7 Telltale Signs You Need to Fire Your SEO Specialist Immediately
Most companies spend $5,000 a month on SEO.
But are you actually getting the bang for your buck?
If you’re not sure if the SEO company you’re using is delivering the goods, there are a few things you might want to consider before letting them go.
In this article, we’ll cover some of the tell-tale signs that your SEO specialist isn’t all that special.
And we’ll cover when to wait it out if you’re unsure and when to drop your SEO company like a hot potato.
Read on for more.
Remember, SEO Takes Time
SEO isn’t a magic wand that a company waves and you’ll wake up to thousands of hits. You won’t get customers coming over in droves and foaming at the mouth for your product in the first week or so, either.
Instead, you need to learn that SEO takes time. The techniques used will start to bring you more traffic as you and your company grow.
But if you’ve just started with an SEO company and aren’t seeing immediate results, be patient. Working with one company over a period of time is a great idea, as they are familiar with you and your product. So you shouldn’t be too quick to dump them for the next best thing.
That being said, there are some reasons why you might want to break-up with your SEO agency.
Fire Them If They Don’t Produce Anything
We already said that SEO takes time. So what you actually paid for may not materialize for a while. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t actually get something once the company has started producing for you.
When you sign up with an SEO agency, they should give you some plan of action. Often, this includes an audit of your website. It may also include the things they want to focus on in the next few months to help your website grow.
They should also be showing you numbers in terms of your site’s link profile. They should also have a list of articles that either will be published on your site or have gone to other sites with your link in it.
SEO does take time to work its magic. But a professional agency gives you something concrete to work with.
View here for a professional and concrete SEO analysis of your site.
Fire Them If They’re Being Secretive
SEO is a pretty straightforward and transparent strategy to gain traffic and up your site’s credibility. There are no big industry secrets, and there certainly aren’t techniques that you aren’t allowed to know about, especially as a customer.
If your SEO company isn’t telling you all of their techniques or acts secretive about them, there’s something weird going on.
Whether they’re engaging in shady links or not-so-legal behavior, this isn’t normal. You should replace them immediately if they’re not upfront with you.
Fire Your SEO Specialist If Your Traffic Drops Without Explanation
If your traffic starts dropping, your SEO company should be on it and discussing this with you immediately. After all, the goal is to get your traffic to increase.
Your traffic can drop from time to time. Your SEO company should be transparent about this and discuss with you some of the reasons this might be happening.
But if your traffic is dropping and their lips are sealed, they might be doing something to ping your site. This means that some of their techniques might not be fully “legal” and the algorithm is picking this up and penalizing your site. This will lead to a massive reduction in traffic.
Fire Them If Your Traffic Improves Dramatically Overnight
There are some legit reasons why this can happen. Maybe a blog post went viral. Maybe a big publisher decided to feature you. If this is the case, you’ll probably already know about it.
But if your traffic spikes with no explanation or source, there’s definitely something shady going on.
Some SEO companies that aren’t doing things the correct way might inflate your views by hiring bots to come to look at your blog. While this can mean you have more views, the bots are not people interested in your product. The bots won’t be clicking on ads. The bots really won’t be doing much of anything but inflating your view count.
If you suspect bots, it’s time to run.
Fire Them If They’re Not Responsive
So you’ve been running your campaign for six months and you’re not seeing any improvement. But when you try to talk to the SEO company, they’re not really interested in changing your strategy. Or, they’re suddenly hard to get a hold of.
A good SEO company listens to its customers. They acknowledge when something they’re doing isn’t working, and they’re ready to switch things up.
If they don’t respond to emails or calls in a timely manner or make it seem like its a chore to speak to you, it’s probably time to give them the boot.
Advantages of Staying with an SEO Company
You may want to give your SEO company the benefit of the doubt There are a few advantages to doing this. It means they’ll have long-term data, awareness of your brand and the ability to notice trends in your SEO.
But if you think they’re just not delivering, switching is always an option. If you’re always disappointed, and someone else is offering a better deal, it’s time to consider moving somewhere else.
What Should an SEO Company Really Do?
An SEO specialist shouldn’t just be a machine. Instead, they should be a living and breathing company that has your best interest in mind. They should work with you to help you achieve your long-term goals.
An SEO partnership works when they truly understand your business and your vision for it.
To learn about content strategy, have a look at our website.