Dropped $150 on a "small business SEO audit" and got back a printout of my own website.

Guy emailed me out of nowhere, said my pizza shop's website was invisible on Google. I paid him $150. He sent me a 20 page PDF that was just screenshots of my own site with arrows drawn on them. Told me to "add more keywords." I could have asked my 16 year old cousin for that advice for free. Anyone else get burned by one of these SEO hustlers?

3 comments

3 Comments

spencer_park2611h ago

Read a study saying 60% of small businesses waste money on SEO audits that just repeat basic stuff.

ryan_barnes20h ago

Yeah I paid a guy $200 to tell me my bakery's site needed a blog, what a ripoff.

thomas_torres15h ago

Hear me out for a second. I get why that feels like a ripoff on the surface, paying $200 for what sounds like one line of advice. But in my experience, a good website person isn't just telling you to start a blog, they're telling you because search engines love fresh content and it's one of the cheapest ways to get customers to find you without paying for ads. Your mileage may vary, but I've seen small shops like yours go from invisible to getting found on Google just by posting a couple times a month. Take this with a grain of salt, but for most local businesses, that $200 advice could easily save you thousands in ad spend down the road. If the guy just said "add a blog" and walked away, sure, that's thin. But if he explained the why behind it, there's real value in knowing how to get your site seen.