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HELP...I have been scammed.....Read This Before You Fall Prey.....

By
Real Estate Agent with EXP Realty 414-525-0563 57026-90 Broker

     In an effort to improve my website positioning and not rely on what had become an expensive and non-lead productive PPC source...I cast my net and found several realtors who relied heavily on webleads and used a company called Internet Advancement.....soooooo I called, put the phone on speaker and my husband and I listened intently to the sales pitch.....in 15 days you see some results and by 120 days we would need at least one assistant if not more to keep up with the business....OK then....$5,000 and then when I was sitting on top of the  web in 120 days, $140 per month maintenance....

     Sixty days passed,...not one lead....oh just be patient, I was way ahead of schedule in the rankings....90 days...not one lead....patience, patience they told me....I kept objecting and telling them I could hardly believe that on the magical 120th day, the flood gates of leads would open...I had now talked to about half a dozen people at the company and no results....oh yes......WHOOPS...they don't know what happened but it was all done incorrectly,.....it is now almost 6 months...they have $5,280 and I have zip...calls and e-mail go unanswered...oh surprise....Can anyone suggest a solution ?

Posted by

Sally K. & David L. Hanson, ABR, CDPE, CSS, e-Pro,ILHM, REDS


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Simon Conway
Orlando Area Real Estate Services - Orlando, FL
No magic involved. No 60 day miracles. You have to optimize your own website. Takes months and months of dedication. The only way to the top of the rankings overnight is PPC. I don't use PPC, but I do know people who have had excellent results from it.
Nov 17, 2007 09:58 AM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce
My understanding of effective SEO was that it did away with  PPC ...we used PPC for a while with great results until "the head clicker" would not change words and we got $100,000 condo buyers where there were no such thing....
Nov 17, 2007 10:05 AM
Missy Caulk
Missy Caulk TEAM - Ann Arbor, MI
Savvy Realtor - Ann Arbor Real Estate

I got a call last year from a company wanted me to invest 5000. too. I kept them on the phone, they had no web site just an idea. I told them to call me back I had to think about it. So they did and said another agent was wanting the spot and I had to make my mind up. I blogged on it early on AR. But, it was a scam big time.

No one can promise you first position, no one. The only way you get there is a sponsored link.

Nov 17, 2007 11:14 AM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce
Please let's not add insult to injury by assuming I am stupid,....I am bright enough to know first position is not realistic,...that isn't what I said....and I DID check this company with several agents that gave rave reviews...let's read before we comment please.
Nov 17, 2007 11:34 AM
Darleen McCullen
Raleigh, NC
Broker - Raleigh, NC Real Estate
Did you pay by credit card? Most credit cards, especially business credit cards (American Express, in particular) are really good about refunding your money if you're not happy with the product or service.
Nov 17, 2007 02:29 PM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce
  Good point Darlene....I think that only applies to the last 30 days or billing period so I think I am sunk but it sure doesn't hurt to ask.
Nov 17, 2007 11:38 PM
Greg Fox
Realty World Wichita - Wichita, KS
Techy Broker in Wichita Kansas

Sad story, and I appreciate your candor.  No, your not stupid, but I have to question several things about this company. 

First, your domain is a .net versus a .com.  This shouldn't matter in the search engines as much, but nearly everyone is going to the Remax site that ends in .com when going by memory.  You will be loosing traffic, and that (from linking) can hurt your ranking.

Next, you have no links on your page to Wisconsin Real Estate, nor any headers.  These are some of your keywords that should carry the most weight.  Without this addition, the crawlers will be thinking your content doesn't match your keywords well.  Further, you have too many links in ratio to the amount of content on your page, and your site is written for a pretty high intelligence level.  Has to do with your coding, but the sentences seem to long to search engines.  Places you at a -37 fleisch level, 40-60 (yes positive versus your negative number).  Your site has good description, keywords, meta tags.  Your content doesn't match.

I would challange this company for your money back - They did a really bad job.  I did my site (the first thing you'll say about my site is too many words on the index page - that was for ranking and it worked) using www.seotoolset.com.  Cost me $90 per quarter.  I optimized my site in July, and I'm on page 1 for my terms on 2 or 3 search engines and I'm coming up on the third (Google, MSN, and Yahoo).

The problem is, buyer beware if you know what to look for.  Do we really know what to ask?

Nov 18, 2007 02:07 AM
David Yeoman
Mortgage Intelligence Inc. (David Yeoman) - Barrie, ON

A simple google of this company's name would have resulted in the following finding:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/internet-advancement-fuels-my-rage

In fact this link was right below the actual company's link.

