What are the warning signs of a bad SEO agency?
Short answer
The clearest warning signs are a promised ranking, work the provider won't describe, accounts set up in the provider's name instead of yours, and reports that never connect to calls. One sign on its own can have an innocent explanation. Several together, or a refusal to answer a direct question about any of them, is the real warning.
The warning signs of a bad SEO (search engine optimization) provider are promises nobody can keep, work nobody will describe, and control that sits with the provider instead of with you. None of these depends on the size of the company or where it’s based. Good and poor work come from large firms and from one-person practices alike, so judge the behavior and not the type of company.
Signs you can spot before you sign
The sales conversation gives most of them away, if you know which questions to ask.
| What you hear or see | Why it matters | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| A promised position on Google | Rankings are decided by Google, so the promise can’t be backed by anything | “For which searches, measured from where, and what happens if it’s missed?” |
| A method that is “proprietary” and can’t be explained | You can’t check work you aren’t allowed to understand, and secrecy is where rule-breaking tactics hide | “What exactly will you change on my site and my profile in the first month?” |
| The same package for every business | A roofer in El Cajon and a solar installer in Carlsbad don’t have the same problem | “What did you find on my site that led to this plan?” |
| Offers to set up your website, profile or ad account for you, in their name | You may not be able to take them with you | “Whose name will each account be in, and can I remove your access myself?” |
| A long commitment with no clear exit | It removes the provider’s reason to keep earning the work | “What are the notice terms, and what do I keep if I leave?” |
The first row is the simplest to judge: Google decides rankings, which settles whether anyone can promise first-page rankings. On the last, read the terms yourself before signing and weigh whether a 12-month contract makes sense for your business.
Signs that appear after the work starts
These take longer to show.
- Reports list rankings and traffic and never mention calls, forms or booked jobs.
- The rankings reported are for phrases you have never heard a customer use.
- You ask what was changed last month and get a description of effort, with no dates and no pages named.
- The person who sold you the service is gone, and you can’t reach whoever does the work.
- Requests for your own logins are delayed or refused.
- Links or reviews arrive in bulk from places you don’t recognize. This one is serious, because it can point to black hat SEO, and your business carries the penalty, not the provider.
One sign isn’t a verdict
Some contracts have a minimum term because the first months involve heavy setup work. Some providers report rankings because the client asked for them. A slow reply can mean a busy week. Each of those has an ordinary cause, so raise the sign and watch what happens. A provider doing honest work answers a direct question directly, usually with something you can check. Evasion in response to a fair question is the sign that outweighs the rest.
What the opposite looks like
It’s fair to hold any provider to the following, including me. You own the website, the domain, the Google Business Profile, the analytics and the ad accounts, and the provider works through access you can remove. You know who is doing the work and can talk to that person. The provider writes down each change and measures it, and the report says in plain English what was done and what it did. Nobody can guarantee a ranking, and a good provider tells you so before you ask.
If you already have a provider and several of these signs look familiar, the useful next step is to gather evidence. A Scientific SEO Audit records what is in place on the site and the profile and measures where you rank across your service area. With that in hand, the conversation with your current provider becomes specific, and it may turn out the work is better than the reporting made it look.