How I Learned an Important SEO Lesson Offline
When I say that everything you do both online and offline can be leveraged for SEO, I mean it! Recently, the company that owns the office building where my SEO firm has its office told us we had to move out to another property several towns over. We had 30 days left in our old office. Naturally I balked at being moved, especially on such short notice. I had meetings with clients, both current and potential, employees (myself included) were taking long scheduled vacation days, deadlines were coming up—all the nonnegotiable things that come with running a business. Surely they couldn’t really make me move in 30 days?
As it turns out, they could. In the lease I had signed, one of terms stated that the leasing company had the right to move me and my business to a comparable office space with 30 days notice and I couldn’t do anything about it. I had signed a contract and was stuck with the terms as they were.
So what does this have to do with SEO?
There are a lot of black hat SEO firms out there looking to take advantage of an unsuspecting site/business owner. They can tell when you don’t know what you are doing and are going to exploit your inexperience to their advantage. They might just take your money and disappear into the online void; they might overcharge and under-deliver; they may flat out lie to get your business. Site owners—pay close attention to who you are working with!
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask colleagues about the SEO agencies they’ve worked with. Check out online reviews of potential SEO partners to make sure no red flags pop up. Do a Google search on any SEO firm you are looking to hire. What kind of information is in the SERP? Keep in mind that an SEO firm with no online presence is probably just as suspect as one with a negative online presence. An SEO company that doesn’t know how to get their own site ranking well in the search engines? What can they possibly do for your site?
As the situation with the building landlord developed, I took my own advice and dig a little digging. Turns out I was not the first small business owner that had run into the same situation! I jumped the gun too quickly and didn’t pay close enough attention to the fine print of the lease I had signed, and so now I’m dealing with the fallout.
Don’t let the same thing happen to you when it comes to SEO! You shouldn’t hire any SEO company or consultant without making sure they are a legitimate, white hat company that is actually going to do good work for your business. Otherwise, you might end up having to hire a new SEO agency to clean up the mess left behind from the first one.
9 Responses to “How I Learned an Important SEO Lesson Offline”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Whenever you look to hire an SEO firm, make sure they aren’t doing anything black hat. That will only hurt you. See if you can get an example of their work first, or ask what the process is. It could make all the difference.
Wow, I can’t believe a landlord would just close the doors on your and your business. Wouldn’t that be hurting them as well? Or were they moving in a client and charging them more money? Very odd, but good post–I like the connection.
Hey Nick,
Funny that I would be reading an analogy in which both (or rather similar) happened to our company. We recently made a move to an absolute office location in the city. While it wasn’t forced, we were received with open arms very quickly. We’ve even picked-up some high-quality clients through foot traffic after placing our company logo, etc. on the door. The first thing out of their mouths is “I’m tired of being taken advantage of”. One guy even said before we started the client meeting that he was “quick to fire”. I told him that I loved his attitude and didn’t blame him.
Talk soon, Bryan
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for stopping by (and the re-tweet on this post!) and for reading!
Take Care,
Nick
[...] company recently moved to a new office (you can read about the SEO lesson Window I learned from that move) so I needed to update our Google Places listing to reflect the new [...]
Reading contracts is hard. You sign a mortgage or hospital release and no one really expects you to read them. We really do trust the folks we sign contracts with more than we admit. What that firm did to you was dirty. You should be looking for a new building as soon as the lease is up or even look for an out clause. You know commercial building space is dirt cheap these days … at least in most areas that I know of.
With respect to SEO, try to talk to some people who have worked with that person or get to know him or her yourself. Don’t buy just because someone picks up the phone and calls you …
Thanks for continuing to remind folks about “Black Hat” and/or unqualified individuals attempting to perform SEO.
[Can take months of frustrating work to undo the damage to a site by an unscrupulous or disreputable “SEO”…thank-you Nick!
B2B contracts of any kind really need to be read properly buy someone with a good eye for detail or a lawyer.
Even a single line can open you up to huge potential costs if things go wrong. As a small business, it can be pretty hard as larger companies will be unwilling to change their T&Cs for you, but at the very least know the potential pitfalls and can plan round them.
For SEO services, the worst things are extended tie-in (so the contract automatically renews for 12 months or more), and contract ending fees.
Also be aware that a lot of the black hat link farm type builders will remove all your links as soon as you stop paying them, destroying any rankings you had developed.
Nice post Nick, you share a good example on how to deal with the black hat internet marketers and frauds which are increasing now days in online world. I like what you said that an SEO co. which has no online presence of their own site that can not help you too..