As a company supplying  internet marketing services to our clients, and advertising these services on the internet, I’m surprised at how many phone calls and emails we get from providers of services that we also supply. The pitch often starts with something like “Do you want your website to be at the top of Google?, a question inevitably followed by your answer, “Yes, of course I do!” Occasionally I’ll have a look at the website of  the company offering their service. Through the years what has been most interesting about 99% of all of these solicitations is a common factor inherent in their own websites: they don’t “rank” for anything. They often have zero for page rank and have a limited, or nonexistent link profile. Many don’t even have social media profiles, let alone any social media activity.

Sure, they may point to current client A, who ranks highly for some phrase like “60” purple shoelaces”, but you have no way of knowing how that website actually came to rank for that phrase. Perhaps by accident, perhaps by a well-written preexisting piece of content, perhaps due to actions taken by a previous SEO, who had been terminated, prior to their hiring this current solicitor. Maybe there is no competition for the phrase they use as the sign of their success.

I suggest you look at their own website and if it doesn’t rank for anything, ask why? And don’t accept the old “shoemaker has no shoes” explanation. If they are capable of providing services to you, they should be doing the same for themselves!

As always, buyer beware. SEO is loaded with unskilled and inexperienced practitioners, whose strongest asset is their sales team.