SEO Contracts Are Almost Always a Scam - Episode 92 - Grumpy SEO Guy

Summary

Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy - “SEO Contracts Are Almost Always a Scam” (Episode 92)

Introduction

In Episode 92 of the "Grumpy SEO Guy" podcast, titled “SEO Contracts Are Almost Always a Scam”, the host delves deep into the controversial topic of SEO contracts. Drawing from his 14 years of experience running an SEO agency, Grumpy SEO Guy exposes common pitfalls within the SEO industry, particularly focusing on the misuse of contracts by dubious agencies. This episode serves as a guide for businesses seeking transparent and effective SEO services, warning them against common scams and offering insights into best practices.

The Problem with SEO Contracts

Grumpy SEO Guy begins by expressing his frustration with SEO agencies that bind clients into lengthy contracts without delivering meaningful results. He states, “I’m grumpy today because scammy SEO agencies always try to lock you in with a contract” (00:00). The host highlights how contracts have become a polarizing subject in the SEO community, with some advocating for their necessity while others, like himself, view them as tools for exploitation.

Common Scenarios of Contract Misuse

He shares recurring stories from his communications with clients who have been trapped in ineffective SEO contracts. One typical scenario involves agencies that offer content writing as their primary SEO strategy. Clients often sign six-month contracts, paying substantial monthly fees, only to see negligible improvements in their search engine rankings. Grumpy SEO Guy emphasizes, “content is not an SEO strategy. And it also has almost no effect on where you actually rank” (05:00).

The Fallacy of Content-Centric SEO

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to debunking the myth that content alone drives SEO success. He criticizes agencies that promise ranking improvements solely through article writing, labeling such practices as deceptive. “If you haven’t listened to Grumpy SEO Guy before, you should be aware that content is not an SEO strategy” (05:30). He directs listeners to his previous episode, “Content is Not an SEO Strategy” (Episode 43), for a more in-depth analysis.

Month-to-Month SEO: A Better Alternative

Contrary to the industry norm of long-term contracts, Grumpy SEO Guy advocates for month-to-month SEO services. He explains, “In 15 years, we have never used a contract ever. And I want to quantify that statement because… we do month to month SEO” (12:00). This approach allows for flexibility, enabling either party to terminate the relationship without the constraints of a binding contract. He underscores the importance of mutual trust and transparency in client-agency relationships.

Challenges with Generic SEO Timelines

The host critiques the standard SEO timelines often quoted by agencies—typically three to six months to see results. He challenges this blanket statement, asking, “Based on what? Did you do research into each domain on the Internet and conclude that all of them will take about three to six months to rank for their keywords?” (19:00). Grumpy SEO Guy argues that effective SEO is highly individualized, depending on numerous factors such as competition, industry specifics, and the client’s unique circumstances. He shares an example where his agency provided a more tailored timeline, extending it to 18-24 months based on thorough analysis (25:00).

Importance of Customized SEO Strategies

Emphasizing the need for bespoke SEO strategies, Grumpy SEO Guy explains that his agency conducts extensive assessments to understand each client’s competitive landscape before commencing any work. “SEO is not a thing that you do to your website. So it's not like it takes a certain amount of time to complete the SEO task” (35:00). He highlights that successful SEO requires a deep understanding of the client’s market, which cannot be achieved through cookie-cutter packages.

Why Contracts Benefit Only the Seller

The discussion shifts to the inherent imbalance in contractual agreements. Grumpy SEO Guy contends that contracts primarily serve to secure ongoing payments for the agency, often at the expense of the client’s flexibility. “Ultimately they all boil down to we want to keep getting paid longer, and we don’t want the other person to have an option to stop working with us” (40:00). This dynamic, he argues, is exploitative and contrary to genuine client-agency collaboration.

Final Thoughts on SEO Contracts

In his concluding remarks, Grumpy SEO Guy firmly advises against signing SEO contracts, asserting, “SEO contracts are almost always a scam” (50:00). He reiterates that effective SEO can be managed without binding agreements, promoting a month-to-month service model that aligns incentives between the client and the agency. This approach fosters accountability and ensures that clients only continue with services that deliver tangible results.

Engagement and Community Interaction

Towards the end of the episode, Grumpy SEO Guy invites listeners to share their experiences with SEO contracts, encouraging community interaction. He provides contact information for feedback and suggestions, emphasizing the importance of open dialogue in navigating the often-confusing SEO landscape.

Conclusion

Episode 92 of “Grumpy SEO Guy” serves as a critical examination of the prevalent use of contracts in the SEO industry. By exposing the strategies of scammy agencies and advocating for more transparent, flexible service models, Grumpy SEO Guy provides valuable guidance for businesses seeking trustworthy SEO partnerships. This episode underscores the importance of customized strategies over generic packages and emphasizes the need for mutual flexibility and accountability in client-agency relationships.

