SEO: Don’t Get Scammed By An Imposter (Yes, a lot are!)

SEO: How to avoid getting scammed

Knowing whether your SEO provider is ripping you off or not isn’t really that hard, you just have to pay a little attention. Don’t think that because you paid, you can ignore the process. First of all, call up one or two of their references, THEN check their search results. Some SEOs can’t do squat, so they pay people to inflate their results. If you can’t see it- don’t believe it. The proof is in the Googling!

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Here's the first big red flag that comes to mind when dealing with a new SEO: did they promise you an exact search result in a certain amount of time, like, “I’ll get you to the number 1 spot on Google in 6 weeks?” Personally, I’d be leary of someone like that. I mean really, how can they make a promise on behalf of a third party- namely, Google? Unless, of course, they are married to Google’s sister.

Hey, they could be, you never know. (where’s an emoji when you need one ‘rotfl’) ?

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Do they seem kind of ‘skeevy’ when you ask them a direct question, like they’re being evasive? This can be taken a few different ways. For example, when prospects ask me my exact techniques, I don’t tell them. Why should I? So they can go back to their beginner SEO and share the secret sauce? Hey, Mario Battali doesn’t give away the recipe for his red sauce, right? I mean he does, but not the real one. ?

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Does your SEO give you reports that are so complicated to read, you just throw your hands up??

SEO means moving your website up on Google. Your SEO, if they aren’t from Fiverr, should be able to tell you what number your website is on Google for your chosen search term. If they can’t- flag’em!

An SEO report should tell you how many positions you moved up after each month of SEO. In other words, what is your current position? You can find this out on your own, very simply.

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You google: Serprobot. It is a software that tells you which number your site shows up on Google. Here, try it: https://www.serprobot.com/serp-check

You type in your website address in the box that says “ Enter your domain name”

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Down the page you will see boxes that say “keyword”. You type in your chosen keyword. For example, my domain would be ‘law firm seo company nyc’.

After you click go it will show you the position of your site on the upper right side of the page, with a numeric score of 1 to 100.

Keep in mind that the results are your organic search results, nothing else. There are 10 organic results per page of Google (called search snippets), so if you are number 23, you are on page 3. ?Here's an example of how one of our clients shows up on Google: if you search for 'high net-worth divorce lawyer, you will see their page in the number 1 spot on page 1.

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Another red flag is if you have a walk-in business with a brick-and-mortar location, but your SEO is not targeting that location.

What do I mean? Say you are a Long Island Child Custody Lawyer, but your SEO only puts “family Lawyer” on your site, without highlighting the location. It could be they don’t know what they are doing, or they think you don’t so they’ll dupe you into spending more money by dragging their feet and getting you no or slow results. ???

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If you are a business owner interviewing a new SEO Agency, ask them what your domain rating is. A simple way to check this for yourself is to go to https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker/ and type in your web address/ url/ domain.

This tool will tell you, FREE, what your domain rating is, and how many backlinks your website has. If the SEO you are speaking to doesn’t know what you are talking about, tell them you’ve got “an emergency, Phil is on the other line, gotta take this!” ?

Your SEO should tell you where you stand at the beginning of the month, and how much you’ve moved up at the end of the month. Simple. It’s a numbers game, literally. Ideally, you’re paying your SEO to get you onto page 1 of Google- which is in the top 10 results. Could take a month, or three, or more, depending.

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If it takes more than 6 months to get you onto page 1 of google, you should start asking some hard questions and start speaking to other SEOs to see what they have to offer.?

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Here’s another one: ask the SEO what tools they use to monitor your progress. If they don’t use Google search console or google analytics, chances are this is their first day on the job. It is a big red flag!

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Be careful your SEO doesn’t use black hat techniques. An example of this might be if they buy bulk backlinks from Fiverr or Upwork and the links are spammy and are added all at once. Google can detect the sudden increase in volume of your backlinks and penalize your site for it. Your website could move down in the ranks, or get de-indexed altogether.

Just keep your eyes open.

And don’t be afraid to get a second or third opinion. Some SEOs offer a free audit- take it! It can be a good way to see if your SEO has been pulling the wool over your eyes. ?

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Here’s a biggie! No improvement in your search position after 2 months or more. Usually, it can take Google up to 6 or 8 weeks to register changes on your site and index it accordingly. There are certain tricks your SEO can use to speed this up but that goes under “the secret sauce”.

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Does your SEO know how to detect technical errors on your site, and fix them? Google search console can tell you technical errors you can correct to improve your website’s performance.?

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Can your SEO tell you some of the things Google considers when deciding where to index your site, like page speed, and how to check it?

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To check your page speed on Google go to: https://pagespeed.web.dev/? You just enter your url in the search bar and click go and it will deliver a plethora of problems.

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The loading time of your website is considered a top priority, especially if it’s over 3 seconds. Google prefers your website to load in 2 seconds or less.

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Another free tool to check your website is https://gtmetrix.com/? Same thing- type in your web address and go.

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I should point out that while webflow has a fast loading time, it is not as flexible as WordPress when it comes to SEO. I prefer to use WordPress, and my clients always get onto page 1 of Google.

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Here’s another thing: how well does your SEO know your business? They should have some familiarity with it and also, if you hire them, they should really grill you for details that might help the SEO of your website.

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RED FLAG: You can’t get a hold of your SEO. I don’t know what it takes regular SEOs to get back to their clients, but I make sure it’s the same day. If they’re nervous, I’m more nervous. Throw water on the fire asap. “No unhappy campers” is my motto. Hey wait, didn’t I hear that somewhere before??

Bottom Line: You have to do your own homework when you hire an SEO. It’s not “Set it and forget it”.

Any questions, dm me, I’m here.

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Isaac Lebovits Abraham Piller Abraham Braun Phil Feldman, PhD, LCSW Yael Slasky