this is grumpy SEO Guy episode nine six of the most common scams in the SEO industry you're listening to grumpy SEO guide the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work I'm the grumpy SEO guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO Agency for the last 14 years in this podcast I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience discussing tips and strategies and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry if you listen to this podcast you will know more about
SEO than 99 of people on the planet ready let's get started foreign I'm the grumpy SEO guy let me tell you why I'm grumpy today I'm grumpy today because as I said most SEO agencies and most SEO Consultants are scammers and today we're going to look at some of the common scams that you are likely to see but before we do that my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now a quick disclaimer before we get started everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the
industry I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience this podcast does not constitute advice or Services what worked for me may or may not work for you okay back to the show so if you like this episode don't worry because we're probably going to do another episode on more SEO scams because you know what there's a lot of scammers out there there's a lot of liars out there and there's a lot of SEO scams out there okay so the first Common
SEO scam is actually doing nothing let me explain you hire an SEO agency you give them money they do literally nothing now let me explain why this scam even happens the majority of websites will change their rank over time let's say you're on page three okay you know what no let's say let's say you're position 26 I just picked that number okay let's say you're in position 26 if you do nothing you might be in position 26 one day you might be in position 25 the next day you might be in position 27 the next
day you might be in position 23 the next day you might be back in position 26. websites move around that's normal okay that's totally normal now if you're a brand new website it's entirely possible that your website might drift upward over time okay now let me clarify that though you're probably not going to get to the top of the search engines from doing nothing okay that's probably not gonna happen unless you've got very very low competition okay but look every web site moves around a little bit on its own that's just that's normal even websites
that are at the top of the search engines in position one they might be one most days but you know what they're going to be number two some days they're gonna be number three some days they're gonna be back at number one again that's normal that's how it works okay so brand new websites that happen to maybe be getting some publicity from different sources or whatever reason might tend to move upwards gradually over time on their own depending on the level of competition okay so what these SEO agencies that do nothing do is you start
paying them they do nothing your website happens to move up over time just because you're growing your business and then they say oh yeah we did that keep paying us and people who don't know any better might think well I hired this SEO agency and seems like my website's moving up a little bit and I guess that's what they said they were doing oh okay I guess I'll keep paying them no because you know what it would have happened to anyone in those cases so this is related to what I keep telling you too if
you're not at the top of the search engines your SEO agency is wasting your time and wasting your money so these people that you're paying that aren't doing anything and they got you from the middle of Page Three to the top of Page Three and they're like oh yeah we did that you're not at the top of the search engines why are you paying them I mean they're not doing anything anyway but even if they were you're not at the top why are you paying them they're wasting your time and they're wasting your money using
this rule of if you're not at the top of the search engines your SEO agency is wasting your time and wasting your money will protect you from scammers because even if you were paying them you're not at the top of page one so stop working with them but you know what but they're not even doing anything again you're not at the top of the search engine stop paying them and I will say here just for clarification because I know somebody is going to misinterpret this the only way that rule does not apply is if you
just started working with somebody because you're not going to be at the top of the search engine after like a month okay I mean you might I've given examples of when that has happened but generally speaking it takes three to six months sometimes it even takes 12 months to get significant movement depending on how hard your competition is so if you've been working with somebody for a few months and you're not making significant movement and the middle of Page Three to the top of Page Three is not significant Movement by the way if you're not
making significant movement stop working with them they're not the right Agency for you now let me totally specific about this okay look you're not gonna get to the top from that happening but these kind of scams will be effective for a few months as the website slightly moves up over time now if the website gets no movement which can also happen or if the website goes down on its own which can also happen then the SEO agency just gets fired and who cares because you know what they got paid and they didn't do anything so
it's literally no loss to them okay don't fall for this kind of scam it's very important before you hire an SEO agency that you ask them specifically what are they going to do we might have another episode on this specific questions to ask an SEO agency before you hire them okay don't fall for the scam of people doing nothing the next scam is guaranteed rankings no SEO agency can guarantee that they will get you any movement whatsoever it does not work that way okay what generally happens in this case is you have an SEO agency
and they guarantee you that you'll be at the top of the search engines okay so you know what they do they pick the worst keywords with no search volume and no competition and they get you to the top for those keywords and you say well that looks cool we're at the top now but you know what those keywords have zero search volume so even though you're at the top of the search engine for those keywords you don't get any traffic from them and it's a complete waste of your time and money why do you want
