The Ultimate SEO Scam Checklist: Spot the Fakes, Save Your Business

Choosing an SEO partner can feel like trying to enter the dating scene in your 50s! It’s confusing; there’s endless SEO and marketing jargon and false promises, and in this article, we’ll do our best to help you hire the best marketing agency, not an SEO agency, that will be able to handle your Local SEO and stay consistent with results and your company’s goals and branding. 



Let’s cut through the SEO Scam crap and get down to the actual hammers, metal, piping, and ethical and truthful lead generation.

What are SEO Scams?

SEO scams are like magic tricks but without the magic. These shady "SEO experts" use marketing and SEO jargon to dazzle you with big promises – usually fast, easy wins that sound great but are rarely based in reality. Natural SEO, especially for local businesses, drives real traffic, genuine leads, and actual revenue. But SEO scammers want the shortcut to your wallet, not your success.

Example: Imagine a "professional" promising to rank your business #1 for every keyword in town within 30-90 days. Sounds great, right? But guess what? It is impossible. Google doesn’t know their rank in the next 30-90 days. Are you telling me that this SEO Scam artist is smarter than one of the world's biggest, most powerful, and most influential companies? Are they more intelligent than a super-computer?

SEO Scam Prevention

The best way to avoid SEO scams is by knowing precisely what real SEO is – and isn’t. A legitimate SEO company will walk you through their process and explain how local SEO works for Google Business Profile versus Website versus Social Media SEO. All of these are things you need within a solid marketing plan, and they all need the same keyword-focused strategy. The days of “website SEO” alone are dead, so you need to do SEO for all channels. Never rely solely on website traffic and leads! 

Article on Omni-Marketing: Get found and seen everywhere

They don’t know the difference between Local SEO and Website SEO

Google Maps and Local SEO are meant to generate calls from your Google Business Profile. Key terms like “gutters near me” in Phoenix, AZ, which has 70 searches per month and a difficulty of 11/100, are based on Map Rankings, not just your website. You will need reviews, a good reputation, your GBP optimized, and a fantastic website geared towards Phoenix, AZ, gutter services.

Ranking a website or website page for “gutters near me” in Phoenix, AZ, is based on your page’s content, optimization, and the links that connect to that page. Yes, there’s more to it, but your reviews and other GBP-related topics may help, but they are not primary. 

Additional Local SEO articles we’ve written: What is NAP?, SCO Marketing vs SEO Marketing

Ranking for Zero-Traffic Keywords

Scammers may “rank” you for keywords no one’s searching for, which means they’re useless for your business. These keywords are easy to rank for because they have no competition – and no search volume. Quality SEO targets terms your potential customers are actively searching for, not filler keywords

Only Ranking for Branded Keywords

Branded keywords (like your business name) are great but just a starting point. Scammers may try to impress you by showing that you rank for your business name – something that doesn’t usually require much effort.

Case Study to consider:

We recently conducted an SEO Audit and Marketing Plan for a window and door company, https://www.ataylormadewindow.com/. We found that their past agency kept bragging about the 49 keywords they grew for them… but if you look closely, the only ones producing website traffic and page 1 rankings have their company literally in the keyword phrase. These should rank organically over time if the website is optimized for headers and content. That’s a one-and-done deal, folks, not a charge for every month!

Other keywords they took credit for were their address, which did not mention their services or rankings on pages 5-10, which will never get clicks or customers.

Case Study to consider:

This roofing company, https://ctrroof.com/ is a prime example. Their SEO agency has built 366 backlinks but only gets 58 organic monthly searches! And if you look closely, the organic keywords have not grown, nor has the traffic in over a year. The SEO Scam is real; a true marketing agency won’t let this happen.



SEO Scam: More Links Equals More Leads

If you are getting traffic from your backlinks, great! However, just getting traffic doesn’t produce leads. Your website pages need to be optimized for Google, enjoyable to look at and read, and load faster than a Lamborghini.

Private Blog Networks (PBNs)

Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are networks of sites created solely to generate links for other sites. Google disapproves of this practice, and using PBNs can lead to heavy penalties. They won’t just lower your rankings, they will deplatform your website, de-index it, and you will never be able to rank again. Some SEO scammers still use PBNs because they can artificially inflate your link count – but Google usually catches on quickly. Here is Google’s official page: “Don’t Use PBNs or we’ll kill your website.”

Example: An SEO agency offers to “skyrocket” your rankings by linking you to 100 “partner sites.” These sites turn out to be part of a PBN. When Google detects it, you could be hit with a penalty that tanks your rankings, undoing all your legitimate SEO efforts.