You can follow links to a wide array of other complaints.

Nov 18, 2007 02:31 AM
Tom Braatz Waukesha County Real Estate 262-377-1459
Coldwell Banker - Oconomowoc, WI
Waukesha County Realtor Real Estate agent. SOLD!

Sally and David,

It has been around for a long time. Even in this day there are snake oil salemen.

I have found that hard work and effort, and a little luck, has helped me get along.

Sincerely,

Tom Braatz

Nov 18, 2007 03:03 AM
Eric Kodner
Madeline Island Realty - La Pointe, WI
CRS, Madeline Island Realty, LaPointe, WI 54850 -
The growing number of SEO frauds is scary.  There aren't any quick solutions to getting a leg up on the competition.  Greg made some very good points above.
Nov 18, 2007 03:16 AM
Steve Shatsky
Dallas, TX

Caveat Emptor!  Let the buyer beware.

There seem to be a lot of intelligent people getting sucked into scams for SEO these days.  I am hearing more and more people saying the have paid for "guaranteed results" which never materialize.  I think the bottom line has been stated again and again... that effective SEO takes hard work and time to happen.  As the internet become more crowded, it just takes longer and longer to climb the ladder.

Nov 18, 2007 04:57 AM
David Kyle
Charlotte Internet Marketing SEM Adwords - Charlotte, NC
Charlotte SEO

Sorry to hear about that.   Internet Advancement are some of the biggest scammers out there.  They are notorious in the internet marketing community. I would demand a refund.. get nasty about it if you have to.

On another note... SEO does not replace PPC, or any kind of marketing for that matter.  You could relate it to the saying about putting all your eggs in one basket.

I'm curious what you mean by "the head clicker" wouldn't change words?   Negative keywords are the way to stop getting unwanted search queries.

Nov 19, 2007 01:23 PM
Anonymous
Anonymous
  Thank you for your comments and sympathy....head clicker is the person that is in the marketing dept. for the website we have who refused to tell us the words he was using or change them....I wanted to learn from the experience of going from the kind of buyers we love working with to people who are clueless...wanting to buy $100,000 condos where the minimums are hundreds more...I want sooo much to stay away from PPC and just work on positioning....it's a physical impossibility for me to do work any more on this aspect of our business...I want to trust someone, somewhere....without selling my soul.
Nov 19, 2007 01:48 PM
#21
Nick Good
The Good Home Team with eXp Realty - McKinney, TX
www.TheGoodHomeTeam.com

Sean,

 

How do you tie in your AR profile with your website?  I have linked my website with AR... is that what you are talking about?

 

Nick

 

www.yourdallasmls.com

www.nickgood.com 

Nov 25, 2007 03:01 PM
Thesa Chambers
West + Main - Bend, OR
Principal Broker - Licensed in Oregon
Oh honey - I have learned this lesson the hard way too - I hope it all turns out great for you
Nov 26, 2007 04:25 AM
Robert Sole
REM Inspections LLC - Winter Springs, FL

You might do what I did.  I am a Home Inspector.  I received a voicemail from someone who said that they had some people in the area that needed inspections.  I called back and found it was from the Super Pages.  They started their spiel about how they had hundreds of people contact them looking for home inspections in the Orlando area and how if I just paid them $XXX, they could send me the customers.

I told them that was fine.  Send me the customers and I would pay them with the money I made from the inspections.  The hung up really quickly!

Robert Sole

www.REMinspections.com 

Dec 05, 2007 07:32 AM
David Kyle
Charlotte Internet Marketing SEM Adwords - Charlotte, NC
Charlotte SEO

She got a full refund because... I drop the HAMMER on SEO SCAMMERS!

Dec 11, 2007 04:03 AM
Rich Jacobson
Fathom Realty West Sound - Poulsbo, WA
Your Kitsap County WA Real Estate Broker
Sally & David:   This guy created a profile on ActiveRain back last fall, and you guys show up as being the ones who invited him to the network!!!
Jan 25, 2008 06:19 AM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce
  Yes...that is true....when we first met....and had been given great references by other realtors, we were anxious to spread the word....Things changed !
Jan 25, 2008 06:43 AM
Clint Miller
Real Estate Pipeline, Inc. - Missoula, MT
Wow....im interested in seeing what else is happening with this...bookmarked
Jan 25, 2008 06:44 AM