Just like any industry, there’s always a bad apple that spoils the bunch, so it can be tough when making important decisions for your business to not be overcome with FOBRO — Fear Of Being Ripped Off — especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

It’s important to do your research, but you can’t let FOBRO cripple your decision making ability for your business!!! I hope this article helps ease your nerves when it comes to SEO. There’s a ton of terrible SEO companies, but finding a good one can truly revolutionize your business.

These questions will help give you a baseline of whether or not the company you’re talking to has your best interest in mind:

  • Are they based in the United States?
  • How much do they charge you?
  • Can they provide you client rankings & prove their process to you?
  • Can you talk to real clients of theirs?
  • Are they knowledgeable?
  • Is their goal to make you money or take it from you?
  • Do they have a guarantee?
  • Do they make you sign a long-term contract?
  • Do you get exclusivity in your niche & market?

Working Through and Overcoming FOBRO

Like I said earlier, there are bad apples in the ‘SEO company bushel,’ so let’s work through how you can determine who can legitimately help your business — I’ll give you a hint: the best SEO company isn’t one of the ones cluttering up your spam/junk folder with terrible grammar 😉

Location and Price Point

Are they based in the United States? If they are based overseas, that automatically throws up a red flag for me. Why? Simply because most folks who claim they can help with your SEO that are based in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the like are using outdated methods to rank your site, which will be ineffective and could potentially hurt your website’s standing with Google.

Another thing: just because they are local to your area doesn’t mean they are good. Still evaluate your close-to-home companies with this same microscope because you might find that a company in another state is actually much, much better than anyone local to you.

If this self-proclaimed ‘SEO Guru’ tells you that they only charge you a couple hundred bucks a month, that’s a dead giveaway to run. Why? They neglect essential, foundational SEO steps that kill your ranking potential — like on page optimization or quality high authority backlinks.

Does SEO have to cost you $10,000/month? Heck no. But it sure isn’t gonna be pennies on the dollar. It’s all about ROI!

Your SEO company should help you understand the amount of money that’s out there to be made from SEO. They shouldn’t just take your check & run away. They should walk you through the process from beginning to end and help you understand how SEO can grow your business.

Because think about it: why are you doing SEO? You’re doing it to have your potential customers find you, which is going to make you more money. So if a SEO company doesn’t come at it from your perspective of why it is going to benefit in you making more money, they aren’t the company for you.

Proven Results From Real Clients

A huge thing you want to look for in a SEO company is results from real clients. Have they ranked other businesses? Have they ranked businesses in your niche?

Now, the second one — in my opinion — is not as important as have they ranked other businesses because if they have a roofer at the top of page 1 and you’re a general contractor or plumber, my guess is they’ll be able to help you too.

You want to make sure they can prove to you that they’ve done this before. Even ask to talk to clients. If they can’t give out references of clients they’ve helped then I’d say, “NEXT!”

Are they knowledgable about the industry? Even if you may not know 100% what SEO is, they should be able to explain the overall process in layman’s terms to where you understand the general overview.

If you understand more technical stuff, ask those questions. If that stuff goes over your head, just ask for a general description of what happens from point A to point B — they should say something along the lines of they’ll rank your website, people will find you, call you and you’ll make more money.

Guarantees, No Contracts and Exclusivity

A huge way to get rid of your FOBRO is by being offered a guaranteed service, right? Because that way you know you’re getting one of two outcomes: you get ranked and get results or you get your money back… that’s it.

The folks overseas are going to guarantee you #1 rankings because they are desperate for your business. Don’t go with someone who guarantees something out of desperation, go with someone who has a guarantee based on experience, knowledge & legitimate results.

You don’t want to be bound in a contract either — unless you work out an annual deal to save you a little money, which would be your choice to do so.

SEO, like any service you’re buying for your business or personal use, should come with the option to cancel if that company isn’t performing. Doesn’t it make sense that if after 6 months, you’re still stuck on page 5 where you started from you can cancel?

All too many times, I hear horror stories from businesses that they signed 12, 24 or even 36 month agreements with a SEO company and are getting jack squat from it. That’s why I am weary about folks forcing businesses to sign contracts… month-to-month is a much safer option, especially if you’re getting over FOBRO.

Exclusivity, Exclusivity, Exclusivity… Most companies out there do NOT offer this, which blows my mind. But think about it: why would you want to sign on with a company that ranks you AND your competition?! There is only one, #1 ranking, so there is a major conflict of interest at play in that scenario.

Finding a company that can give you peace of mind is extremely important because if you can rest assured that you have an edge over your competition, you’ll sleep much better at night 😉

Steel Marketing Gives You Peace Of Mind

If you’ve got a bad case of FOBRO, schedule a consultation with us here at Steel Marketing. Steel Marketing is here to help give you peace of mind because we offer a 90 day money back guarantee, have legitimate client rankings to show you, ONLY do month-to-month ‘agreements’ and offer exclusivity in your niche & market.

We’ll give you an honest assessment about what is going to work best for your business because each industry & each city across the US is entirely different — that’s why none of our client’s SEO game-plan are identical.

We want to see your business grow like it never has before — just like the companies we’ve helped have 6 figure months (not years), hire on more workers because of the massive influx of leads and literally doubled their overall revenue.

Steel Marketing makes FOBRO a thing of the past 😉