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But today I get a call from a SEO company. They say that they guarantee top 10 placement for 80% of the keywords that I would choose. Even highly competitive keywords.
I asked if this would require changes on our code or content. He said no. I asked if they worked with people inside the SE companies. He said no.
So I insisted that I don't believe in any offer of top ten placements for competitive words if it won't require changes to my site or anything like that.
He insists that they have a software and can do that, and they guarantee the results.
What do you think about it? Any advice?
Send me a private message if you would like to know the name of the company, in case you had a bad experience with some of these companies.
Thanks a lot for helping.
You should be more clear in your post, as there are many topics being discussed in this thread.
[edited by: agerhart at 7:00 pm (utc) on July 26, 2004]
The truth is, I never found two Beetles alike - each seemed to like different things. SEO is exactly the same. You can't guarantee to keep a site in top position all of the time but you can come very close for the majority of the time - once you know the beast. Before I became an SEO I'd fallen foul of all kinds of things including so called 'automated page optimisation' and whilst yes, you can get results with such things (sharp intake of breath), it can also cause a heck of a lot of damage thats hard to unpick. Company sites can't afford to burn out through lazy or badly planned optimisation - you need a thorough understanding of many things and always to look at the longer term. As I've said once before on another thread, you have to optimise and do your best to create enough headroom to avoid being dropped, penalized or banned. It really requires the attention of someone who can put in the time to apply the personal touch and whilst it isn't cheap, its the best way to do it.
1) They are optimizing a secondary domain and redirecting traffic to you. If you cancel you loose all traffic. Worst, you could get banned for using 2 domains like that.
2) They are hiding code in your site, via several possible techniques, such as redirection.
3) They are simply buying Cost-per-click advertising for you
Also, you should stay away from anyone that uses software for optimization.
As for the guarantees, many legit SEO comapnies offer guarantees, but you should be asking what the actual guarantee is and if it seems reasonable. Ask for the exact guarantee in writing when you sign any agreements.
My SEO contracts lay out a site's current benchmarks and quantify the proposed results and attached performance bonuses. I think this is "usual behaviour". I get paid as results occur (PPC, etc. expenses are different but were not mentioned), not all up front with a money back provision!
If I was tempted by such a call I would do the following:
One: request a copy of the contract to peruse.
Two: a list of clients to call as references (and check out in turn).
Three: if it required money up front (as inferred) I would require the money be put in escrow.
I suspect the caller would hang up before I got through all three requests. If not, I could look forward to some reading, some research, and perhaps learning something new.
The thing is that he made me do some searches for pretty high competitive terms like Lingerie, Eletronics, and Discount laptops, and they were #1 or #2 for them.
As for the guarantees, many legit SEO comapnies offer guarantees, but you should be asking what the actual guarantee is and if it seems reasonable. Ask for the exact guarantee in writing when you sign any agreements.
I asked if this would require changes on our code or content. He said no. I asked if they worked with people inside the SE companies.
I know the routine very well. What you'll get is this...
1. New domain purchased for the traffic that will be sent to your site. That domain will most likely be hyphenated and contain your primary keyword phrase.
2. That new domain will contain on average 100 pages of machine generated content. Those pages may contain an onMouseOver event that prevents the user from viewing what is there. As soon as your mouse passes within the active browser window, click, you are whisked away to the home page of the targeted site.
3. Usually the guarantee does not name specific search engines and is general in nature. Sure, you'll get some guaranteed positions with lesser visited search engines, but you won't get squat with the big boys, not for long anyway.
4. You'll get your own personal ClickBot. That bot will be programmed to click through to those 100 gateway pages and register random clicks. This will most likely represent a good portion of your visitors.
In the end, you may see short term results. In the long run, there will most likely be damage that can't be undone. Hence the reason why they don't touch your site. Setting up a throwaway domain and directing traffic to your site presents risks to the referring domain.
Now, many will tell you that no harm can be done with that referring domain (the throwaway site). I tend to think otherwise. After watching the SERPs for as long as I have been, you begin to see patterns in certain areas. I cannot validate this claim but, I feel too many inbounds from a risky environment can have a negative impact on the domain it points to.
So, if you've got 100 gateway pages sitting out there that all point to your home page (and possibly other pages of your site), I feel there is a risk involved.
And by the way, THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTE GUARANTEES in search engine optimization. Yes, you can offer limited guarantees when using PPC/CPC and other Paid Inclusion methods.
P.S. Read the guarantees carefully. Usually they are worded where it is more marketing hype than anything of real tangible value.
Honorable guarantees will usually offer a portion of your total fee back within a certain time period. You will not receive a full refund. There are costs involved with initial setup that cannot be refunded.
Many will guarantee that they'll work on that site until they meet what you originally agreed to. In this day and age, if results cannot be seen within 90-120 days, you may be better off working with a new provider. Unless of course there were circumstances outside of the marketer's control. Those situations will be few and far between.
Worth a read, if this is the technique being used.
Type the company name in question in Google and you will see what's up.
[edited by: submitx at 8:08 pm (utc) on July 27, 2004]
