SEO and Recommendations
When you’re looking at hiring an SEO, the search results bring you to the big boys – the ones that a small to medium sized business cannot possibly afford, or to SEO do-it-yourself software tools (and sometimes to complex sign-up forms for systems that may or may not integrate well into your business model). But you are looking for a real consultant you can hire on and work with. Someone who can recommend a course of action or actually fix your site directly without costing more than it did to build your site in the first place.
And so you’ve probably decided the way to go is to find a recommendation. You asked your closest business partners and colleagues you trust and one of them said his brother knows someone that he met through his ex-girlfriend who does SEO.
It may sound like I’m putting the friend-of-a-friend system of finding an SEO down. This is actually a better way to go than to answer one of the cold-call type emails: “We did an SEO review of your site and for $99 we’ll send it to you”. You might as well answer a Nigerian email scam for the financial pain that will get you.
Plus, asking your friends for recommendations is better than asking your website’s original graphic designer to roll in some SEO features or try the latest and greatest. Because your graphics guy is not an SEO. I’ve NEVER run into a graphic website designer (the kind who make visually kick-ass websites) who could code worth a shoot, and actual SEO requires coding. It really does, no matter what anyone says.
Using your visual designer to do the SEO is like expecting your track coach to make your next pair of gym shoes. hey are different, related fields. Even though a track coach knows a lot about shoes and he could theoretically put shoes together, you’re probably better off working with someone who is a dedicated professional at making track shoes. Or in this case, at SEO.
Every now and again, hiring the track coach to make the shoes works out brilliantly. But it’s a shot in the dark.
The reason so many people go with that method is that knowing little about SEO themselves, they want to use someone they already know and trust. The person who built your site may be a wonderful, trustworthy person. They may know a thing or two about SEO, or keep up with the latest. They may not intentionally lead you astray. But there is far more than a thing or two – or fifty – to know about this field. Plus, much of it goes completely against the grain of the way a visual designer thinks.
You need a real SEO. “Real” SEO professionals are literally one in a thousand or more of people claiming to be able to do SEO. So, how do you find the real consultants amongst the snake oil salesmen?
Nothing works so well as a one on one conversation.
When you’re talking to that person you were referred to, you need to ask some questions and do some digging.
EIGHT YES’ES THAT SHOW AN SEO IS LEGIT
All these questions point to a legitimate enterprise.
1. Does that SEO consultant themselves actually have a name? Is that the name on their website?
Start at the beginning. If they’re naming themselves and it’s not the name on the website, go away. They’re not legit. Identities need to change often when you’re flying by night. If there’s any ambiguity, just go elsewhere.
2. Do they have physical contact information that actually reaches the same person each time? (not email)
I say “not email” because you’ve got to get old-tech here to outsmart a faker. Email is easy to manipulate, as are websites. Get a phone number and some real contact information. Talk to your contact. Talk to his boss. A lot more can be told about who you’re working with by voice. Get a real street address to mail a check to if you’re going to sign up with them – and make that check out to the company name. If they don’t have a real address, or can’t take anything but credit cards, that’s a problem. That means they’re either operating without a DBA or they don’t want to disclose their true location.
Research that contact information. Any red flags? Is that address the same one for 30 companies?
Let me repeat: You’ve got to get old-tech here to outsmart a faker.
3. Can you view the “who is” info for their website?
This means the data you can’t legally fake about a website – who owns it. All websites must be registered when you buy them – buying one with false information can get your web properties revoked. Here, for instance is my whois information:
http://whois.domaintools.com/desimatlock.com
It’s completely accurate and up to date at all times, as is required by ICANN, the registration authority for .com domains. They actually send you emails periodically, reminding you to update it.
Whoever they are, if they have email and a website, the whois info will be a clue you can track to find out whether they’re legitimate. If it’s obfuscated, hidden, private, incomplete, fishy or doesn’t trace back to the right place? Go elsewhere. Not to be trusted. (Amended: I should clarify that this one is based on investigating consultants for my clients. It’s a commonality that so far has stayed true. In my years of experience, ethical SEO Consultants operating under their own name don’t hide their contact details in whois, or lie about them. Make your own decision about hiding data. Commenter Steve G from the original blog before the move pointed out they could be simply protecting their privacy. Up to you whether that’s a red flag.)
