good for you, this means you will help your site remain safe from a huge destruction.

Following are some of the signs which will indicate you that your SEO service provider is certainly non-beneficial for you.

  1. They have got nothing which they can show you.

Here by showing something never means that they should show you the results and rankings. This means that they must be able to show you the report of all the SEO practices/techniques that they have been doing for ranking your website.

The ranking of some keywords depends on their competition and some other factors. So if you are unable to see significant results, then don’t worry and keep calm because the SEO do sweat you a lot at times.

You have every right to ask about the deliverables because you have been paying your SEO company for their services. So they must answer what they have been doing with the amount that you have paid them for this purpose.

Some of the details that an SEO service provider shall be providing you in the starting weeks of the contract are as follows:

  • Your website’s SEO Audit.
  • Your website’s link Analysis.
  • The Optimized Content for your website.
  • All the articles that are published online with your website link.

That’s how you can get the proof if your digital marketing agency really is doing something for you or not? If they are not able to give you any significant proof in such regards then they definitely are not beneficial for you in any means. You certainly need to withdraw from them immediately.

  1. They would never ask you for anything.

As you are the owner of your website, so every now and then your SEO agency would need your help and approval for doing the following things.

  • Editor or admin access to your CMS
  • View or admin access to Google Analytics
  • Access to Google Webmaster Tools
  • Access to social accounts
  • A list of target SEO keywords
  • Past audits/penalties/work

Well, if your SEO firm isn’t asking you about anything after the contract, then you certainly need to rethink your decision of continuing working with them. There are huge chances that a firm you have hired might be doing spammy and harmful actions for the purpose of SEO.

  1. They never give you a suggestion for improvements.

A professional SEO services company always tells you things for the improvement in your website for better results. If they never tell you anything in this regards then this means something suspicious is going on.

A bad SEO agency who are not serious in their work and never takes the optimization seriously. They do bad practices to make backlinks that are of no worth. Their aim is to provide you benefits via Black Hat Techniques, they don’t do quality work which is really bad for your website’s online reputation.

Those agencies who are best, they keep relationship with you as a partner not a client. They think about the things in long term perspective, not for the timely financial benefits.

  1. They won’t share the SEO techniques.

You need to be curious as a client to ask your service provider about the techniques they are using for the purpose of SEO. It’s your right and you got to ask them about this surely.

If you ask them what they are doing in the SEO? If they respond that it’s something confidential and you have no right to ask them to disclose it to you. They might also say that they do a lot of things and it will take a lot of time to explain it to you. This means they are trying to trick and cheat you.

If you also get to hear such excuses, then this certainly means you need to get rid of your SEO agency immediately. There is no benefit of continuing further contract with such firm which can’t provide the work details which they do for your website.

  1. You receive a Manual Penalty.

The worst thing that can occur to a website is receiving a manual penalty email or notification. A website is penalized and gets such email when something suspicious is going on in it. If you also receive such an email then you need to ask what the reason behind this penalty is.

Manual Penalty

Receiving such a penalty doesn’t always mean that your service provider is at fault. There might be some other reasons behind it, and you got every right to ask about those reasons that has penalized your website.

  1. Your Rankings Drop Down.

There are many reasons behind the drop down in the rankings. In this article, I will discuss many common reasons of it.

It is highly recommended for you to keep an eye on the rankings of your website. If you are seeing the drop in your website rankings then this certainly means that there is something wrong going on in the optimization which is penalizing your website.

Now you need to find the right reasons involved in penalizing your website. Check out what your agency is doing, if you find or smell something suspicious then you surely need to stop them from working on your website.

  1. Drop in the Traffic.

The drop down in the traffic means either you have lost the ranking or you have been experiencing an Algorithmic Penalty for sure.

Drop in the Traffic

The Drop in the Traffic certainly is a bad thing. Well, this kind of issue sometimes is because of the SEO and sometimes it isn’t because of it. For remaining cautious you can start asking about the reasons which have brought this change in the website.

