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- [00:00]
Grumpy SEO Guy
This is Grumpy SEO Guy episode 98, Questions to Ask an SEO Agency. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the grumpy SEO guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because many of you have emailed me and said you don't know what questions to ask when you're talking to an SEO agency. So we're gonna talk about that today. So, just as a reminder, new episodes of Grumpy SEO Guy are released at 9am Central Time on Wednesdays. Okay. That's for the podcast version. Like, if you're listening to it, but if you're doing it on YouTube, they come out a little bit later. I try to have them published by 10:00am Central Time, but because of the software that I used to publish the podcast, sometimes it takes a little bit longer anyway. I try to respond to comments that same day, but sometimes I don't get to the comments until, like, Thursday. So if you're posting a comment on the YouTube video and you have a question, I will try to reply to it on Thursday at the latest for new videos. Okay, let's get into this week's topic, but before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. During this episode, we're going to talk about questions you should ask an SEO agency. And I'm making this episode because people email me or they message me a lot and they say, hey, how do we find a good SEO agency? How do we find a good agency that will actually do SEO for us? Okay, I'm going to tell you kind of how I look at the process. But I think that some of you are going to get frustrated with me because I'm going to tell you some questions, but I'm not going to tell you the answers. And the reason I'm not going to tell you the answers is because if I were to share answers, spammers would just memorize the answers. And then when you ask the questions, you would get the grumpy SEO guy answer that some spammer memorized. And that's not going to help anybody. So considering that, here's how I kind of handle the whole thing. So look, there's. I've. I've said this a lot, and people get annoyed. And I say, if you want to find a good SEO agency, you have to comprehend SEO yourself. And now everybody would like a different answer. Everybody wants to know, like, the one simple way to find a good SEO agency. It's like, I just want to find the SEO agency with the right certification. No, there is no SEO certification. Well, like, there are, but they don't mean anything because they don't come from search engines. I have an entire episode on this topic. There is no such thing as a legitimate SEO certification because the only place that would be able to provide it would be a search engine like Google. And. And Google's not going to provide a certification saying that you know how to modify its own results. They're not going to do that. That would be like a police officer certifying you as a criminal. They're not going to do that.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
So, no, that doesn't mean that SEO certifications don't exist. It just means they don't mean anything because that's some person's opinion of what you should know, and it doesn't mean anything at all.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
So don't get confused. There are, in fact, ad certifications for pay per click or AdWords or whatever you want to call it, okay? Those exist from Google. That is a legit thing. But as you know, SEO is not advertising, so they don't. There is no even. Even if you find places offering SEO certification and even if you find some person that tells you they have some SEO certification, it doesn't mean anything because it doesn't come from the search engines, okay? It means nothing. They spent money on a thing. I don't know if they cost money. I assume they do. They spent money on a thing that means nothing, unfortunately. So I don't know. Anyway, if you want to know more about this topic, you should listen to episode 42, which is called the Topic of SEO certifications. Anyway, everybody wants to know the easy way to do a thing. They wanna know the easy way. Just tell me, because you're a grumpy SEO guy. Just tell me, what do I have to look for to find a good SEO agency? Like, there's a way of telling immediately. So I always tell people, no, you have to comprehend SEO. You have to learn SEO yourself in order to find somebody who understands it. There is no other way of doing it.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
So there's not, like a thing you can look for and know that that's a good consultant or agency.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. And if you don't like that answer and you're like, I'm not gonna listen to this, I'm gonna go listen to some other podcast. It will tell me how to find a good agency. You're not gonna be successful at SEO. Okay, I mean, that's fine. Everybody wants, like, the quick answers to everything, but there isn't one for finding an SEO agency anyway. There's a lot of questions you can ask, but ultimately, like I've said, you should listen to Grumpy SEO Guy. You should. And I mean, like, you should listen to the podcast, right? You should learn how it works, and then you can go in to your discussion ready to have it talk, to have a discussion about SEO. Okay, so here's kind of like, here's the main thing that I would look for.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
You need to ask the question. Why? Let me give you an example. You're gonna talk to a lot of agencies or whatever, people or consultants or like, whatever, whatever they're calling themselves, and they're gonna be like, oh, we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that and blah, blah, blah, and we're gonna do this, and we're these other things for you. And we're gonna do this. And look at us and us, us, us. And me, me, me. And I'm gonna do this. Okay, that's cool. You need to ask why. Okay, so, for example, maybe they will tell you something, like, every month, we're gonna build you five backlinks and write you two articles. Okay? Why? Why are you going to build us five backlinks and write you two articles? And I bet you they will not have an answer to that question because they don't know. I bet you they do the same thing for everybody because they just have the same services that they offer everybody. And I bet you they don't know the answer to that question. But. But you should still ask that question.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
Why are you going to build us five backlinks per month? Why are you going to write us 2 articles per month? Why not 4 backlinks per month? Why not 6 backlinks per month? What specifically about our website and our ranking and our keywords and our competition makes you think that five backlinks per month is the right way to do it? And then let them talk.
