c/seo-agencies

SEO in 2014 vs now, night and day

I ran my first agency back in 2014. All we did was write 500 word blog posts and blast links from directories. Clients loved it. Rankings jumped in like 2 weeks. Fast forward to now. Same strategy gets you penalized or ignored. Google just got too smart. Content needs to be 2000 words minimum, and links have to come from real sites. Does anyone else miss how simple it used to be?

3 comments

the_sam•1mo ago

That $700 SEO audit I bought from a fancy agency burned me bad

Paid a big name agency $700 for a technical SEO audit and all they gave me was a 3 page PDF saying my meta descriptions were too short. Has anyone else gotten ripped off by those high priced audit packages?

3 comments

michael_bennett11•1mo ago

At a networking event in Chicago, an agency owner showed me his real numbers

I went to a small SEO meetup in Chicago last month, and this guy from a local agency pulled up his laptop. He showed me his client portfolio, and I noticed he only takes on 5 clients at a time. He said he used to take 20 but kept losing clients because his team couldn't keep up. Now he charges $4,000 a month per client and has a 90% retention rate over 2 years. It made me think about how many agencies burn out trying to scale too fast. Has anyone else seen better results from keeping a smaller client roster?

2 comments

kevin_martin•1mo ago

Burned $800 on a SEO agency that promised first page rankings in 3 months

Signed up with this agency back in February because their sales guy showed me fake screenshots of client results. They charged me $800 a month for 3 months straight and all I got were 20 generic blog posts and a bunch of broken backlinks. My traffic actually went down after they messed with my site structure. Anyone else get burned by an agency that overpromised on timeline?

2 comments

adam675•1mo ago

Hot take: most SEO agencies still focus on keyword volume over search intent

I was talking to a friend who runs a small bakery in Austin last week, and her agency kept pushing her to target high volume keywords like 'best bread Austin' with a 1,200 monthly search count. But her customers are mostly looking for gluten free or sourdough starters, and the agency missed that completely. Has anyone else had to teach their agency about actual user intent instead of just throwing big numbers at them?

2 comments

evan295•1mo ago

Switched from a big SEO agency to a small 3-person team and saw real results in 8 weeks

I was paying $2,500 a month to a big agency and my traffic barely moved after 6 months. They kept sending me these fancy reports with charts but nothing actually changed. So I took a chance on a boutique agency with like 3 people. They actually answered my emails within an hour and got me featured in 2 niche blogs within a month. My organic traffic went up 40% after 8 weeks. Anyone else had way better luck with small teams?

3 comments

cameronb52•1mo ago

That time an agency owner told me to stop chasing backlinks

Ran into a guy who runs a boutique SEO shop at a local meetup in Portland last spring. He straight up told me that for small local clients, I was wasting time on link building and should focus on Google Business profile optimization instead. I ignored him for 6 months and kept pitching backlink packages. Lost two clients who went with cheaper competitors who did exactly what he said. Finally tried his advice on a new client, got them ranking on page one for 4 keywords in 8 weeks with zero links. Anyone else had success skipping backlinks for local SEO?

2 comments

gavinh47•4mo ago

Marketing 1on1 vs The Hoth for backlinks?

Hey guys, trying to decide between Marketing 1on1 and The Hoth for an ongoing link building campaign. Both seem popular but I'm torn. Any experiences with either?

3 comments