Any industry with serious money will sooner or later experience scammers’ attention. Well, if not scammers then quite a lot of unscrupulous performers will offer their services, causing, actually, the same negative consequences for service users.
Instead of doing the job and achieving their set goals, customers lose time, money, and temper. Consequently, they end up being dissatisfied and are partial to responsible specialists who provide quality services of this kind. That is not good for anyone.
We have to deal with scamming practices everywhere. Even though they are often difficult to reveal, we can trace some reasonably obvious signs of dealing with dishonest people.
Below in this article, I will tell you about common SEO fraudulent schemes, showing specific scam red flags, and how you can avoid cooperation with such “partners.”
Top Ranking Guarantee
It may sound like this:
“We guarantee you will rank Top 3 for your target keywords within 3 months!”
Sounds cool, doesn’t it? However, in this case, the only guarantee you can undeniably count on is that you will get scammed.
No one knows exactly how Google’s algorithms work. Moreover, search results constantly change, and things that worked a few months ago may stop working tomorrow. Google makes hundreds of changes to its core algorithm every year.
Believe it or not, SEO “guarantees” directly contradict Google’s standards. The corporation directly warns that any guarantees violate the rules and no one can secure good search positions.
It takes time and effort to hit high positions in search results. If someone promises you results overnight, they are most likely scammers.
The only guarantee to give in SEO is a quality work guarantee.
General Inflated Promises
On the one hand, customers plan to save as much money as possible, and on the other hand, performers similarly want to earn money by any means. Eventually, far-fetched expectations lead to promises offering unattainable results.
The following examples are from real offers:
- We will bring your website to Google’s top in 90 days!
- SEO for your website for just $300 per month!
- Get 50 backlinks for only $500!
All these things are unreal to reach, and it is impossible to get quality services at the price indicated. You will not take seriously the offer to buy the latest BMW M3 for the cost of an electric scooter, will you? These promises are part of the same story.
Hidden Work Methods
A good specialist who does his work conscientiously has nothing to hide. I am always open to any customer questions and will gladly tell you everything you want to know.
Only scammers who position SEO work as some kind of secret technique, draw the wool over their customers’ eyes, want quick money, and have nothing to do with their customers’ businesses must hide things.
If potential contractors never answer your questions and provide controversial information, it may mean they do not want to assist you. That is the case when you would want to be careful.
Low Prices
SEO involves a whole range of work on and outside a website. This work requires considerable time investments, a high level of expertise, and often the involvement of various specializations (SEO specialists, copywriters, link builders, programmers, designers, etc.). Such things cannot be cheap by definition.
You can have low prices if performers are beginners or completely inexperienced people who spend minimal hours on the project.
Consequently, you should hardly expect good results under such circumstances. Low-quality services often create problems fixing which will cost you significantly more than you intend to save.
No Work on a Website in Principle
In present-day developments, it is probably a principle marker signaling you are dealing with scammers.
No website can get good visibility in organic search, traffic, and positions without specific work on its pages, technical base, and content.
On-page optimization, keyword integration, new content creation, and error correction based on technical audit results — these things will rank your website properly.
If an SEO company tells you the opposite, they are deceiving you and simply trying to trick you out of your money.
To Conclude
As you see, there are quite a few “symptoms”, paying attention to which, you can understand you are dealing with professionals in their field or with pure scammers. Most fraudulent schemes boil down to promising customers far-fetched results and doing nothing to bring the objective closer.
To avoid problems and get substantial benefits for your business, it is better to cooperate with professionals who will definitely make an effort to make your company’s website promotion successful.
Never try to “get around the system” and save on what is not worth saving on.
Being an independent SEO consultant, I rely on transparency in my work, count on mutually beneficial cooperation, and practice an individual approach to each customer.
Therefore, if you are interested in website promotion services, contact me, and you will receive an honest assessment of what I can do for you and what resources you will need to advance your goals.
Volodymyr Fedorychak
Search marketing consultant specializing in IT business and B2B SaaS. I help businesses and start-ups generate traffic, attract customers and build their brand online.
