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

[B. Kimo Lee]

Hi HT and Rob, and Robert,

Yes, I don't think anyone, especially "informational" brochure sites may not want to rush to adding SSL certs to their configuration, given that Google's "HTTPS everywhere " initiative is a recent development. It remains to be seen what kind of a hit will be involved and whether the other search engines will jump on the bandwagon. It definitely is something for site owners to be aware of. I totally agree about employing 301 redirects.

I still think it would be a good development given the number of probe attempts I see coming in 24/7/365 on client sites. Spending an average of $10 -$85 investment per year on the low end — depending upon the certificate purchased — doesn't seem too excessive, but I don't want to judge anyone's business model. 

I see it as one more arrow in the quiver toward fighting the threat. In my opinion, Internet crime is rampant, fairly easy to perpetrate against modern sites that are not kept up-to-date with software patches, and we need to do everything we can to guard them if they warrant it. Obviously my reasoning goes beyond SEO. The SSL is not going to protect a vulnerable site from a hacker. But I can understand where Google might value the likelihood that a site with an SSL certificate would be more likely to be what it purports to be, instead of a fake phishing site.

Sorry about the HTML, Robert. Just pressing "reply all" in Apple "Mail".

Best,
Kimo

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On Aug 25, 2014, at 4:21 PM, Rob Laporte wrote:

> Google states that https is a very small ranking factor among hundreds, most of which are much more important. As one good article recently advised, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, almost all websites have much lower hanging SEO fruit to pick. So unless you’ve picked all that fruit—and most businesses don’t know what all the fruit is, never mind picked it--I would not scramble to move your site to https. If you do move to https, you have to be very careful, employing 301 redirects properly, and doing several other SEO technical tasks, or you’ll lose most of your traffic for months. Even is you do everything right, you’ll probably lose 15% to 30% for one to three months. 
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Rob Laporte
> President and CEO
> DISC, Inc. - "Making Web Sites Make Money"
> 413-584-6500
> Fax – 413-553-0745
> Rob at 2disc.com 
> www.2disc.com 
> 
> Note: Increasingly, ISPs, companies and individuals use spam blocking systems that block legitimate email too. Important emails should be followed up with a phone call if no reply happens within an expected span of time.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: Max Hartshorne <editorial at gonomad.com>
> Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:27:57 -0400 (EDT)
> To: "B. Kimo Lee" <bklee at azurelink.com>
> Cc: Hidden Tech Discuss <hidden-discuss at mm01.tnrnet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] 'SEO Marketing sales pitches': scams or what?
> 
>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> 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
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> 9 Mountain Rd.
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> 
> -----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
> 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
> 
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> 
> 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
>> 
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