Top 3 Web Marketing
SCAMS!
#1 - Guaranteed 1st Page Ranking! or Top Ten Placement!Guaranteed first page ranking, that’s fantastic! Wait, first page ranking where and on what search term? Not all searches are created equal. The value of a first page rank for the term “houses for sale in Orangevale, CA by Mark the realtor” is NOT equivalent to the value for the term “Orangevale Homes”. In fact, one search term is used by many people and one is never used. Can you guess which one?
Unfortunately, this tactic may be exactly what ranking companies are offering you when they guarantee top rankings. Try a little test and see for yourself, run a search for “Sacramento Homes” and look to see how many results are returned. When I wrote this there were over 21 million results. If you want to compete with the companies that show up on the first page (Sacbee.com, Realtor.com, HomeGain.com, C21) it won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight. An honest search engine marketing company will explain this to you. Top rankings are a legitimate goal and represent a money making opportunity for your business. Any company that guarantees top placement should raise a flag for you. Start asking lots of questions like which keywords and what kind of traffic increase you should see.
#2 - 20,000 hits a month Guaranteed!
Wow! 20,000 hits. I wonder if you can handle the additional flood of business? Mark Twain was credited with saying that “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics”. Remember the term “hits” does not mean “visitors” in web results. How many visitors does this claim equate to? I have no idea, but I have spoken to several Realtors that have bought into this scam, spending as much as $2,500 in a single month. They had ZERO return. Don’t buy into this! It is equivalent to 21st century snake oil!
#3 Submit your site to over 10,000 search engines, monthly submissions for only $29.95 per month…
If this sounds familiar it’s because it is one of the oldest lures out there. The concept sounds OK, the more entry points to your website the better off you are, right? Not for thirty dollars a month -- here’s why. Over 99% of search traffic comes from the top 5 search engines, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, AOL (AOL results are supplemented by Google). Therefore, submitting your site to the other 9,995 search engines is not a bad thing, but don’t expect anything from it (you can, however, expect a flood of spam back from most of them). Concentrate your efforts where it will make a difference. What about submitting your site frequently? Frequent submission is considered spamming by many search engines. Google clearly states that submitting your site frequently using automated tools is against their quality guidelines and could get your site “Blocked from the index”. There is no real value in submitting your site frequently to the top search engines. Also, don’t overpay to submit your site to the search engines. Real Estate Agents are the favorite target of unscrupulous search marketing companies -- Don’t be a victim.
Mark Sprenger
eSourceAgent.com
Google Qualified Company
eSource Marketing is a performance-based search marketing company specializing in connecting agents with buyers. You can contact eSource Marketing toll free at 1-866-400-7710 or by visiting our website at http://www.eSourceAgent.com
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