SEM Scams to Avoid

Avoid these pay per click companies and save money.

How to research an SEO company before hiring them.

Jan 26

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, link building scams, SEO Scams | No Comments

Link building scams are prolific on the internet. If you have a website, I am sure that you have been solicited by someone promising to get you on the first page of Google, for the keywords of your choice.

I will say this – if SEO were easy, there would be no SEO. SEO is difficult. Building links is difficult. If someone promises you they will have you on the first page of Google in one month, or 90 days…run! No one can guarantee you first page results! What they are really saying to you is, “we have found a way to cheat the system.”

Also – don’t forget – if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

How to research link building companies:
First – before you waste your time and energy ask yourself these questions.

  1. Did they contact you via your website contact form?
  2. Did they email you from a gmail account?
  3. Have they provided their website?
  4. Did they provide their phone number?
  5. Does their comments on the contact form have grammatical errors?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, save yourself the time. They are a link building farm! They are not worth your time to research them.

Are you still considering getting a quote from them to get you on the first page of Google? Then you didn’t take my advice above. :)

Step 1: Ask them for testimonials – they will give you a website they have succeeded with.
Step 2: Go to Google and type in: link: http://www.theurltheygaveyou.com”
Step 3: Look at the links that link to this website. Go ahead, click a few of them. Go to page 5 or 6 – click a few of those links.

Notice any similarities? All these links are on directories – and all the directories probably look very similar. THESE ARE LINK FARMS

Now, back to my earlier advice – Run from this company.

I hope you found this post useful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. I respond to all legit comments.

Chad Musgrove
Owner
Pro AD Insight

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Link Building scams to avoid

Jan 24

Posted by Muskrat37 in SEO Scams, Small Business Tips | No Comments

Recently I have been approached by several companies promising to get me on page 1 of Google for my chosen keywords. Most of these companies have contacted me by filling out a “contact form” on the websites that I manage. (I always get copied when someone fills out one of my clients website forms)

There is always one major red flag. The “SEO professional” that is promising to get me on page one, and promising many 1 way backlinks almost always uses a gmail address. Why not use your companies website email?

The second red flag is that these companies almost always PROMISE page 1 on Google. As we all know, per Google itself, NO ONE can promise or guarantee page 1 ranking on Google. They do not control the algorithm. If someone is promising you page 1 on Google, then they are saying that they have found a way to cheat the system.

What happened to you in school when you were caught cheating? If you cheated on a test, you were probably automatically given an F on the test. You failed right? Well, these companies may get away with their link farming, and spammy links for a while, but they will not get away with it forever. When Google does determine what sites are paying for links, they will be Google Slapped (banned from the search results).

Do you want to risk getting Google slapped and having to start over with your SEO?

The next post is going to give you an example of one of these companies – and a very specific example of one of the websites they use as their testimonial.

I will also show you how to check out these testimonials yourself, so you can avoid getting ripped off by one of these link farms.

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Is Reach Local a Scam – or just another deceptive, over promise, under deliver company?

Sep 4

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, Reach Local, SEM Scams | 62 Comments

*** update 9/4/11 ***
This post was originally written on 6/19/10. It show’s up #1 on Google for the phrase “Reach Local Scam”. I receive a lot of readers for this post, and to date, no one has successfully challenged my theories about the problems with Reach Local. If you are a small business that is considering hiring Reach Local to manage your SEM, I strongly encourage you to find alternatives. Another post that may be helpful is my short but sweet post titled “Google Adwords Secret….Reach Local…does not want you to know”

*** end update ***

********* ORIGINAL POST *****************
This is a review of Reach Locals pay per click program. Information in this blog post is from former Reach Local employees, Super Media (formerly Idearc Media) training, former Reach Local customers, various internet postings, personal experience, and real world examples I have stumbled upon while surfing the web.

Have you heard the pitch that goes like this?   “If I brought you 50 phone calls this month, and only 10 percent of those converted to customers, you would have received 5 new customers from your Reach Local Advertising.  You told me that the average customer was worth $1,000 to you, so you would have generated $5,000 in revenue for your $1,000 investment.” Read the rest of this entry »

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5 reasons you should not build a website yourself.

Aug 28

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, Small Business Tips | No Comments

I see small business owners every day that think they can save money by building a website themselves. I hope to save you the headaches these people went through.

Here are my top 5 reasons why you should not build a website yourself:

  1. You will lose money.

    You work hard for your money. Do you really want to throw a few hundred, if not a few thousand down the drain? Sure you can log on to GoDaddy, Network Solutions, or Host Gator, buy your own domain for around $12, pay for the small hosting package @ around $50 for the year, and use the free website builder tools that are available. However, you will get a website that has many flaws with the coding and is not likely to show up on Google. The problem is, you will not realize it until a year later, (after spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on futile internet marketing “opportunities” like paid links and Pay Per Click). After a year or two of nothing working, you will hire a web professional to build your website, and you just wasted a minimum of 1 year, and several hundred dollars.


  2. You are not a web developer.

    Would you call a plumber to fix your car? Would you hire an Electrician to plumb your house? Then why are you (who is not a web developer) trying to do something that you have no experience at, and expecting to show up on Google and make your millions? If it were easy, web developers, SEO, Social Media, and Internet Marketing professionals would not have a job.


