You know the old saying—If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“Guaranteed results!” “SEO starting at $250!” “Start ranking in 2 weeks!”

Sounds great, right? Well, I can guarantee you this—there is a good chance you’re not going to be happy with anyone that is offering/promising you any of those!

SEO is an ongoing effort that takes time. It’s a long term investment, and you’ll encounter fluctuations in rankings + lead generation often.

Why commit to that investment? Because when SEO is done right, significant ROI will be generated. A good SEO company will make a point of attributing leads, sales, etc. back to their efforts.

Tough it out through the ramp-up phase, allow time for growth in search appearances, ranking improvement, and you’ll be on your way to the first page and returns. From there, more data will be available to leverage and guide future investments for even greater returns

List of SEO Company Red Flags

• Focused on $, not how they’ll benefit your company
• Guarantees
• Low Costs
• Ultra-fast ranking promises
• No results to showcase
• Outsourced team members/no direct contacts
• Month to month contracts
• Cookie-cutter approach
• List a ton of services
• Automated reports only
• Lack of personalization
• Focusing on wrong metrics
• Not focused on goals
• Research not in the plan
• Reps have lots of accounts-can’t dedicate time to you
• Lack of personalization/time dedication-seem big like they could accommodate, but then they can’t or don’t
• SEO for friends-If you have a friend doing your SEO, that’s great! However, make sure they’re a professional and have the time to allocate to your business
• If you signed on with someone you’re worried about, a big red flag is that the sale is made, some work is done, and then communication drops off

Why It’s Difficult to Guarantee SEO Results

The primary reason behind this is competition.

Your primary competitors could be pursuing SEO efforts, there could be a lot of players in your space, and there are a ton of different ranking factors that come into play.

EXAMPLE:

Let’s say you are in a space that is popular/necessary in every city, maybe an apartment complex or leasing company.

Any person in town is probably aware of 3+ complexes just from their friends living there, or from driving around town. If you were to dive into the search results, even in a specific area of town, there are probably going to be a lot more than 3 options.

Some of those places have SEO, paid ads, social media presence, PR efforts in place, etc.

Let’s say there is one primary competitor you have just to simplify this.

No one on the outside of that company knows what that company is going to do as far as digital marketing goes. They could have more resources invested into ensuring they’re on top of the search results, they could have a big head start with mentions/backlinks online, and it would take some research/data gathering to see this.

Long story short-every case is unique and there are a multitude of factors involved in determining your ability to rank. We can evaluate a prospect and identify if there is potential or not, and give an estimate on how long we expect ranking ramp up to take, but there is no way any SEO be absolutely certain, or guarantee that.

SEO is something that you have to be in for the long-haul, and not expect short term magic! That’s where PPC and Social Media Advertising can come into your digital strategy.

Ultimately, we evaluate potential clients, and develop comprehensive plans that will reach desired/established goals.

Contact us to discuss how we can help your business achieve success online

We’re happy to give you a free SEO, Content, and/or Social Media audit. Fill out our short form to give us a bit more information, and to get the ball rolling!
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