5 tips for finding an honest SEO agency

As promised in my last post "black hat or just lazy?" here are the five best ways to avoid getting in bed with unethical agencies.

1. google them

if you type a legitimate company's name into google the results that come back should consist of the company's website, other websites with similar names, and articles about the company. if you search a fishy company's name google will likely come back with results that have negative comments like, "this company scammed me" or "rip-off report: fraud alert."

to be noted, there are occasions where good companies get "google bombed" and negative results will appear if you search their names. as a result you should never base 100% of your decision to spend money with a company off of their results in google, instead use this as a jump off point for your research.

2. who called who?

be wary anytime you receive an unsolicited phone call from someone pushing seo services. most legitimate agencies get business through referrals or reputation and don't need to make "˜cold calls.'

3. guaranteed rankings

never purchase seo services from a company that guarantees you will get top page rankings in the major search engines. no one can guarantee rankings, because no one knows exactly how each search engines qualify a top ranked website.

4. link love

backlinks are an important part of seo, as any legitimate agency or professional might tell you, but if you come across a company that for $100 will get you thousands of backlinks it is time to runaway and never look back. companies that employ this type of strategy are called "˜link farms'. the biggest problem with getting involved with "˜link farms' is every link pointing at you reflects on your website, and as good as it can be to have a backlink from www.googles-favorite-site.com it is proportionately worse to have a link from www.scam-old-folks.com aimed at your site.

5. money, money"¦. money!

so you think you have a good seo on your hands? they cost a little more than some of the other companies you looked at, but hey, you're convinced their worth it. before you make that first payment be sure you know where your money is going. good seo providers will be able to account for the time it takes as well as the additional costs involved with their services. shady seo's (this is especially true for couch potato's) usually cannot account for where your money goes because they usually don't do much for their clients and most of the money ends up in their pockets.

there it is, 5 easy ways for you to tell if a company is legit. as with most things there are always exceptions so don't rely solely on any one of the tips above, instead use them all together when looking for seo services so that you may have a better idea of just who it is you are entrusting with the online marketing of your business. and remember to always go with your gut, evil agencies are always thinking of new ways to trick people into buying their products so if you don't feel good about a deal then don't go forward with it.