WHY do people and companies decide to risk jail by using statements like “we have a special relationship with Google” ? Google doesn’t position is own rankings (much), so to claim it does, and with some new company working from above a shoe shop in some backwater town, is ridiculous in the extreme.
One of the members over at UK Webmaster world forum has experienced one such company. They rang her, actually claimed they have done a deal with Google that allows them to get their business on page 1 of Google and all for £99 a month. The discussion took an interesting term when…
The Owner of the company came along and started going on the offensive by claiming “I am disappointed to find you slandering us like this”. Now correct me if I am wrong, but how is telling the truth IE repeating what one of his salespeople actually said, slandering? (it is libel anyhow not slander, and defamation if it is in a Scottish court). This chap also claimed they were AdWords qualified. We immediately asked for proof. None came.
At this point I would like to say that what they do is a common practice, it is a service that many people provide, it is a good PRACTICE, but if their sales approach is anything to go by, then it brings into question everything else they do. Paying Google to place ads in their sponsored listings via Pay Per Click (PPC) is absolutely fine. AdWords can cost people a fortune if they get it wrong, so emplying a professional to handle it for you is ideal.
The issue here is that this company (and many others) claim to have a relationship with Google, or worse, be PART of Google. This is the illegal part.
To confirm that this wasn’t an isolated incident by a rogue salesman, another forum member member telephoned them, and got told the same story, a special deal with Google allowing them to do what they do. No mention of AdWords etc.
Back on the forum, it was pointed out that lying to people in order to get them to make a decision, is called deception, and is punishable by a custodial jail term, and after some interesting discussion our friend came back with an ABSOLUTE CLASSIC line. :~
I think everyone is going a bit extreme on all this. There are plenty of customers out there so rather than fight between ourselves, lets just accept that my hat is a little blacker than your pristine white one!!!
Needless to say that seeing as we have a telephone number for Google AdWords in the UK, a call was placed to them, and they were less than happy. Internet Marketing is still like the wild west, with snake oil salesmen on every corner. Some people would like to see a new approach to internet marketing.
Seems the new approach for this company might well be from the boys in blue!
It never fails to amaze me that the internet is still riddled with snake oil SEO/SEM company like .With the more web marketing savvy business owner perhaps knowing this would be a total scam, just think of all the smaller business that are just starting out.
It makes me wonder how many of them have been screwed over.
This sort of thing is why reputable companies are often viewed with suspicion by some clients. There’s no harm in saying exactly how you achieve SEO results. If its by using AdWords then fine, a lot of companies need help using AdWords but to suggest that they have a relationship with Google that is more than as a simple customer is bad form.
I have to agree (obviously)and the other thing is that they feel then they can’t leave as they have a ‘special’ relationship with a company who have ‘special relationship’ with google.
All lies
I suppose one could ask why do people do a lot of stupid things. But business owners really are so very naive when it comes to SEO, that some folks get away with some pretty ridiculous things. Sigh.
I agree David, We are looking at a combined PPC and SEO mentoring package, that includes us running a limited PPC campaign for the client, while at the same time helping them get their heads around the basics and more, of SEO and marketing online.