[Hidden-tech] 'SEO Marketing sales pitches': scams or what?

[B. Kimo Lee]

Hi Robert,

Some good replies on this topic. I just wanted to add that if you haven't already heard, the latest SEO-related thing is that Google has now said that their search engine is ranking sites secured with SSL Certificates higher. It's part of their "HTTPS Everywhere" initiative, and probably a good thing overall to keep the pipe between user and server secure all the time. If this was already mentioned on HT recently, I apologize for double posting.

This means that sites on shared servers would now need a dedicated IP address and would have to purchase/renew an SSL Certificate each year.

Here's a link to Google's blogspot post entitled "HTTPS as a ranking signal":
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

If you think about it, ensuring the authenticity of the server, protecting the integrity of the data sent from modification in-transit, and protecting that data from eavesdropping by encrypting it, makes so much sense.

As for the topic, I agree that in most cases these firms are offering black hat solutions and which may get your site punished. 

Cheers,
Kimo Lee

AZURELINK  ::  "Simply Connected!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Site Design & Scalable, Managed Web Hosting
Joomla! Content Management System Implementation
eCommerce Development
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PO Box 230
Milford, NH 03055
(603) 769-4224
For more information, please visit: www.azurelink.com
Follow Azurelink on Twitter: http://twitter.com/azurelink
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




On Aug 23, 2014, at 10:43 AM, Robert Heller wrote:

>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> I've been getting sales pitches from SEO Marketing companies, both via
> telephone (Robot calls mostly) and via E-Mail (and via my contact page on my
> website). All with more or less the same basic pitch: "We can place you the
> first page of Google searches..." or some variation on that theme.
> 
> These companies charge something like $300-$500 / month (which is way outside 
> what I could afford).
> 
> What *exactly* are these companies really doing (other than looking to pocket
> a pile of *my* cash)?  Some claim to be using a propriatory system -- whatever
> that means.
> 
> Note if I do a search for "Linux Administration North Quabbin" *my* website
> shows up as the first and second results (at least with duckduckgo), so my
> website can't be that bad as it is. I do get some business, maybe not vast
> amounts, but I am not sure I could handle vast amounts of work anyway -- I am 
> a one-man operation and there are only so many hours in the day.  I would need 
> to get more work than I could handle to cover the $300-$500 / month anyway -- 
> that is I would end up becoming a cash cow *for the SEO Marketing company* and 
> my net income would not be much more than it currently is!  What would be the 
> point of that?
> 
> Most of the pitches say that my website is not findable, but somehow these SEO
> Marketing companies have found my website (is it a chicken or an egg?). What
> are they doing: doing a search and then working backwards from the *last* page
> of results? Or are they really finding my site easily enough and thinking
> 'this might be an easy mark', since I might not be at the top of all of the 
> search results (or the search results for the searches they are doing).  I 
> wonder: maybe my website is really good in that it looks like a bigger company 
> than I really am?
> 
> Is this some sort of scam or what?  It has all of the look and feel of a scam, 
> much like the credit card robot calls, which start with "This is your final 
> wanring about your credit card..." (and I *don't* have a credit card!).
> 
> -- 
> Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
> http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
> heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> 
> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members   
> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20140825/3a5f8e10/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Azurelink.vcf
Type: text/directory
Size: 611 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20140825/3a5f8e10/attachment.bin 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20140825/3a5f8e10/attachment-0001.html