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

[Max Hartshorne]

I heard the same thing about SSL, and with Media Temple, our hosts, we can get one for GoNOMAD for $75, well worth it if it pushes us higher in natural searches. I can see this being easily applied to all search results even though now its just on a small percentage of sites.
-----------------------
Max Hartshorne
Editor
GoNOMAD.com Travel
P.O. Box 4
9 Mountain Rd.
South Deerfield, MA 01373
413-624-6640
[ www.gonomad.com ]( http://www.gonomad.com )
 
[ Writer's Guidelines ]( http://www.gonomad.com/about-us/writer-s-guidelines )


-----Original Message-----
From: "B. Kimo Lee" <bklee at azurelink.com>
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 1:14pm
To: "Robert Heller" <heller at deepsoft.com>
Cc: "Hidden Tech Discuss" <hidden-discuss at mm01.tnrnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] 'SEO Marketing sales pitches': scams or what?


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 ]( 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 ]( http://www.azurelink.com )
Follow Azurelink on Twitter: [ http://twitter.com/azurelink ]( 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/ ]( http://www.deepsoft.com/ )  -- Linux Administration Services
[ heller at deepsoft.com ]( mailto:heller at deepsoft.com )       -- Webhosting Services

_______________________________________________
Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: [ http://www.hidden-tech.net ]( http://www.hidden-tech.net )
[ Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net ]( mailto: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/fdfb4e33/attachment.html