But, if their whois info is there, but is incomplete or factually incorrect or doesn’t match their business info? You can know without a doubt that they’re hiding something from you.
4. Does that SEO have previous clients, real ones you can talk to by phone, that he performed specific services for?
Even if he’s legitimate, why not check his references? Find out whether he’s any good, because you don’t have to be a spammer to not be the best choice of SEO. There are shades of gray. But if he’s a scammer, he won’t really be able to send you to numerous happy customers.
5. Does that SEO provide you with detailed write-ups of exact actions they’ll be taking?
Seriously, full disclosure is important. This is your web real estate. Would you allow a plumber to redo all your plumbing without asking him to give you a detailed line by line estimate of what he’ll be doing? SEO is no different. There’s no need to hoard information from you, the client. Trade secrets may happen, but they won’t mean you cannot know what will be done to your property.
6. Are they up front about all costs? All costs from now until the end of time?
Check, double check. Ask previous clients. Read the fine print. Find out exactly what you’re getting and what it will cost you in full. If they’re a real SEO, many thousands of dollars won’t be a bad investment. You’ll get your money’s worth. On the other hand, if they’re not a valuable resource to you, then $100 in monthly installments until the end of time can get really obnoxious.
7. Do they sound like they know what they’re talking about? Ask them questions. Dig into their schpeel to find the techie underneath.
A few example subjects you can ask about that should bring out the techie in them, while also making it sound like you know what you’re talking about…
- What web programming languages do they work with (HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, JavaScript)?
- Which of the metadata (extra information about a page that isn’t displayed, such as description, keywords, when last updated, etc) will they be optimizing?
- How do they optimize Flash content?
- Are they planning on bringing your site to w3c compliance?
- Which is a better server for SEO, LINUX or Windows?
- How do they resolve duplicate content issues? Do they use server redirection or canonical tags?
- How do they recommend dealing with 404 not found errors?
- How do they plan to speed up page load time?
Any of those are tech they should know that is very related to SEO. And they’ll show whether this person actually has a handle on how to optimize a site – no matter what their answer are. The point in asking is to see if you’re talking to someone who knows their stuff. Most of the above are actually contentious points in SEO, SEOs disagree on how to resole them. They should bring out a really detailed and considered opinion if not a diatribe.
If, in digging, you don’t uncover somebody who really knows the geeky tech stuff behind SEO and who has definite opinions on those things listed above, you are not talking to a person who can optimize a website for search – an SEO. Actually, you are talking to someone in a different discipline, probably a marketing or PR person. There is nothing wrong with having found a good marketing consultant, but you should know that they are not really going to be able to optimize your site if you enter into a relationship with them.
8. Does the SEO have a LinkedIn profile that has numerous connections, and has existed long enough to seem legitimate?
Check out his social media. How long has he been on Twitter? LinkedIn? How many connections does he have? Read through the posts there and on his blog. Are they knowledgeable, useful, positive posts that seem full of “know how” without a lot of hard-sell tactics taken?
9. Have they been on Twitter for less than a few years?
You can check how long they’ve been on Twitter using Twitter Grader. Here’s mine: http://twittergrader.com/desimatlock
Although this isn’t really a sure-fire way to tell, I’ve never seen any SEO who didn’t immediately pick up every new tool, including Twitter. If they’re new to Twitter, they’re usually new to everything else on the web. Or they had to change personas recently (red flag again).
The above questions should all be answered with a resounding “yes”. And these next ones should all be “no”.
TEN ‘NO WAY JOSES’ THAT SHOW YOU WHICH ‘SEOs’ ARE NOT ACTUALLY SEOs
1. Do they seem like a jack of all trades?
Meaning does that SEO firm have lots of different vague or sales-y SEO-related websites with many different company names or brands on them? You can check whois carefully and alexa sometimes has insight to see which sites that person owns or is affiliated with. 5 or 6 sites is normal. 5 or 6 company names? Is not.
