When Affordable SEO Services Are Not Cost Effective

n business when we hear that a service or a product is affordable we generally relate to it being cost effective but unfortunately that doesn't apply to all services and products out there. Especially when this service can cause irreversible damages if done cheaply and incorrectly which is the case of SEO services. Before I dig any deeper into this subject I would like to make it clear that I'm not advocating that all affordable SEO services are not cost effective. There are many agencies offering SEO services that are effective and don't cost you an arm and a leg. So, when affordable SEO services are not cost effective? A simple answer to that question would be, when these services do more harm then good to a website, like hurt its rankings which in turn will result in loss of traffic and consequently conversions.But what happens when the website didn't have any traffic in the first place and the optimisation failed to increase visits and conversions. Or even worst it made the website be classified as spammy because it used dark hat SEO techniques to try and push targeted keywords up in the rankings in a short period of time. Once a website is classified as spammy by the search engines and ultimately by its target audience it will be virtually impossible to reverse the situation.Rule Number 1 for hiring an SEO company is to avoid those that promise to rank your website high for competitive terms within weeks. Search engine optimisation is a process that takes time to return substantial results, always remember that. As afore mentioned black hat SEO techniques can cause serious damage to a website. For those that never heard about it before, these techniques try to game the search engines rankings algorithm in order to deliver faster results. Some of the most common black hat SEO procedures are:Hidden Text Keyword Stuffing Cloaking Paid links Duplicate content on multiple domains Link Farms Hidden affiliate links Different content for search engines than users The list goes on and on. You might ask: How Am I supposed to know if the SEO company I hired is using SEO techniques from the dark side? Like in real life ask for references or for a portfolio of projects the company has and is working with, if they show good results (high rankings) it means that the given SEO Company is working within the guidelines proposed by the search engines. Don't be afraid to email or phone some of the clients and ask yourself for information about the company. A good place to check a company's reputation is on Google Places where users leave reviews about a given business.