Not Happy With Your Existing SEO Agency? Here’s What You Should Do
Are you not happy with your existing SEO agency? You’re not alone. The NSW Fair Trading office warns SEO services are the subject of a large number of complaints, related mainly to non-performance of services, unsatisfactory results, cancellation, or refunds.
The number one reason for cancellation is – “My SEO agency is doing nothing!”
Business owners often make the same complaint. They don’t get any rankings, forget about getting revenue and sales.
If you are in a similar situation, either your SEO agency is sitting overseas and not even looking at your project because they charged you sheepishly low. Or your SEO agency has so many clients that they don’t bother to lose a few clients like you. In our last post, we discussed the price of SEO in Australia and how to get quality SEO.
Whatever be the case, the truth is your website and your business is suffering.
Why Businesses Fire Their SEO Agencies?
Search engine optimisation or SEO can make your website appear on top of the search listings for certain keywords. As a result, you can receive more customer traffic from organic searches. That’s about all most people know about SEO!
Ignorance is not bliss in this situation. Here’s what typically happens:
A marketing-savvy SEO agency approaches your business. The agency representative paints a rosy picture—customers thronging to your website, truckloads of free traffic driven by organic searches, rapid business growth, etc. Persuaded by their marketing speak, lofty claims and affordable prices, you pay the money and buy their services. From there onwards, several things can go wrong:
- You wait for several months and nothing happens. You feel your money is getting wasted.
- You receive a message from Google you’ve been slapped with a manual penalty. Your traffic and impressions take a nosedive.
- You are getting customer traffic but no sales. People are coming to your website but they’re not buying from you.
- You see a sharp rise in traffic, followed by a deadfall. You have no idea what has hit you.
You probably hired the wrong kind of SEO agency. Maybe they are scammers who take your money and do nothing. Or maybe they are still trapped in a bygone era when you could get away with black-hat practices such as keyword stuffing/stacking, spammy backlinks, thin and duplicate content, hidden links or text, doorway/gateway pages, mirror site and the list goes on.
Kind of SEO Agencies You Should Avoid
There are all kinds of SEO agencies in the market today. Here are two kinds of SEO agencies to avoid for all good reasons:
The One’s Promising Sky-High Results Overnight
They mesmerise you with jargon, impress you with slick websites, and promise you top rankings for a price that appears extremely affordable. They don’t talk your language or try to make you understand how it works. You should be sceptical if an SEO agency promises you first page rankings overnight.
Site Crashers and Spammers Offering Dirt Cheap Services
Did you ever wonder what your SEO agency is doing for such a low fee? They are basically link builders whom Google’s algorithm changes made largely irrelevant. Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors today. The only problem is they have to be natural and of high quality. Spam backlinks will only get you a penalty. They’re also a pain to clean up or ‘disavow’.
Working with the wrong kind of agency can not only make you lose your prospects of better rankings but also your faith in SEO.
Signs You Should Fire Your SEO Agency
If you have hired the wrong SEO agency, you need to fire them right away. It may be a hassle, but it’s a decision you have to take if you want to stop wasting your money and putting your business at risk.
Here are five signs you should say goodbye to your SEO agency.
#1 They Don’t Share the Secret Sauce
Avoid an SEO agency that doesn’t explain to you how they are going to get you results. It’s a sign that they are using black hat tactics that might deliver short-term gains but can ruin your rankings in long term. The search algorithm grows smarter every day and will eventually spot the spammy techniques intended to manipulate it.
You should also not trust an agency that throws a lot of jargon your way without actually explaining you anything. The right kind of agency will be able to explain their process in simple words. They will send you regular updates and reports about your performance. Do not hesitate to ask questions until everything is absolutely clear to you. If it isn’t, walk away.
#2 The Number of Backlinks Suddenly Goes Up
A lot of SEO agencies follow spammy link building practices. You or your webmaster should keep a close eye on the number and sources of incoming links. A sudden increase in links from a low-quality website can make Google flag your website for a manual penalty.
If your agency tells you they will be building backlinks, ask them how exactly they would do it? If they mention spammy techniques like links buying links from low DA websites- don’t think twice before firing them.
#3 They Know Nothing About Algorithm Changes
Ask your agency about Google’s search algorithm. How has it changed over the last few years? If they can’t answer, you know what to do. But if they mention updates like Panda, Penguin or Hummingbird, it means they’ve done their homework. It still doesn’t mean they know how to use these algorithms.
Google algorithm is updated at least once a day. It is now grown smart enough to read the text and understand the human lingo. It can determine if your keywords are relevant and if people like your on-page content. It can find out when you’re engaged in a manipulative link building practice versus when people are naturally linking to your content. If your agency doesn’t know much about algorithms, run for the hills.
#4 You Have No Idea about What They’re Doing
Digital or online marketing is a data-driven industry. If your SEO agency that doesn’t provide you with a window into your monthly and year-on-year traffic, impressions and clicks, it is a red flag.
You should hire an agency that will keep you apprised of what they’re doing and where your traffic and ranking are going. Professional SEO companies may provide you with regular monthly reports of your performance. Few companies also provide an online dashboard where you can log in and monitor your progress. Like, we email our clients the monthly report summary or and have a proprietary reporting system.
#5 They Don’t Have a Strategic Vision or Direction
Any professional SEO company will provide you with strategic consultancy spanning your entire digital presence. Your agency must have a well-rounded understanding of all areas of digital marketing. If they are unable to guide you about what kind of content you should share on Facebook or how you should deploy email to bolster your traffic, look for another agency.
The Kind Of SEO Agency You Need
You need an SEO agency that improves your traffic and helps you getting quality leads. Also, they should be highly responsive to your emails and calls.
They should be locally-based so that you can have a one-on-one discussion when you want.
The truth is that SEO is one of the most important factors for online business success even today. However, it has advanced into an era of rapid search engine algorithm changes, innovative content marketing techniques, social media integration, customer reviews and mentions, backlinks from high DA websites, page speed, mobile friendliness and many other factors.
In order to do its job right, your SEO agency must have the right mix of talent, techniques and experience to address the myriad of ranking factors that today’s search engine algorithms consider.
They should be aware and knowledgeable about all aspects of contemporary search engine marketing including user experience, content creation, customer engagement, social media, and more.
We are proud to be one such SEO agency with a great success record. Our clients speak for our work. We have helped small businesses grow and expand to different locations.
We are located in Port Melbourne and you can visit us anytime during business hours. You can also call us or drop us an email to discuss your business needs and SEO requirements.
What Our Customers Say
When we first met them, we thought they are just another marketing/SEO company, but after working with the team it has been a great experience. We have consistently increased our sales each quarter. It’s been over two years now and we have grown our business online and managed to appear on top in search results for our entire product range.
Ben Hosie
Safety Xpress
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