|
|
|
Over the years, more and more people have started to understand the value of Internet marketing. Unfortunately, as the industry grows - so does the number of bad Internet Marketing agencies that are not truly the “experts” they claim to be. I would like to give these agencies the benefit of the doubt and believe they are not purposely misleading clients. Internet Marketing is constantly changing, and it is important to stay up on trends. Some agencies are lazy and depend on older tactics that may not be as important today. You can recognize these agencies by the importance they place on outdated tactics that are no longer effective (see #6 & 7 for examples).
Of course, there are also those other agencies that know they are misleading clients. These are the agencies that make huge guarantees and promises even though they know they are not providing the value that they are selling you. If it seems too good to be true, that is because it probably is.
As a service I would like to give you ten quotes to watch out for. If you hear an agency say any of the following, you probably want to avoid working with them.
1. “We guarantee you top ranking on Google.”
This is a classic guarantee that people used to claim ten years ago. Of course, some agencies still make this ridiculous claim. The word “guarantee” alone should make you suspicious. They might be able to set up a PPC campaign to place you at the top of the page, but they definitely cannot guarantee any ranking position.
2. “We offer multiple Internet Marketing packages”
When a company has set packages for their services, that shows they are not thinking about the unique needs of your company. These packages eliminate any flexibility that is vital to running an effective Internet Marketing campaign. It is the job of the agency to develop a plan to match the goals of your company. A standard package will never be able to do that.
3. “Content is King”
OK, I will admit this is not entirely untrue. In fact, great content is very important to an Internet Marketing campaign. However, I do want to warn you against someone who uses this quote. Many times, this means they place so much value on content that they might not develop a well-rounded approach that addresses everything you need. Linking is an extremely important aspect to any campaign. Those agencies that say “content is king” are normally the same companies that ignore building inbound links to your website.
4. “Our rankings speak for themselves.”
Rankings, Rankings, Rankings. We have heard this for years. Agencies that only focus on rankings are not only overlooking your goals but they are also overlooking all of the other great performance analytics that can greatly improve your results. I have never met a client whose business goal was just to have good rankings. Rankings alone do nothing for you. Some people say rankings are dead. I do think rankings are important, but they are just one tool that I use to meet client goals. In order to provide the most effective strategies and deliver the best results - you must focus on all of your analytics. I really believe the key to any Internet Marketing campaign is studying and understanding performance analytics. By studying details, you can tell exactly what works and what doesn’t work. It also can show you exactly what you are getting in return for your investment. This is something that traditional marketing strategies struggle to show.
5. “You will see unmatched success immediately”
You probably see a growing trend on this list. Beware of exaggerated claims. Yes, it is possible to launch a significant PPC campaign with a healthy budget. You can see huge results immediately. This does not mean they are building a solid Internet Marketing campaign that will provide a foundation to produce stability and results for years and years to come. These initial results may seem exciting, but you also need to be careful of these aggressive agencies. Are they spending your money wisely based on sound decisions; or are they carelessly spending your money hoping for the best?
6. “Our focus will be on adjusting all of your Meta Tags”
This is a big one. If any agency says the focus of their SEO campaign will be adjusting your Meta Tags - run for the hills! This person probably knows less about SEO than you do.
7. “We will submit your website to hundreds of search engines”
See #6. This is the same type of ridiculous claim that holds zero value. I wonder if these agencies even know you do not have to make website submissions in order for your website to be crawled by search engines. Additionally, let's face it; there are really only three search engines that matter - Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Live.
8. “We know great ways of tricking the search engines”
This might not be an exact quote, but it does represent what could be any number of quotes…
“We will hide text so that visitors to your site cannot see it but the search engines spiders can…”
“We will build a page that redirects the search engine spiders to a page that will be different from the page your visitors see.”
And on, and on, and on. Anyone that is trying to trick the search engines is probably practicing “Black Hat” SEO tactics. Never work with an agency that does this. These tactics could show increased performance initially but the search engines do a great job of catching up with these scam artists. In the long run, your website will be negatively impacted by Black Hat SEO. The goal of a company should be adding value for the user and not doing shady tactics to fool the search engines.
9. “Our Social Networking strategy is to build out a Facebook page”
Building a Facebook page is actually a good idea; but beware of Internet Marketing agencies that think that alone is a Social Media strategy. Many agencies like to claim to be Social Media experts, but they are really learning on the job. What I have seen is that bad Internet Marketing agencies will build out these Social Media Networks – MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and others. After they set up these pages, they feel their work is done. Social Media Marketing is a lot more than that.
10. “We promise thousands of clicks for only $29.99”
At this point in the list you can probably already answer why this would be a sign of a bad agency. If you already know the answer, then my work is done! My first question to these agencies would be “what type of clicks are these?” Thousands of clicks do not mean thousands of quality visitors into your website. It also doesn’t mean ANY true quality leads. Again, chances are these lofty promises are producing empty results.
I hope that these guidelines will help you before you make the mistake of engaging with a bad Internet Marketing agency. Are you interested in learning what to look for in a good Internet Marketing agency? It’s simple! Just contact E-dreamz.
Jan 19, 2009 at 11:05 AM I strongly disagree with #3 (content is king). Agreed it's not the only factor, but it certainly doesn't belong in a list titled "Top 10 Ways To Spot A Bad Internet Marketing Agency". According to a recent seomoz article, Content is King AND Queen.
Great post other than that though, it never ceases to amaze me the type of things you see people offering and as SEO "services".
Jan 20, 2009 at 10:52 AM Thanks for the response Andrew. I think we are actually on the same page. I agree content is very important. I was just warning against companies that place so much emphasis on content that they ignore linking efforts. I have seen companies that overlook inbound linking entirely.
SEOmoz is a great resource for Internet Marketing information. They actually surveyed many of the top leaders in the SEO industry to ask them their advice on the most important factors for SEO. 7 out of the top 10 factors focused on inbound linking.
Sounds like you know not to overlook any aspect of SEO though. I wish there were more people like you that do SEO the right way. Thanks again for the feedback!
Apr 3, 2009 at 6:58 AM Hi Mike - I agree with you on #3. In theory its great - build a great page and suddenly millions of people will want to link to your site. In some industries like SEO and online marketing that works, b/c the people who are looking for the information are also in a position to link to your site, as they run their own sites, blogs, etc. But what about a local accounting firm? The same strategy doesn't work so well there. You need to be a bit more proactive and specifically seek out links in order to rank.