Marketing Scam?

[Naegle]

Last week I got a call from a sales man that wanted to promote my site. His company would give my website a top ten searching engine ranking for 20 keywords or phrases for $5000!. When I said he was crazy, he offered 40 keywords for $3000! His company would write pages that were designed for search engines, and then redirect any hits to my site. Can I do the same thing myself? I just cant imagine spending that kind of money. I don't think I spent that much developing the site!

 

The call made me think. I'm averaging a new customer a day and 20-40 sales a month. Granted, we have a specialized product for a very niche market, mass marketing won't help. I've development my site with a frugal budget, and have done virtually nothing for marketing. What can I do?

 

I've also though about writing up static HTML pages with more in-depth product and use info that would redirect people to my store through links. Could this help, and is there a contibution that would link my store to my "product library"?

Thanks for the help.

[MarcoZorro]

Sounds like a scam to me.. no-one can garuantee you a top 10 listing except maybe if you gave google a call and asked them nicely :D

[GraphicsGuy]

Further, as I have understood it, creating separate entry pages just for search engine spiders will get a site banned from the major search engines.

[♥Vger]

You'd be better off putting some money aside for a Google AdWords campaign. You can guarantee getting listed on Google in that way! And if there's little competition for a niche market then you can even get yourself a top place sponsored link for very little money.

 

Vger

[FalseDawn]

total scam.

His company would write pages that were designed for search engines, and then redirect any hits to my site

 

search for "doorway pages" - they will get you banned in short order.

 

Can I do the same thing myself?

Yes, but it needs to be done properly.

 

I've also though about writing up static HTML pages with more in-depth product and use info that would redirect people to my store through links

 

Yes, this is fine, just so long as you don't emply any "sneaky" redirects on such pages.

If you do this on a different domain, you are effectively advertising and promoting your own site, which is good.

 

If it's on the same domain, then again it's good, as the more useful, in-depth information you provide will eventually result in increased rankings. Search engines love quality content!

 

If your product is very uncommon, an adwords campaign may be of little use, for example if only a handful of people actually do a relevant search each month. You will have to investigate for yourself.

[Naegle]

I though it was a scam just by their sales pitch. <_<

 

A nervous sounding salesman made the initial contact, and then he put his smooth taking superior on three-way to answer my "technical" questions. Very pushy and critical. Said things like I ?wasn?t being smart with my marketing? or that I'd ?lose money if I didn't use his services?. When I told him I couldn?t afford it, he dumps the price by $2000 and gets indignant with me... I worry about the people who are gullible enough to give their money away.

 

Anyway back to the topic of EFFECTIVE search engine ranking?

I?ll look into Google AdWords?and the html pages?I want to be effective and ethical. Honestly, I get a little perturbed by the amount of websites that lure you into to some crummy front just to redirect you to your next free Ipod or bogus survey. :angry:

 

I want my site to be clean and professional. Any html pages are designed to be a resource to the customer. I have noticed that Google dose an excellent job finding my store products, but most other search engines tend to lean toward my html pages.

 

I suppose the next step is effectively incorporating both. I want to redesign my store front so that the index page could incorporate links to my html documentation. i.e. - my html page talks about the product with a buy it now link to the store. But I want a person who?s in my store to be able to look up the same page with out having to leave the store. Can it be done? Any contributions out their or am I going to have to learn to code PHP? How about an expanded drop down box on the index page?

 

Thanks