Have I been ripped off?

[da95649]

I paid this company to get be some links to my site, paid about $500.

Now that the company are no longer working on my site Ive started to investigate what they actually did. They basically added a "Resources" pages with various titles, basically added about 10 web pages. And on each one listed links of various different companies similar to my company and some really different. This has been done maybe 4 months ago.

Is it good practice to check that these people have linked backed to you? The reason I ask is that I only have 47 links to my site and I want at least double that....when I goto google and type link:domain can I presume that if the link is not listed here that the person has not linked back to me?

Also I think its in my interest for these "resources" pages to have higher PR status, does this come automatically or do I have to do something?

Any advice would be great

[Crush]

You should always get a list of the backlinks ( the links from the other sites to yours).

Also If these pages they put up have been crawled then it should be ok.

I would use the link: command on yahoo to see teh true number of backlinks as google does not report these accurately.

[glengara]

*Is it good practice to check that these people have linked backed to you?*

Absolutely, but use Y! instead of G to check links.

[grandpa]

Ripped off is relative... at least with my relatives.

Any advice would be great

Don't pay for links. Roll up your sleeves, look around the web for sites that are complimentary and write the webmaster asking for a link. Be brief, pleasant and patient. In time you'll have a lot more than 47.

Forget about PR. If I have a link page with a PR of 2, I'll put outbound links on it, at the least. And I pick top quality sites as outbounds. I've seen my PR2 link page rise above the pages I linked to, in some cases. When you can do that, you can probably start getting some good links back. I build link pages for my site visitors first, then to generate some new traffic.

Start deleting junk mail. In the end, you've spent money and now you have to do the work anyway. We hired a fellow that did a very similar thing. It was pure fraud. I mention junk mail because that's how he got us... right after the Florida update.

[da95649]

Thanks for all the info guys.....I always used Google, no wonder couldnt see that much change...
regarding my link pages, if I have a .com and .co.uk domain, I presume it is advisable to get the links to target my main domain, otherwise I will be doing twice the work? ie, stick with one address

also as my site has more then the index.php, is it a good Idea to get links to my other pages as well as the index.php?

[chrisgarrett]

From what I understand, stick to one domain or the other and have the one you are not promoting permanently redirected to the promoted one. You want links into deep pages as well as your homepage but stick to either / OR /index.php not a mix

[diamondgrl]

when I goto google and type link:domain can I presume that if the link is not listed here that the person has not linked back to me?

No, not true. It only lists some backlinks. First, they must be above PR 4 and secondly, they don't all show up. It's frustrating but it is the way this works.

[martinibuster]

First, they must be above PR 4...

Not true. Google has been randomizing them since June, to include the under pr 4 links.

As mentioned elewhere, use Yahoo, not Google to check your backlinks.

[diamondgrl]

martinibuster,

thanks for the correction. sorry for the error. it certainly proves i haven't checked backlinks all that carefully in recent months ... maybe i had better start.