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Listener
Okay.
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Grumpy SEO Guy
By the way, most people are not gonna have a response to that. They're. Oh, nobody's ever asked me that before. Oh, no. So I'm just. I just want you to be advised. Most SEO agencies have very good salespeople and often worthless SEO.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
Most SEO agencies stay in business because they have good salespeople, but they are not good at SEO. Most SEO companies have a lot of client turnover because they cannot keep a client, because they cannot get results.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
But they continually make money because they have really good salespeople. And clients shuffle from one SEO agency to the next because the first one that promised them really good content was going to make them rank. They didn't rank. And then their contract expires. Their scammy contract. Because remember, all SEO contracts are scams, okay? And if you want to know more about that, listen to episode 92, which is called SEO contracts are almost always a scam. They are, by the way. So when their scammy contract ends and that content that they wrote for them didn't do anything, they go on to the next SEO agency. Oh, guys, we know how to write you the greatest content. You will totally rank. And then you know what? They write content, and guess what? Nothing happens. And then that scammy contract expires. And then they go on to the next agency who's like, oh, those other agencies were terrible. We are really good. Listen, we know those other agencies said they know how to write good content. Let me tell you something. We know how to write good content. You know what I mean? It's like, come on, dude, they just keep going from one to the next, getting the same garbage like work that doesn't do anything. Of course. How many, how many? How many companies do you have to work with that write you content before you realize content is not going to make you rank? Okay, which brings me back to what we were talking about. SEO agency is telling you how they're going to make you rank. If they say, we're going to write you really good content, please ask them why. But regardless of what they say, like, you probably walk out of the Meeting because they're not going to help you. Maybe don't, but, you know, politely decline. Because, as you know, content is not an SEO strategy. And if you want to know more about that, you should listen to episode 43, which is named Content is not an SEO Strategy. Because it's not. There's like, maybe, like, one case where content is a strategy. Maybe like, two cases. Let's talk about them just for fun, okay? Number one, if you're trying to rank for a keyword and you do not have any relevancy for that keyword on your website, you probably will need content for that keyword, okay? But that is a component of the strategy because you also need authority, okay? That is not the strategy, okay? That's example number one. Example number two is if your website has so much strength, you might be able to rank for anything you have content for. Anyway, let me be very clear about this. The majority of people do not have this occurrence, okay? Like most people. Most people's problem is not a lack of content. It is a lack of authority, okay? In the event you have heaps of authority and you can rank for anything that you have content for, and there are a few websites on the Internet that can do that, okay? In that case, yes, content will solve your problems. But I'm fairly confident that that's not the case, okay? For most. So content is not an SEO strategy. Look, you will know if that's the case. If you're just starting out, that is not the case, okay? If you're. If your competitors are outranking you, that's not the case, okay? If you already rank for pretty much everything and you will know it, okay? If you pretty much rank for everything already. Yeah, just write some more content for new things that you don't already have on your site, and you'll probably rank for those, but. But that rarely is the case. So anyway, if your SEO agency is like, we're gonna write you really good content, and that is their full strategy that they're gonna do. No, don't work with them. That's the wrong answer. So, anyway, look, so here's what I would do, all right? Like, you should try to find out why are they going to do the things that they're going to do. Why? And ask. Demand specifics. Demand specifics. And this should be, by the way, you should do this for anything. This is not SEO advice. This is advice for everything, okay? Demand specifics. When people try to gloss over something, when they try to be, like, casual about a thing, and they can't give you specifics. They're covering up something. Anybody who has talked to me, for example, can tell you that I can talk about SEO all day long. I can probably answer most of your questions, and if I can't, I can probably get the answers.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
And I can explain the answers. I'm not just saying things because it's fun. I'm explaining them and I'm describing why it's the case. And then when you have a follow up question, I relate that to the thing that you just asked. That's because I've been doing this for a very, very long time.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
And I understand it. Like, ask the, Ask the people who've had zoom advisory calls with me. Like, like, they, they tend to go over sometimes because I can't stop talking about SEO.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
Like, but if the person you're talking to doesn't, doesn't act that way if they're, if they're giving you short answers to specific questions, they're probably keeping something from you. Like, maybe they don't have the knowledge they're trying to present themselves as having. And maybe you should consider choos to work with them.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
