How to check if your Website SEO Consultant is correct

How to check if your Website SEO Consultant is doing a great job

This is a tale from my vault of client stories, which is still valid today.

About 15 years ago I was contacted by Mary, a website owner who was frustrated that her SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) wasn’t working, and she needed help.

At our first meeting, I took the following notes:

1. the website had been set up 5 years ago
2. it was for a small business selling computers and related equipment
3. Mary’s potential clientele was local as well as all over Australia (which is the same physical size as the USA)
4. Mary had been contacted about 4 years ago by “an SEO Specialist” who met with her, explained how their SEO Service Package could help boost her traffic, increase the incoming phone calls and bring in relevant potential customers via the website; Mary was very excited about this and signed up
5. There would be a Monthly Fee for continuing SEO updates
6. The website login and password were handed over, and Mary was hoping for great things for her business!

Costs of Mary’s SEO Consultant

1. The fee for this service 15 years ago was around $A200.00 monthly after an initial meeting and discussing the keyword phrases suitable for the business.
2. Total spent? This SEO “Specialist” had made $A2,400.00 per year, x 4 years, so a total of $A9,600.00.

My questions for Mary were:

1. did you receive a Monthly SEO Report detailing:
   • which SEO actions had been performed
   • which keyword phrases were working
   • which keyword phrases were not working and would be removed from the SEO going forward
   • what the recommended action plan was for the next month?
   • Mary’s reply shocked me – she had never been offered a Report of any kind
   • Mary had not thought to ask for a Report, she thought of it the same as paying for website Hosting, and hadn’t thought about reporting.
2. I asked Mary whether she had given any thought on how to track the success of the SEO efforts?
   • Mary’s response was that the website SEO consultant had explained that the influx of phone calls, emails, new clients and web traffic would show how well their SEO strategies were working
   • Mary assumed that the SEO team were managing all of that, and hadn’t thought to ask for any evidence in writing.
3. I asked Mary if it was possible to provide any information for her business over the past 4 years in regard to an increase of clients and money in the bank
   • Mary was sad to admit that no, there had been no improvement whatsoever
   • after calling every few months to see how everything was going, the response from the SEO specialist was that everything was working how they had planned, so Mary continued to place her trust in them.
4. Mary had regularly checked the search engines for her keyword phrases related to “computer”, “computer products” in her online store, couple with store’s physical location, and her business name etc. Unfortunately there were never any results, and Mary thought perhaps she just did not understand how SEO was supposed to work.

How did Mary find me?

I was a Guest Speaker talking about SEO Tips for Business Owners

A quick bit of history – Mary first heard of me when I was a Guest Speaker at a local business event, and she was impressed that I sounded like I knew so much about SEO.

After thinking about what she heard at that event, Mary reached out and here we were, meeting in person and talking about the SEO for her computer products business website.

I had my laptop with me, and I asked Mary if she would be OK with me going to look at the SEO on her website, and she was very happy for me to do that.

When I went to the Home page, and looked at the HTML behind the scenes, I was absolutely shocked!

ALL of the Meta Tags had information for a Wedding Website!

 

I quickly checked another couple of computer product pages, and it was the same.

 

There were NO Meta Tags related to this computer product website!

I felt so very sad for Mary, as I turned to her and explained what I had just found.

I then showed Mary several Meta Tags where her website’s info should be, and asked her if she knew why the website only had Wedding Meta Tags.

Mary was shocked too, as the realisation hit that she had been scammed in two different ways:

1. The website was commissioned with a Website Designer who must have used a template for a wedding site, or had a client whose business was weddings, and the site had been cloned. Either way, it had all the Wedding Meta Tags on every single page. Such a shock but at least that web person had explained they didn’t “do SEO” and suggested she find someone else who did.
2. The second scam of course was the “SEO Specialist” who had not edited, changed or replaced any of the Wedding Meta Tags in four years, even though they kept acceping Mary’s monthly SEO fee being deposited straight into their bank account.

To be honest, Mary and I were both so shocked, we sat there for  a while and let all of this soak into our brains.

