This is a guest post by Todd Hockenberry. Todd is the owner of
Top Line Results
an Orlando, FL business-growth advisory firm specializing in delivering top line revenue growth at small to medium sized companies, with a special focus on manufacturing firms.
This is a story of how a small manufacturer of niche capital equipment for large energy companies got taken to the cleaners by their SEO “expert”.
First the background. The manufacturer (let’s call them Client 1) hired my company to help them improve revenue performance through sales and marketing process development, sales channel improvement, and market focus. During our initial sessions we asked about the website and the leads being generated. The owner of Client 1 was happy with the design work done on his site but not with the lead generation. He was especially not pleased that they were failing to close any business that came from the website leads.
Client 1 had hired an SEO company (SEO1) and was being billed $1,600 per month with $600 for website management and SEO, $600 for PPC campaigns, and $400 to manage PPC campaigns.
For the $600 SEO and website management fee (4 hours at $150 an hour) the agreement between Client 1 and SEO1 included the following monthly tasks:
- Setup/integration of meta tags, page titles, alt tags, headers, etc
- Monthly report and quarterly detailed analysis
- Landing page content with optimization
- Long term keyword analysis development
- Link building - internal and external
- Directory investment evaluation
- Website traffic analysis and optimization
- Conversion improvement with Google Website Optimizer experiments on landing pages
- Competitive awareness and analysis
It sounded like Client 1 was getting a lot of things done in just 4 hours.
However, upon closer examination an interesting picture emerged. These are actual verbatim quotes from the activity report of SEO1.
- 25% of the billed time was spent “reporting back links and keyword ranking reports.” That’s a lot of reporting.
- SEO1 charged Client 1 an hour of time for "testing Kaltura embedded video player.” The client did not need this sinceYouTube works just fine. Shouldn’t they have done this on their own time?
- My personal favorite was charging one hour for “client GoTo meeting and prep.” That’s an hour to set up for a meeting to review their work with Client 1. Feel free to insert a snarky comment here. Mine is “Have they no shame?”
There were other line items about changing ALT text, H1 headers, ALT tags, and page titles. But here's the thing; each line item was specific to one ALT tag or one H1 header and the time taken was never less than 15 minutes, and many were for 30 minutes!
Bottom line was that 8 months after the launch of the new site, Client 1 had a nice new design but mediocre keyword rankings, resulting in a low volume of traffic, qualified leads and no sales improvement to speak of. It looked to me like SEO1 intentionally neglected on-page SEO in order to emphasize PPC (where they ‘earned’ even more management fees) and make the relative results of the PPC campaigns more pronounced.
Why would I make this charge? Look at the chart below of just three of the main keywords for Client 1:
|
|
Cost per click Google |
Search Rank |
Difficulty |
|
Keyword 1
|
$3.21 |
12 |
69 |
|
Keyword 2 |
$1.86 |
19 |
68 |
|
Keyword 3 |
$2.43 |
11 |
66 |
Once the site was launched, the text on the page did not change ! SEO1 made little effort to add content to the pages themselves, nor did they try to attract or build links to these pages, in order to improve SEO rank for these keywords. Eight months and not one suggestion to improve on-page keyword density, write a blog article, nothing !
These were long tail keywords and perfect targets to earn very high, page one, organic Google rankings. The only effort made was to tweak a few ALT tags, ALT text, and H1 header changes. If a bit more SEO effort had been made, organic keyword ranking would have gone up, good prospects would have found them, and the likelihood of increased sales would have improved greatly. Furthermore better organic search rankings would de-emphasize the need for costly PPC campaigns that yielded Client 1 no new customers but did line the pockets of SEO1.
Make sure you evaluate your SEO provider and hold them accountable. Here are a few tips to help you get your money's worth and keep them on their toes.
- Have specific goals like ‘X number of new leads generated' and '5% conversion of visitors to lead.' A good SEO partner will insist on these value metrics before you hire them.
- Base your ongoing evaluation on these metrics and make them show you concrete results like increased leads or increased organic traffic. Do not let them dazzle you with things that ultimately do not matter to you like impressions .
- PPC can be a very effective way to generate leads and increase the potential for sales. Make sure you follow the 1st two suggestions in particular for a PPC campaign.
