Thanks to everyone who has helped so far... so I contacted the "company" in question and the response was:

"I already told you that relevancy of backlinks does not matter. Still if you want I can replace backlinks with relevant web epigraphs but they will be lesser in number. One web epigraph is equal to 10 backlinks.  I will also remove all the already generated backlinks."

Any opinions on this response?

Hi Mark,

I tried to look into these issues you have stated above but they are all areas I thought I had fixed a couple of weeks ago. Could it be just a delay with getting updated:?

Astrid

So for example, ask them to delete any backlinks that aren't related to the type of business I do?

Thanks for your compliment re my site...

So another question... as I paid for 3 months service in advance, with about another 6 weeks to go, would it be better to terminate right now or see the end of the term out?

Ouch - but the pain I needed to move on. Thank you.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your prompt response and to be honest I am not that surprised to hear your answer. Can you please give me advise as to what to look for with a SEO company so I don't make this kind of costly response again?

I get so many companies contact me but so nervous as to who is reputable.

Astrid

Hello,

I am rather new to online marketing and because of this employ an SEO company to help with improving my ranking. They have now been working with me for around 6 months and I have not seen an increase in the traffic to my site - in fact it is at it all time low. Yesterday I only had 4 visitors for example.

They keep ensuring me it will take time, and show me reports on how my keywords are ranking, and some appear to be doing okay, but I would have thought traffic would have improved by now.

Why I am a little suspicious of this company is they only seem to be doing back linking. They have done very little, if anything, with on-page optimisation, so much so that I tried to do this all myself following Moz guidelines etc. But even this has seen very little improvement.

I would have thought that as a paid SEO company, they may see that something is clearly not working. Perhaps the wrong keywords? Suggest a different tactic?

I write blogs posts, am social media active but feeling very discourage with it all as seeing very little results.

I continuously hear about scams and get new emails every day saying "we have analysed your site and all these things are wrong... pay us $XXX and we will get you traffic" but who can you trust and how can you find an affordable way to gain traffic as a very small business.

Would be great to get feedback from anyone who may know what is going on.

Thanks

Astrid