Website Traffic Comes from Out of Your Service Area

If your reports show traffic from areas you don’t serve, it’s likely the result of shady practices. SEO should bring in local traffic relevant to your business. If you get hits from overseas or out of state, that traffic won’t convert to sales.

Example: A local bakery sees traffic coming from different countries. While it might boost visitor numbers, it doesn’t mean much if those visitors can’t actually come to the shop. Real SEO focuses on drawing in customers who can realistically use your services.

Website Conversion Case Study:

Nine out of 10 customers who sign up for our marketing services have an average website conversion rate of 1-5%. That means that for every 100 people who visit, they get 1-5 leads. That’s pathetic and an outright SEO scam!

AD Green Gutters is a typical client for us, averaging 40-60 leads per month or more just from their website, with 400-700 visitors per month. You see, it’s not about rankings or traffic; it’s about leads. It’s always about leads. Ranking, traffic, SEO, and reviews are tools to generate more leads. This is something SEO Scam agencies will never admit.

In this image, you can see that there are ZERO monthly searches. An SEO Scam artist may boast, " We have you page 1 ranking for 79 keywords,” and this zero-production keyword could be one of them. 



We’re not saying this isn’t useful. Zero traffic keywords and ranking can help improve authority for a website page and overall authority. It is the first step in going after those prominent keywords, but this can’t be the main course; it’s an appetizer at best.

Link-building SEO Scams

More Links Equals High Rankings

Scammers love to say, “The more links you have, the higher you’ll rank!” While links are important, they must come from reputable and relevant sites. If you’re running a local business, it’s best to get local sites to link to your website and/or national sites that reach those local searchers/customers. 



Quality always beats quantity. Flooding your site with low-quality links from sketchy sites won’t produce traffic and can lower your rankings and business growth.

Content-based SEO Scams

Rank or Rent SEO Scams

100% AI-Generated Content

AI is a fantastic tool for brainstorming and researching, writing outlines and rough drafts, but your website and articles must be audited, edited, and improved by a human who knows your brand. If you don’t, you could lose your website and revenues overnight. 

Since Google released its Helpful Content core update and it’s attack on 100% AI-generated content (Google AI Content Article), over 20 million in website traffic has been lost to lazy SEO agencies that didn’t take the time to create original content for their clients.

Rank and rent SEO is like renting someone else’s car and paying them monthly for the privilege—except you don’t even get to call it yours. Here’s how it works: someone creates a generic website targeting a local service (like “plumbing in Dallas”) and gets it to rank on Google. Then, they “rent” it to a business, charging them monthly for the leads that roll in. Sounds simple, right? Not so fast. Here’s why it’s more of an SEO scam than a solution for local businesses.

No Brand, No Trust

When you rent one of these rank-and-rent sites, you’re stuck with a cookie-cutter website that doesn’t even look or sound like your business. You’ve worked hard to build a reputation, but this rented site might not have your logo, name, or any of your brand’s personality. Customers who find you online want consistency—something they can trust. With a rank-and-rent setup, you get leads with a website that feels like a stranger.

A rank-and-rent site is a one-size-fits-all solution. Local SEO, on the other hand, works best when it’s personalized to show who you are and why people should choose you. A generic site won’t showcase your unique services, history, or customer reviews. It’s like handing out a blank business card—it just doesn’t make people feel connected to you.

You Don’t Own Your Website

With rank and rent, you’re reliant on the provider. If they slack off, your ranking tanks, and so do your leads. If you decide to stop renting? Say goodbye to every lead you were getting from that site. You don’t get to keep any of the SEO progress because, guess what—it’s not yours. It’s like renting a house for years only to be booted out with zero equity.

We build websites in Duda.co, the world’s best website builder for small businesses. When we get done in our Duda account and are ready to publish your site, we transfer it to your account, and you give us access. This way, you pay for the hosting, security, compliance, and add-ons, and we only charge the service fees to drive more traffic and leads. 

Risky SEO Tactics

Rank-and-rent providers sometimes play fast and loose with SEO tactics to get that quick ranking boost. Think keyword stuffing and low-quality backlinks—the stuff Google frowns on. These quick fixes might work for a while but could lead to penalties or even get the site banned from search results. Now you’re left paying for a ghost town.

Avoid SEO Scams

If you’ve read this entire article, it’s because you’re serious about lead generation and want to make sure every dollar you spend on marketing, whether SEO, paid ads, or branding, leads to growth. SEO Scam artists exist, and you can either avoid them the best you can or choose an agency like ours to handle 90-95% of all your marketing needs for a fraction of the cost of big firms. We’ve been growing companies for 20 years and would love to see if you qualify as our next customer.