The Cost Of Choosing The Wrong SEO Firm

The cost of choosing the wrong SEO firm is more than you think.

Not only does a failed SEO campaign leave you little or nothing to show for your marketing investment, it also means your new SEO campaign will cost more than it otherwise would have, because the new agency will have to spend time undoing the previous errors.

The good news is, once the initial expense of undoing errors is completed, a well-implemented SEO campaign delivers solid lead generation/revenue generation and ROI.

Undoing Bad SEO

When we get started with a new client, here are problems we typically run into that involve a lot of work to correct.

• Incorrect keywords. If the wrong keywords were selected, high organic visibility doesn’t produce traffic or leads. New keywords need to be identified, and the optimization process may have to start essentially from scratch. Plus, on-site and off-site content built around those wrong keywords often needs to be removed, replaced or rewritten.

• Bad links. A frequently seen attribute of bad SEO is accumulating bad inbound links, which can be a worse problem than having no links at all. Google can and will penalize companies for what it deems to be link schemes, and even if a company escapes penalties, links from the wrong websites have neutral or negative impact on rankings. Because of this, we have to spend a good deal of time reviewing the client’s link profile, and fixing/removing/reworking questionable links.

• Poorly optimized content. Even if the bad SEO campaign selected the right keywords, the on-site and off-site content supporting them may be seriously flawed. Common issues we see include spammy content, overuse of keywords, overreliance on undervalued publishing sites such as press release platforms, and insufficient word counts. Again, these drawbacks need to be corrected through editing, republication, complete rewrites, etc.

• On-site issues. If Google can’t make heads or tails of a company’s website, and/or SEO-related functionality of the site is deficient, the SEO campaign will bomb. Many, many website issues often need to be addressed ASAP when we take over a campaign, including:
  o Slow page loading

  o Poor internal linking structure

  o Improper navigation and page hierarchies

  o Improper optimization of images and videos

  o Duplicate content

  o Improper or no use of page redirects

  o Improper optimization of title tags

  o Poor execution of meta description tags

  o Poor mobile optimization and usability

  o Poor or absent calls to action

  o Poorly designed contact forms

  o Poor URL structure

  o Poor or no use of Robots.txt files

  o No HTML and/or XML sitemaps

Select Your SEO Agency With Care

Proper vetting of prospective SEO agencies is crucial to avoiding the extremely high costs of a poorly executed campaign. Keep in mind, if you suspect you are knee-deep in a campaign that’s sinking, the problem won’t improve over time — it will get worse and become ever more expensive to fix. If you’d like to discuss options, please contact us now.