Getting a real SEO marketing expert or company on your side can seem like an uphill battle when so many out there are advertising like crazy, telemarketing and soliciting every business they can possibly reach to tell them that their website is not being found on Google. No business owner wants to feel like they are missing leads or that the website they worked so hard on or paid so much for isn’t doing them any good. When it comes to determining the professionals from the SEO scammers, sometimes the difference between the two isn’t always immediately clear.

We want to help you avoid SEO scams – before you hand over your hard earned money in hopes of landing on that coveted Page 1 of Google as they so miraculously promise. Here are some things to look out for:

If the visitors to your website are coming from Google AdWords – or other paid search programs, that is not SEO. There are even some very shady companies out there with coders who can make it look like the visitors you have coming to your website from AdWords are actually coming in organically from the search result pages for your keywords.

If a company keeps pushing you to pay for social media marketing on top of the SEO plan, look out. Posting to blogs, updating Twitter, and interacting on Facebook does not always give your website a boost in SEO or rankings. Unless you are fully married to the long term effort it takes to build a presence online with social media and continuously providing new content and responding to & engaging your followers, someone’s advice on entering the social media marketing space could actually do more harm than good when it comes to your website rankings.

Also watch out for the new SEO provider on the block. There are more than a few SEO companies who take your money & run, disappearing after only a few months in to an annual agreement. Always make sure your SEO consultant is well established and has the credentials to back up their price. You want to deal with a company that will do the work and make good on what they agreed to do for your website.

Take a lesson from others who have been duped by SEO scams! Work with real professionals if you want results.