What do you buy SEO services for? Just to achieve Page 1 ranking?
I guess, no. You just don’t mean to appear on the Page 1 on search engines; in fact, you want quality traffic coming in that can ultimately be converted into sales leads.
When it comes to SEO, let me tell you there is no guarantee. Unfortunately, there are lots of companies and so-called SEO experts who promise you to deliver excellent results within no time but end up delivering nothing better than frustration and disappointment.
White Hat SEO can fetch you tonnes of money but it takes a lot of time. Let me make it clear beforehand that it may take anywhere from six months to years. Moreover, it is a continuous process. This means, you can’t stop optimizing your blog once you reach on the top but will have to continue it for maintaining the same status.
SEO Scams You Should Avoid
Let’s take a quick rundown of common SEO scams that you should avoid at all costs:
1. Guaranteed Rankings
The constantly changing search engine algorithms are making the process of search engine optimization process more complex and resource intense. Whatever was hit yesterday is outdated today.
Be aware of the SEO companies or experts who promise you to attain good rankings in a very less time. As I said earlier, there is no assurance when it comes to SEO.
2. Service Details Are Not Transparent
No matter whether you have ample knowledge about recent search engine optimization trends or not, make sure that the service details are not a mystery for you.
They may be experts in achieving high search engine rankings but you should clearly know the details of the services they provide. It’s important to ask what mediums they are going to rely on, how they are going to update links, where all they will be submitting the articles, etc.
3. Impractical Prices
You must have heard of a quote- what you get is what you pay for. You can apply it here also. When a company approaches you with an offer to do SEO for you blog or website at a price that seems unrealistic, it means there is something wrong.
For a startup or a small business, it can range anywhere between $500 and $1,000 per month depending upon the number of links and submissions you want to get. While for large corporate houses it may go up to as high as $ 10,000 per month. So, ridiculously low prices are simply a big no.
How to Avoid These Scams?
As a genuine SEO guarantee, you can start expecting results in 6-12 months, competitive analysis and increased traffic using client-approved keywords.
Here I’m listing a few important questions that you should ask your SEO company before entering into a service contract:
– When can you start seeing results?
– How do they research the keywords?
– What density of keywords they use to optimize a certain page?
– How will they show that keywords are driving traffic?
– Where do they submit links?
The other way to avoid being a trap is to educate yourself about search engine optimization. You can’t afford to sound fool in front of service providers. So, familiarize yourself with the concept and keep things under control.