The Ugly Truth About the Search Engine Marketing Business
Over the past decade, the barrage of SEO companies selling their services has caused an aggravating amount of confusion to local businesses. If their phones aren’t ringing off the hook with “the next best thing to get you ranked on page one of Google,” it’s a canned post spamming them through their website’s contact us form.
Local brick and mortar businesses didn’t think the internet was important to get more customers years ago. Sadly, a lot of them are out of business because the competition knew its value and began marketing early on.
Yet, the latest gimmick is for a search engine optimization company to call and say they need to speak with the owner right away–that they did something to their website’s rankings by accident. The receptionist usually puts the owner on the phone immediately, for fear of making a mistake, and the marketing company is put through.
At that moment, the unethical marketing business says something similar to the following:
“I’m so sorry, my team thought we were ranking another client’s website for the keyword “find me a really good dentist 925984,” but we realized too late that it was your site that now ranks for that keyword on the first page of Google.” The owner is relieved, and often impressed. Then the search engine optimization company says, “We can remove the rankings if you’d like, or leave it there and get you more.”
You Have the Right to Ask Questions!
What the business owner doesn’t understand is that those set of keywords will never bring them in one single customer–ever. No one searches for it, and therefore, it’s ridiculously easy to rank for in a matter of 24 hours. The business owner shells out thousands of dollars each month and their phone doesn’t ring. They were duped, because this is the method that was taught by online marketers teaching people the fast way to get SEO business–without caring that these uneducated search engine marketers have no experience getting clients for these business owners at all.
“It’s easy to understand why business owners lost all their trust in search engine marketing companies. SEO companies only see clients as dollar signs. They refuse to reveal their techniques or answer detailed questions about what they will do for the business online. If we ran Digital Media Cube that way, I would expect them not to trust us, either. We educate every client first to give them peace of mind about their investment in our team, rather than ‘take’ and expect them to trust us without helping them feel confident in our abilities,” said Adrienne DeVita, CEO of Digital Media Cube located in California.
Local business owners need to use a checklist of questions before hiring any SEO company, which include:
– Request a list of at least three websites and ten keywords each one is ranking for on page one of Google.
– Get three references and a list of at least ten testimonials.
– Check their LinkedIn recommendations.
– Check their Google My Business and Yelp reviews
– Make sure the company will answer any and all questions you have, as well as giving you the direct email and telephone number to the manager in the company in case you need to escalate any issue.
Request Proof of at Least Three Sites They Helped with Recommendations
Adrienne DeVita adds, “Any business who doesn’t ask to see websites and rankings they’ve achieved for other clients, as well as requesting referrals they can contact directly and successful client case studies is asking to get ripped off by SEM companies over and over.”
Due diligence is critical for every single business owner who wants to hire the search engine marketing company who treats their business like it’s their own.
If your business wants to learn the most important aspects of online marketing–the right way–Digital Media Cube offers monthly SEM training for a very low price point.