  3. You will waste time.

    Even with a drag and drop website builder, it will still take you longer than it would take a web developer. Sure you can pick out a template you like, and type in your business name and other basic information into a few text boxes. Do you have a logo? Do you have access to images for your website? If you know where to find them, do you know the difference between an .eps file, .ai file, .png image, & a .jpg image? Do you know which to use where? Do you have the software to manipulate images to suit your website. All of these things take time and money.


  4. You don’t know SEO.

    I know you are capable of doing research, reading through blogs, and finding SEO tips and advice on the internet. You will probably even find some affordable software for $150 or less that promises to help you gain #1 on Google, and increase your sites optimization. The problem is, you don’t know what you are doing and there is a learning curve for any software, and it takes time. The other problem novices run into is that they don’t realize they are reading SEO tips that are most likely outdated, or wrong. Do you really think that an SEO professional is going to give away all their secrets in a public blog? Would you give away your bread & butter to your competitors?


  5. You will spend more money, trying to save money, and/or lose customers

    In the long run, you will either spend more money trying to save money, or take so many shortcuts you will have a crappy looking website that never shows up on Google. The occasional person that happens to find your website will see a cheap looking website that is hard to navigate, has no useful information (they don’t care that you are locally owned an operated), and sends the message that you are cheap and lazy. Do you really think this is a good first impression to give potential customers?

Do yourself a favor, find a web developer that has examples of their work, and gives you a quote in writing. Talk to more than one, and ask what they are going to do to get you to show up on Google. They won’t tell you all their secrets, but they can give you an overview, and based on this answer, you should be able to know if they are full of it, or can do a good job.

One last thing – a basic website (5 pages), that has basic SEO done, and is submitted to Google should not cost you more than $1,000.

If you insist on building a website yourself, here are a few sales, with reputable companies that will save you a few more dollars.

Domains $7.49 - Why Pay More?


$4.99/month Websites at Network Solutions®!

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Google Adwords Secret that Reach Local, AdzZoo and Supermedia do not want you to know.

Aug 17

Posted by Muskrat37 in Advice for small businesses, AdzZoo, Reach Local, SEM Scams, Small Business Tips, Super Media | No Comments

Reach Local, Super Media, and AdzZoo would like you to believe that their is a ton of work to do on an Adwords campaign each and every month. They want you to believe that they have some advanced proprietary software that gives them a competitive edge in the “bidding war” for keywords. (they do have software, but I believe it is designed to maximize their profits by minimizing man hours, and maximizing the clients to employee ratio.)

I have even heard (as recently as today) that Reach Local reps are still telling potential clients that they get a discount on keywords because Reach Local buys in bulk. Google clearly states that they give NO ONE a discount. On Google’s FAQ page about resellers, under “Companies and Claims to Avoid when considering Adwords”, Google states “Nobody receives preferential prices for AdWords”
and they say “Every advertiser pays the same price for AdWords. We don’t give discounts to anyone.”
(see this link for proof)

These companies will tell you that you have to stay on top of Adwords, and that you have to change your bids many times a day.

THE DIRTY SECRET IS:
There just isn’t that much work to do.

Don’t get me wrong, there is work that needs to be done, and you need to monitor your Adwords account to ensure that everything is still running fine, but you don’t have to look at it 10 times per day.

The honest truth is that for most small businesses, on budgets less than about $1500 per month, there will be less than 10 keywords driving the bulk of your traffic. You should watch this traffic, and look at the Analytic’s (not just the Adwords reports) to make sure your ad’s are converting at an acceptable rate that gives you a Return on your investment. You should run comparison ad’s to see if one ad is more successful than another…but this is not that much work, and is definitely not worth the management fees that Reach Local, Super Media, and AdzZoo charges in markup & management fees.

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Is AdzZoo an SEM scam, or yet another company preying on Small Business Owners?

Jul 23

Posted by Muskrat37 in AdzZoo, SEM Scams | 75 Comments

Please note – all comments are my opinion, and meant to facilitate an open discussion regarding your experiences with AdzZoo. 

As with many of my other posts regarding companies that provide Search Engine Marketing Services, I will start by reminding you that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I believe AdzZoo’s pay per click plans are a huge waste of money for many reasons.

  • They are an MLM – Of the money you pay them, how much goes towards your internet marketing campaign?
  • They are not results driven. In my opinion, the reports that are provided to their clients are very misleading.  These reports that contain no valuable information.  Campaigns appear to be designed for impressions, not conversions.

    • Read the rest of this entry »

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Are Supermedia’s, formerly Idearc Media, SEM Programs a Scam?

Jun 19

Posted by Muskrat37 in SEM Scams, Super Media | 15 Comments

It is my belief that Super Media’s Search Engine Marketing programs are a scam (or at the least, a waste of money)
because they over promise and under deliver, and the company is motivated by making money, not making YOU money.

We have all heard “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” Why then do we not listen to our guts when some smooth talking salesman from Super Media, or Yellow Pages, or Dex talks us into an appointment, and then delivers a perfect speech, with just the right amount of pressure to get us to sign a long term (12 month) contract for an internet marketing program? Read the rest of this entry »

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