Should I name and shame my bad SEO company?

Basically paid for an SEO as a test. If they did well I was going to employ them full time on 5-10 sites.

Turns out the "guarantee" of top 10 in 3 months is not (as expected) but...after 2 months they basically stopped contacting me (I'd paid 90% of the cash which is probably why) and any rankings I got basically dropped. They had previously agreed to keep working until they got my rankings if it went over the 3 months...but as they no longer mail me thats that out the window.

They were hard keywords but I was testing a service so no point doing easy ones I can do my self.

I am not going to name and shame for reasons of spite, simply because I do not want anyone else to get bitten by the same bug. Should I or not?

 

Yes, i feel you have the every right to name them as you are cheated by them. However its not a good practice to employ those who guarantees those #1 rankings for every keyword because SEO is a time consuming process and takes certain time to gain them. But you might have paid them in parts instead of going with an upfront payment if you aren't sure how good they are. demand an explanation from them if they are already existing in this forum or just caution others too here about them.

 

Yes i think too many of us have settled for 2nd rate work in the past, from now on ill be naming and shaming! Go on spill the beans!

 

Did you hire them surfing around at digital point? If you had then and if i were you i will tell who they were coz i will not want them to be hired by anyone else. People who say themselves SEO company or SEO experts will in the first place not assure they will rank you in 3 months on the top 10 if the keyword is very competitive like you say.

Before you hired them you should have first checked if theyy were ranking for their very own keyword on the title tag. Also if you are doing an online transaction you should never pay them the whole fee or the upfront fee of 90%.

Just my 2cents to everyone when you are doing an online business choose companies who are willing to accept may be a fee of 10-15% upfront or you might even want to hire Pay on Results Program.

 

No comments on your question...let me know if you need help though.

 

Yes - I think you should. The whole industry is full of scammers promising the earth and delivering nothing. If you mention the name of the company somewhere and it's enough for someone searching for '[that company] review' or similar then you could stop one more person falling into that trap.

It's highly unlikely they'd take any form of action against you, but do make sure you've got enough evidence to avoid it if they did!

Edit: while I'm here - if an SEO ageny 'guarantees' you positions in the search results, that's the first sign they're full of crap. Don't let them anywhere near your site.

 

So you were greedy?

Now you want to blame someone else for your greed?

 

Always be careful of any SEO company that guarantees you a top ranking. The purpose of an SEO company is to rank you on the front page for your keywords, but only the search engines can guarantee any rankings. Usually companies that automatically guarantee rankings are fraudulent. I definitely would report them, because it makes it harder for the good SEO companies to legitimately help people after they have been burned.

 

i think you should atleast try to mail this thread to them and let them explain before naming. if still no message from them after mailing this thread, then name them. so that some people may be aware about them and be warned

 

Pay on Results Program is highly impractical coz someone can't wait for 3-6 months for payment as in SEO for good keywords to gain ranks thats the min time period. Payment based on work hours/week/month is preferable mostly i say

 

Hey! Go ahead and share your exp wid us so that others can't have the same exp. I m considering some SEO companies for my website but after reading this i m more concerned about their previous rapo

 

The point of this post was?

I can do the lower competition keywords myself, but not the higher competition ones. I hired them for the higher competition ones. What part of this is greedy? Trying to pay someone to get the results I can't achieve, just like most corporations do for their main business websites.

Blaming someone else for my greed? No I'm blaming someone else for not doing the work they promised.

I put a timescale on projects of 7 days. If I don't deliver work within 7 days, I am not doing what has been agreed. If this is going to happen for whatever reason, I email the client before hand and ask if they would like to wait, or if they would like a refund. I don't just leave them hanging for months of no contact for work they have paid for.

On a similar note. I don't send someone a blank Microsoft Word Document and pass that off as the work they have paid for. This would be useless to my clients, just like my non ranking keywords are to me.

Thanks for your input though, I'm sure it will help a lot of people.

 

No comment, i think i should keep quiet because you are not serious

 

You should, before other people would make the same mistake. At least tell them they should do a maximum 50% deposit in advance and 50% when the job is finished.

 

hi GrantDraper, you are right, you must have set a milestone for each keywords as most of the company does, as Pay on Results Program are also not good for the guys who does SEO.

you may set a mile stone like if your keyword comes in top 15 then you would pay and likewise...

 

i think you should name so that all other will be safe from these kind of cheaters.. so if you really think that you suffered a lot then save others to get suffer from the same

 

I would! If you need decent SEO services, drop me a PM.

 

Yep, name them.... If they've taken your money and not fulfilled their promises they deserve to be named and shamed

 

guarantees like that are pretty stupid, unless it's a money back guarantee..
ranking guarantees, no such thing imo

 

Name them please, your only doing them a favor by not doing so.