SEO Company Ratings are useless – and 8 ways to fix them
I get about 2 calls a week from people who have used cheap SEO companies or some other company who has not performed to the levels they had expected, and I feel bad, I have always hated seeing people get absolutely ripped off, which is why I have a standing offer to review any SEO proposal in my free time.
What I am hearing more and more of is that many people who purchase SEO services are now turning to lists and ratings of SEO companies with websites like TopSEO’s to help them sort through the garbage SEO companies. “On their homepage the big slogan is 2000 companies evaluated, only 80 chosen.” The question is, what is the criteria used to filter out the 1920 companies who weren’t chosen?
But just when you think you’ve got something you can useâ¦buyer bewareâ¦I have found that a very recent winner listed by TopSEOs.com in 2008 as a TOP SEO company that doesn’t currently rank well for their own brand name â this reeks of problems. Major problems.
When I find a company that is not ranking well for its own brand name it spells problems, problems that usually come from overly aggressive tactics. If an SEO company doesn’t rank well for its own brand name that especially raises issues as they (the SEO companies) are the trusted advisors for their clients. Their clients come to them saying, “hey can you help us navigate this confusing SEO space and to get results”? They expect us to use tactics that won’t get them in trouble.
I was told about this company by one of their ex-clients (they will remain unnamed), they are in SEMPO, sponsor major events, and the like, they seem credible right?
We learned about this company because one of their clients called us to explain the situation of how he used the SEO company listings at TopSEO’s to help find a good TOP SEO company, this company was highly rated which made him feel more at ease as he left his old offshore SEO firm who didn’t perform well either.
Note: when I type in this company’s name, I see a few old blog posts that are on important sites which heavy anchor text links within the blog posts. Maybe they used pay per post or some similar service to get links? Who knows.
For those of you using SEO rating services, it really is buyer beware!!
The only list I would trust is this one
Rand Fishkin and the SEOmoz crew doesn’t make a dime off of this list, I think they developed it out of a love for the industry and hoping to connect people who need good SEO services to those whom they feel are reputable.
Lee Odden of TopRank has a nice list of ways to select a company, not sure if he’d still include topseo’s.
Ideally marketingsherpa would bring back their SEO guide
I don’t know the due diligence process that TopSEO’s does for listed “top SEO companies”, but to truly make that list valuable and honest I would recommend that they do some of the following:
I really would love to see TOPSEOs let us know the due diligence process on companies and seek out suggestions to improve the current setup, I’ve done my part in the 8 bullets above, what other suggestions would you have to build a better SEO company mousetrap?
Posted: 06.24.08
Jon Payne:
God bless you Wil – you are quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers / speakers in the industry. I couldn’t agree more with both your comments about TopSEO and also your comments on that video clip responding to Jason C. Re: TopSEOs… at one point my firm had great exposure on that site – a few years ago – when we worried more about marketing our business and getting new clients. Today, we’re a better SEO firm and we’re busier than hell so we don’t really market ourselves much at all, and thus get no exposure on sites such as these. They also tend to naturally favor larger firms with higher profiles – whether or not that correlates to expertise and ability – and neglect smaller, local firms like ours. That’s okay, let’s just keep rocking out great work for clients and let others fight over these lists.
wil:
Jon, thanks for the kind words. I wonder who else has removed themselves from topseos and what their impact has been?
SEO Reviews:
Wil,
I couldn’t agree more with your article, which is why we’re in the process of starting up a site where reviews are in the control of the clients. After all, they say one of the best ways to judge an SEO firm is by the results, so our site is going to let the results speak for themselves. We’re currently in development, but I came across your post and wanted to invite you to provide your own input into our service. TopSEOs is all advertising driven, bigger companies with more $$ will always see top results there, this is not my idea of an open system, where users decide who is best.
http://www.SEOreview.org
Pat Williams:
It’s so true what you say. There are a lot of seo companies out there that are unethical and don’t care about the client. You have to do your research and find a reputable seo firm with proven results before signing any contracts. Educate yourself first, read the top seo blogs that explain the different services. Don’t go into it blindly. You’ll be better equipped to weed out the bad ones.
Scott Milliman:
This is a warning not to use My Top of the First Page (mytopofthefirstpage.com) SEO service. For beginners or novis, this site is a scam. They use high pressure to close a sale with NO refunds if it produces no traffic, regardless. Under the presipice of your website, they develop your marketing plan under another website; most likely to promote their own affilate platforms. Steer clear and do not waste your money.
Abhishek:
very well post thanks for sharing…!