Cold Calls From SEO Company’s Beware
As soon as you put your mobile phone number on your own business website you’re always getting flooded with calls from the likes of yell.com and other companies trying to either verify your business listing or sell you something like SEO.
Yesterday I got a call from a company that shall remain nameless, but in short they were trying to sell me SEO. I said that I wasn’t really to interested in SEO-ing my own site and how its ranking now, is how it did pretty much out of the box with a few title tweaks.
Still he insisted that my £250 a month would get me on to the 1st page within 28 days, for the 3 terms he had looked at.
I then said I work for an SEO company and he finally got the message that I wasn’t interested in the services he was selling.
I believe that your website sells your business, which was confirmed to me yesterday by a call from Scotthall BMW in Leeds wanting 20 BMW’s doing.
So it would only be natural to have a quick look at said company’s website.
First thing you notice is the huge Title Tag that is 165 characters long, its cuts off nicely in the serps, but go to the browser and its one of the longest Title Tags I have ever seen.
Maybe they should note that in Google only 84 characters count in your Title Tag.
A quick look at the Meta Description and you can see that it’s a wish list of keywords. Maybe they don’t know that Google uses in the serps if its relative I guess this explains why they have a customer testimonial shown in the serps.
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="seo consultancy, search engineering consultancy,
search engineering, search engineering, search engineering, search engine
consultancy, search engineering uk, search engineering consultancy,search engineering,
search engineering, search engine consultancy, search consultancy" />
Scroll down a bit and of course you will see the Meta Keywords but they don’t hold any real value anymore, so there was no need to fill it full of keywords.
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="seo consultancy, search engineering consultancy, search engineering, search engineering, search engineering, search engine consultancy, search engineering uk, search egineering consultancy, search engineering, search engineering, search engine consultancy, search engineering consultancy, search engineering, search engineering, search engineering, search engine consultancy, search engineering uk, search engineering consultancy, search engineering, search engineering, search engine consultancy" />
Oh well maybe they’ve got a really good H1 Tag, Oh there isn’t one.
Well maybe the proof is in the pudding ?
Chappers 667 days ago
http://www.twitter.com/_Chappers_Sounds a familiar story. Aggresive sales…1st page in 28 days….It wasn’t this lot, was it?
http://www.businesswatchdog.net/search-engine-easy.html
We’ve had a few calls from them before.
rory 667 days ago
No it wasn’t those guys Chappers
Andrew@BloggingGuide 667 days ago
http://www.webuildyourblog.comHad a call like this before and the caller was even using a big guy’s name. I guess they’ll use anything to earn bucks.
James 667 days ago
Well this is a keyword rich post!
Alison Groves 667 days ago
http://raventools.comWe get these all the time, and my favorite are the companies that submit their SEO services via our support system….for our SEO tools. So to have a bit of cheeky fun, I reply to the support ticket saying we don’t need their services, but they are more than welcome to try out our tools to manage those SEO services they are pitching. Naturally, I’ve yet to hear back from any of them.
Mark Barrett 667 days ago
A quick google search for the first couple of lines in the title gives you the site – if anyone’s interested. Certainly looks like a site that’s been knocked together very quickly, possibly from a template.
Kevin Gibbons 667 days ago
http://www.seoptimise.com/blogOne of our clients received a phone call and email today from a great SEO company claiming that they were Google! Sounds like they must be really good as they can even offer sponsored listings for a fixed fee (because you’re going to Google directly apparently).
All while I was working on-site and sat next to them
rory 667 days ago
I’ve heard of people saying that they are Google aswell
Lea de Groot 667 days ago
http://elysiansystems.com/Oh, how I’d love a spam call from an SEO company! It would make such a nice change from the morons who want me to buy gold. Because, you know, every web dev is just dying to buy gold these days. Theres an obvious mapping there
Rob Arkell 666 days ago
http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/This is something we come up against all too often. There are many charlatans in the industry purely out to take advantage of peoples naivety when it comes to search marketing.
Like you say there are many individuals offering clients false promises of 1st page natural rankings within 28 days for their selected terms and also fixed positions in the sponsored results, all for minuscule levels of investment. Fortunately most see through the lies and opt for a credible, reputable SEO Agency that can back up there claims of success with case studies.
Mick G 666 days ago
http://www.crystalclearideas.co.uk/I’m am sick to death of having these moronic arse wipes phone me offering number one position on google for a fixed fee per month with guaranteed clicks, yeah click bot more like
had another company phone me just before 5pm tonight, they are just full of shit and should be stopped from using the google name when they phone businesses up with their slimy sales pitch
Nigel Burke 666 days ago
http://nigelburke.comIt was funny when I got a phone call from a SEM company because I had stopped a campaign – how did they know that I had stopped it?
Andy 663 days ago
http://www.andy-ward.netJust tell them your bank is full. They just called actually and have asked if you could not send any more money. This works on all sorts of telemarketing bods.
Mick G 663 days ago
http://www.crystalclearideas.co.uk/cheers Andy I will try that one next time
ewan 661 days ago
http://www.naturallinkbuilding.comHi David, I have enjoyed reading a few of your posts and felt I’d like to comment on this one in particular. As a 2 man SEO band and only a few clients to date I actively use cold calling to get new clients, but it does help when you know what you are talking about and you have your own site in order first. Keep up the good posts.
tim diaz 661 days ago
How aggravating. Just a fun fact, if you ever need a yacht or boat shipped anywhere, Yacht Exports is your best bet. They have done a great job with me!
Paul 657 days ago
http://www.northsouthmedia.co.uk/Not bad, #2 on Google this morning for “seo company”, perhaps if the cold-call company focussed more of its energy (resources) on building it’s own online presence instead of commisioned based telephone sales people they might get rankings like this blog too.
Diane 647 days ago
http://www.3d-tv-reviews.co.uk/The secret is get a 3 mobile. At least where I live. No one will ever ring and even if they do the slight movement of answering it will lose you the signal.
*sighs* I’ve seen that I get a great phone signal when I’m in Oldham right on the top of the hill but at home it’s useless.
Useful if you don’t like answering the phone I spose!