Hiring a cheap SEO service provider can be very tempting. Many cash-strapped businesses have to cut costs and a cheap SEO service seems to be a good solution. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, a lot! Invariably, the conversation starts with “we can get you to number one on Google!”. If this is ever said to you turn & run the other way!
Although most site owners understand that SEO is an integral part of a successful online business, many businesses still make wrong decisions. They hire the wrong SEO provider & base their decision on cost rather than results.
Here are three popular SEO offers that aren’t as good as they seem:
Your hosting company or the CMS vendor offers SEO services.
Some hosting companies and content management system vendors include ‘SEO’ services in their packages. In general, these offers usually include automated tools that insert keywords and other code on your web pages and then they submit your site to Google and other search engines to be crawled.
The risk: Fully automated solutions offered by many hosting companies and CMS vendors are usually outdated. These methods don’t work anymore and in general, automatic optimisation and link building is considered spam by Google.
Your friend or relative who is great with computers optimizes your site.
Maybe you know someone who knows someone who is really great with computers. They can ‘fix the SEO’ on your website and you will save a lot of money because they do not charge much.
The risk: Your friend or relative might know how to code a HTML web page but that doesn’t mean that they have any SEO knowledge. Not everyone who is good with numbers can do your accounting. Bad optimisation can do more harm than good. On top of that you need to set targets and measure your results. How can you do that with a friend or relative?
An offshore company, who you don’t know, pitches a low price & says they can do it all for you.
These companies often send unsolicited emails with great-sounding offers. They promise to build back links, optimize your web pages and a lot more for a low monthly fee. You just have to sit back while they do the work.
The risk: Many of the offshore companies use automated spam tools to ‘promote’ your website. Hiring these companies is often a sure way to get your website blacklisted by Google and other search engines.
The upshot of all of this is simple. If you are in the market for an SEO expert, select three providers, invite them all to come in & pitch for your business. Check their references and ask them this list of questions (link) at the pitch stage. You will need to partner with your SEO provider so treat it as an important decision.
Questions? Drop us a note here.
Social Incite Team
