Google Ranking scam?

irishdeej

Hi.
I received this email from a client today.

"I also had a guy on from a support – business design solution with this offer from google to get our details up on 1st page with location maps and how our site is doing info, etc for €200… what do you think of these and is it worth it?"

Any adice?

Thanks
Darren

PaulPinnacle

I think the title says it all.

(Disclosure: It's the area I operate in, so a clear vested interest. With that in mind, feel free to ignore everything I say)

It's hard to be too critical without knowing the specifics of what was said, but any claim to have you ranking on the "1st page" for a set fee sounds very much like a false claim they can't live up to and are one of the many cowboys operating in the area.

Don't get me wrong, there are many genuine companies providing SEO/PPC services, but from the brief description you gave the company here sound like they fall on the 'dodgy' side of things.

Don't agree to sign up with any company cold calling you in this manner, especially if they try to attempt any hard sell tactics. Go away, do your own research on them and other companies (there are many companies offering these services) and be sure to understand exactly what you are getting for anything you sign up for. If they can't clearly explain what they do and how they do it, walk away.

PaulPinnacle

irishdeej wrote: »

...with this offer from google

Sorry, just reread that.

Run! This offer didn't come from Google. It's coming from a company offering to get you ranked on Google, either through SEO work or via google adwords. If they gave the impression they were 'connected' with google, it's one of the very common scams used (I seem to remember a recent thread here outlining one of the many UK companies running one of these and a few of the various names that they operate under).

Liam Byrne

If you have a well-structured site that's frequently updated and contains the right content, you don't need to pay anyone else to do this.

The amount of people who skimp on the site design/content/development and then pay for campaigns to plug the gap that shouldn't be there in the first place is crazy!

D.W

My guess is that their "offering" is to use Google Places to list your business which yes would mean page 1 listings and a location map BUT probably only for your business name which you can do yourself quite easily and more than likely you are already No.1

As a rule of thumb AVOID like the plague any company cold calling/emailing flouting services like this or any SEO type service -especially ones that claim to have a relationship of any sort with Google because they are scams.

If you are not already listed in Google Places (formally Google Local) then I would suggest you do so yourself.

cormee

Save the €200 and add the business yourself in Google Places

link8r

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If you have a well-structured site that's frequently updated and contains the right content, you don't need to pay anyone else to do this.

The amount of people who skimp on the site design/content/development and then pay for campaigns to plug the gap that shouldn't be there in the first place is crazy!

Hi Liam,

An honourable idea but not entirely accurate. Frequent updates don't equal high ranking. A site can rank for 7 years without any change - I own lots of sites that I never update. Its also something I've never seen Google suggest either. Fresh is not the same as frequent. Fresh means up to date.

Here's an issue. Today you change your homepage content to rank for "Insulation Specialists" but last week it was "Drywall Lining" - very quickly your site might start to show for insulation specialist but will equally drop for drywall lining.

The real, fundamental issue at hand is that you cannot vote your own site up Google rankings on your own. Everyone is at that. To think that your site can self-rank is not only difficult to understand (as everyone is at that) but that Google can appreciate Good Content -v- Bad Content.

PageRank theory is based on interlinking as a way of measuring 3rd party votes. Every site that ranks for "Hotels Ireland" has the words "Hotels Ireland" - that's what index they rank in, not what position.

I suspect the myth comes from the romantic semantic web proposal and the boost in traffic bloggers see when they make a new post.

You don't have to agree with me. Google have a brilliant video that explains that if you don't have good authority/good authority shaping (spreading authority around your site, rather than just your root page - which 99% of Irish sites suffer from) - and then you go to add 100 new pages - Google probably won't read them all or even index any.

You need to balance authority (external influence) with relevance (onsite content).

Hope that Helps!