I was mortified that Mary had been ripped off for almost $A10,000 over 4 years.

Mary was absolutely shattered and in shock.

The one bright moment in that day was that now we KNEW THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM, it could be fixed.

What happened next?

Mary contacted the website SEO Consultant and had words with them.

I did not enquire as to how that went and whether there’d be any repercussion, resolution or refund.

That business relationship ended immediately.

Over the next week I did all the necessary keyword phrase searches to find the best ones for Mary’s business. I replaced all the Meta Tags with the juicy, new, correct information which resulted in the following:

• within 4 weeks Mary’s phone started to ring with enquiries from the website
• emails started to pour in asking about the products on the website
• searching for Mary’s keyword phrases on search engines now showed tons of juicy search results which included Mary’s website, local business, and nationwide provider search results
• Great results! Mary’s business started to take off in the right direction!

Press Releases Added To The Marketing Mix!

To help Mary get her business name out there quickly, I recommended an “old school” technique which still works very well, even in 2023 :-)

I wrote a couple of Press Releases which Mary was happy with:

• I published them online on Press Release sites, to get them in front of as many eyes as possible
• I also recommended local places to share them offline
• Mary had some contacts from previous years and created a list of people to share the Press Releases with
• this had great success!

And now: Video Marketing is the cherry on top!

I was just starting to add video creation and marketing to my own business Services, and Mary was happy to try a monthly video which I would create, based on her computer products.

I was keen for Mary to go with the video marketing because:

1. published videos on YouTube would be like having 24 hour a day free advertisements
2. each video’s Description would have a link back to the relevant page on Mary’s website
3. each video could have its own blog post/page  on Mary’s website, with the video embedded, and a link back to the location on YouTube.

I checked in with Mary each month to see how everything was going, sharing my SEO Reports with her, and going over her website statistics.

Watching the growth of the website traffic which was creating new business was such a wonderful part of my job.

Two Years Later Mary Sold The Thriving Business and Website For A Great Price

When Mary let me know it was time for her to sell her business and move into a different field, I was thrilled for her.

She’d found a wonderful new owner for her business, who was very impressed with Mary’s SEO strategies which continued to bring plenty of traffic, visitors and new customers.

Part of my SEO Services for Mary included:

1. overview of Keyword Phrases and how they work
2. a list of all the places were the marketing videos could be shared
3. a PDF showing how to check the ROI (Return on Investment) of how each keyword phrase was doing
4. an SEO Website Tracking Sheet with instructions to show how to fill it in every Monday, in order to see the improvements week-by-week. This automatically created a Chart which made it very easy to see the results!

I helped Mary and the new Owner:

1. transfer the Domain
2. transfer the Hosting
3. and transfer the YouTube Account into the new owner’s name, and everything went smoothly.

So this was a happy ending coming after a shocking revelation of being scammed by an “SEO Specialist”, and this story is a reminder to me, to remind everyone who has a website, to participate in their website and SEO management and tracking, at least monthly, and for the life of the business.

Remember – Monthly SEO Reports Are Essential!

Asking for detailed Monthly SEO Reports keeps the SEO person on their toes to provide valid information and recommendations, and ensures the website owner is constantly updated on the improvement in their website’s standing in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Best of luck with YOUR website SEO Consultant, video marketing and business!

I hope this helps clarify why it’s necessary to know how and ensure an SEO person is actually completing their tasks, and please do let me know if you have any questions.

• feel free to email me here >>
• or call or text me in the Brisbane  area on 0408-801-808
• if you’re outside Australia, please do check the Time Zones first – then dial the international code from your country, then +61-408-801-808
• if you’d like to video chat over Zoom.com, on your iPhone or an App like WhatsApp, feel free to send me a message and we’ll set up a date and time that works well for us both
• or post messages here:
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • here on my website.

Best of luck! Cheerio for now,

I’m Teena Hughes – I simplify digital tech so you can you become a productive digital and video creator! I share videos about useful tools including AI-related tips, productivity tips, and digital marketing to help you build your online business.

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