- Know the details of what works and does not work for SEO and generating inbound leads. This is not magic or voodoo but definable and knowable. Use a reputable partner that uses proven tools like those available through HubSpot.
Have any of you had any experiences where you thought you were being ripped-off by your SEO agency? If so, how did you find out and what steps did you take to change agencies?
Photo by: shortCHINESEguy
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Jason 8:11 PM on February 02, 2011
1st rule I learned at hubspot
no blog = no clue
So glad we found hubspot and we create talent from within. Its scary out there.
Liz 8:12 PM on February 02, 2011
Excellent post - thank you very much. Just in the process of hiring a new SEO firm so very timely.
Ralph Vugts 8:20 PM on February 02, 2011
"SEO1" was probably a good sales man who simply farmed the work out to India at $2.50 an hour :)
It's the wild west out there.
Olin Hyde 8:27 PM on February 02, 2011
Regretfully, the above scenario is typical. This is why SEO has earned such an awful "I need to take a shower after talking to my vendor" reputation.
Here's a shameless plug: Use HubSpot and do SEO yourself. Or hire one of their approved vendors. Or just do it.
The entire SEO industry is so bad that it forced me to find a better way... and that's how I found HubSpot.
Great story. Will share it.
Ashleigh 8:27 PM on February 02, 2011
We have an SEO agency but I always feel like we're being ripped off...alot of fluff and I just can't quite figure out how to know if they are good or not.
Kevin Burke 8:33 PM on February 02, 2011
While there is some bad apples out there, one bad apple does not an industry make. There are bad doctors and lawyers and teachers etc etc. It does not make the SEO industry snake oil.
Ashleigh 8:37 PM on February 02, 2011
That's so true. It's a trciky business/time though- this is all so relatively new that it's hard to get second opinions and even more difficult to know whether or not information is legitimate.
David Weinhaus 9:09 PM on February 02, 2011
Todd,
Excellent post. On the flip side, many small businesses put on blinders and insist that they must be #1 for term X. These are the companies that are ripe for SEO shenanigans and wild promises. The companies that make out the best keep their eyes on the prize - leads and customers - and follow the best path to get them there, often not requiring being #1 for term X.
Tana Blazure 9:32 PM on February 02, 2011
Great article! I consult more than 200 clients on all things marketing. They get solicted by SEO1 daily and even peers in their industry that claim to be "experts". I will be sharing this with them ASAP!
Todd Hockenberry 10:12 PM on February 02, 2011
Thanks for feedback everyone...we actually became a HubSpot partner and added SEO and other inbound marketing services to our offerings because our clients were getting taken by companies like SEO1 described in the post.
Not all SEO companies are this bad for sure but this is a scenario I have seen played out all too regularly. David is right too that companies have over blown expectations and understanding of what SEO is and can do so they are ripe for the picking in many ways. Focus on leads and sales and hold your people or partners accountable to those metrics.
Karen McKnight 11:12 PM on February 02, 2011
I'm certainly not an SEO expert,but a common sense solution to hiring anybody for any service is this: Ask them to show you the results they've achieved for existing clients. That should be particularly easy to document for a good SEO firm.
Derek Cromwell 12:10 AM on February 03, 2011
What a great post - and it's great to see that you're emphasizing the need for on-page optimization to take place in order to improve position.
As a professional copywriter, I have this conversation with my clients on a regular basis (almost daily it seems). Before you do any content marketing and link building, your website needs to be ready. The process is Market research > buyer persona(s) > keyword development > site optimization (body copy and other extras) > content/ad marketing strategy > launch marketing
I feel for those businesses that get burned - there are a lot of bad eggs out there making SEO agencies look really terrible. It's hard enough convincing small business owners and upstarts to make the investment - this kind of stuff doesn't help.
Cherry Rahtu 1:08 AM on February 03, 2011
Really learn SEO and understand how it works, keep up with trend by reading blog posts from hubspot and google etc, do SEO yourself, it is the BEST SEO practice I can think of :)
Pieter 2:02 AM on February 03, 2011
There are so many cowboys out there. SEO isn't just doing another adwords campaign but is in first place optimizing websites.
