This morning I got a call from someone who has been handed our business card (usually a good thing!) and he started out by saying this:
“I just signed up with another SEO company, but I have a question about SEO.”
Alright, maybe not my preferred way to start the conversation. But at least he’s calling to verify(?) something the “other” company told him. Good for us.
But it got a lot better.
Caller Background
The caller is in a VERY competitive business, based here in Las Vegas. Almost as competitive as “insurance” or “loan”. (For more highly competitive keywords on Google, read Wordstream’s post: “The 20 Most Competitive Keywords on Google”)
The Pitch
They promise the client’s website will rank for at least 4 out of 10 keywords/key phrases (of his choice) on the first page of Google within 90 to 120 days.
If he does not get ranked, he does not have to pay them ANYMORE.
Sounds like a good deal?
Well, NOT so much.
The Scam
They told him – instead of choosing a search term containing the location – to choose the “short” version without the location.
Meaning that, instead of “Las Vegas [highly competitive term(s)]”, they told him to use just the [highly competitive term(s)] – and their reasoning behind it was “that Google prefers that”.
Besides the fact that any kind of optimization is not about what Google wants, but what your website visitor wants – why would somebody make a ridiculous statement like that?
Then I started to realize what it was all about: The whole idea apparently is to pick ridiculously competitive terms, have the client pay for 4 months upfront, sit back and do nothing, and after 4 months simply say “Oh sorry, it didn’t work. But now you don’t have to pay us anymore, just as promised.”
There’s the built-in exit strategy (or CYA policy).
Why am I saying they sit back and do nothing for 4 months? Simple: I asked the caller if they had backend access to his website. They don’t.
Whatever they say they might be doing (something the caller was unable to answer) – I’m pretty sure has nothing to do with what it should be all about: Providing quality content and enhancing the experience for the visitor.
Unless of course you count spam link building, so-called “relevant blog posts”, “trusted social bookmarking” (what the heck is that anyways?) and “directory and search engine submissions” valid SEO strategies.
At this point I cannot even estimate the amount of money this poor guy (and all the others that fall for this scam) are going to have to pay to remove the bad links, to get their sites un-penalized and to clean up the mess those guys will undoubtedly be leaving behind (Read our article “Bad Links Or Link Buying Can Really Cost You” if you want more information on this).
Just In Case
Just in case someone might say: “But it IS possible to get your site to the top of Google within a very short period of time, I’ve seen it!” – here’s an interesting article: “How Black Hats Are Still Gaming Google for Competitive Keywords – Case Study“.
