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They wanted to sell us an extended entry in their listing. Just like with AdWords, in their extended listing we could pick keywords under which we will be found. So far it all sounds honest enough.
One of their claims however was that since all extended entries are on their internet webpage, we "automatically get a better position in search engines like Google". That made me raise my eyebrow.
After the salesperson left, I checked their site. The main page has a Google PR6 - not too bad. But EACH AND EVERY result page has a PR0 (not that I am surprised).
When searching for "Microsoft", the URL of the result page looks like this:
http://www.company.com/search.php?sessionID=cf3e61e4e5bc7166e3b47c287b2e2a4d &token=92ad697bf6d07fda43c37b61743abb13&searchType=&cityIDs= &tradeIDs=&streets=&zipCodes=&newSearch=1&searchFormExtendedStatus=0 &oSearchType=B&searchWord=microsoft&city=&trade=&street=&zipCode= &radius=0&resultsPerPage=10obviously nothing Google would ever index....
I then went to wannabrowser and disguised myself as GoogleBot to see wether they have a special version for Google with a searcheable index - but nothing. Maybe they identify GoogleBot via IP-adresses - this I can't test - but definitely not via User agent.
I then checked out the only competitor of ours in their index for backlinks. Again - nothing.
Their printed flyers and brochures said nothing about improving search rank in Google & Co., but not only their salespaeron, but also their callcenter-agent who made the appointment with me, used this as a sales pitch.
I don't know what YOU call this, but I call it attempted fraud!
Comments?
Do the pages provide absolute links to customer's sites? What does their Robots.txt do with Googlebot? Do you see listings for any of their results pages in the SEs?
Anytime someone says "automatic" or "guaranteed" about search engines listings, I know they've gone off the deep end. If I can't guarantee positions, and I do SEO / SEM 8-12 hours a DAY... Nobody can.
Absolute Links? Njet - everything is piped through the script. I might have overlooked something, but there seems to be NO entry into the catalogue apart from the search-form.
Backlinks from them? Well, unfortunately there's no command in Google to find links FROM certain sites. I tried a few "usual suspects" apart from the above and they showed no backlink from them.
Buying the basic package? It does not make sense for me! I get 7 keywords for free in the basic package, and that would cost me ~3 EUR / day. For these 3 EUR I'll get ~ 9 clickthroughs from AdWords a day - with a list of about 100 keywords. I never used their internet-service before, since the address is not an obvious one.
I DID use their CD's before - and they are good and have an execellent price/value ratio. So the only benefit I'd get from them is a supportive one from potential customers along the lines of "Hey, they have advertised here as well... Seems to be a no-nonsense supplier!"
And for that - the price is imply too high...
Somestimes they would adda company as a limited free listing, without address and website links. Within days that page would rise to number 1 for th ecompany name in google. THEN they would approach the company and offer them to upgrade to have a proper link and benefit their own website too.
SN
All I'm saying is that it CAN work, and a site designed to compete with paper directories CAN work wonders on Google.
SN