to be at the top of the search engines for keywords that don't get any traffic you don't it's a waste of time and a waste of money as I mentioned on another episode there's one exception to that rule and that's if you believe a keyword is going to have higher search volume in the future you might want to position yourself at the top of the search engines earlier than anyone else but that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about scammy SEO agencies lying to you by guaranteeing you that you'll be at the top
of the search engines and then ranking you for keywords that get no traffic and you don't get any increase in visitors to your website and you're wasting your money don't fall for it common SEO scam number three I see this a lot with SEO agencies and I also see this a lot with individuals or SEO Consultants as you might call them they will list on their website our clients include and then they always have big names they'll have like the big five they'll have like giant tech companies that I guarantee you are not their SEO
clients okay I mentioned on another episode somebody listed Google as a client once nobody has Google as an SEO client come on like but Google is the search engine industry okay Google doesn't need to hire anybody to do their SEO for them nobody had Google as an SEO client just don't don't even follow for that that's a bunch of nonsense okay but here's the thing big companies like Facebook or Netflix or apple guess what they probably didn't hire some random SEO consultant that you met on a forum and who has them listed on their website
but just for fun let's say okay let's say actually you know what before we even go that let me tell you this I've run an SEO Agency for over a decade more than 90 percent of our clients are companies that you have never heard of okay you've never heard of them so even if I were to put them on my website and I don't for reasons I explained in a previous episode even if I were to put them on my website it wouldn't mean anything because you've never heard of them now we have had a
couple clients that were somewhat well known to certain people in certain industries for example we had a very elite level supplement company as a client okay now some people who are into supplements and who are into biohacking may have heard of this company I'm not going to name them here obviously but you might have heard them they're not a household name but some people in that industry will probably have heard of them okay we have another client who I don't want to give them away let's say they're one of the largest martial arts retailers in
America okay we'll say we'll say top three they're they're one of the top three largest martial arts retailers in America okay they're not a household name but you know what people in the martial arts industry have probably heard of them but like I said over 90 of our clients are people that you've never even heard of so anybody bragging that they've worked with not just one but multiple big name tech companies especially tech companies okay is like most definitely lying okay and let's just believe this lie for a second okay and say that okay maybe
they actually did get this company as a client okay they didn't but let's just say maybe maybe they did okay having a company as a client is not the same as getting results for that company okay so maybe maybe Netflix actually did hire this random guy to do their SEO okay let's let's even say maybe that happened okay how do you even know if you got good results maybe he was literally the worst SEO consultant on the planet and got them like negative movement or something so even though he's like Facebook was my client it
doesn't mean he did a good job okay okay first of all there's a whole lot of problems with listing your clients on a website um I've talked about this before but generally speaking here's a quick version the SEO industry is very secretive the overwhelming majority of companies do not want anyone to know what SEO agency they are using therefore they will not let you list them okay so if they are being listed it means one they probably don't know about it and two the person might even be lying about it okay anyway but listing your
clients is pointless anyway because nobody cares about what clients you have they should only care about the results you got okay so on this note case studies mean nothing if they're not verified by an independent third-party company do you want to know why because literally anyone can say oh we took this client from page five to the top of page one can you prove it though how do you know it was you how do you know specifically what things you did that took them from page five to the top of page one are you lying
were they even your client were they even on page five can you prove it because literally anyone in the world especially in a shady industry like SEO can say whatever they want about anybody can you prove it with an independent third-party verification of your claims if you can't well you might as well be lying okay what's the next common scam on the topic of lying about your clients while you're looking at the case studies don't even pay attention to them if the chart of their ranking remember the serp charts we talked about on another episode
a serp chart serp serp search engine results page a serp chart is a chart that shows ranking over time you started out here and then you went up and then you went down and then you went up up and then you kept going and now you're at the top of the search engines whatever I don't know if that was a good description but it makes sense when you see it do not pay any attention to them if they do not come from real serp tracking companies you know what a lot of people do they will
make a chart in Excel and be like well this is a chart of our clients rankings they were down here now they're at the top cool chart that you made in Excel good job that definitely looks realistic yeah I'm sure that actually happened I'm sure you really got that movement for that client okay don't even pay attention to them if they don't come from an actual serp Tracking Company okay and by the way this should all be confirmed in the verification from third party so next common scam this one's pretty funny so literally yesterday I
was reading an SEO website and I'm not going to name anyone look a rule that I try to follow in my podcast is I only name companies and sources that are good and helpful okay so I'm not going to name this website even though it's very popular and I'm quite certain that you have heard of it so I was reading a very very popular SEO website that's all I'm gonna say and this website had an article about how link building is manipulative and it's against Google's terms of service and to be fair there are certain
kinds of Link building that are against Google's terms of service I'm not debating that that's the case Okay the search engines say that because they don't want people knowing that the system can be manipulated look if you are a big search engine company okay would you want people to know that you could game the system I wouldn't that sounds terrible for business so they will fight forever to convince people that a backlinking doesn't work when it does and B you shouldn't do it when I mean I don't know man if you don't build any backlinks
