Being in the SEO business we have had so many potential clients come to us with horror stories of their relationships with a previous SEO firm; in every case we have had to prove that we are ethical, honest, and worth it. What are your stories?
This is more of a request for comments but I am very interested in hearing stories from others of previous experiences with SEO firms; positive or negative. I am not saying all SEO firms are evil; I know there are many ethical and very reputable firms out there but it is the few sour apples that taint the industry for the rest of us.
For example we often have heard negative view expressed by many previous clients of a particular company near us that forced their clients into a year long contract, only to find out the results were not near what they expected after only a few months and even worse results after 6-12 months. I find this particular common practice very odd; why else would an SEO company force a client to sign a year contract unless they were confident that their system was inadequate and would not perform? The only real ethical reason I could see this happening is if you were providing a pay per performance model where the results of the SEO firm would really start to pick up after 2-4 months of work.
If anyone else has experiences or comments please post them.
Hi. I’m a freelance SEO writer, and believe me have I been asked to do articles for some dodgy websites and companies. I’m speaking mostly of *certain* MLM sites which I am afraid to mention for fear of my knees being broken.
Anyway, I’m trying to launch an ethical discussion about SEO practices on my blog, and the first post about it is at http://writenonsense.blogspot.com/2007/07/seo-ethical-debate.html
- which is a preview for my up-and-coming eZine article series which will feature different takes on the SEO game.