Is this thread about Spam & Ethics....

[Web Witch]

....or is it about Ethics & Spam? I wasn't sure where to post this.

A new client of mine hunts through the search engines to find someone to submit her website to the search engines she finds Sitescreamer (http://www.sitescreamer.com) sees that it only will cost $99.95 and they have clients consisting of:

Coca Cola.
RE/MAX
Century 21
Best Buy
Days Inn
Sci-Fi Channel
IBM
Avon
Miss America Pageant
PeaVey
Catholic Health Network
Diabetics World Advocacy
Janus Development Corp.

and they promice to have her registared to 3,000 search engines in 48 hours. Plus, the following claim:

This package will announce your website on more than 3000 search engines! and directories including YaHoo!. This package will keep your website current on the search engines for 1 year. This spanned submission cycle guarantees that your site will not be dropped during a re-indexing of the search engines data base. With the Internet going at an exponential rate this service is a must. Your website will be listed in just 72 hrs.

Once a client of Site Screamer your account is assigned to one of our experienced project managers. Your project manager will be your point of contact at Site Screamer. Before your website is approved for submission your project manager first spiders your website gathering all meta tag information. Then follows up with a live onsite inspection. Should your website require any fine tuning or optimization he will contact you. All required meta tag work will be done by your project manager.
-----------------------------------------

Well it's been over a month and she's not even listed at Google if you key in the domain name sciatica-treatments.com. Also, Did she get had or what? Do you feel this is ethically wrong and fits in this thread?

I've already sent this poor lady recommedations for making html tags and page content king, plus using Word Tracker trial version I found one of their 'GIFTS' with KEI of 667.172 for a "key phrase' of quess what.... "sciatica treatment" which is in her keywords, the domain name is a plural spelling with a hyphen and the site still doesn't come up. Do you think she should ask for her money back?

Also, can anybody give me a definition of 'spanned submission cycle' which is used above in BOLD? That may be a good word of that glossery I was working on....

Thanks :hi:

[ihelpyou]

Never heard of them. Anyway, for that price, how good could they be? They do say 48hrs so they already have faulted with her. That is a bogus statement anyway.

I tried searching Google for any phrases they might target, and could not find them listed anywhere. Take a look see at their html code. I have Never seen that before. The spamming of the h5 tag is quite a new one to me and quite funny. :)

[Web Witch]

Giggle I checked out the code and there was a lot of it for a simple page. Also in my letter to her my last line was "So that leaves us with you to get working on the page content (text) and I'll clean up the html.". I figured starting all over using her design is a good beginning; it's her first website so please be nice:cute:

The first thing on the phone with her she mentioned the 48 hours I knew she would be getting her money back, now she'll be stuck with that problem:mad:

[Advisor]

I think that site may rely heavily on inktomi listings (and very non-competitive keywords) and thus the 48 hour thing. Look at the examples of rankings they have on their site.

J

[ihelpyou]

Yep.

What gets me is the testimonials I see on many sites. Most have some words and a name, and that's it. No Url, No email, No nothing where one could check it out if so desired. Why put anything there if there is no way to verify the testimonial?

Oh, I know, cause they are fake. :rolleyes:

[Advisor]

Yes, we should email coke and all those others and ask if they ever heard of them!

J

[ihelpyou]

Yeah, and I'm not talking about those clients they list, but the testimonials on the page with words and a name. Not sure if it was on the front page or another page. Would be interesting to know if Coke actually did use them. My guess is yes, as we know how big companies generally do not have a clue about the engines. Nor do they really care as brand name alone gets them all the visitors they need.

[Advisor]

My guess would be a resounding NO! They don't use companies like that. Gosh, I sure hope they don't!

I did see the testimonials you were talking about also and thought they were pretty ummm interesting. If they are real, they sure don't appear to be. But I'm sure there are some who are happy with their services. It doesn't take much to please some people!

Jill

[Mel]

Hmmmmm....... This site which promises you 200 "quality" links has no pagerank and no backward links of its own, promises to fix up your Metas for you, and get you into Yahoo! for $99.95!!!

Here is an example of their own meta expertise:
<meta name="Title" content="Search Engine Ranking and Search Engine Submission">

They are touting their great results for such competitive keywords as:

Dog training in Saudi Aribia - (one of the hot categories on the web.)

Digital odometer reset - we all need this (especially if we're in the used car business)

poi english muffins: ( when I find out what this is I'll let you know)

Freight securement regulations: I relly don't think I much need this.

But in all fairness they really don't ptomise you anything as the site is very cleverly worded. They will only "announce" your site to these search engines (most of whom are actually overseas and/or specialized directories.

