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Many small and medium sized businesses just don’t have the time to manage their own website and do their own SEO, or search engine optimisation. Using a specialist agency is the obvious choice, but how do you sort the professional agencies from the less scrupulous? There are some SEO practices which may show short term results, but which long-term can see you penalised heavily in the long run. There are seven main “quick fix” services which you should be trying to avoid at all costs.

Link Exchanging

Many agencies manage multiple websites and will offer to connect up your website with others operating in the same market, and get those websites to link back to yours. Link exchanges have fallen out of favour with Google, as these reciprocal links are seen as cancelling each other out.

Submitting to Directories

This was one of the original SEO ideas, whereby the agency would manually submit details of your website into an online directory. There are thousands of directories, operating like a phone book and containing links back to your site. The problem is that Google looks for links on authoritative websites when ranking sites, and directories are lacking in authority. One link from a well-respected website is worth far more than thousands from directory sites.

Automated Content

Being able to produce content automatically seems like a huge bonus – no more paying people to come up with ideas and write copy. Also known as “spinning”, automated content usually means taking an article or post published elsewhere, and running it through software designed to rewrite it and make it unique for Google searches. The problem is that this scrambled content often reads in a very unnatural manner and it’s obvious that it’s been written by a machine, not a human.

Social Media Followers

If you’ve only just set up your company’s Instagram or Twitter feed, then it’s tempting to take up the offer of thousands of instant followers to make your account appear popular and genuine. Freelancers and agencies will often offer to supply thousands of “likes” or followers for very little money. These aren’t real followers though, they are mass-produced, fake accounts which might show up as a follower on your feeds, but won’t engage or react to your posts. Most social media sites ban this practice, and might delete your profile completely if you’re found to be buying fake followers.

Reviews

Another shady tactic is to buy fake reviews for your products or services. Fake reviews are considered paid endorsements, and they’re usually very easy for consumers to spot. Encourage real customers to review your products instead.

Private Blog Networks

This is a network of poor-quality websites which all link into each other. Google has been cracking down on these networks since 2014, so don’t be tempted to use this tactic.

Guaranteed Top Rankings

A good SEO agency won’t make any wild claims or guarantees. They’ll be happy to show you what they’ve done for other clients though, so ask for proof of previous work.