There is a reason why SEOs/SEMs have a terrible reputation. We suck! Well, at least 90% of us do. Even worse than the fact that there are thousands of amateurs playing at being search marketers is the fact that some frauds know just enough jargon to swindle thousands of companies out of millions of dollars every year. It’s difficult enough to get good clients that want to work with you and are that are willing to put in the time and effort into growing their business without then having to convince them that you are not going to rip them off like the last company did. It’s infuriating. So how can business owners who are unfamiliar with search marketing tell if the consultant they’re considering/using sucks? I’m so glad you asked!

Consideration

Okay, you’ve found someone you think is a rock-star. You've been convinced that this guy can turn your business around and that he is the answer to all of your prayers. Hold on partner! Here are a few ways to see if this SEO superfreak is the real deal or if he is full of shit. By the way, all of these examples are from companies that provide online marketing consulting (I wish I were kidding).

Meta tags

I was researching a marketing agency that had contacted my boss when I saw the following in their page source code. I promise you that this is 100% real and happens way more often than you would think.

1. They have de-indexed themselves from all search engines. The company that wants to help you with your search engine optimization doesn’t know enough to remove the nofollow,noindex tag from their site. Ha!
2. Blank meta tags…seriously?! They obviously used a template and did not take the time to fill it in. I’m not even going to get into the fact that they have a <meta name=”keywords”> tag.
3. The og:type states article when it was their home page

How much do you think this company will be able to help your onsite SEO if they can’t even do anything for their own website?

• How to View Source Code - http://www.wikihow.com/View-Source-Code

Their website

The next things to consider are what does the consulting firm’s website look like and how good of a job have they done on building their link profile? I know this seems like a no brainer but you would be amazed how often this step is over looked. Here is an example of a real winner. Again this is a real website from an online marketing company who sent my company an email soliciting business:

Even more depressing is the fact that they did not have a single outside link pointing to their website. This is an extreme case of an obvious amateur (or fraud), but it should drive home the fact that you have to do your due diligence when researching a search consultant. If a consulting company’s website looks like it was built circa 1998 (a crappy one at that) and their link profile is nothing but forums/link farms/garbage directories you should run as fast as you can.

What are they promising?

Online marketing, especially SEO, takes a long time. It is definitely a marathon rather than a sprint which requires effort from both the marketer and the client. If an agency is promising you that you are going to rank #1 in 60 days (or six months for that matter) they are full of it and you should move on to the next option. My inbox is full of people saying that they will deliver massive traffic and huge gains and they don’t even know what I’m selling or how aggressive my competition is. Before any promises are made any good marketing consultant will have to look at your as well as your competition’s strengths and weakness. There is no way to make guarantees about traffic or revenue without this analysis. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you or doesn’t know what they’re doing. SEOs and SEMs are expensive for a reason. It requires a ton of work.

Additionally, anyone who IS able to deliver super-fast results is probably performing tricks in order to rank higher and these gains will most likely be temporary with awful results in the end (disappearing from the search engines all together). The internet is littered with the remains of online businesses that engaged in Black Hat SEO and subsequently got slammed/spanked by an algorithm or manual update. Here are a few links in case you want to learn more:

• Algorithm versus manual penalty - http://searchengineland.com/live-blog-you-a-with-matt-cutts-at-smx-advanced-123513
• What is Black Hat SEO - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-blackhat-seo-5-definitions/8151/
• White Hat v. Back Hat - https://moz.rankious.com/_moz/blog/black-hat-or-white-hat-seo-ask-better-questions

Unsolicited emails

I have no doubt that there will be a couple of people who are going to lose their minds after reading this (sorry!), but almost without exception, an unsolicited email is the biggest indicator that you should "run to the hills, run for your lives" (a little homage to Iron Maiden)! In short, never (EVER) hire a consultant from an unsolicited email. They generally start by saying something in the order of:

• “I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough organic & social media traffic on your website.”
• “Hope you are well. As part of our client research, we've come across your website online "xxx.com" and noticed your site is not on the top ranking for most important search engine like Google…”
• Does your Site Rank Low??? Do you have less traffic on your site???

My favorite still has to be the SEO solicitation sent to Matt Cutts of the Google Web Spam Team:

I was on your website www.google.com and wanted to shoot you a quick note. I think I can make a few changes (aesthetically and/or SEO – wise) to make your site convert more visitors into leads and to get it placed higher in the organic search results, for a few of the select terms.

This is NOT like one of those foreign emails you probably get in your inbox every day. Just to be upfront I have 3 agents that work with me for development /SEO.

