Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Looking for shortcuts
Once again on the day of the week I spend in my client's office, he had me check out someone who had been calling him, offering his business' "services." This "service" was a link-building company that claimed it would add "25 permanent, one-way incoming links per month from relevant sites" to my client's link popularity for "the bargain price of only $625 per month."
It didn't take long to unmask this scammer. All I had to do was look at the link-building site's testimonials. Half of them were from small-time seo "specialists" who wrote testimonials so vague that it sounded like they didn't even know what the site's core business was. And the rest of the testimonials raised similar questions about whether the writers really had experienced improved rankings or were writing testimonials just to get the incoming link in return for writing it.
Testimonials ranged from, "Wow, these guys are really easy to work with," to "When you ask them a question, they give you an answer."
Yep, that's the kind of results I want for my $625 a month: the assurance that they'll answer any question I ask them. But distinctly missing were any comments about the link-builder's service actually increasing search engine rankings or contributing to increased sales.
Hmm. If I was going to use a third-party link-building service, those are the kind of results I'd be looking for—not just an assurance that somebody at the company will be willing to talk to me.
There were lots of other indications that the business didn't offer more than a black hole into which unwary businesses could throw $625 a month. Almost all of the customer sites had almost no backlinks show up on Google, that the backlinks that showed up were almost entirely internal links. And the "highly relevant sites" that were linking to these businesses were largely drugs, gambling, or porn. Hey, I guess they're relevant if you're willing to switch your site over to either drugs, gambling or porn.
Well, the point behind this rant is that when you're looking for shortcuts, there are plenty of scammers willing to spin you a fantasy of a no-effort route from where you are to where you want to be. And it takes no effort to find them. They'll wear out your phone cold-calling you with their scams.
Jeff
Once again on the day of the week I spend in my client's office, he had me check out someone who had been calling him, offering his business' "services." This "service" was a link-building company that claimed it would add "25 permanent, one-way incoming links per month from relevant sites" to my client's link popularity for "the bargain price of only $625 per month."
It didn't take long to unmask this scammer. All I had to do was look at the link-building site's testimonials. Half of them were from small-time seo "specialists" who wrote testimonials so vague that it sounded like they didn't even know what the site's core business was. And the rest of the testimonials raised similar questions about whether the writers really had experienced improved rankings or were writing testimonials just to get the incoming link in return for writing it.
Testimonials ranged from, "Wow, these guys are really easy to work with," to "When you ask them a question, they give you an answer."
Yep, that's the kind of results I want for my $625 a month: the assurance that they'll answer any question I ask them. But distinctly missing were any comments about the link-builder's service actually increasing search engine rankings or contributing to increased sales.
Hmm. If I was going to use a third-party link-building service, those are the kind of results I'd be looking for—not just an assurance that somebody at the company will be willing to talk to me.
There were lots of other indications that the business didn't offer more than a black hole into which unwary businesses could throw $625 a month. Almost all of the customer sites had almost no backlinks show up on Google, that the backlinks that showed up were almost entirely internal links. And the "highly relevant sites" that were linking to these businesses were largely drugs, gambling, or porn. Hey, I guess they're relevant if you're willing to switch your site over to either drugs, gambling or porn.
Well, the point behind this rant is that when you're looking for shortcuts, there are plenty of scammers willing to spin you a fantasy of a no-effort route from where you are to where you want to be. And it takes no effort to find them. They'll wear out your phone cold-calling you with their scams.
Jeff
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