{"id":5139,"date":"2012-03-30T12:23:33","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T12:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/link2city.com\/dev\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:25:09","slug":"14-ways-to-spot-a-bad-seo-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/link2city.com\/dev\/14-ways-to-spot-a-bad-seo-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Ways to Spot a Bad SEO Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

14 Ways to Spot a Bad SEO Company<\/strong><\/h1>\n

There are some truly excellent Search Engine Optimisation agencies out there, delivering strong and sustainable growth in search engine traffic and sales for their clients. But unfortunately there are also some very bad<\/em> SEO agencies \u2013 and they can be extremely dangerous. If you\u2019re a marketing head and think you could spot a bad agency, you may be in for a nasty shock. Bad SEO agencies know how to make the most visible results of their inferior work \u2013 temporary rankings for a small number of mostly low-value keywords \u2013 appear not just legitimate but excellent to people without in-depth knowledge of SEO.<\/p>\n

When choosing a search engine optimisation company, use this infographic to help you avoid bad agencies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cheap-and-dirty tactics of bad SEO agencies usually deliver only temporarily results \u2013 after which they can do lasting damage to your business. Bad agencies exploit clients\u2019 lack of knowledge, making claims that sound impressive but are in fact nonsensical and dangerous. Specialist\u00a0link-building<\/em>\u00a0agencies can be even worse. Building links in isolation from on-site optimisation and broader marketing strategy means failing to harness your business\u2019 strengths in search campaigns. More importantly, it means missing many important weaknesses, opportunities and threats.<\/p>\n

Bad agencies typically blast one or two easy-to-rank keywords with a huge volume of web spam \u2013 gaining temporary high rankings for a client (or sometimes for themselves). Those rankings are then used in the sales pitch to win the next client \u2013 and to the uninitiated they look very impressive.<\/p>\n

Most clients don\u2019t realise that the majority of SEO value is usually in a much larger number of achievable, profitable keywords. It looks good to rank number 1 for two or three keywords \u2013 but it\u2019s much more powerful and cost-effective to target more keywords \u2013 with less competition and higher conversion rates. Bad SEO agencies don\u2019t usually bother to work out which keywords could drive the most traffic \u2013 let alone which could generate the most sales. They target easy rankings that look good but have no business case behind them.<\/p>\n

We see an increasing number of bad agencies. Often we have to warn clients, which can take a lot of time and effort: a bad company can just show off one or two easy rankings they\u2019ve achieved with large but cheap throw-away campaigns. By contrast, we have to explain in\u00a0painstaking detail<\/em>\u00a0why the bad agency\u2019s claims are misleading. Sometimes we are too late and can only try to pick up the pieces when things go badly wrong. In the worst cases, websites may be removed from Google\u2019s index \u2013 buried under a mountain of web spam and link schemes \u2013 with no realistic prospect of ever recovering.<\/p>\n

Before hiring an agency ask for several examples of links they\u2019ve built for their clients. Better still, use the\u00a0Open Site Explorer<\/strong>\u00a0provided by SEOmoz to look at more of their clients\u2019 links yourself. Hiring a company is an important strategic decision. Don\u2019t take it lightly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In particular, look for these disturbing signs of bad SEO campaigns:<\/strong><\/p>\n