SEO Tampa Bay: 6 Top Tips to Avoid SEO Scams

The fact of the matter is that most successful SEO companies have their calendars booked and aren’t going to be sending out unsolicited (read: spam) e-mails inviting you to try their services.

Many companies (particularly domain registrars for some reason) are buying up contact information and “cold calling” or “cold e-mailing” potential clients offering web design services or SEO services. Well…here’s what you need to know…

• This will NEVER be a reputable company!
• They are almost ALWAYS an “agency” (meaning that they contract the work out to underpaid contractors who usually live overseas).
• They rely on your lack of knowledge of SEO to sell services that you don’t need or that are free!
• There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors if you happen to ask a specific question about their work and if you show so much as an inkling that you understand SEO, they’re suddenly going to become much too busy to take you on as a client.
• You’re being ripped off! Outsourced labor is usually a very very small percentage of the fee you are being charged as a client. The scamming “SEO company”, however, makes the bulk of the profit for doing nothing.
• Getting explanations of problems or of progress is like pulling teeth. Not only is language a significant barrier in many of these situations, but outsourced laborers are simply not getting paid enough to care.

So…if you get an unsolicited email or blog comment asking if you need help with your search engine presence, make sure you do a little research first!

While we have come a long way since the early days of spammers, you should always be wary of unsubscribing from an e-mail, newsletter or contact from someone you don’t know offering services that you didn’t ask for.

In a very large portion of cases, unsubscribing does nothing but confirm that your e-mail address is an active account…expect to get more contacts.

These future contacts may involve further attempts to sell you their services, or they may sell your contact information to another company that is now going to harass you about their services.

There are a few situations where this may not be the case, however. For example, e-mails that are sent through reputable services or companies – for example, Mailchimp, have safety mechanisms in place to ensure that their mailing system is not abused in this way.

One of the biggest red flags that you are being “taken for a ride” by an SEO company is when they tell you who they work for and you do a little digging only to find out that the company has no reputation, has terrible feedback, or, was only just set up.

These are all major tip-offs that the “professional” company you received the e-mail from is little more than someone working from home looking to take your money and run.

If you do engage with this individual or company that contacted you, it’s very important that you pay attention to their behavior.

Does the individual representing the company act respectfully or do they talk down to you?

Do they try to confuse you with industry-specific terms and then roll their eyes when you ask for an explanation?

It’s not only more comfortable to work with a company that is professional in their behavior, speech, and interactions with clients, but it’s safer to work with businesses who maintain a professional atmosphere in the workplace.

The professional workplace makes it more likely that your jobs will be completed on time, that you won’t call one day to find that the company has completely vanished overnight along with all of your money!