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Ripped off?

by Shanti10
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi there, we have had a friend contact us regarding some SEO he had paid to be done. He spent $1175 over a few months and all he got was some crappy on-page suggestions and some graphs showing his position. He got 10 backlinks - seem spammy to me - all from social media - facebook, linkedin, twitter, stumbleupon and meaningless. Rankings have not altered or dipped.Was he ripped off? Should he try and get a refund?
#ripped
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by Shanti10 View Post

    Hi there, we have had a friend contact us regarding some SEO he had paid to be done. He spent $1175 over a few months and all he got was some crappy on-page suggestions and some graphs showing his position. He got 10 backlinks - seem spammy to me - all from social media - facebook, linkedin, twitter, stumbleupon and meaningless. Rankings have not altered or dipped.Was he ripped off? Should he try and get a refund?
    Hard to say if he was ripped off or not. What was he paying the SEO to do? If they only agreed on a site audit, and a few social links, then it sounds like he got what he paid for. If they agreed to something more than that, then he has some questions for the SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbizideasblog
      A good SEO usually cost a few thousand a month minimum.

      Did he clarify any scope of work? When hiring an SEO, it's a good idea to get some details on what exactly they plan to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    $1,175 seems low, even for one months service to me. It depends on the niche/service level he bought for his site. Without being able to look at the order/contract he signed on for, and the before and after results, it is hard to tell. On first glance, I would say he bought into t cat in the bag operation or second rate SEO service. If the niche is competitive, then possibly it takes ix to nine months for the ranking of his site. It all depends.
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  • Profile picture of the author PBScott
    I find that less than 10% of SEOs actually know how search engines work... yet 99% of them feel they are experts.... it is likely the SEO company did the best they knew how to do, and feel their awesome job is worthy of the cash they charged.

    SEO often takes some time to show improvements, there is no way of really measuring the quality of what they did without being an SEO expert yourself.

    Social media has nothing to do with SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author DizenSounds
      Originally Posted by PBScott View Post

      I find that less than 10% of SEOs actually know how search engines work... yet 99% of them feel they are experts.... it is likely the SEO company did the best they knew how to do, and feel their awesome job is worthy of the cash they charged.

      SEO often takes some time to show improvements, there is no way of really measuring the quality of what they did without being an SEO expert yourself.

      Social media has nothing to do with SEO.
      This is like most industries though, a lot of people selling services or in a business they know nothing about. Unfortunately though you are right. I have been in SEO for over 10 years and I cannot tell you the people I've come across over the years.

      Most of the time you'll find them at meetups, usually those tailored towards the Moz community. Now don't get me wrong, not all Moz followers are lost but many of them read Moz as if it's the bible. Since they take everything at face value from Moz they think it works and then claim they are an expert.

      Whats sad is when you see Fishkin making tweets regarding whether or not PBN and paid links work. How is it that he needs to ask this question? The SEO "guru" not knowing if paid links or PBN's work.

      SEO's should try EVERYTHING, they should have test sites to determine what works and what doesn't. That's the job of an SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron0669
    Originally Posted by Shanti10 View Post

    Hi there, we have had a friend contact us regarding some SEO he had paid to be done. He spent $1175 over a few months and all he got was some crappy on-page suggestions and some graphs showing his position. He got 10 backlinks - seem spammy to me - all from social media - facebook, linkedin, twitter, stumbleupon and meaningless. Rankings have not altered or dipped.Was he ripped off? Should he try and get a refund?
    You mean that's all they do?
    Ask your friend to review the contract. SEO companies normally do more than just providing a few backlinks. Some even go to the extent of getting you to do on site optimisation, article marketing, press releases. But of the course the cost is different depending on the kind of service you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Bells & whistles didn't go off during the first month of nothingness.

    At least you got a chart out of the deal.




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  • Profile picture of the author LuckyIMer
    It depends what on what was the agreement and type of SEO service and link building is included. Surely since it is an SEO service, website optimization has been done, without seeing your friend website optimization, it wont be possible to give you an answer to your question.
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  • Profile picture of the author TotalWebsiteControl
    How many months is a few months? Look like he got what he paid for.
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