A warning about a marketing agency in Portland that promised the moon

I met a guy named Mark from 'Elevate Digital' at a local business meetup last year. He said they could get my site to the first page of Google in 90 days for a flat $5,000. After we signed, they just did basic keyword stuffing and bought a bunch of spammy backlinks that actually got my site a manual penalty. Has anyone else had a bad run-in with an agency that makes huge promises but does shady work?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.gavin2mo ago

I mean, their own site probably ranks for "scam" and not much else.

andrew_jackson2mo ago

Check the agency's own website ranking. A lot of these shops can't even get their own site on the first page for their main keywords. If they can't do it for themselves, they definitely can't do it for you with that kind of guarantee.

james9951mo ago

Wait, hold on. You're telling me these agencies can't even rank their OWN site for basic stuff? That's WILD. I mean, I've seen some bad SEO shops before but that is a WHOLE other level of not getting it. If they can't do it for themselves, how are they supposed to trick Google into ranking their clients? It's like a mechanic who can't change their own oil trying to fix a transmission. Guaranteeing results when your own site is stuck on page five is either a SCAM or pure delusion. I'd run the other way so fast.