2. Do they expect you to buy a software?
If so, they’re selling you a do it yourself tool. Probably just to cover link building and off-site SEO and other related marketing such as social media and reputation management. That’s not SEO onsite consulting. And it’s not going to fix your site if it’s severely broken. But it’s sometimes good stuff anyway. Investigate that separately.
3. Are they selling you an affiliate program or talking about one?
Think MLMs. Remember those meetings? Your initial investment was how much? It’s hard work. And it’s not SEO. Again, it won’t fix a broken website. And that person may or may not actually know what they’re doing… but the important part to remember of that paradigm is that their money, their success, is not built on helping you find your success. It’s built on signing people up for the program.
4. Are they telling you exactly what actions they’ll be taking?
If not, or if you can’t get a clear picture of what they’re recommending, go find someone else. If they’re vague, they’re either hiding something sneaky or they’re untrained. You don’t need either.
5. Do they require that you turn over control of your website or hosting?
Never necessary. Never. If you hold the reins on your site and your domain, never turn them over. Sure, you can transfer to better hosting, better domain management. But not at the cost of control. And don’t ever turn over your domains to anyone you haven’t known and worked with a long time. Basically, if you wouldn’t invite them over to a company picnic, don’t do it. Because they own your real estate at that point.
6. Do they call any of their technology, actions, or tools \”proprietary\”?
There is nothing proprietary about a changing, well-documented and publicized art/science like SEO. Proprietary translates more likely to \”sneaky\” or \”can’t tell the search engines what we’re doing\” or \”we won’t do anything at all except bill you\”. Now, there may be exceptions… but I haven’t found one yet.
7. Do they tell you no one else can actually do it right because they’re all scammers?
That’s patently not true. So, go elsewhere. You’re being spun a hard pitch, instead of shown real results. You don’t need to work with someone who has to work that hard to get a client – something’s wrong there. Now, if an SEO you trust is saying that your webmaster needs replacement – that’s very different. Not the same thing. Take that at face value.
8. Do they make promises or guarantees for first placement?
Promising “#1 at Google! by next week” is a red alert sign that you’re dealing with charlatans. Yes, they’ll do it. For the term \”blueberry bubble gum blues\” or by getting you there through pay-per-click – #1 in the sponsored results… because you didn’t read the fine print or they didn’t share it with you.
9. Do they write you form-letter emails out of the blue?
Now, I’ve never found a real SEO firm that sent form letter emails to people they didn’t know or have contact with. Never. Not once. If you’re getting emails from someone you actually signed up with to get emails from, that’s different. But are they sending you \”Dear Sir, Your site is banned from search. We can fix it. See your automated list of keywords below…\” emails, they’re scammers. Period. Or they’re just bad enough SEOs that they’re doing so poorly that they cannot get business by applying the techniques they’re selling you.
10. Do you have someone calling you up attempting to \”hard sell\” you on SEO?
They’re pushing something. If you get \”pushy\” sales calls, they’re not an SEO firm. They may still be legit at what they do, but SEO firms are not going to be hard-selling you. I’ve never met a real SEO with time to do so. And SEO firms believe in what we do enough to allow our websites and the work we do to find us our qualified prospects. A cold call out of the blue MIGHT be a marketing firm with a strong sales department and still be legit – but they’re not SEOs.
The only reason I’m including the groups that cold call/email is that we’re unbelievably busy, us SEOs. There is literally no time for that. Most of us with actual experience in SEO are booked out for months on referrals and word of mouth alone.
Real SEOs never use cold calling or cold emails to drum up business. Only newbies and scammers do that. Nothing wrong with newbies except being unproven, but you at least ought to know that’s what you’re dealing with. You won’t find a lot of cold calling happening from my desk. Far too much client work. Any real SEO is booked out so far in advance that they honestly don’t need to market themselves. So if you’re getting aggressively chased down, that is a big warning sign right there.
Heck, I barely have time for this blog post. So… back to it. To sum up:
BEST PRACTICES
Get recommendations from people.
But then CHECK OUT the recommendation. Look them up, do some digging. You really need to. It’s a charlatan-rich field. And the charlatans USUALLY sound a lot like the real guys.
That’s it. If you think I left anything out, let me know.