TheWebCompany (SEO) - A scam?

binaryrealm

Hi,

a friend of mine who runs a small business has recently been approached by a guy working for "TheWebCompany". They were offering to do a subscription-based SEO for his website.

A few things about the offer and the company seem to be dodgy though so I was just wondering if anyone has heard of them.

In particular I found it strange that

* They don't seem to have a website easily found in Google, only a leaflet.

* The fee for their smallest SEO package was something like 20 EUR / month. However there was no fixed contract term and the contract could be cancelled every month.

* Their "agent" said something like "you will be the only business in town approached with this offer".

* They guranteed a 20% increase in business.

Especially the last two points sound very much like a scam. I told him to stay away.

Any opinions?

The Apprentice

1) Although no business website, i do know one person that works on referrals only and has 15k a month porfolio (proven) this may be similar to what he,s doing
2) Havin a no fixed contract is well .. Not enough time for the work to kick in for the seo company and would leave a bitter taste in the clients mouth when it came to purchasing again. You do need a 2-3 Month onwards "verbal agreement" or contract. He might explain this as he was recieving payement. Needs clarification. Also dependant on very low competition he could rank well.. Not for 20 clams do !!
For the €20 you will probably get 60 minutes work if your lucky. If he,s touting for a reference you will likely get more to increase his overall sales next month from your references etc.. Clarify again what is being done for that 20..
3) You will be only business in town offered this, this is bah humbug sales pitch, with a timeline.. I did this is sales and selling and it is rather misleading. It needs clarification. He could be the only golf store in town and thus he will only be offered seo for this website in this town.. which is true. What about the dentist across the road ?? needs clarification
4) "They guranteed a 20% increase in business" Guaranteing Position in Google with certain stipulations is one thing, A budget of 1 billion euros and 15 years timeframe is one thing but 20% increase in business i would delve further into really.. It Sounds dodgy but in a marketing perspective it isnt that much.

For instance a good ppc campaign can yield 150-200% increase of sales so essentially i dont see why not ranking higher in serps wouldnt do this, it does ! BUT>>
You must ask how, where,why etc.
If he is running off of leads For example.. Lets make a closed economy in Bray for instance and he is a solicitor.
That particular solictiors deals with an average of 5 clients a week or 1 a day.
Bray solicitors has an average of 90 Searches Per month For that keyword with low competion, Highly unlikely but we,ll run with it.
That is 3 clients a day Looking at his website, or in a 7 day period he has 3x clients by mon-sun = 21 Potential Sales leads

Out of those potential 21 Sales leads because of variable of 5 per week a 20% increase would be 1 Sales lead generated from the website !!
With a possible 5% conversion ratio which he thus gets that sales lead of 1.1 persons on that website

Solictors in bray is a buying keyword, people are looking for information for a reason which would generate a sale. If someone in that office taking those 21 phone calls per week couldnt close 10 Appoinments i would start to ask questions..

My neighbour hedge is encroaching ?? "oh yes we can fit you in at 2pm sharp"
My neighbour ran over my dog ? "oh yes we can fit you in for 3pm sharp
My neighbour has scratched my car ?? "oh yes we can fit you in for 5pm sharp"
My neighbour has broken my window playing golf and wont fix it " Well we are actually fully booked this week but we can fit you in Monday 30th .. etc etc etc etc

I know im writing here in broken layman's english im not writing a thesis here but as u can see with those 10 leads thats a 1000% return on invesment.. Much more than his 20%

BUT .. the word "Guarantee" needs clarification..
I,ll guarantee you a spot on the moon for 2 trillion dollars within 5 years.
I,ll guarantee you a spot on the moon for €20 a month


My overall remark would be to dig out more information and be wary, if your not comfortable really just walk away.

The Apprentice

Athought reading above again ..

yes i know the difference between a lead and a sale..

You get the jist of what i was trying to say i hope.. if needed i can re - edit the post above

binaryrealm

Hi,

thanks for your very thorough post. Very interesting points.

Bottom line is, if I get you correctly, a lot of the sales mumbo jumbo needs clarification and studying the T&Cs.

But even so, provided there was no catch, I'm still doubtful how a one month effort / 20 EUR investment (assuming cancellation after the first month) can have any meaningful effort...

20 EUR is not a big loss if it doesn't work. But I'd be more concerned about missing some fine print in their T&Cs and subscribing to a year long service etc., hence my advice to stay away.

I can't see how they'd be making any money if they correctly optimised a website for 20 EUR and you can leave any time after the site is ranked among the first 10 search results.

I'd love to hear from people who have used them.

The Apprentice

Yes correct.. A lot of different people have different ways of interpreting what they mean to say, like me im a tard when it comes to putting a point across. Some companys are the same. Definite read of the t and conditions needed

20 euro a month is pittance, but you now mentioned Optimizing a website. Im hoping it was an error as optimizing a website for google and doing link building for this website to improve its rankings is another..

For the link building it isnt much as i said, you might get a few pr links or a few new article submission or directory submission for that.. Not much more. Most professional in that field Are charging triple that per hour.. So.. ure not getting much if u do get it.

Na really and truly i,d say its cash in the poca with some time in lieu for this business doing seo.. Probably a 1 man show trying to do freelance.

Not a very catchy name, i havent heard of them personally.

MrPicante

I can tell you 20 euro a month on SEO would not be a drop in the ocean - honestly. SEO is labor and time intensive with no way around that only black hat methods - this is not a road you want to chance going down. I would suggest you try to work with a local company who has proven results - additionally you ask for references

blue4ever

What's their URL

lala88

binaryrealm wrote: »

Hi,

a friend of mine who runs a small business has recently been approached by a guy working for "TheWebCompany". They were offering to do a subscription-based SEO for his website.

A few things about the offer and the company seem to be dodgy though so I was just wondering if anyone has heard of them.

In particular I found it strange that

* They don't seem to have a website easily found in Google, only a leaflet.

* The fee for their smallest SEO package was something like 20 EUR / month. However there was no fixed contract term and the contract could be cancelled every month.

* Their "agent" said something like "you will be the only business in town approached with this offer".

* They guranteed a 20% increase in business.

Especially the last two points sound very much like a scam. I told him to stay away.

Any opinions?

You cant find them on Google because there name is The Web Product Company not the The Web Company as above.

They have no plan for €20 a month the cheapest plan is €24.95 a week thats €108 a month

You said used the term ''something like'' two times so they could have said anything.

What ever about the last two parts the others are wrong and maybe you should have looked into it yourself before coming on hear