The first thing that you can do is, find the algorithm changes which might have been the reason for this decline. Secondly, you can figure out all the changes that were made on the website for last some weeks. Finally, you must get to know about the off-page activities that your agency did for your website’s ranking.

  1. The start of the Wrong Keywords Ranking.

You must know what your website keywords are. Apart from that, you should know the idea which is based on the Google Analytics, to help you understand how your long tail keywords are driving traffic to your website or ranking it in the SERPs.

Google Analytics Organic

Get alarmed if the organic keyword of your website is changing significantly. Similarly, if the traffic to your website is coming from a wrong keyword means something isn’t right. In the whole scenario, if you do stop ranking for the previously high ranked keywords can also be a problem for you.

Google Analytics Results

Search engine optimization is to drive a targeted traffic to your website. If you are noticing that your website is receiving traffic from unwanted queries and areas, then there surely is some problem out there. This of course is the indication of the carelessness of your SEO agency.

  1. Uptick on the Suspicious Linkbacks on Profile.

The link profile is a metrics which you have to watch. It is a gesture to Google to indicate him the way it should rank you. If you see that your profile is getting messed up then you must think that your site is in some trouble.

You probably would be thinking that how a profile is messed up? Well, if you noticed that your website is receiving a huge number of linkbacks the spammy sites. See the example of the image below:

Google Webmaster

In this situation, you keep getting links from such sites which doesn’t belong to your niche. Well, if you are also facing the same issue, then you shall be certain that your SEO firm is not adding link juice and site authority in consideration. Instead, they are getting links from the random sites of low authorities.

The technique of bombarding a site with low quality backlinks might increase the traffic at the start. But when we look at this thing in long term perspective, it will sometime penalize a website. There will be a huge drop down in the ranking which will be a big loss.

In such a situation when you would show your agency the list of the suspicious sites from where your website is getting links, they won’t be able to give you a proper answer. Neither would they tell you the right reason behind it. Well, you can immediately cut off with such an agency to avoid further damage.

  1. Seeing optimized anchor text form backlinks.

The Google Penguin Update in 2012 affected almost 3.1% of the websites because they had the “Optimized Anchor texts”. The Google says a big “NO” to this kind of technique.

The Optimized Anchor actually means that your anchor text is made from your keyword.

For better example let’s take an example of the website www .bestshoppingspotonline.com. If you are trying to rank it for “Best Shopping Spot Online”, then that’s a wrong way. You should definitely avoid it.

That’s why, make sure this practice is never being adopted by your SEO firm. Otherwise, you can expect drastic results. It’s all your SEO agency’s fault, so cut off with such an agency immediately.

How to identify that an SEO Firm is beneficial for you?

Some of the practices you should know to get assured, that your SEO firm is doing well for you are as follows:

  1. They have the deliverables.

If these experts is doing things right, then it would never hesitate from showing you reports about the activities they do. They always have the evidences ready for the clients, so they can forward it to them anytime upon their request.

The things they should be able to provide you are as follows:

  • The actual sites which contain the real dofollow links.
  • The SEO audit of your website with full details and action points.
  • The new content written for your web pages, or maybe the edits they have done to existing page contents.
  • The reports of the work they have been doing for your website, on weekly or monthly basis.

There isn’t a magic with SEO companies through which they rank your website in the Search Engine. They perform different activities to help your website get ranked. As far as, the firm is able to provide you the report of the exact things they do. You can say that your website’s optimization is in the safe hands.

  1. They provide you recommendations for improvement.

If your firm is recommending you the changes for improvement, then you must trust that they are working with full sincerity. They are worthwhile, as they have come up with the recommendations for you to improve your search engine optimization results.

