This article from Search Engine Journal was so good, that I felt like I wanted to share it with you (and it has such good info that I have no need to write my own!)
Below I’ve shared their list of the top 10 scams that we even see people trying to sell to us… be sure to read their full article at https://www.searchenginejournal.com/top-seo-scams/416351/ since it also contains information on variations of the scam, how to spot it, and what to do instead.
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1. DA-based Link Building/Guest Posting
The Scam: The seller will provide you a link or a guest post on their “high DA” website, claiming this will help your website rank better.
2. Link Bait and Switch
The Scam: During link building outreach, the link requestor is informed the existing link to a competitor website was purchased and can be switched for a fee.
3. Guest Posts for Your Website
The Scam: A writer will provide you a “totally free,” on-topic blog post for your website.
4. Guaranteed Rankings
The Scam: An SEO “expert” will reach out and offer their services with guaranteed rankings.
5. The Google Partner
The Scam: An SEO firm shows their legitimacy by claiming they are a “Google Partner.”
6. Search Engine Submittal
The Scam: A company offers to help with your search engine rankings by submitting your website to any number of search engines, including Google.
7. “We Noticed Your Website Isn’t Ranking for…”
The Scam: A company sends out a friendly email claiming that they “noticed your company isn’t ranking on Google for some of the important keywords for your company.”
8. “This is Google. Your Listing is About to Expire…”
The Scam: Usually in the form of an automated phone call (AKA, a robocall), a voice, sometimes claiming to be from Google, will tell you that your “listings” on Google are about to expire.
9. “Want Proof? I Rank Number One for X”
The Scam: An SEO or SEO firm shows its SEO prowess via the rank of its website.
10. Prices Too Good to Be True
The Scam: You’re promised expert SEO work for extraordinarily low prices.
Vicky is the CEO and Chief Creative Strategist of Vicky Wu Marketing. She draws from 30 years of experience at the CMO level, the CEO level, marketing for Fortune 500 companies and multi-million and multi-billion-dollar organizations, PLUS strategies learned helping startups and nonprofits with limited budgets … now focusing on providing SMBs with effective and efficient marketing strategies – giving them access to the same level of expertise as the really big guys with deep pockets, that they may not otherwise be able to access.
