Are the Majority of SEO Companies 'Spammers, Evildoers, & Opportunists'?

[SVmedia]

This may not be the most productive Q&A discussion, but I've had some really interesting experiences this last month that have made me even more distrusting of "SEO" companies.

I can't help but think of this post (not much has changed since '09).  Even though it takes a pretty extreme stance, I agree with the core of it -

_"The problem with SEO is that the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work, and it’s poisoning the web."   _

I didn't start doing this type of work wanting to have such a negative opinion of SEO companies, but I just keep having the same experience:

I'll get referred to someone who isnt' happy with their SEO company.  They send me their web address, I check out the site, and seriously can't believe what I find.

MISSING PAGE TITLES, EVERY CANONICAL URL ISSUE IMAGINABLE, AND 10'S OF THOUSANDS OF BOT SPAM EMAT LINKS FROM PAGES LIKE THIS...AND THIS

and just recently a company a called one of my clients and conned him into paying for this piece of spam garbage, obviously scraped from the site that I made for him. 

and what's worse, sometimes for whatever reason these companies will have all the client's FTP and CMS logins and it can be hell trying to get them to hand them over.  There's no webmaster tools set up, no analytics, nothing....

These businesses are paying a good chunk of change every month, I just can't believe stuff like this is so common...well acutally, it's what i've come to expect this point.  But I used to think most SEO companies actually had their clients best interest at heart.

Does every honest consultant out there run into this same type of stuff constantly? How common is this type of stuff really?

Now, on to the positive.  This community rocks, and I feel like it represents real, ethical, solution-oriented, boundary-less SEO.  So thank you Mozzers for all you do.  and I love using the tools here to help businesses understand why they need an honest person helping them.

If anyone has thoughts on the topic, I'd love to hear 'em...

[SVmedia]

Yikes!, I don't even wanna know what the exact role of fiverr was here, can't be pretty.

and you're right the fear of penguin/fear of losing revenue is what's needed. Cause business owners want to make money obviously, they see a competitor with a gazillion automated spam links ranking better, and it's like - "let's do that!"

If you can effectively explain the long-term risk that poses to the bottom line, they pull a complete 180.  To "do that" would mean to invest in the exact "strategies" google is trying to devalue, risk being deindexed and losing you're only owned digital asset, and negatively represent your business across the web, all for a fractional temporary gain.

[MikeHarmanos]

Does every honest consultant out there run into this same type of stuff constantly? How common is this type of stuff really?

I want to offer my view as someone who struggles with small and medium sized businesses in cracking verticals, down here at the bottom of the heap looking up at farms upon farms of black hat SEO.

Recently, a client asked me to compare his efforts to a friends SEO in the beauty industry.  I'll sum up what the friend did in three phrases: Link Pyramids, Traffic Geyser, and Fiverr.

I did not know whether to laugh or to swear.  Choosing neither, I explained to my client in a way Nick outlined above.  I simply put the fear of Penguin into him.  Then I got him 25 more opportunities to link to customer bases and build some meaningful marketing relationships.  He smiled and thanked me.

I am optimistic, too, because of Google's efforts, our own efforts as honest consultants, and our clients abilities to check our work and choose the path and it's consequences.

[SVmedia]

Thanks for chiming in.  and this is more than a difference in quality of work we're talking about. One of 2 things is going on in these situations: honest business owners are being conned, or these SEO companies really are that incompetent.  I have trouble believing it's the latter.

Let's say I took my car into a mechanic.  He tells me I need a new transmission, blah blah - charges me 5K, and I pay it.  Then he doesn't touch my car, parks it out back for a week, and calls me back saying his guys worked extra hard, I only owe 1K more, but everything is golden.  This is criminal, and it's exactly what's happening in our industry.

[WebbyNabler]

I agree with alot of what has been said, but the two comments really ring true for are,

#1 All these low quality SEO's are creating a huge opportunity for high qualified SEO's

#2 Word of mouth. Word of mouth. Word of mouth.

Thanks for the posting. I do similar blog posts somewhat frequently myself..

[SVmedia]

Ok, I'm not gonna put anyone on blast by name, but this imgur album outta give you a better idea of the kind of nonsense we're talking about here...

wait...or did I just stumble upon the hottest new SEO secret?  Time to add some "Google pages" to my clients sites.  Ay yay yay....

iuRm3

[SVmedia]

Glad to have an oracle drop in here, thanks.  and yea..dangerous is right.  I don't know much about general PR but I'm always trying to stress the fact that those types of link building methods aren't only useless, but create massive risk.

[EGOL]

I think that some of the most dangerous folks of today are in the public relations / publicist area.

Lots of these folks don't pay attention to what Google is saying and they are running wild trying to get duplicate content published and links to their clients posted.   Lots of these guys are old farts who made their living sending out paper press releases by mail.  Now they are trying to do the same thing digitally by posting on blogs and hiring labor to forum comment.

Although lots of this content and message is of highest possible quality their methods are making them spammers who wear suits to work.

[SVmedia]

Thank you Nick, you make some really great points.  I may complain, but ultimately it just means there's a huge opportunity to provide value, which is great for guys like us. I'm not exactly having trouble finding work these days.

It' just really too bad that business owners have had it drilled into their heads that enough links pointing to their site with the right anchor text = serp domination.  I've even heard the retort from these SEO goons - "well, if that wasn't true, why does Adobe reader rank so well for "download now"?...too funny.

I think you're right, in the long run the truth will prevail, and business owners stop getting royally ripped off.  Have good weekend Nick!

[Nick_Ker]

Like you, I am still finding a ton of bad SEO, even from "reputable" companies who have been around a long time and talk the talk. It is amazing just how bad some of their work is - or how non-existent it is in some cases.

I have also worked directly with a few well-known internet marketing companies on larger projects only to find out that they are doing some pretty shady things, or not doing what they say they will.

My current pet peeve is large web design & development companies who sell SEO as an add on to their trusting dev clients. Then they do absolutely nothing, other than maybe 5 minutes of keyword suggestions.  The developer will launch a site full of severe content duplication issues, then charge a few thousand a month for an SEO package and take 3 months to fix the issues the dev team created, and call a meeting with the whole team and the client to talk about this great new discovery they have just made: rel="canonical".
That is like buying a brand new car, then paying the dealer's mechanic a hefty fee to make sure the manufacturer designed and assembled the car properly.

We can try to educate clients as much as possible, but many will still be tempted when someone comes along saying "oh we have a totally new Google-friendly thing we do called a link wheel. 100% white hat and Panda/Penguin safe. Only $129!"  I am sometimes jaded enough to think the people who fall for such scams because they want something for nothing get what they deserve... yet I still find myself trying to help them anyway. It is the high profile, seemingly legit companies who are actually not much better that really bug me.

**But I am optimistic.  **

All of Google's webspam efforts and the growth of communities like this one are helping to make it harder for scammers and just plain incompetent SEOs to keep doing what they do.

The good news is word of mouth does work. Kind of like how we tell clients to provide great content and user experience and the links and rankings will follow; when we provide awesome, effective and honest service - the referrals will come. Being truly helpful in communities like this, on social media, forums or anywhere else also works to show your knowledge and spread the truth about real SEO and dispel misconceptions. Even getting into an argument or calling BS on someone when they are spouting nonsense can actually attract new clients. There are plenty of smart website owners who are sick of all the bull and are happy to stumble upon a good rant, apparently.

There will always be scammers and cheap link building services - just like there will be some clients who never learn that you get what you pay for. But it does seem to be getting better. Fear of Pandas & Penguins seems to help some.