I would just need to know which (if not both) services you’re open to checking out information about, either web design or SEO. Would you be open to seeing more brief info / quote for what I would like to accomplish?

Regards,
XXXXXX XXXXX

A good search marketer will actually have to be convinced to work with you because they are generally too busy to take on a new client. The best way to find a consultant is to do the research (talks to people and do some digging). Finding a good SEO/SEM is like online dating, everyone looks great until you do a background investigation.

The Initial Consultation

Let’s say that at face value an online marketing consultant looks great! They have a good link profile, a snazzy website, proper onsite SEO, and you even talked to a friend about them. They look great! Calm down buddy! We’re not there yet. There are specific questions you should ask to make sure that these guys are not only going to do the best possible job for you but will also be transparent and show you positive trending that proves they are delivering real results (real being the operative word.)

1. What are they promising and how long will it take? – I'm not one for testing people, but if on your initial consult your agency is promising anything, you need to leave. (Refer to the “What are they offering section.”)

2. What do they expect from you? – A good agency will require a ton of information from you about your products, relevant keywords, your competition, you market share, etc. They’re going to require this information to figure out the best possible way that they can help (or if they can help at all.) They will also need a list of all your online assets to determine where you are succeeding and where you are failing. This will give them the ability to start figuring out strategy as well as to create a benchmark. One thing that a lot of SEOs do is take credit for growth that has nothing to do with the work that they did. A good firm will show you your current trending (whether positive or negative) and will benchmark off that. For example, if your organic traffic has been growing 5% a quarter over the last three years, it would be silly for your agency to take credit for a 5% increase to organic traffic.

Note: This requirement for information and content should continue on into your relationship with the consultant. As your business grows or as the market changes, the strategy will change and they will need your guidance and feedback. You should know that if the process of getting this information from you becomes a hassle for your agency, they will most likely fire you (or they should). Know that a good SEO/SEM is worth their weight in gold and it is easier for them to find a new client that waste their time.

3. How do they build links – If the SEO starts talking about link building that doesn’t involve content creation, RUN! This topic has been exhausted so here are a couple links if you need more information:

• From Rand Fishkin - https://moz.rankious.com/_moz/blog/the-death-of-link-building-and-the-rebirth-of-link-earning-whiteboard-friday
• From Danny Sullivan - http://searchengineland.com/link-building-means-earning-hard-links-not-easy-links-123767

4. What is the cost? – Good online marketing is expensive. I mean seriously expensive, but it is worth every penny. If the stars align and an agency is able to get your inbound sales channel up and running, they can change the way your business runs and can help you see massive growth. A short-sighted view on cost will be detrimental to your success. You can’t view an SEO or SEM like another marketing source. Online marketing will give you several new sales channels and its value cannot be under estimated. That being said, any company that leads their sales pitch with price should be avoided. Cheap consultants are never good and good consultants are never cheap.

5. What do they consider conversions – There will always be disagreements over what a “conversion” means. Some people consider a fast track lead as the only conversion they care about, while others consider someone signing up for a newsletter as a conversion. This needs to be ironed out before any work is started.

When I first started working for my current employer they had me audit their PPC consultants to see how well they had been doing. They said that they wanted to continue to use them because they have seen good conversion data, but they were concerned because this hadn’t translated into increased revenue. The first thing that I did was to check their conversion metrics and realized quickly that this firm had been inflating their numbers. They considered five page views, viewing certain pages, or even spending two minutes on site as conversions. The worst part is that they continued adding goals in an effort to show positive trending. The company, who is a recognized brand that charges a sizable monthly fee, committed what was tantamount to fraud, and no one had a clue. I am pretty sure that this deceptive practice was done by a single consultant and that this is not a common practice for the company as a whole, but this would never have been an issue if conversions were defined before work started.

Conclusion

A search marketing consultant can be one of the most valuable member of your team, but they can also be a nightmare. There are many people out there that believe that online marketing is a joke because of experiences where someone promised the moon and the stars and either did nothing or tanked the website. Please rest in the knowledge that there are wonderful people out there that can help you see incredible growth for your business. You just need to know how to spot them.

Note to Search Marketers: I want search marketers to understand that the point of this article is not only to help online business owners recognize red flags, but to help our community to start doing the right thing. We have to do a better job of explaining what we can do and even more importantly what we can’t do. We have to go past the desire to make the sale and focus on creating realistic expectations among those who pay us and start acting like real marketers. Doing the right thing is more than just helping our clients, it involves education and transparency. We are all too happy to claim credit for successes, but never for our failures. The more people understand what we do the more they will see its value and the less likely we will have to convince a potential client that we will not rip them off.