have fun not ever being at the top of the search engines I'm just gonna leave it here anyways so I was reading this article let's talk about backlinking is bad and it's against the rules and it's manipulative and all this bad stuff okay and I'm like whatever I'm I'm used to hearing this kind of nonsense right and then I clicked back to get off of the page because I was done with the article I clicked back and I literally got a pop-up on their website that said learn the secrets for how we got 1 000
backlinks in six months well which is it are you saying link building is bad or are you trying to sell me a course on how you got a thousand backlinks in six months I mean it can't be both if backlinking is so bad why are you promoting this on your website I just thought it was funny like like you're they're all like backlinking is so bad and then you click off the site and it's like learn how we build a thousand backlinks in six months so you're trying to get us penalized with your manipulative backlinking
no look Authority ranks websites the only way to get Authority is to get backlinks from authoritative websites that's how SEO works okay well that's how that's 99 of SEO that's probably 98 of SEO like so the two percent that's left over one percent is probably content and site technical site things like does your site take forever to load you know do you have any stupid errors on your site do you have any duplicate content on your own site you know whatever and the other one percent is make sure you don't get a penalty because if
you get a penalty everything goes out the window by the way if you have a penalty go listen to episode two I explain how to fix them and how to figure out what kind of penalty you have anyway I just thought it was funny here's like a super popular super well-known super high quality SEO website explaining all the things and it's like don't backlink and then I click back to get off the page and it's like learn how we built a thousand backlinks in six months okay bro way to contradict yourself so how is this
a scam well it's literally disinformation they're literally telling you don't build backlinks so what's that gonna do that's gonna make people go higher SEO agencies that say they don't build backlinks and then they're either not going to get any results because if you don't put the backlinks you won't get any results or the SEO agency is lying and is actually building backlinks when they say that they're not which is probably one of the worst things because they're just being dishonest with you most SEO agencies are shady okay we've established this you want ones that are
honest with you I have told every single client we have hey we're building backlinks for you that's why you're at the top of the search engines and they either don't care because they came to us because they wanted our high quality backlinks or they're like all right whatever we trust you usually the people who don't for whatever reason like backlinks and yes there are some will not even work with you if you say that like I said on another episode I've had prospects be in sales meetings and say oh you guys build backlinks I don't
think this is going to be a good fit because you know what they read on some website like the one I was just talking about that you're not supposed to build backlinks because it's manipulative and it's against the terms of service okay call me in six months if you're not at the top of the search engine we'll get you there you know what it's all good but I don't lie to people I don't say oh we just build good content because that's okay that's like that's like the stupidest thing ever look if you tell somebody
oh we're gonna build you good content and that's what's going to get you to the top of the search engine then like what so they pay you for like a month like how long does it take to write good content and then they're at the top of the search engine forever like what I don't I don't even understand just hire like a Content writer or something I don't know except don't because that's not going to get you to the top of the search engines but it's funny because then I feel like people think you know
what actually I bet you that's why people think that SEO is such a short-term thing too not only the WordPress plugins like we talked about on a different episode but also because people think that well SEO is just the content they just make some changes to our site anyway so there's that so it's not really a scam but let me give you a little sample of what we're going to talk about on another episode I talk about backlink building a lot why because it's literally the most important part of SEO and there are some very
common ways of building backlinks that I wouldn't necessarily say are scams but they're pretty dangerous so you know might be similar anyway in a future episode we're going to talk about why the two most common types of backlinks are dangerous oh let me give you one more kind of scam and I don't know that this is a scam but this is just kind of a lie there are some people out there who will claim that they're Google Certified in SEO all right that doesn't exist so anybody saying that is lying they say that because they
think that it makes them look better they're like well I could hire this other guy but this guy is certified by Google you know what there is no no that person that person is lying don't work with them if they lie to you about one thing they will lie to you about everything don't work with anybody who claims to be Google Certified in SEO now look is there AdWords certification yes that exists is there analytics certification yes that exists but there is no SEO certification so that person is a liar okay we've covered a good
number of SEO scams I think this will give you a good Head Start into how to identify people that are liars and that are scammers and that you shouldn't work with now don't be fooled by the size of the agency there are some individual Consultants that are quite talented and there are some large SEO agencies that are trash okay it doesn't matter but this is a good place to begin learning about what kinds of things you should avoid thanks for listening don't forget to subscribe I hope this episode is helpful and if you have any
questions questions or if there's anything that you want me to talk about on a future episode you can email me at hello grumpy seoguy.com and I'll talk to you later if you're listening to grumpy SEO guy the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work join us next Wednesday when we talk about the real reason that a one-time payment or sometimes called a lifetime payment or backlinks is always a scam what's up
