Good SEO can make you a ton of money, and it's a fact that if you know what you’re doing with it, you'll be getting a whole lot of awesome, free traffic to your sites for as long as you'd like.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there that will promise you who-knows-what, take your money and deliver nothing but frustration. So…
Avoid these SEO Scams
Here's a quick rundown of a few SEO scams you absolutely must avoid on your journey to making some serious moolah online.
1. If it Sounds Too Good to be True, it Probably is
I am sure you know that saying and guess what? It's true.
I mean, if you're hiring some SEO guys to do SEO consulting work on your site and they're telling you that they'd get you the rankings you know are extremely hard, if not impossible to get, chances are they're scamming you.
2. When it comes to SEO, There Are No Guarantees
SEO is fun when it's done right, but the truth of the matter is that no one can give you a guarantee on Google's, Yahoo's, Bing's or any other search engine's placement unless they know the actual algorithm that those search engines are using to rank their sites.
I mean, you can surely work on getting to the top of Google, for instance, but there's no telling whether you're going to actually get there or not, so if someone guarantees you a specific placement, there's probably something fishy about it.
3. Words Don't Matter, Get Proof
Another thing that's interesting about the great majority of SEO freelancers and even companies out there is that for some reason they think they can simply say something and you're bound to believe it.
Whenever you hire them, instead of just making a decision on what they tell you, get some kind of proof that will show you that they know what they're doing.
The best thing to do is to ask for a track record. What websites did they optimize and for what keywords? How are those sites doing in the SERPS now?
Find out what you can before you do anything and then make your decision based on the facts.
4. Results First, then Payment
I generally don't believe in upfront payment for anything I get done. I don't know about you, but I've just been burnt way too many times.
See, if an SEO company or an individual freelancer is any good, they'll be fine with providing you the results now and getting your payment later.
Why?
Because if you think about it, what they really want above anything else is a repeat customer.
They know that if they do a good job on your site, you'll get back to them and ask to do more work for you.
On the other hand, if someone is trying to scam you, they'll demand that you pay upfront. My advice in situations like that is… don't go for it.
5. Don't Let Them Teach You, You're the Boss
The last thing I wanted to talk to you about is that many SEO people have a tendency to tell you what can and what can't be accomplished.
This is quite annoying if you ask me and extremely off putting.
I mean, you pay, you want something. It's their job to figure out how to get it to you, right?
Getting good freelancers to work for you can be quite a challenge and getting good SEO people to rank your sites can be even more complicated. Use the tips I've shared with you and you'll do just fine, though.
So, have you been scammed by any SEO freelancer?