Why 8/10 SEO companies doing this?

artizhay said:

The same thing goes for the cheap-ass flat-rate SEO firms. I lost a prospect because he only looked at cost, and had competitive keywords, and there's a firm nearby that offers around $120 flat for local SEO when there is no way I would offer that price.

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Why not? There are several services here that would fit the bill for that. I do it but then I am also making 500% profit off of that. The key is setting expectations of the customer up front. It is a niche that needs to be filled and I am happy to do it for 10-15 minutes worth of work every month. You can handle a bunch of clients that way and when one leaves, it does not hurt as much.

In many cases, the so called client sites are their own sites. You can create your own portfolio like that especially when you are just getting into SEO/SMM business.

I once needed a lawyer for a serious court battle. My cousin is a young attorney so he came with me on meetings. After one meeting, we had this conversation:

Him: "dont hire that guy"
Me: "how come?"
Him: "because he promised you a result before he asked about the facts of the case, a good lawyer won't say a fucking word until he hears your entire story first"

The SEO game is the same. Anybody who offers anything other than simple Google Places results for a flat rate without investigating keywords is full of shit.

I think that most of what I read about in this thread is a joke. If a company posts case studies then they are scammers or a joke? Seriously... ?

Lets look at "Netmark" which is the top SEO company in the country with sales of close to 10 million per year.

Under the "About us" there is a "case studies" section.

They list their clients and the keywords which are ranked.

Does that make them a joke?

The experts here couldn't even wipe their shoes....

Regards,

Tom

Tommybee said:

I think that most of what I read about in this thread is a joke. If a company posts case studies then they are scammers or a joke? Seriously... ?

Lets look at "Netmark" which is the top SEO company in the country with sales of close to 10 million per year.

Under the "About us" there is a "case studies" section.

They list their clients and the keywords which are ranked.

Does that make them a joke?

The experts here couldn't even wipe their shoes....

Regards,

Tom

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Actually nobody is saying you shouldn't do case studies, we're saying that exposing sensitive information is poor business practice.

Wow that website is horendous. You would think he probably could have just setup a WP site and not even changed a thing, saved a lot of time, and would have looked better lol.

Tommybee said:

I think that most of what I read about in this thread is a joke. If a company posts case studies then they are scammers or a joke? Seriously... ?

Lets look at "Netmark" which is the top SEO company in the country with sales of close to 10 million per year.

Under the "About us" there is a "case studies" section.

They list their clients and the keywords which are ranked.

Does that make them a joke?

The experts here couldn't even wipe their shoes....

Regards,

Tom

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Perhaps, those sites in their 'case studies' are friend's site, cousin's site, or even their own sites Therefore, no one will complain

SuperNoobInc said:

Perhaps, those sites in their 'case studies' are friend's site, cousin's site, or even their own sites Therefore, no one will complain

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friend's site, cousin's site....... what level are you thinking on here? I'm talking about a real company making real money.... did you even look at the companies and the keywords they are ranking for?

It's hard to have a normal discussion with people that think making a few thousand per month here and there is a successful business.

Regards,

Tom

Taktical said:

Actually nobody is saying you shouldn't do case studies, we're saying that exposing sensitive information is poor business practice.

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What do you consider sensitive information?

If a company says that they work with AMEX and are ranking them in the top 5 for "credit cards" is that sensitive? I think it just blows the other SEO companies out the water and puts you on a different playing field.

Regards,

Tom

Tommybee said:

What do you consider sensitive information?

If a company says that they work with AMEX and are ranking them in the top 5 for "credit cards" is that sensitive? I think it just blows the other SEO companies out the water and puts you on a different playing field.

Regards,

Tom

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When you have bigger clients they get really sensitive about what you share. I had a client who I did rep management for and they wouldn't let me put their info on my website because they were embarrassed that they had a rep management problem.

Have any of you ever considered that the business owners are on board with it?

It is pretty common you would quote them a slightly lower rate or special benefits if they agree to share their story/case study to build up a portfolio - just as web designers do, but ALWAYS clear it upfront with the client first.

@BigEasy,

1. By listing their client's site publicly, wouldnt that allow more 'experienced' marketers to see what they did/are doing to rank those keywords? At the same time, I am thinking their clients probably wouldnt be too happy about this. - It does show proof, and can be reverse engineered, but really who cares? There maybe 100,000 SEO company's, but there are 100,000,000 businesses with out a clue. Also, one way around that is to rank your site. Anybody can pick a website, call them a client, and show great listings ... what proof do they have? Get a load of rankings for your site ... that is proof

2. Some brags about how they rank #1 out of 160,000,000 competition. In fact, their key term "ecofriendly cleaning services cityname" only has a 12 EXACT search according to google keyword tool. How is this anything to brag about? I hear ya, I know a company charging $2500 a month to rank companies for "company name client reviews" "company name client testimonials" and etc. My opinion is this ... if you are not completely raping a client, if they are happy seeing their site rank for 10 long tail keywords ... so be it. A nice mixture of "real" rankings, and some "fluff" rankings can always work well.

3. What I find even more interesting is that some companies list their pricing out; 4 keywords $399 (or whatever price), with order now button. So without even asking what keywords I want to rank, they immediate ask for my payment. I wonder what clients are asking for 'super competitive' keywords, what they gonna do in that case? Agreed ... letting a client choose their keywords for a set price is a joke in which they are just going to get snow balled for something.

^ Did you just copy the entire OP and add your own words to it?