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 Website
Promotion Scams
...and Secrets. |
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<< Back In the past few weeks, several clients
asked me about some unsolicited emails they received related to
website promotion. Like any service solicited to you via
email:
If it comes over email,
and you didn't ask for it or subscribe to it, chances are it is at
best worthless, and at worse a scam. Always seek out your
own services, never be tempted by those emailed to you. If the
service is really that good, it will not need to use SPAM to promote
itself.
 Examples
of subjects for these spam emails:
- "We'd like to cross link to your
website"
- "We guarantee top 5
listings...."
- "We can send you 50,000 visitors
next week"
- "Your site is not listed on the
search engines"
- "www.yourcompetitor.com
has you beat."
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Many of my
clients ask me "What the heck, it's only $___, why not give it a try
and see what happens."
To that, I say:
1. If any of these services use
prohibited methods of improving your ratings, the search engines
will blacklist YOUR SITE. Sometimes you'll get a warning,
but usually not. The appeal process sometimes works, but you
can easily sink days into getting removed from a blacklist - and
then you must start your promotion from ground floor.
2. The traffic many of these
services send you is fake. It may show up as visits on
your website, but the way these are generated is by using spyware/adware
and/or automated click systems. In other words, the
visitor may get a glimpse of your site (counting as a visit)... but
they are mad because it's coming up as a pop-under or pop-up
window.
3. Google may count you as
a part of the "neighborhood" of sites that use
questionable/prohibited techniques to promote your site.
While they might not ban you, you will never be able to achieve a
solid presence on their search engine due to the impact on your page
rank. There is no appeal process for this, nor anyone who can
help you get out of this trap. Why? Because you cannot
force "problem" sites to stop linking to you.
4. If you can't resist trying
the company out, first at least do a Google search for the firm and
look for their mention in forums, discussion groups, and scam sites.
Google will allow you to search for sites that "include the term
_____"... allowing you to review all mentions of this company
on-line. People who have been scammed will often post
their experiences and Google can find them.
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So, if all of these are scams, then
how do I rate higher on the search engines? |
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It takes a meticulous process of
keyword research, tag creation, reporting, and tuning, but before
that, your site must have content! (I can hear
you moaning!) This means not 3-4 pages of brochure information, but
20-25 or more pages of really useful copy. I've not seen a
business that couldn't produce 20 pages of information potential
customers would like to know. And, if customers like it,
you can bet the search engines will.
Why do most sites have little
content, and never appear in search engines?
Because it's hard work creating
good website copy! It takes someone hours to outline,
write, type, and proofread it. It must be meaningful, not
fluff or duplicated information from other sites. It must tell
a story, explain something, or otherwise service your customers.
Your copy must work with your businesses' "value proposition" and
excite people into calling you. And once the copy is created,
it must be edited for search-engine friendliness by someone who
knows what the "Googles" and "Yahoos" of the world are looking for.
It may be time to hire someone to
do the writing for you. A professional writer is always a good
bet, and, no, they are not cheap. If you're lucky, it's a
great project for a journalism or senior English student. Call
your closest university's liberal arts department and see if there
are students looking for small writing projects for their resume.
Don't be surprised if the teachers you speak with say "no, but I
could use the extra work!"
Happy Writing!
Scott Clark |
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