Abandoned SEO & Social Media Marketing Engagement
- Search Engine Optimization
- $10,000 to $49,999
- Nov. 2017 - Feb. 2018
- Quality
- 0.5
- Schedule
- 0.5
- Cost
- 0.5
- Willing to Refer
- 0.5
"I wouldn’t recommend them for anything."
- Other industries
- Greenville, South Carolina
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
SEO Inc. did site optimization and keyword marketing to increase web traffic. The project also required blog content creation, backlinking, social media management, and web development.
Only a few of the intended pages were optimized, while link and content goals were not achieved. Most blog posts were not acceptable quality for publication and required third-party intervention. Project management turnover did not resolve these issues, which resulted in a terminated relationship.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m a partner at a landscaping company. We do artificial turf for collegiate sports fields, commercial residential playgrounds, and other areas.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with SEO Inc.?
We wanted a full-site optimization and keyword marketing to increase traffic. We also needed content creation and social media management.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
We hired them to do a page-by-page optimization. The written scope called for about five fully-optimized pages each month. SEO Inc. also needed to write and distribute blog posts among other various content as part of a linking program, which included related third-party web posts. The scope further included social media management and development for about five new webpages.
What is the team dynamic?
We usually had one primary point of contact throughout the project. The owner was our first primary contact, but he delegated that role to his son, a senior SEO analyst, in the project’s first month. The senior SEO analyst may have had another resource directly assisting him.
How did you come to work with SEO Inc.?
We considered about five top-tier SEO agencies. SEO Inc. had high rankings on Clutch and met the variety of factors we considered. They had won several industry awards and previously partnered with other turf manufacturing companies. We met part of the team at their offices to evaluate them in person; they made a great first impression.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent about $30,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with SEO Inc. in November 2017, but later fired them in February 2018.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
How did the relationship with SEO Inc. evolve?
They apologized for early missteps in the first month, but the problems only compounded in the second month. The senior SEO analyst’s first deliverables only included a handful of optimized – supposedly – webpages. SEO Inc. never requested social media access in the first two months, which we offered for them to execute the scope’s management requirements. In addition, they didn’t produce the requested blog posts or articles.
Despite these omissions, we continued to pay SEO Inc. We received another batch of pages, but still no content and no backlinking. I then called the owner’s cell, who was reluctant to address my immediate concerns. When we spoke later that day, the owner assured me he would oversee blog posts and get the project back on track. He was very persuasive and we wanted to believe they would follow best practices going forward. Despite our misgivings, we wrote a check for month three.
What problem arose and how did they attempt to resolve them?
We received about four blog posts to approve during the first month. However, they were unreadable and lacked coherent sentences; I suspected a non-native English speaker authored them. I contacted the owner and he agreed the quality was unacceptable. We then received one blog post that was marginally acceptable. I was hesitant, but approved it because we urgently needed content.
During this time, the senior SEO analyst didn’t achieve links, added pages, or reoptimized pages. As a result, the owner delegated our project to another team member. That team member apologized and promised to redo everything. However, she didn’t follow through on those promises. At that point, I requested a refund from the owner. He used the poorly constructed blog posts to refuse the refund, claiming they had delivered all work prompts. SEO Inc. did do social media management near the end, but missed nearly four months’ worth of work. In all, they didn’t generate any new links or added pages.
Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.
We were at fault for not scrutinizing the written contract’s fine print. We overlooked the numerous “outs” SEO Inc. put in place because we only focused on the outlined scope. Consequently, we were out $30,000 and fell behind the competition.
I revisited the quotes and projected ROIs the other five companies provided during our search. Based on their estimates for traffic and overall performance, we fell considerably short. I then hired a freelancer to supplement the work SEO Inc. wasn’t completing. He wrote six blog posts that we published and linked. He also did social media management and Google AdWords. Near the end of the project, the SEO Inc. owner pulled a Google Analytics report and tried to claim credit for all results, including the freelancer’s achievements. However, were able to tie the freelancer’s efforts to the improved traffic results. Due to their poor performance, we entered our business’s biggest season in a worse position than we should have been.
How was project management handled?
We used email and GoToMeeting.
What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?
I wouldn’t recommend them for anything.
Company Responses
This comment was provided by Garry Grant, CEO at SEO Inc, on May 10, 2018
We are extremely sorry that you feel that you did not have a completely satisfactory experience at SEO Inc. SEO Inc. has extensive experience dealing with artificial grass companies, and we have been successful throughout the years within that industry. During the discovery process, we were adamant to make sure this client understood that ranking for artificial grass keywords is very difficult, especially because this website was brand-new. We explained that success would take a minimum of 12-months to accomplish, as we have done this several times and were able to achieve 1st page rankings for 2 similar companies. Many of the SEO objectives were delivered early, with 40/60 optimized pages being delivered before month 3, and more than half of the 12-month contracted deliverables were delivered at that time. In addition, while managing this campaign for a very short time, we increased overall traffic by 558.72% which includes the organic traffic increase of 747.95% from 246 visitors to 2,086, which is an amazing achievement. We were greatly disappointed with your perception of problems you had with our company, as we did our best to rectify your concerns regarding the content, and we did our best to solve your very specific issues, and even offered a free month. We wish you the best of luck.
RATINGS
-
Quality
0.5Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
0.5On time / deadlines
"They didn't adhere to any project deadlines."
-
Cost
0.5Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
0.5NPS