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Example of email sent to Customer Paradigm this morning |
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The Myth:
“Your site doesn`t rank very well, but we`re contacting you because we can help.”
The Dodge:
“We just stumbled across your site, even though it doesn`t rank that well.”
The Facts:
The irony is that they found your site because you do actually rank in the search engines.
Perhaps not as well as you might like. There`s always room to improve.
In cycling for example, you can always go faster (that`s why doping has been such an issue in the sport today).
In search rankings, there is always another keyword you could rank higher for.
But the fact is, they probably found you via a search on Google.
Why fill out a contact form? Because at most companies, contact form submissions are usually read – often by the owners or managers of a Website.
Just like last week`s topic, SEO Myths Debunked #4: We took a look at your site, and there are some things in the HTML code that are not optimized for search engines… the unsolicited SEO offer via your contact form is trying to trade on fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Even our company`s website, Customer Paradigm, gets form submissions like these from time to time.
I know our domain authority, and how many inbound links we have to our site (10,684 at last count).
But just for fun, I`ve played along and responded back on the phone. Partly out of morbid curiosity, like when you see a car crash on the side of the road… you just have to look. And partly out of research to find out how they are trying to instill fear and doubt into many of our clients.
Here`s the transcript of a recent phone call:
Me: “It sounds like you can help get our site ranking better.”
Them: “What is the name of your website? We send a lot of emails to people.”
Me: “CustomerParadigm.com”
Them: “(Fumbles, not quite sure how to spell `Paradigm`) Oh. I can see your site now. I like the colors!”
Me: “Can you tell me what you can do to help my site rank better? I don`t know a lot about SEO.” (Wink, wink!)
Them: “Yes. SEO is hard to do.”
Me: “Hmmmmmmm. (I`m not saying much, because half of the site he`s supposedly looking at talks about how we are SEO experts.)
Them: “It looks like your site has some coding issues that are preventing Google from being able to rank your site.”
Me: “Can you tell me what`s wrong with our site?” (I happen to know there`s nothing wrong, unless you`re trying to access the site from a Windows 95 computer on dial-up acoustic-coupler modem.)
Them: “It looks like your title tags are not set up properly, and there`s some other technical things that aren`t working well.”
Me: “Okay… can you fix these things for us?” (I am never going to give them access to our website.)
Them: “Sure. That is easy. Plus, our SEO experts we will hand-submit your site to search engines, and get thousands of inbound links through our network. We also do other things, but I can`t tell you exactly what we do, because it`s a trade secret.”
Me: “Oh… I understand. You can`t share your secret ways, or other people would be able to do what you do.”
Them: “Yes, we`ve cracked the Google code – so we know how to make sites rank higher. We can`t share this for obvious reasons.”
Me: “Will I be able to work directly with an SEO expert to make sure I know what keywords they are emphasizing?”
Them: “You`ll be able to submit tickets through our customer portal. We also run monthly reports!”
Me: “How much will it cost?”
Them: “We have monthly packages that start at $450.”
Me: “Great… can you send me a proposal?”
Them: “No, just please visit our website and sign up for one of the packages and we`ll get started right away! I`ll send you a link.”
The Summary:
If someone contacts you through your website telling you that you don`t rank well – chances are that they found you through a Google, Bing or Yahoo search. Ironically, they are contacting you because you rank in the search engines.
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