Red flags
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[00:00:00] Hi, it's Olga Zarr. Today I have a topic that has been demanded of me multiple times, and I think that's something you may want to learn about. So basically, I want to go through a few red flags that you can spot in your current SEO specialist, SEO consultant or SEO agency.
[00:00:20] I am bringing this topic up because a lot of my clients, new clients, old clients, came to me after having bad experiences with SEO agencies, and the the things I'm seeing are kind of the same over and over again. So I would like to simply go through some of them and let you know that. If those things are happening, this may be a red flag.
[00:00:47] I'm not saying that this means you should fire the SS e o agency. You should maybe simply start by communicating your problems, your kind of issues with that, and then see how they respond. But if you spot them, you should be kind of more alert, I would say. So the first thing is, Who is actually working on your sites, whether you really know who is working, because
[00:01:15] very often SEO agencies outsource SEO to other companies for very like low, low cost prices. And that's why if you hire an SEO agency or an SEO consultant who has a team, they should be very, specific. About who exactly is working on your site and how you can, and you should be able to communicate with those people directly because this is, this is, there is nothing worse than having.
[00:01:51] Multiple people work on your site and never being able to get in touch with them regarding the work they're doing. Like there is this middle, middle middleman, like account manager for example, and you communicate all the things to him and he communicates to those people and those people often change.
[00:02:11] So then there, there will always be miscommunication, there will always be problems, and you will never know what's going on. So, Clarity about who is exactly working and whether this is the person that was supposed to work. So for example, you signed an SS e o agreement. That person who was supposed to work was an experienced s E o, and then after three months, this is a junior SS e o who is basically learning and maybe this experienced SS e o is only like checking their work from time to time.
[00:02:44] So in that case, This is like a no go for me. So that's one thing. Another thing is guaranteeing results or rankings. So the nature of SS e o is very unpredictable. We are, basically what we SEOs are doing is we are making the best guesses based on the experience we have, the data we have, we are basically guessing and trying to estimate predict, whether, how much likely it is that we will improve the results for that specific keyword, uh, for your websites.
[00:03:21] Taking into account of, of what's already ranking. There are your competitors, your website, and we are doing our, basically our best. But this is the nature of ss e o, that it is unpredictable and no one can really predict the outcome. Not even people working in Google. And even a, if an s e O agency comes to you and they tell you that we guarantee number one results for this, this, this, and that, this.
[00:03:50] Can be, should be a red flag, especially if they guarantee those results for very broad and highly competitive keywords. It may mean that maybe they have some trick blackhead s u trick that is not working and may there is a huge chance they will actually get you to top, but, If this is a trick, it'll likely stop working very soon and you will, you may be penalized for that.
[00:04:18] Another thing, they may guarantee rankings for very long tail easy keywords that you will be ranking for anyway, whether you do s u or you don't, or by simply just, Putting that specific phrase in your title will, will make you go to position one and you will have to pay, I dunno, a few hundred or a few thousand dollars per month to have the rankings that you would probably have anyway.
[00:04:46] So that's guaranteeing rankings is usually means trouble in most cases. So be very careful about that. What I would like to see instead is that they guarantee that they will put in the effort, put in specific effort execute specific tasks. Both guarantees are. More, I would say trustworthy and usually bring the way better results in the long run.
[00:05:16] So, um, ss e o consultants guarantees that they will create a decent ss e o strategy based on the the conclusions they come to, and we'll be executing thus that strategy, week by week, day by day. Taking into account of what's going on, what's changing, because ss e o is not set in stone.
[00:05:37] It changes every day. And we have to adapt to those changes and adapt to the changes that are happening on the site to adapt to the changing, changing, to the changes in rankings that happen very often without our intervention even. So those are the things to watch out for.
[00:05:56] Number three is communication lack of communication. So, Very often,
[00:06:04] This is probably one of the most common red flags that other ss e o clients come to me . So, They are unable to hop on a call with ss e o or the ss e o answers, or the ss e o agency answers. After a few days when they need the answer the next day or in a couple of hours, they're unable to reach them like quickly.
[00:06:31] And if you are unable to communicate with your ss e o in a timely manner. They may not be able to ha help you when there is a fire. So this is, this is important and this should be established right at the start, how you're going to communicate, what are the rules.
[00:06:50] For example, in my case, I always have WhatsApp channel with my clients. So if there is something urgent, they're going to be able to reach me even through over weekends. I always do my best to answer the same day or within a few hours as soon as I see the email or the next business day. If this is like Friday evening, I may not be able to answer it on Friday if I'm taking weekend off, but I don't make it like on purpose.
[00:07:23] That, okay, I am unavailable over the weekends. I will not answer you. If I am sitting in front of the computer over the weekend doing something and the client writes an email and I see it and I have like those five hours, why not answer this? So I. In my case, I think this is an important part of uh, successful relationship between clients and SEOs.
