The Danger Of Using Cheap SEO Agencies

Cheap SEO agencies are a dime a dozen and they are out there online waiting to take your marketing dollar.

One out of every two phone calls we receive about SEO is about gettng the cheapest possible price.

We get it and understand that people are watching closely where they spend their marketing dollar, but when it comes to SEO, you need to have realistic expectations and budgets.

They either say that they are on a very limited budget or they say that they have been paying next to nothing with their previous SEO company and were hoping that we could match or do better on their price.

These are really the most common two ‘strings attached’ questions I get and there is a massive amount of inherent danger in going down these paths of using an agency that has basically bought your business.

Also read: Pay Peanuts for SEO, your going to pay for it later!

Compromised rankings are the fallout of using cheap SEO agencies

If I was to negotiate heavily on price then I would be compromising on our ability to deliver great SEO results.

Many companies and I am actually talking about the bulk of SEO companies that can be found on Google, will be happy to negotiate and even better a very low price so they can get you to sign on the dotted line.

Never believe ranking guarantees

These SEO players are running ‘boiler room’ sales divisions and these guys are on heavy sales targets. They will say and do almost anything to secure your business without any regard for the SEO process. They do not care about your business, your goals, your website, or your online rankings. The will offer fake ranking guarantees with little sunbstance other than cheap sales talk to back them up. Forbes reinforces this in their article; Why The Best SEO Firms Don’t Offer Guaranteed Results

I am not writing this for the fun of it or just to compile a blog. I am writing this because I am privy to this as I speak to businesses in Sydney who have believed this cheap SEO sales talk, fell for it and are now paying for for it in more ways than one with; Google penalties, lost sales, missed inquiries and plummeting rankings.

I never tell business owners: ‘you get what you pay for’ nor do I say things like ‘if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t’. I still can’t understand why they then want to go ahead say things like ‘we really want to do a proper SEO campaign and be # 1 on Google but we are on a very tight budget’.

Also, many people still do not understand the SEO process and that ranking on Google takes loads of time, strategy, and effort.

It’s these statements that are common amongst the business community that SEO can be done on the cheap is the result of SEO agencies selling their cheap services. In short you have to be realistic about SEO prices and know that it’s now a fundamental part of your business marketing. I have outlined our SEO pricing schedule  and reasons for these fees on this website.

SEO takes time

It really does and if you think for 1 minute that we as a company don’t spend hours upon hours on your SEO then you are mistaken – this is why we are more expensive than the other ‘so-called’ SEO companies. The reason is we do our job and we do it effectively. Plus you are also paying for our intellectual property. That is, what we have fine-tuned over the years and what we know works.

This IP is gold and if you want it, then it costs. That’s all there is to it.

Let’s say for example you’re a chiropractor in Sydney CBD and you want to rank for: ‘chiropractors Sydney CBD’. If you do the ring around and are quoted less than $500 per month for this, then they are basically buying your business. Watch out for agencies that promote cheap and quick SEO as it’s all done offshore with absolutely zero strategies involved.

Tell-tale signs that you’re using a cheap SEO agency.

1) Your rankings haven’t budged in months. They are stagnant, sitting on page 2 or 3 and you are watching your competition stay strong on the top of page 1.

2) Never achieved the results as promised at the beginning of the campaign.

3) They are unable to be contacted via the phone and will respond to your emails sparingly

4) Customer service is appalling and rude

5) Rankings declined, and you feel that your website is under a penalty due to over spamming the backlinks. The work they do for the cheap SEO budget will not be Google compliant. How can you honestly expect to compete in a saturated online market when you haven’t allocated the necessary budget? Your new cheap SEO provider, who is under pressure to perform, will use black hat, dodgy techniques that Google will notice very quickly.

6) The owner of the business is never around, which is very common as most of the agencies owners are concerned about the sales and not the customers. While this is not a huge issue it’s good to know that the owner of the agency takes a vested interest in your business and can be contacted to answer any questions. Many account managers who offer cheap packaged SEO deals know that your not going to renew your contract which is refelcted in their level of customer service and attention to detail.

7 ) You deal with a different person every time, and each account manager has no clue who you are and what’s happening with your campaign.

8) They have never touched your websites on-page elements, which is a fundamental and vital component for any SEO campaign.

9) If you have a local business and want to attract local customers with a local SEO campaign, they haven’t touched your Google My Business profile or looked at creating pages targeting local suburbs nearby. 

There are so many things that can go wrong with your online marketing. Have a look at what Matt Cutts from Google has to say about things that can go wrong with your website and SEO.

We study what Matt has to say and make sure that we are always on top of our game in this space. We make sure we look at your websites:

• structure
• user experience
• titles and descriptions
• copy – which is now one of the most important criteria for ranking a website
• speed
• images
• is your site able to be crawled easily
• plus a whole bunch of technical issues that may be harming your Google rankings

the list goes on and we have tools at our disposal to make sure your website is working at its very best.

The takeaway

Sure you can shop around for the cheapest price  and yes there are agencies out there that will be able to sweet talk you into signing up but remember one thing: SEO is not cheap and if you respect our job and pay us the right price we will be able to get you the best possible online results. Working with SEO Sydney Experts means that you are going to be getting a premium customer experience, combined with the best SEO team working for you.