How To Recognize Your SEO “Expert” Is a Fraud

SEO is an intricate marketing strategy that can be difficult to understand. Fraudsters or incapable SEO providers can easily trick people without SEO knowledge. Here’s how to recognize if you’re getting the services you’re paying for. 

Overinflated promises: If your SEO expert is promising they will get your website at the top of search engine results in a short period (weeks or months), and they say they can guarantee a specific number of visitors with 100% certainty, this is clearly a red flag. Nobody can get quick SEO results as this practice requires consistent work over long periods. 

Lack of a transparent relationship: If the person or agency you’re working with doesn’t give you regular reports, status updates, or information about the strategies they’re currently using, they are hiding something from you and are probably using illegitimate strategies. 

No open communication: Since SEO is an ongoing process, it requires constant open communication. If your provider doesn’t give you timely responses, is challenging to get in touch, or can’t communicate what they are currently doing, they are probably involved in illegitimate SEO tactics or not doing anything to improve your website rankings. 

Suspicious billing: Look at the bills you’re getting for your services. Avoid working with people or agencies charging for non-existing services or charging you for things you didn’t ask them to do. Your provider should not only give you transparent bills but also elaborate on why they are engaging in specific activities and how this helps your website grow. 

You can’t fix SEO with a magic wand: Apart from paying attention to what we’ve mentioned above, you should also learn some crucial SEO facts to help you recognize when someone is scamming you: 

• SEO isn’t a profession driven by gut feelings or intuition. Every expert uses a data-driven approach by looking at user behavior patterns, analyzing your competition and their SEO practices, performing keyword research, and staying updated with the latest search engine updates. 
• Every SEO expert needs valuable technical skills like data analysis, keyword research, SEO analytics, web development, etc. People learn and hone these skills over long periods, and they’re not something anyone can do. 
• SEO isn’t a one-time fix you can “take care of” and forget about. You must invest in an ongoing strategy to achieve greater visibility and rank higher in search results. The three pillars of your strategy include: 

1. Creating new content optimized for SEO;
2. Building your links;
3. Optimizing your website for Google’s algorithm. 

• Even the best SEO services can’t get instant results and reflect on the other aspects of your business. SEO helps increase organic traffic and make your website more visible, but it doesn’t guarantee this traffic will lead to more sales. You need to work on the other aspects of your website, like web design, user experience, branding, and conversion optimization, to enhance the results of your SEO efforts. 

Even though SEO is a long-term process that requires patience and consistent investments, it can help you boost your business and get a great ROI. It’s all about finding a reliable SEO professional.