You should make sure the site is usable first to get a higher conversion (better speed, positioning of elements,...).
Louisa 5:51 AM on February 03, 2011
What an awful way to operate!
I really think that those who hire SEO companies should do better checks. You don't need to do much research to see what the main components of SEO are. If a company only talk about social media then show them the door.
There is such an air of mystery surrounding it for those who aren't in the know. You wouldn't spend that kind of money on a product without researching whether it is the best deal for you so why do that with services?
Personally, I always advise companies to do their research and work on recommendations.
Abhishek Syal 5:54 AM on February 03, 2011
Why does anyone point to India?
When even the software services rendered by Indian companies are those as demanded by Western clients, what's wrong with that?
Any company, Indian or American will follow exactly the contract details when subcontracted. Moreover, during subcontract, generally the company1 will not reveal much of its strategic objectives to the one company2 to which it is outsourcing!
This in not the mistake of the company2, which is Indian in your case! @ Ralph
TheInfoPreneur 10:11 AM on February 03, 2011
Hey Peter,
Awesome post and insights. About the only thing I'd comment about...No, they shouldn't have been charging for Kaltura embedding...they should have done that on their own. However, I can think of MANY reasons to not use Youtube, versus using embedded videos on your site and combining that with the Google Video Sitemap Plugin. Instead of redirecting prospects to Youtube, you are redirecting them back to your site, and a possible landing page.
So, just a thought, but awesome stuff here.
Brandon
don paullin 4:59 PM on February 03, 2011
great info may haave just saved me$3,600 and more as that was the starting point basic package, thanks
jesse 6:36 PM on February 03, 2011
Glad to see this story come across the web. Had a very similiar horry story happen to me. Webmaster beware of some SEO firms. Make sure to do your research on a company before hand.
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Robert Gallagher 8:06 AM on February 04, 2011
True enough it is the wild west out there....We run into these "experts" everyday as well they can do considerable brainwashing to an under educated potential client with wild claims of proprietary concoctions and Google insider info etc..
Do the research make sure you are getting a fair price for deliverable services and great idea to ask for references! There are a number of quality tools out there that can be used to help train a business on how to manage a lot of SEO internally if they are not looking to live with you forever (yes like those developed by HubPpot). With more posts and articles to point to that offer cautionary advice to would be SEO targets the more we all help to clean up the wild west.
ryan 3:02 PM on February 04, 2011
I didn't really find this article helpful at all. That SEO management price is low for the amount of effort.
todd hockenberry 3:15 PM on February 04, 2011
My criticisms were not focused on the price paid, the point was the results. The SEO1 firm was charging for SEO effort and not delivering any results.
Imagine how much SEO1 could have charged if they had actually delivered results instead of focusing on tasks and billable hours. They lost this client to a company that sold and delivered results/leads/sales. Price being low is not the point, results being non-existent is the point.
Sterling McKinley 4:38 PM on February 07, 2011
Great blog posts. It is very intriguing on the hiring experience of SEO marketing.
Peg 2:29 PM on February 08, 2011
I was totally ripped off by a company that promised the moon and couldn't deliver anything, never mind the moon! Problem was they never took the time to LISTEN to us after the contract was signed! Kept telling them the same things over and over again. It took s/o else looking at our site, an impartial s/o, to prove they were not doing ANYTHING but minimal. And they charged thousands and thousands of dollars! They blamed US for not marketing ourselves properly. Their PPC never changed words, etc., etc.. Threatened to sue in court, but too expensive and atty advised against. Only recourse, fire their butts and look for reputable firm! HAH! From my experience, no such thing. As someone earlier said, my ignorance was used against me......
Todd Hockenberry 2:49 PM on February 08, 2011
Thanks for your comments Peg and sorry you had to tolerate a bad SEO firm. There are reputable SEO firms and a great place to go to find one would be the HubSpot services marketplace.
http://services.hubspot.com/do-inbound-marketing-for-me/directory/
SEO 3:03 PM on February 16, 2011
honestly, it's half the clients fault for not doing their research. yes, seo's are ripping people off left and right, charging obscene pricing but the client signs up -- whos fault is it really?
do your homework.