Internet marketing is a huge industry that can make you a ton of money if you do it correctly. But there can be some downfalls and some risky areas if you’re not careful. That’s why we’re presenting you with 5 questions to ask your internet marketing company.
Before we get started, I will just say that some of the experience that I’m bringing to the table with this article is from my time at a very unethical internet marketing company that I used to work for. I’ll give a few examples from my time at that company however I won’t disclose their name. Now let’s get started!
1. Are You Going To Correctly Build Links For My Brand?
Most internet marketing companies build their SEO plan around link building. The funny thing is that link building is one of the easiest and fastest ways to damage your brand online.
Some companies even resort to such black hat techniques as finding online link building directories that receive a ton of views and posting their links there. Regardless of whether the link is relevant or not. This may produce a favorable result in the short term, but in the long term this will result in a severe punishment from Google.
Warning Signs:
- Company Won’t Show You Exact URL’s Work
- Only Targeting A Narrow Set Of Terms
- Improper Ratio Of Exact Match Anchor Text
- Posting Your Company’s Links To Spammy Websites
2. Are You Going To Publish Quality Content On Our Blog?
One of the most important pieces for your brands identity online is the content being published on your blog. Some companies like to steal other peoples content blatantly or sometimes change a few words around. However, this is downright plagiarism and can be confronted with legal action or punishment from Google. Neither of those are favorable!
Consistently adding new content to your website is favorable in a number of ways. For one it can balance out your SEO efforts. For example, if your website hasn’t had any new content published on it in a few years and begins to have tons of websites linking to it. It will seem a little fishy, as if you’ve consulted with an internet marketing company.
However, if you’ve been consistently publishing content, the new links can be rationalized by the fact that maybe people have been sharing your content on social media.
Some Things To Look Out For
Your Internet Marketing Company Says It’s About Quantity Rather Than Quality
If your SEO company tries to tell you that your website will benefit from a ton of content being published than they are attempting to use inferior practices that can hurt your company. Quality information and content always trumps quantity. Helpful and interesting content is essential for your brand image.
Your Internet Marketing Company Insists On Linking To Other People’s Content
Some search engine optimization companies will have you believe that just linking to other peoples content will be enough to build your brand. However, publishing your own content will be a much more effective technique in the long run.
Your Internet Marketing Company Steals Other People’s Content
When I worked for an unethical company, they one day had me write some press releases for a medical website we monitored. They told me to just Google articles about new advancements in a field related to the website and publish them to press release websites. They would have me slightly change some words around and link back to the website we were promoting. This kind of behavior is unacceptable from an internet marketing company and should be avoided. All of your content should be your own.
Your Internet Marketing Company Insists That The Articles Are Just For The Search Engines
If your SEO company tries to tell you that it doesn’t matter what the articles look like because they are only for the search engines to read. This is a red flag. Your articles should be optimized for both people as well as search engine crawlers. Interesting and helpful content will keep your readers and potential clients coming back!
3. Are You Going To Be Upfront With Us?
Some search engine optimization companies utilize only black hat (shady/ unethical SEO techniques) to achieve their goals and will try to hide this fact using a couple of lies.
Our Techniques Are Proprietary
If your SEO company tries to tell you that their techniques are proprietary to their business, this is a coverup for their scam. No SEO techniques are proprietary to any one business.
We Can’t Show You Any URL’s Of Past Work
This is a red flag that they don’t have any results to show for in their portfolio. They may also use the excuse that they have a “non-disclosure” agreement with their customers which doesn’t allow them to release any information.
4. Watch Out For Bad Internet Marketing Company Warning Signs
One thing that many internet marketing companies try to do is sign people up for a long contract in order to start sucking money from them right away. Most of the time the campaign that they create for the brand is ineffective or non-existant and the client will not know about it until 4 months down the line when it’s time to re-new. That’s when the client will be furious that they don’t have any results to show for their money and the SEO company will say that the results will begin after the first 4 months.
If the company tells you that they need tons of upfront costs before the campaign begins this should be a red flag to run for the hills. The will try to convince you that they have lots of cost on their ends to fulfill the contract. However, SEO is mostly labor based.
Beware the bad contract. At my old job, we had many unsatisfied clients that were locked into contracts. When they tried to jump ship to another SEO company that’s when my former employer threatened to sue the pants off them! Bad internet marketing companies will try to tell you that they need to lock you in for a certain amount of time so the results can begin to take effect. They may even try to tell you that they are taking a loss on the first 4 months of the contract so they need to lock you in for longer so they can cover their own behinds!
5. Does Your Company Utilize Your Own Techniques?
One way to find a great internet marketing company is to do some research on if the company utilizes their own techniques. When you do your research you’ll find that a majority of the internet marketing industry doesn’t practice what they preach.
Observe The Company And Make Sure They:
- Utilize Content Marketing For Their Own Business
- Post Frequently To Their Blog
- Post Quality Content On Their Blog
- Post Engaging Content
- Utilize Quality Design In Their Marketing Materials & Website
- Have A Modern Website
- Have A Strong Linking Profile
- Have A Website With Domain Authority
- Are Active In Social Media
- Have An Active Social Media Following
- Have Professional & Current Social Profiles
Well that’s it for this article. Thank you for reading and please be sure to leave your questions, comments and concerns in the comment box below!