Few things that your SEO consultant might ask you to do for improvement in the results are as follows:

  • Start the social media channels. Such a, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube etc.
  • Integration of your social media pages to the home page.
  • Launching a proper plan for online marketing.
  • Starting the Blog.
  • Adding content to the Homepage.
  • Optimization of the website content.
  • Addition of the Alt Tags in images used in the site and Blog.
  • Creation of the Sitemap.
  • Usage of the robot.txt.
  • Improvement of the Site speed.
  • Adding the WP plugins for enhancing the SEO. For example, the Yoast SEO plugin.
  • Removing and disavowing the Spammy links.

Well, if an agency is making such recommendations then you can surely say that they are the right ones and won’t scam you.

  1. Improvement in the Rankings.

This is something which every person wants to talk about. This is the main goal for which the whole optimization campaign is being done. Well, if your website’s ranking is improving day by day then you probably can say that you are under the surveillance of the right search engine optimization company.

The reasons and signs to believe in the worthy rank improvements are as follows:

  • Your website is being ranked for targeted keywords.
  • The ranking of your website to the first page of the Google.
  • The ranking of your site for the long tail keywords.

The ranking of the website is a shuffling process. If the website is shifting up and down minimally, then that’s not a big deal. But make sure there is no significant drop down. But that’s the case, then you need to question your optimization firm about it.

  1. Drop in the Traffic, increase in the revenues.

There are some cases where the traffic of the website drops down. Is it a worrying factor? Well, if your revenues goes up or never drops down then you don’t really need to worry at all.

You need to understand one thing here, your goal is to increase your revenues and sales not the traffic. Well, your main concern is always earning good revenues. So, as far as you are receiving good business and revenues, then what else do you want? The drop in the traffic might because of removal of bad links.

In fact, in a situation, where you are receiving less traffic, but your conversion rate is better and improved then you need to say thanks to your Awesome service provider.

Important Things You Need To Do:

If you are trying to figure out if your digital marketing company is a scam or not? You need to know following vital things for working with them.

  1. Patience Is Necessary

Well, you have been working with an SEO firm, but you haven’t been able to see results. What should you do then? Hold on and Relax! it is a time taking process.

  1. Keep Doing Your Own Research

It’s always recommended for you to keep doing research in the SEO industry to learn more and more about it. On the basis of that research and knowledge you can forward your suggestions as well, to the agency.

  1. Keep Working with Them

Search engine optimization is not something which you can hand over to your agency and that’s all. At times, you need to cooperate with your agency. If they tell you to do or to not do something, then you shall obey them.

  1. Never Expect a Refund Guarantee

None of the SEO service provider can guarantee the results. You can expect to achieve good and desired results, but you can’t tell an agency to give you a money back guarantee. Search engine optimization depends on the Algorithms of search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, thus it keeps going up and down. That’s why, never ask or expect such a guarantee.

  1. Knowledge of What to Expect

You must have a clear understanding of the search engine optimization and what to expect from it. Don’t bombard your agency with anything silly or something which they are not supposed to do.

You can expect and ask for following things though:

  • Content Creation
  • Creation of the backlinks
  • Auditing content
  • Optimization for the local SEO
  • Monitoring your link profile
  • Creation of the new social profile
  • Optimization of the conversion elements

These are the thing that you can expect from your SEO firm which they would be doing. You can also question them about these activities and their progress in this regards.

  1. Monitor Them

You need to ask them what they are doing in the optimization for the improvement in the rankings of your website. You can ask them to provide you with the proper reports of their work. You can keep a check on them and monitor what activities they do for your website’s optimization.

Conclusion:

It is really important for you to know the basics of the SEO. When you have outsourced the SEO campaign to an agency, then your duties are not done and dusted here. You are required to keep proper check of them, monitor their activities and check the monthly reports.

If you don’t get a report or any kind of help from them then you can pretend that they are the scammers and they are just tricking you for the sake of money. Apart from that, if your firm does provide you the details and reports of the activities they do for your website ranking then they truly are the right ones.

If you are looking for an SEO company, Dubai could be the best place for you to look at, for such firms. You can find a lot of well-known companies who are offering top notch services in this regards. Hire the services of one of them to get your website ranked in the top searches of the Search Engine.

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