Many businesses are skeptical about investing in SEO – for good reason. The unfortunate truth is that the industry has a reputation for being shady and not delivering results to clients. If you’re a local business owner looking for a reliable SEO partner, this post will help you navigate the noise and avoid common traps that cost businesses time, money, and momentum.
This isn’t a post about shady backlinks or black hat tricks. The bigger issue in SEO today is the rampant manipulation and dishonesty from so-called “SEO agencies”, that are more skilled in sales than search engine strategy.
Not to give everyone a bad rap. There are many competitive agencies that would genuinely deserve your business. The problem is: for every truly competitive SEO company, there are swarms of pretenders who couldn’t rank for a competitive keyword no matter how much a client paid them. These agencies often rely on long contracts, vanity reports and vague promises to hook unaware clients. They rarely understand how to increase a website’s authority, relevance and ranking.
The Black Box Problem
Search Engine Optimization is a “black box” – meaning that nobody outside of Google knows exactly how the search algorithm truly works. It’s based on ever-changing signals and patterns that quality agencies learn how to leverage and adapt to through collaboration, testing and feedback.
Unfortunately, this uncertainty about what works and what doesn’t creates an environment full of conflicting advice, misinformation, and an ecosystem of low-quality providers who thrive on client confusion. There are no barriers to creating a website and claiming you’re an SEO expert. The fact is, many people have made significant amounts of money in SEO (and digital marketing as a whole) with the full knowledge that their clients will rarely see a return on their investment.
Always Ask Why?
It’s difficult to gauge the ability of an agency without a referral or a reasonably strong understanding of how SEO actually works. One simple but revealing question you can ask any prospective agency is: “Why?”
Why are you recommending this strategy?
Why do you believe this will work for my business?
Why did you prioritize this technical fix, link-building strategy or content strategy?
A competent agency should be able to clearly explain their strategy beyond something like: “it’s good for SEO” or “it’s what we do for all our clients”.
Red Flags to Watch For
If you’re a local business owner, here are six red flags you should watch out for when choosing an SEO agency. This isn’t a complete list, but it should help you avoid common pitfalls and maybe save you some time and marketing dollars.
Budget Sliders
To start, and this one is especially relevant to large businesses in competitive spaces, be exceptionally cautious of agencies that use vague budget sliders on their websites – without learning about your goals, market, or competition. An agency with integrity will give you realistic service pricing based on your competitive landscape, your current SEO, and your business objectives. If it feels like an agency has their eyes on your pockets before you even speak with them, that could be cause for concern.
Refund Guarantees
You see this everywhere, but it’s more commonly found with agencies who charge low-budget rates. “We’ll rank your business in 3 months or your money back!” Generally, these guarantees aren’t fulfilled.
There are too many variables in SEO to offer a guarantee on a timeframe. A provider can be confident in their skill and track record, but a skilled SEO practitioner wouldn’t risk doing months of work for free. Even if they they’re confident they can beat the competition, timing can vary from campaign to campaign. It’s a difficult thing to measure.
Some agencies offering refunds won’t give you a timeframe, and clients may get dragged along month-to-month thinking they’ll get their investment back if things don’t work out.
These agencies offering refund guarantees are often operating out of overseas countries, making them legally unreachable, practically speaking.
Lengthy Monthly Contracts
Monthly contracts are somewhat standard in the industry, some great agencies use them and they aren’t inherently bad. But keep in mind: if an agency can’t deliver results, they might be inclined to use long-term contracts to keep clients locked into their services.
SEO takes time, however it’s wise to have the flexibility to part ways if things aren’t working out. During an initial discovery call, a prospective client told us that he had renewed a 12-month contract with an agency and his website wasn’t ranking on the first page after almost two years. The work amounted to forty-something blog posts and optimized title tags and meta descriptions. His company received a lengthy fluff report each month and thought good work was being done… an SEO horror story. This type of thing sadly isn’t uncommon in the industry, even at the enterprise level.
Unrealistically Low-Cost Services
If you’ve spent time looking for an SEO provider, you’ve likely noticed the wide range in service pricing – from a couple hundred dollars to five-figures a month. For businesses without a large marketing budget, it can be tempting to go with a cheaper offering.
In SEO, rock-bottom pricing almost never delivers top-of-page results. Real SEO requires time, money, expertise, and tailored strategic decisions. What seems like a value offer upfront often leads to wasted spend – or long-term damage to your site’s visibility and standing with Google.
Granted, a local business operating in a small town could see solid returns from a relatively modest budget. What matters is the strength of your competition and whether your agency has the skill to deliver.
“Secret Sauce”
Some agencies claim to offer proprietary tools or some kind of “secret sauce” that only they have access to. The idea that they’ve cracked the code to Google’s algorithm, or have developed some elite rank-you-fast software, is pure marketing fluff. Knowing this industry, I wouldn’t expect an agency using this type of marketing angle to have much substance behind them.
Overemphasis on Content
Yes, content does improve SEO, especially local SEO. Can you rank a website in a competitive space with content alone? Maybe with secret sauce.
If an agency wants to make lots of content for you and isn’t doing much else, or hits you with the “content is king” line… I would be a little worried. I would never deny that content is important for local ranking, but there are a dizzying number of technical strategies and tactics good agencies employ. Content is only scratching the surface of what SEO is.
Also note that not all content is created equal. Quality is important, but more than that are the SEO strategies behind the content. It’s the brickwork that forms the SEO kingdom, but it’s not the king.
Looking for Local SEO?
SEO still offers the highest ROI out of all digital marketing mediums. If you’re skeptical, or have had a bad experience before, know that there are plenty of quality agencies out there – honest and strategic teams that are genuinely invested in your success. Our focus at Topaz Local will always be on ranking our clients’ businesses in the most cost-efficient and effective ways possible.
If you’d like to talk with us about SEO for your local business, click here.