[00:07:47] And, um, this is something that should be emphasized right from the start. And there is nothing worse than lack of communication. Another red flag is that An SS e o agency or an SS e o consultant you are hiring is not really your reporting on the work they did, or their reporting is very vague. It all comes down to, again, what you agree upon, but you should be able to know what exactly they have been doing so, Every month, or every week, they should send you an email listing, here are the things we worked on.
[00:08:29] We didn't manage to do those things. We managed to do those things. These things. Or they can simply like put like ideas. They can put all the tasks they have been working on in a simple spreadsheet so that you have the clarity what. What really ha has has been happening in your, in your case, and whether they're actually spending the time ,the time in the way that is the most beneficial and really moving the ss e o needle because you don't want them to be, to be doing some busy work.
[00:09:01] Uh, I'm often asked to review the reports, clients get from SS e agencies. And very often, for them, this is a report. They listed a few things. It looks okay, but they often ask me to kind of translate it into English. And very often what I see there is a huge report. And basically for the entire month, what they did, they, I, I once saw such a report.
[00:09:26] There was like updates of meta description for like, I don't know, five pages. Basically, they, they slightly changed the meta description of five pages and they added a keyword or tool to, to some titles. And this was basically everything they did over the month while they were contracted. for, I don't remember how many hours per week, but basically the work they did, even though the report was long Took them, I don't know, 50 seconds, maybe two minutes, but they charged for like, I don't know, tens of hours or something like that.
[00:10:08] So you have to be, you have to be careful with those things. Maybe one last thing is if they emphasize on metrics, so the so-called vanity metrics that do not really bring business value to you. So for example, they focus on things like bringing your. Higher positions, but those higher positions do not really translate into traffic and do not really do anything.
[00:10:38] Or you have high positions or, or you have a lot of organic traffic for keywords that do not really bring you any business. So, a famous example, I had a lawyer site, which had a lot of traffic from keywords april's fall pranks because they had an article about April Falls pranks, and uh, this was like 90% of their traffic.
[00:11:09] Of course, this traffic wasn't converting, so this was like a funny thing to see. that's what you want them not to do. You want them to establish KPIs. the most wanted response, the most wanted action for your site. I. And track those things. And in most cases this is, leads, quality leads and calls, right?
[00:11:33] Simply like conversions and more sales. So those are the things they should be focusing on, as opposed to this month we reduced your bounce rate by one point. But percent. But now I don't think that bounce rate is even a thing so much in GA four. But like vanity metrics versus metrics that really matter to you, I can go on and on with those.
[00:12:01] So maybe the last, the really the last one, which is blackhead ss e o techniques, you can really learn a lot by studying blackhead. SS E o. I had a chance to. Dive deeper into that, and this is cool, really interesting. It really opens your mind. But this is in most cases, very risky. And you of course can do all the Black hat magic for your own websites, but you should never do that for your clients.
[00:12:35] And if they suggest things that are on the on the edge, I would run away, run the other way, because it'll be you at the end of the day having to pay for that. You may get a manual action, you may get the index depending on what actually they are promoting. If this, if these are the things to do with link building, for example, you may have, for example, all the links going out of your site or to your site, kind of demoted.
[00:13:08] So there is a lot to lose and usually black hats techniques are very short lived. So even if you get a boost right now, you may end up penalized and it may stop your business for months and you'll be losing all the money during those months. So black hat Ss e o. I wouldn't, I wouldn't go for that.
[00:13:30] So the worst thing is that if they don't tell you that this is black hat. So if you are not unsure, if you're not sure what exactly they are doing, what exactly is their scope? You should ask for that. Tell me exactly all the tactics you're going to do. All the tactics you have done, you have, you have implemented.
[00:13:51] Ideally, all of those things should be put out in the contract and they should be put in the monthly report they sent you of the work they did. Okay. I think that's all for the red flags. I can definitely come up with more, but I think these are the most important ones.
[00:14:12] If you're not sure about your SS e o agency or Ss e o consultants, you can reach out to me. I can review some of the things they're doing and tell you whether it's okay or whether it's not okay. I had also a lot of cases where people reach out to me and. The SS e o agency was actually doing a good job, and I said, and I told them that they're doing a, a good job.
[00:14:35] I don't think I really have to, like, I, there is much for me to complain except for like, I would tweak this and that on the website because I always find something, something to improve and everyone, every SS e o would ba basically always find something to improve on a site. So that's my rent.
[00:14:52] On, uh, on red flags the look out for in SS e o agencies. So I hope that helps. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Share it with your friends. Share comments, and subscribe to my s e o channel for more ss e o advice. Thanks and see you in the next video.
[00:15:12] Bye-bye.