Another case of a site set up to seperate the newbies from thier dollars.

A far better service is our moderators Savvy1's AnnounceIt service which is half the price and IMO more relevant.

[Web Witch]

Mel. you tickle me with your findings:bouncy:

Doug, since I'm not a html coder and know enough but what the heck is "spamming of the h5 tag":confused:

Jill, "But I'm sure there are some who are happy with their services. It doesn't take much to please some people!" I think their customers are themselves:rolleyes:

In closing my eyes are getting really bad in my old age spanning looks like spamming to me on a monitor:boil:

8) :)

[Mel]

Hi WebWitch

Doug is referring to the more than 150 consecutive empty H5 tags they have string together on thier index page.

Why? I have no idea since they have no content, and thus do not affect their ranking at all. Perhaps someone told them H tags were good so they put in 150?

[Mel]

Sorry all - Sitescreamer.com is now showing a toolbar PR of 5 and 14 backward links so...........

After doing a bit more checking I can assure you that this is a company to give your SEO to - if you want to remain in Search engine oblivion, that is.

Here are thier rankings for four of their keywords from their title, description and Yahoo title:

search engine ranking
search engine sumbission
site promotion
search engine registration services

Google - not ranked
MSN - not ranked
Yahoo! - search engine registration services and site promotion -ranked somewhere beyond 1000.

No thanks not for me.

[Kal]

Those H5 tags are truly bizarre! :eek: WebWitch did your client sign anything that specified guaranteed results? If so, she should pursue her money back pronto. If there was no official "contract", my guess is she'll never see the money back. These scum ****ers are unbelievable.

Hey Doug - re the testimonials, I totally agree with you that they can look suspicious if not linked to an email address or URL. But I can understand some companies not wanting to give out their client's contact details, because scam-artists such as this one will try to hijack clients using similar claims. Personally, I don't like to give out the email addresses of my clients on my site/s, but I do give some out to potential clients as a rule of thumb. You can usually tell the fake testimonials a mile away anyway. Or check the ranking claims which are usually bogus.

<rant>Don't you just hate having to explain to clients why they shouldn't go with Scum-Submit/FakeBoost/INeedHelp for only $19.95/49.95/99.95?</rant>

[Web Witch]

"did your client sign anything that specified guaranteed results?" I don't think so Kal.

Is there a website that has a database of these scam artists? If not maybe we should set one up - site-promotion-not.com:D

[MsSearch]

This spanned submission cycle guarantees that your site will not be dropped during a re-indexing of the search engines data base. With the Internet going at an exponential rate this service is a must. Your website will be listed in just 72 hrs.


spanned submission cycle --looks like a misspelling for spammed submission cycle :p

[ihelpyou]

The key word here is "guarantees".

Actually, the way they will "resubmit" you DOES guarantee that your site will be dropped. :cheers:

[Advisor]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
The key word here is "guarantees".

Actually, the way they will "resubmit" you DOES guarantee that your site will be dropped. :cheers: I don't think so, Doug. Resubmitting is not necessarily a cause for getting dropped. In fact, where Google is concerned, they explicity state that you can submit as many times as you want and they won't drop you. (It won't help you either, but they won't drop you.) I don't think anyone's ever had any proof of a site being dropped or banned because of oversubmission. It's just not a good thing to do, but doubtful that you'd be banned for it.

Jill

[ihelpyou]

I know Jill. :) Just that they are touting this "guarantee" that your site will never be dropped BECAUSE THEY are resubmitting you. Totally bogus statement. :eek:

[Web Witch]

Yesterday I received this from the owner of the website "sitescreamer.com has come crawling back on bended knees after I sent him a cease and desist letter outlining my intended actions. He has been registering my site (I have been receiving notices from search engines) now and has offered his services for free (yeah - RIGHT). He will refund my money ASAP according to him. Guess I really scared the poor guy!" Still sounds a little funkie to me....:rolleyes:

[Kal]

Yep, some definite funkification going on there. Let us know if he coughs up the $$

[tiascott]

Any site or service that promises to get you listed in any search engines as the "top of the list" for any amount of time is a scam. Search engines change all the time, new pages to the internet are created everyday. It's impossible.

[MazY]

Originally posted by Mel
poi english muffins: ( when I find out what this is I'll let you know)

Damn. I find a unique search-phrase and everyone starts copying! :D

Never mind search engine marketing, you mark my words.. This time next year, every SEO will be calling themselves poi english muffineers! or PEMs.

Watch this space...