Key Takeaways:

Contracts Often Exploit Clients: SEO contracts typically benefit the agency by securing ongoing payments, often without delivering proportional value to the client.
Content Alone Isn’t SEO: Relying solely on content creation is an ineffective SEO strategy; comprehensive, tailored approaches are necessary for genuine ranking improvements.
Month-to-Month Services Encourage Accountability: Flexible service agreements foster better relationships and ensure that clients receive tangible results before committing to long-term payments.
Tailored SEO Timelines are Essential: Effective SEO requires individualized timelines based on thorough analysis, rather than generic estimates.
Transparency and Trust are Paramount: Building a successful SEO partnership relies on mutual trust, transparency, and the agency’s commitment to the client’s unique needs.

Listeners are encouraged to critically evaluate SEO service agreements and seek out agencies that prioritize customized, transparent strategies over rigid contractual obligations.

Transcript

Grumpy SEO Guy (0:00)

This is Grumpy SEO guy. Episode 92 SEO contracts are almost Always a Scam. 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 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 scammy SEO agencies always try to lock you in with a contract. There are few subjects in SEO that are more polarizing than talking about whether or not you should use a contract. I've got great information for SEO buyers and some pretty bad information for shady SEO scammers out there. But anyway, let's get into it. 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. Okay, if you've ever read any SEO forums or any discussions or anything, if the topic of contracts gets brought up, it's always a huge discussion. Basically, some people are like, they're bad. Some people are like, well, you have to have a contract. Yeah, okay, bro. It's like the people that say, content is king, right? Whatever. Anyways, look, so let me tell you what a normal conversation looks like, okay? I hear this multiple times a week from people that email me. They say, hey, Grumpy SEO Guy. Our last SEO agency, sometimes it's more than one. They made us sign a six month contract and all they did was write articles. And they charged us thousands of dollars a month and our ranking didn't increase at all. And then when the six months was over, they tried to get us to sign another contract because they said they needed to write more content for us. And sometimes the people that I talk to, that happens once or twice, sometimes it's even more. Sometimes it's even like three. They use three different SEO agencies, all of whom only wrote content, and lock them into a contract where they have to keep paying them lots of money for new content. So if you haven't listened to Grumpy SEO Guy before, you should be aware that content is not an SEO strategy. And it also has almost no effect on where you actually rank. So if you're talking to an agency or a consultant or whoever, and they say, oh, we're gonna write content for you and that's gonna help you rank, they're lying. Do not work with that person. That person is scamming you, okay? And if you're curious about that, you can listen to episode 43, which is called Content is Not an SEO Strategy. So basically, you've got these scammy agencies that are writing content, and it doesn't matter what number they use. Sometimes it's five articles a month or 15 articles a month. It doesn't matter because content is not an SEO strategy. So the reason you're not ranking is not because you don't have enough content on your site anyway. And then when the contract ends, and obviously there has been no gain in rank or anything, they're like, well, you need to sign another contract because we'll write you really good content and it will make you rank better. No, it won't. So anyway, look, contracts exist, so you have to continue to pay somebody. That's why contracts exist. In 15 years, we have never used a contract ever. And I want to quantify that statement because. So we do month to month SEO. Okay, let me start over. If we're doing an SEO package, right, like backlinks or something, it's month to month, okay? You can stop paying us at any time. We can also stop working with you at any time. Okay? Either party can choose to end the relationship at any time. Okay? We're not forcing you to keep paying us because you signed a contract. No, but look, all our stuff is month to month. If you're doing it a month at a time, there's no reason to have a contract like, you don't need one. It's just month to month. What, am I going to have you sign a new contract every month? No. Whatever. Anyway, look, so we tell our clients, hey, if you decide to not work with us anymore, please try to give us 30 days notice. It's not necessary, but it's good. Okay? And same thing, if we decide that we're not gonna work with somebody anymore, we'll give them 30 days notice. Okay, but that's not a contract. So I don't know. Look, I can't even imagine, like, making somebody agree to like, six months or 12 months or whatever. Because, like, no, and let me. Okay, here's why. That happens all the time. So if you ask, like, some blogger, right? Just some like, blogger person, and you're like, hey, how long do you think SEO takes? The answer that you will always get is, oh, takes about three to six months to see results. Or occasionally, oh, about six to 12 months to see results. You know, it's kind of like. So how long does SEO take? Oh, you know, about three to six months. Oh, SEO. I've seen it written, like verbatim. SEO takes about three to six months. Based on what? Based on what? Did you do research into each domain on the Internet and conclude that all of them will take about three to six months to rank for their keywords? Really? Or is that just some, like, random estimate you give? Because it sounds good. Does it sound good that you're gonna say three to six months and then you can get them to sign a three to six month contract? Here's a fun. Please feel free to do this. By the way, if anyone ever tells you three to six months, ask them why. Ask them, what specific research did you do into our competitor and us and our keywords that led you to believe 3 to 6 months? Why not 4 to 7 months? Why not 2 to 5 months? Specifically? Quantify for me what you looked at that made you decide three to six months or whatever time frame they give you. I like to ask that question, by the way. I've