How to find professional SEO company?

I have actually researched SEO companies for 4.5 months, in order to find the best SEO Company for myself, till I finally found THE ONE!

It was very hard… I will explain soon why.

First warning – this industry is flooded by fake companies that will take your money for years before you realize they actually do nothing for you…

So you have to be really careful and demand to see FULL DETAILED reports every month – of the actual work they do for you.

Stay away from SEO companies that send you a one-page report with a summary… as most will do that to cover their tracks so you don’t see they hardly put any time for you; you need to see the full report with every single task they did for you the entire month !

And you actually want to verify a few of the links yourself to see what they did. I randomly chose about a link from every page and check it out - to see if it looks good and solid, content wise.

So, 1st criteria – ask to see their Reports before you sign up! If it’s a short report with no links – no good… look elsewhere.

2nd thing to look for is the PRICE.

I got quotes from $399 to $6,500 – for about the same work.

Most SEO companies will spend about 10 hours on a client every month, so if they charge you $3,000 a month – that’s $300/hr rate they bill you.

That’s WAY TOO MUCH!

You do not want to work with a company that consider itself “SEO Boutique Agency” as that’s basically saying we charge you $500/hr… as we are a “boutique”… a fancy word for “10 times more expensive than we should be”… are we shopping at Versace or for online SEO services ?!

3rd factor is the accessibility – most SEO companies never talk to you…except in the beginning when they’re doing the “sale”; After that, it’s practically chasing you… while they let you feel their time is super valuable and they’re super busy…

I’ve had companies who actually send me bills for phone conversations. I kid you not. So when you have a problem – you can either call them and stay on the line for 2 hours just so some foreigner receptionist will finally take your info and have someone get back to you later… much later.

-OR - you can email them – which again, most companies respond within 2-3 days. So that’s no good.

You want a company that you can reach to immediately – and spend as much time with them as needed on your issues/questions.

Having a LIVE CHAT on their website says they care about you – they want to help you immediately – so that’s important to have!

Go give it a try before you sign up!

I recommend you talk to their LIVE CHAT and see if they actually know what they’re talking about -or- this is just a random offshore Indian guy that is not really part of the company… and just there to take your info.

Most companies providing live chats are simply putting remote receptionists that have no clue what they do and CANNOT really assist you - so they simply take your info… and again – you wait few days… there’s a time difference etc.

It’s just the same as emailing them and waiting… that’s really all they do - they talk to you on the chat - then email the company about your issue. You could do it yourself and just email them directly… that’s what I call FAKE LIVE CHAT. Avoid such companies!

So give their live chat a try and see who is talking there – is it someone from the company itself who knows his stuff – or – some $3/hr receptionist who is as good as leaving a Voice message or sending an email.

I have talked to 27 SEO and web design Los Angeles so far – saw their reports – tested their customer service – checked how fast they respond to emails & live chats etc.

And 19 of them were horrible… the bigger the company – the worse they are because they feel their time is worth a lot of money and they don’t want to waste it on you, for free… they want to spend the LEAST time on you and charge you the MOST.

Those companies you see on Google search that are paying for the ads - their prices are super high (starting at $3,000 a month) – and every time I had an issue, they would charge you “additional fees” based on $250/hr rate. Because someone needs to cover their advertising expenses… never go with ANY company that pays for ADS! If they cannot do SEO for themselves and they have to PAY Google - how can they help you?!

Most companies had SETUP FEES – EXTRA FEES – TERMINATION FEES and LONG CONTRACTS… which just shows their greedy way of work, so you do not want to partner with them. The moment they mentioned A YEAR CONTRACT – or a $900 SETUP FEE – I was gone… not for me!

So out of the 27 companies – 19 were out the window. Overprices - Contracts - Setup fees and what not… no good! I had 8 left that were relatively good – no contract – good customer service - nothing above $1000/month.

So my last point was to see which one was better and I’ve asked them all one more question: “do you guarantee any of your work?”

7 out of the 8 companies said “NO”… not really in that manner though – more like “we don’t guarantee you’ll be on first page within the 1st year but we guarantee you’ll see a progress”. When they said “1st year” - I was already out…

OR, my favorite excuse was “we only guarantee we’ll do our best for you ! we cannot control Google and cannot promise anything“ – which is fine but at some point you need to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for your work and stop charging me… nope - they didn’t think so.

One company actually said “we’ll do our ABSOLUTE best!” as if adding “absolute” made it much better.

It’s still a NO… a no guarantee of any sort means they can basically do shitty work and get away with it as they never really promised you a thing.

You can be paying them $2000 a month for a year – $24,000 total - and still be nowhere close to 1st page on Google – and cannot complain about it because they never really promised they will put you on first page.

THE CHOSEN ONE!

I chose Advertise Robot - Advertise Robot - because of all those reasons mentioned above, but the main one was that they were actually the ONLY Company that guaranteed results.

That shows confidence to me, made me feel they know what they’re doing - but also show accountability - as they give you a specific deadline on when you’ll be on first page. You have something to measure their success with.

They guarantee FIRST PAGE within 3 month or you don’t pay, and so far they always delivered!