An SEO company performs tasks such as improving your website’s layout, rewriting web content, and publishing new blog posts. However, with on-page, technical SEO, it’s not always apparent what SEO experts are doing to optimize your website. 

If you’re looking for an SEO service, perhaps you’ve read articles about the signs of a good SEO company versus a bad one. 

Signs of a good SEO company include transparency and honesty, high-profile client lists, reasonable rates, etc. As for a bad SEO company, some red flags can include suspiciously low rates, guarantees of topping search engine rankings, buying links, and so on. 

To help you choose a good SEO company and give a bad one a wide berth, here’s what you should pay attention to.

Signs of a Good SEO Company

It may take a few months for your new web page or website to begin ranking. If an SEO agency guarantees instant results, that’s a big red flag. A reputable SEO firm will be honest and transparent about its strategies and set realistic expectations regarding campaigns.

Honesty and Transparency 

It’s best to work with SEO experts from a company that’s honest and frank about their methods to raise your website’s ranking. The agency should tell you why they’re applying those methods and how long you should wait for your website to rank. In general, steer clear of a company unwilling to share its tactics with you. 

Reputable Industry Experts 

It’s best to work with a high-profile company that’s considered an authority in their field. Find an online marketing expert that’s on social media, guest writes for industry blogs, speaks at industry seminars, and has an SEO blog. A good SEO agency is one whose consultants have a good industry reputation and are prepared to share information with you.

Setting Realistic expectations

Shady SEO agencies tend to over-promise and then under-deliver, taking away a considerable slice of your budget. In contrast, a professional and ethical SEO firm will set realistic goals within a specific timeframe and not pay you lip service. 

SEO is a worthwhile strategy that produces long-term results, and good SEO agencies understand this and won’t promise results overnight.

Search Engine Rankings

A good SEO agency is one that practices what it preaches and can prove itself with SEO rankings. You can’t expect a good SEO company to have poor search engine rankings, can you?

Google SEO-related terms like “SEO companies,” “SEO company,” “SEO experts,” and “SEO consultants” in your area and shortlist the first 5-10 agencies that pop up on the search engine results pages.

High-Profile Clientele 

Although some companies may be unwilling to publicize or share their list of clients on their site, they should be willing to share it on request. Find a professional SEO company that’s built long-term relationships with clients ready to recommend the firm to others.

In addition, some companies provide SEO case studies you can go through to help you during your initial stages of research.

Reasonable Rates

SEO is a professional service like accounting or law. You wouldn’t expect an accountant or lawyer to guarantee or discount their services, would you? The same is true of an SEO consultant. 

Reputable SEO companies charge what they believe is the value of their services. They don’t have to discount their rates. Hiring a cheap agency is, more often than not, a wrong decision.

They Offer Professional Advice

Good SEO agencies actively offer suggestions for improvement customized to your objectives. Another good sign is that they’ll ask you lots of questions. 

They can request access to your content management system, social media accounts, Google Analytics, and Google Webmaster tools. Once you’ve built trust with them, give them access and help them however you can because an agency can help you only if you also help them. 

Signs of a Bad SEO Company

The sad truth is that many shady SEO services are fleecing unsuspecting clients. SEO is often a complicated and confusing subject for many people. This creates the ideal conditions for self-proclaimed “SEO consultants” to deliver poor results to clients who have no clue of what it really takes to rank higher on search engine results pages.

Poor Communication 

Bad SEO agencies often don’t explain what they’re doing to their clients. It’s important to break down SEO to clients because clients are likely to shoot themselves in the foot inadvertently!

Only when clients know what’s going on can they work better with their SEO consultant. So, if a company doesn’t explain SEO stuff or skirts around the subject, you can be sure something’s wrong with their services.

They Don’t Prioritize Your Needs

Ever gone out with someone who always put you on the back burner? It’s one of the worst feelings when someone can’t find time to be with you. It’s really frustrating, to say the least!

Now, how about an SEO company you’re paying a handsome retainer that can’t make time to call you a few times every week? That’s probably a sign of a company that can’t manage its workload correctly.

It means the company is biting off more than it can chew, all in a bid to maximize profits. The result is that it’s struggling to meet client needs, inevitably compromising the quality of its work.

They Always Scapegoat

In life and relationships, we all need to account for our actions–good or bad. When things go pear-shaped with your partner, there’s always a reason for it. One or both of you could be at fault, period!

The same case applies to your SEO relationship. A bad SEO agency will try to blame others or you for not delivering results. 

They Ask for Login Information and Passwords 

A bad SEO company is likely to continually ask for your login information and passwords. If someone tries to obtain such information from you, then it’s a clear sign you’re dealing with not just a shady SEO agency but a scam.

Once you give the company your login information, they’ll probably ask for your payment details in order to clean out your bank account, especially if your website has an online store. 

They Just Promote Keywords 

SEO involves almost all areas of your online existence. It’s more than just keywords. 

For your website to have good SEO, you should work on your social media content, website speed, website content, reviews, and even your website design. When you’ve put your ducks in a row and do the right things, Google will rank your site accordingly.

A bad SEO agency will focus on pushing keywords instead of pushing you to work on your social media and website content. 

Of course, it’s possible to artificially bump up search engine rankings if you focus on an unpopular keyword. But this would work only on your site’s ranking for those particular keywords. Therefore, this would be a meaningless statistic because only a few people would be Googling those keywords anyway. 

They Pressure You to Buy Backlinks 

A bad SEO firm will probably push you to buy backlinks. In most cases, bad SEO firms will try to sell you their backlinks. However, sometimes they may also offer to “connect you” with their “other customers” and can even charge you an intermediary fee.

The truth is that you need to earn backlinks instead of just buying them. Great website content that adds value to your readers is the most effective way to build backlinks naturally.

However, an SEO company pressuring you into buying backlinks smells more of a scam!

Cheap Is Expensive 

You might be after a deal, but you’ll get exactly what you pay for. Of course, different businesses will have slightly different prices. And while it’s wise to shop for the best deal, you shouldn’t go for the lowest-priced SEO company. It’s more likely to be a bad one.

Any SEO agency offering dirt-cheap services is probably using spammy, automated methods, which will only hurt your site’s ranking and possibly get you de-indexed from Google. Quality SEO isn’t cheap because experts doing things properly will invest hours and hours in delivering quality optimizations.

However, we’re not saying you need to choose the most expensive SEO package or provider on the market. Just use common sense. While others might say SEO is something you can automate, you simply can’t! It takes time and real professionals doing real work, which costs good money. 

Final Thoughts

SEO takes time and money, but it’s essential and worth every penny. With millions of websites being opened daily, you need to constantly work on quality SEO to ensure your website stands out from the crowd.

Now that you understand how to spot a good and bad SEO company, finding the right service provider should be a little easier.