never gotten a response to that question, but people will sometimes share online. They'll say something like, oh, yeah, you know, we were quoted the following amount by an SEO agency and, you know, and with that money, every month they're gonna write us 10 articles and build us 15 backlinks. And it's like, why? What specifically did they look at to determine that 10 articles a month is the proper plan for you? And 15 backlinks. What specifically did they look at to compute that 15 backlinks is the correct number for you? And nobody ever has an answer because they're just saying numbers that sound good. SEO takes three to six months and write 10 articles and 15 backlinks per month. Yeah, okay, bro. By the way, that sounds to me like SEO off a menu, which is a bad idea. Regardless, one size fits all. SEO packages never help anyone, ever. Except the shady consultant who is selling them to you. Anyway, by the way, just for fun, we just did an assessment for a client a little bit ago, and I told him in the meeting, I felt kind of bad. I'm like, listen, I know that we said that on average it's like six to 12 months, but I'm like, based on the data that we have that we've spent the last. Most of the meeting talking about, I'm like, for you, it's probably closer to 18 to 24 months because of the following specific numbers based on data. Not just, oh, yeah, it takes about 12 months, bro, but you gotta remember somebody because somebody's gonna say, why don't you tell them that beforehand? Because I didn't know. You don't know things until you have provided the time and effort to look in to a client's website or like, whatever the thing is, you're doing their competition, whatever, you know, it doesn't matter. But look, so like, my point is this. If somebody. Okay, so if somebody were to ask me, how long does SEO take on average, depending on how specific I wanted to get, you know, I probably say it takes about six months. But there's so many factors. That's such a guess that you can't even go by it. Okay. I'm not sure what else to say. That's such a guess. Like, sometimes you get good movement after six months. Sometimes you get no movement after a year because the competition is very difficult. Sometimes you get incredible movement after, like, two months because it's easy. But, like, you can't just answer that question. You remember in another episode we said, like, how fast you need to be to win a race depends on your competition. And I don't know what your competition is doing unless I spend multiple days looking into all the things I need to look into. Okay. And I hope you guys understand the difference between an SEO agency saying, oh, yeah, it'll take six months. Sign this contract having done zero research into anything, and me saying, SEO might take about six months. But without specifically doing analysis into your website, your keywords, your competition, et cetera, I can't answer that question. I hope you understand the difference between those. Anyway, that's one of the things that we figure out. Like, before we even start working with a client, we spend a long time assessing their competition to figure out exactly what is happening in their industry with them and their competition. So if you're gonna email me, because people like to email me and message me and say, hey, here's my website, here's my keywords, how long will it take me to rank that is an expensive question that will take some time to answer. Just FYI, there's no secret SEO program that I type your information in and click a button and it tells me the answer. How much weight do you need to lift to be the strongest person at the contest? I don't know. It depends on your competition, doesn't it? So how long does SEO take? Remember, SEO is not a thing that you do to your website. So it's not like it takes a certain amount of time to complete the SEO task. Right? Anyway, doesn't matter. So let's talk about contracts. I already said most of our services that we provide are month to month. If you want to leave next month, awesome. I'm sorry, didn't work out, but you're welcome to do so, you know? Or if we decide that we're not gonna work with you anymore, then it's the same. So, like, I don't know, but look like so. But I've heard all kinds of arguments, like, in favor of contracts, but ultimately they all boil down to we want to keep getting paid longer, and we don't want the other person to have an option to stop working with us. Which sounds kind of controlling to me. So I don't know. Like, nobody likes contracts, though. Like, nobody likes being locked into things. And yes, let's say SEO. Let's. Let's say it will take 12 months. Okay. Why would I lock you into that? Other. Other. Okay. Other than I'm just trying to extract as much money from you as possible, why would I lock you into that if after four months you feel like you're not getting the value that you should? Even though we said it's probably gonna take 12 months based on research and not just choosing numbers that sound good. Okay. Like, you're welcome to leave. That's fine. And so I guess what I'm asking anybody out there who's considering, like, purchasing SEO from somebody, do you want to work with somebody that does not have that thought process? Right. What if you need to leave for some reason? What if you just don't want to work with them anymore after, like, four months? Oh, you can't, because you're stuck for the rest of the year. Yeah, no, that's. You should never, ever sign an SEO contract, ever. I will say SEO contracts are almost always a scam, because I can't. In 15 years, I haven't thought of a reason why you need to use one. Maybe. Maybe there's a reason that I just haven't pictured yet. But we've never had to use one. Anyway. Look, here's the thing. You don't need a contract. Anything that can be done with a contract can also be done without a contract. So if you say it's a good idea to lock yourself into a contract where no matter what happens, you're going to be paying for the next year, go ahead. But I'm telling you to not do that. Okay? I'm telling you to not do that because it will not go well for you, probably. That's my advice. Anyway, if you have experience with SEO contracts and you're watching this video on YouTube, you should post it below because I'm curious what you think of everything. 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 Seoguy 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 should you hide your private blog network.