Anyways, so I would also talk to them and I would find out what is their. Like, ask them to explain SEO to you. You will know if what they say makes sense. Because you have been studying SEO, right? Okay. So that way if somebody gets in there and they're like, we're just gonna write you some really good articles and you're gonna rank, which makes sense to a beginner, you will know that that's not how SEO works, and you probably want to have a different agency do your SEO. So again, ask specifically, why are you going to do those things? 10 backlinks a month? Why? Why not 9? Why not 11? What specifically did you find while you were researching our site that made you think 10 is the way to go? Oh, you think we need this many backlinks total? Why? What exactly did you notice when you were looking into our website that made you decide that's the number. Why not more, why not less? Why that number? Specifically why? And let them explain it. I can almost guarantee you they have no answer to that question because that's just what they do. Oh, well, we do this for all our clients. We give all our clients 10 backlinks per month. Really? Why? Why? Probably the answer is cause, well, cause they pay for it. But like, but why? Why? And I apologize, you guys, because, like, you have to know SEO yourself in order to have these conversations. You can't just show up not knowing anything and be like, hehe, I'm gonna get a good deal. Cause you're not. You're likely to find a content as king agency. That's not gonna help you.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
So like, I'm not sure. I know this is annoying because you're like grumpy as yoga. I just wanna know what they should say. I'm gonna write down your answers and I'm gonna check it off against what they say. No, I already explained why that's not gonna work, so. No. Right, but like, it's like if you go to a mechanic, and this maybe is not a good example, but it's like if you go to a mechanic and you have a car problem, okay, but you don't know anything about cars, how do you know that mechanic is actually gonna do a good job and he's not gonna rip you off? Idea. In fact, no offense to mechanics, but mechanics are sometimes known for doing that, right? By the way, SEO agencies are also known for doing that. So just FYI, I'm not like ridiculing mechanics here, right? I'm ridiculing all industries because like, there's a lot of shady people that do that. But like, SEO people, okay, I've said this before. People have a bad opinion of SEO agencies and the SEO agencies deserve it. And I'm saying this as a person who has made a living doing SEO for 15 years, okay? Most SEO agencies are scammers or whatever are scams. That kind of didn't make sense, but you know what I mean. Most SEO people are scammers, okay? Like most SEO providers are charlatans, okay? SEO deserves its bad reputation 100%.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
It's the reason I make this podcast because I want people to stop believing the stuff that doesn't work, okay? SEO 100% should have the bad reputation that it has, okay? 100. Internet marketing in general should have the bad reputation that it has. It has a terrible reputation and it is. It is proper. I do not disagree with it at all. I 100% concur with the bad reputation that Internet marketing has because they sell SEO scams and dialogue. Diet drug scams and day trading scams and real estate investing scams and affiliate marketing scams. The Internet is full of garbage and people trying to profit by selling you garbage. I could not. I could not agree with this more, okay? And this is coming from somebody who has worked in what is a version of Internet marketing for 15 years, okay? You have to know it yourself in order to find A good SEO agency. Now, you don't have to know all the things, but you should know most of the things. You should have a concept of how it works. You should understand content and authority and relevancy, and you should know what they are. And you should let the SEO agency explain it to you anyway, okay? Ask them questions and be. Look, some SEO agencies charge a lot of money, okay? All the good ones do. But I've said this before, too. Okay? Let's put it like this. If it's inexpensive, it is definitely garbage. And if it is expensive, it might be garbage, okay? There's no rule that says a scammer can't charge a lot of money, okay? But no, people that are good at SEO are going to be doing it for cheap. Just. Just FYI, good SEO is expensive, bad SEO is cheap. But bad SEO might also be expensive.
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Listener
Okay?
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Grumpy SEO Guy
I hope that is logical to you. Anyway, you have to understand yourself. You have to know kind of what's going on, right? Like, you should kind of do that for anything, right? Like, you got like a washing machine repairman coming over to your house, right? Like, you should learn a little bit about washing machines before he comes over or she comes over. Because repair people can be women too, you know, you should learn a little bit just so you kind of know what's going on. And I'm not saying that a washing machine repairman is going to, like, be a scammer or something, I don't know. But you should still learn a little bit anyway, okay? Same thing with SEO, except you kind of got to learn a lot because SEO has no barriers to entry, and anybody in the world can say they're an SEO expert. So I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit, or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders, because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder. And it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet, and it's free. You can do so@patreon.com grumpy SEO guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday when we talk about a discussion of the SEO industry.