Blue
02-02-2006, 15:30/03:30PM
I know we've discussed this before, but I thought a dedicated thread on this subject was warranted.
Two days in a row now, I've had cold calls from the same spammy SEO company.
hee hee ... what a blast!!! :D
And yes, I did say the same company!!!
Their method is to have the initial cold caller (some lowly phone salesperson reading text word-for-word off a sheet of paper) hype the mark through showing them SERPs.
Then, when you are appropriately agog and drooling over their amazing results, they turn you over to a "specialist", what they called "one of our SEO marketing experts", whom proceeds to dazzle you with SEO marketing-speak through the use of industry buzz-words and acronyms, whilst driving home the sale.
I've talked to four of their representatives now, and in each and every case I've gotten them to admit that they knew absolutely nothing about SEO methodologies. :D
Further, I engaged them in the excercise of shooting down each and every site they showed me as being less than worthless from an SEO perspective.
The very first site they showed me was a RE site and what do you think the first thing I saw was?
Yep ... a Flash splash page!!! :D Right at that very instant, I thought to myself, 'self? Yer gonna have some fun with this wahoo!!!' :D And fun I most certainly did have.
I think I took up about two hours total time on both days. Sure, I could have used the time to be productive, but hey! I was just having too much fun...
I proceeded to point out that flash splash pages were completely worthless and did more harm than good. Next came the point that their <title> tag contained not even one single keyword or phrase (they were using either the company name or the domain name).
After that, I pointed out that their <keywords> and <description> tags were overstuffed and rendered useless.
Then I moved on to the keyword stuffed text-on-the-page.
I refuted every attempt on their part to convince me that I needed a HEAVY reciprocal link campaign, which they would conveniently manage for me. I even pointed them to Matt Cutt's blog on that subject.
Next I proceeded to point out that the sites they'd created for their clients lacked any minor and unimportant elements such as any kind of proper navigation, site maps, CSS, and that not a one of them validated.
They were, however, to give them their due credit, quite excellently trained in the "in one ear, out the other" methodology of salesmanship! :D
All this, through my skillfull and witty reparte', was leading up to my final death-blow tactic of point out that every single one of the sites they so proudly showed me were not to be found within the top 100 pages in Google's SERPs, for any of the keywords/phrases they were targeting. :thebomb:
At one point, one of the "marketing specialists" tried to justify his company by asking if I "trusted" the BBB, which they were a proud member of, and wore the seal of BBB approval logo on their very own site (which, BTW, was also absent from the SERPs). As I inwardly guffawed, I simply asked him if in his opinion the BBB were SEO experts or even knowledgable in matters SEO related ... to be met by the expected silence.
As I listened to the silence grow quite painful on their end of the line, I asked if they had actually looked at my site (which was where they'd found my phone number), only to be met with the by now welcome sound of the ...
...dial tone!!!
Ah, yes! Life is grand!!!
:)
Two days in a row now, I've had cold calls from the same spammy SEO company.
hee hee ... what a blast!!! :D
And yes, I did say the same company!!!
Their method is to have the initial cold caller (some lowly phone salesperson reading text word-for-word off a sheet of paper) hype the mark through showing them SERPs.
Then, when you are appropriately agog and drooling over their amazing results, they turn you over to a "specialist", what they called "one of our SEO marketing experts", whom proceeds to dazzle you with SEO marketing-speak through the use of industry buzz-words and acronyms, whilst driving home the sale.
I've talked to four of their representatives now, and in each and every case I've gotten them to admit that they knew absolutely nothing about SEO methodologies. :D
Further, I engaged them in the excercise of shooting down each and every site they showed me as being less than worthless from an SEO perspective.
The very first site they showed me was a RE site and what do you think the first thing I saw was?
Yep ... a Flash splash page!!! :D Right at that very instant, I thought to myself, 'self? Yer gonna have some fun with this wahoo!!!' :D And fun I most certainly did have.
I think I took up about two hours total time on both days. Sure, I could have used the time to be productive, but hey! I was just having too much fun...
I proceeded to point out that flash splash pages were completely worthless and did more harm than good. Next came the point that their <title> tag contained not even one single keyword or phrase (they were using either the company name or the domain name).
After that, I pointed out that their <keywords> and <description> tags were overstuffed and rendered useless.
Then I moved on to the keyword stuffed text-on-the-page.
I refuted every attempt on their part to convince me that I needed a HEAVY reciprocal link campaign, which they would conveniently manage for me. I even pointed them to Matt Cutt's blog on that subject.
Next I proceeded to point out that the sites they'd created for their clients lacked any minor and unimportant elements such as any kind of proper navigation, site maps, CSS, and that not a one of them validated.
They were, however, to give them their due credit, quite excellently trained in the "in one ear, out the other" methodology of salesmanship! :D
All this, through my skillfull and witty reparte', was leading up to my final death-blow tactic of point out that every single one of the sites they so proudly showed me were not to be found within the top 100 pages in Google's SERPs, for any of the keywords/phrases they were targeting. :thebomb:
At one point, one of the "marketing specialists" tried to justify his company by asking if I "trusted" the BBB, which they were a proud member of, and wore the seal of BBB approval logo on their very own site (which, BTW, was also absent from the SERPs). As I inwardly guffawed, I simply asked him if in his opinion the BBB were SEO experts or even knowledgable in matters SEO related ... to be met by the expected silence.
As I listened to the silence grow quite painful on their end of the line, I asked if they had actually looked at my site (which was where they'd found my phone number), only to be met with the by now welcome sound of the ...
...dial tone!!!
Ah, yes! Life is grand!!!
:)