If I’ve come across as an “SEO skeptic” in recent months, I don’t mean to be: I’m just disappointed about how much money is wasted on “search engine optimisation” by companies like yours who really should know better. Even one of our more thoughtful clients told me recently that they were spending “a few hundred pounds a month” paying the web design agency who built and maintained their website for “SEO work”. There was no reporting on what was being done, and the contract continued through some sort of vague fear that if the payments stopped, all the Google traffic would dry up.
Well, let me tell you what the agency are doing for that money.
Nothing. At. All.
They’re just taking the money and laughing at you.
And how do I know this? Because if they were doing anything, they’d demonstrate it. Anyone who’s ever run a consultancy or outsourced services knows the first rule is that you keep showing the client everything you’re doing for them. If you’re actually working hard for your money, you never do it quietly and risk the client turning round and cancelling the service because they couldn’t see what you were doing. It’s only if you’re ripping off the client by doing nothing that you keep quiet about things. And with a job such as SEO, it’s easy to show what you’re doing, so why wouldn’t you?
Have a read of Easily Evaluate The Job Your Link Building Agency Is Doing on Search Engine People to see what professional SEO consultants will deliver as evidence of their work. And if you’re not getting any reporting on your “SEO investment”, put a stop to it immediately, and spend the money on something more sensible.