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Choosing an SEO company can be tough. For the uneducated observer, there is often seemingly little to differentiate one company from the next. When people are struggling to find good reasons to make a choice, they often resort to bad reasons, and this is particularly true when it comes to SEO. Here are some really bad reasons to pick an SEO company - make sure to avoid them when you're choosing one to work with your business.

Bad Reason #1: Because You're Friends
Everyone has friends, and it can be tempting to pick your friends when you need to employ someone in their area of work. To make it absolutely clear, there are good reasons to employ your friends - for example, because they have a proven track record of success in their industry. But employing them 'just because' they're your friend is never a good idea. Some of my friends would make excellent employees: punctual, driven, committed, intelligent and experienced in their fields. Others would be worse than useless. Make sure to know the difference if you plan on employing someone you have a personal relationship with. Also bear in mind that working relationships are different to personal ones. Work can put significant strains on a personal relationship and it is not unheard of for friends to become enemies by the time a contract ends.

Bad Reason #2: Because They Offer a Guarantee
Guarantees aren't necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes to SEO, they're not always good. Many SEO companies with a proclivity for the 'dark arts' will advertise guarantees of ranking gains within x amount of weeks. The fact of the matter is, anyone offering an absolute guarantee before they even know what keywords you intend to target should arouse your suspicion. Even if they do know what keywords you're going to target or they stipulate that they must choose the keywords (the latter is definitely not good news), guarantees are often an indicator of either spammy methods or black hat methods. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and with so many dubious shortcuts available to the unscrupulous SEO company, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Bad Reason #3: Because They're Cheap
Search marketing is far from the most expensive variety, but it certainly isn't cheap. If an SEO company advertises their services at a rate much lower than the industry standard, the chances are that they're either offering a spammy/black hat service or they're inexperienced and don't really know the going rate - it should go without saying that either of these scenarios does not bode well for your business or your search marketing campaign.

Ultimately, picking an SEO company is a business decision like any other. While there are competent SEO agencies and incompetent SEO agencies, there are many who perform well in one context but not so well in another. Certain agencies have better links within some industries than others, and as all the best SEO companies know, networking is at the heart of the enterprise. It's worth investigating the existing clients of the companies you are considering - if you see someone else in your industry, you might just be in luck.