Tech DC » Search

SEO Services

Rick — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:23:26 +0000

As always, I recommend to ignore spam emails suggesting that someone will improve your search rank by performing Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google knows about the tactics that SEO Consultants use. And if Google notices that you are artificially trying to improve your rank, they can penalize or ban your site from their search. Instead, the best way to improve search rank is follow our Google SEO and Other Search Engine Results Performance Suggestions.

Here’s the latest SEO spam that I received from sify.com:

Hi,

I am Sunny, SEO Consultant.

I hope you are doing well and have time to read my proposal.

Advertising in the online world is one of the most inexpensive and highly effective methods of promoting a business.

We are a Leading Indian Based SEO & Web Development Company and one of the very few companies which offer organic SEO Services with a full range of supporting services such as one way themed text links, blog submissions, directory submissions, article writing and postings, etc.

We are a team of 85+ professionals which includes 28 full time SEO experts. We are proud to inform you that our team handled 180+ SEO projects and obtained 100000+ manually built links in the past 1 year.

Let me know if you are interested and I’ll present you with a proposal that would not only improve sales of your company but also brand your products.

Feel free to contact me in case of any enquiry.

Kind Regards
Name: Sunny
Designation: Online SEO Consultant
Country: India

Improving Search Rank

Rick — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:08:42 +0000

I just got a spammy marketing email from NationalPositions Marketing telling me how they could improve the Google search rankings for techdc.com. We’ve written before about how such services are sleazy and can even lead to being banned by Google.

This particular spam message is interesting because they provided what they saw as my top Google search terms.

search_pos	term
12	wifi finder
22	vnc port
48	download flash videos
42	netstumbler mac
22	nausia
37	wi fi finder
40	imac 24
48	common computer problems
39	24 imac
20	antivirus bootable

This makes sense. Wait. Nausia?

Bogus Domain Name Expiration Notices

Rick — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:53:22 +0000

As a owner of several websites, I regularly get misleading domain expiration notices from companies that are not my domain registrar.

Sometimes the notices are about domains that really are expiring soon. Today, I got a notice of expiration notice from a place called domainregisstra.com from verranhaddad@sellstones.com. While the email never stated the expiration of the domain, it implied one by stating a ”due date” of May 13, 2011. The email text stated:

Attn :

This solicitation is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration for [mywebsite.com]. DRS is a submission service and search engine ranking provider.

Failure to complete your search engine registration by May 13, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web).

Your registration includes search engine submission for [mywebsite.com] for 1 year. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by May 13, 2011. This notice is not an invoice. It is a courtesy reminder to register [mywebsite.com] for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web.

So I looked up my domain at whois.com and found out the real expiration date of April 20, 2015.

The main scam here is that this looks like a renewal notice from my registar. But it’s from a company that wants to move me to a different registrar. If I was going to renew my domain, I’d just go to my real registar.

The price quoted from this email is $75 per year. That’s a scam considering that places like hover.com and godaddy offer domain registrations for $5 to $15 per year. The only claimed extra value is a “search engine submission”, which is really a worthless service. If your site is brand new and no search engine knows about it you can submit it to Google and submit it to Bing for free.

Google Instant Previews for Mobile

Rick — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:43:27 +0000

Google just added this nifty instant preview feature to their mobile searches.

Libya Internet Cut – Google Report

Rick — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:59:29 +0000

The Transparency Report from Google shows that queries from Libya have dropped enormously over the last couple of days. See the chart showing a drop off from the afternoon of February 18, 2011. This is what shutting off the Internet to a country looks like.

Link Farms Are Dangerous

Rick — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:23:20 +0000

Most people who have websites are regularly emailed to join or place links on their site to be part of link farms. These are bogus links (links unrelated to the site’s content) that have the goal of tricking Google into improving the site’s search rank. Horrible SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies sell this sleazy service. If you take part, you’re risking Google catching you and then demoting or banning your site.

See the NY Times article The Dirty Little Secrets of Search detailing how J.C. Penney rigged their results and then got demoted. It was a very successful strategy over Christmas, but Google just responded.

On Wednesday evening, Google began what it calls a “manual action” against Penney, essentially demotions specifically aimed at the company.

At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.”

Two hours later, it was at No. 71.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for “living room furniture.”

By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.

In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country.

The next it was essentially buried.

Mapnificent Finds Where You Can Travel

Rick — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:27:04 +0000

Mapnificent is a new site using Google Maps that finds out where you can get to in a certain amount of time. It accounts for you using public transportation and you can tell it in the settings that you have a bike. It’s great for exploring restaurants near you, but in a direction that you never bothered to look.

Bogus Search Engine Optimization Services

Rick — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:28:02 +0000

As an owner of websites, I regularly get email like this:

Hi,

I am Maria, Business Development Manager.

I went to your website: “www.techdc.com” and saw that you are an online service provider.

Would you be interested in outsourcing Link Building Services to us? We will be happy to deliver one way thematic links for any theme and numbers. We have delivered over 40,000 links to various retail and agency clients spread over different verticals.

OUR USP:-

* Links from Unique IP’s

* Regular Caching sites

* Less Outbound Links

* Start pricing USD 1.5 only

We have our quality department checking each and every link as per the quality parameters.

We would pick the exact anchor text and will be happy to provide a choice of using as many anchors as you want. Besides all our links pass thorough the quality parameters set for link building ensuring only high quality link building for a website.

Do let me know if you are interested and we would be happy to discuss this further.

For more info you can visit our website URL: – [removed]

I look forward to your Positive response.

Kind Regards,

Name: – Maria

Post: – Business Development Manager

E-mail:- maria@[removed]

NONE of these services are legitimate. There are two possible things these companies do:

1) They could just take your money and do nothing.

2) Or they could do something worse than nothing. Some companies actually try to do what they say, creating “Link Building Services.” One of the elements of the Google PageRank algorithm is how many links there are to your site. By putting your link on a bunch of sites, they attempt to game the Google PageRank algorithm and improve your search ranking. The problem with this is that Google isn’t stupid. Google can easily and automatically identify bogus links from link farms. Google can then penalize you by lowering your search rank or removing you completely from their search results, the mark of death on the Internet.

Even if these little companies could outsmart Google, it’s a sleazy business. To improve your site’s search results, write good content and get legitimate links. For more information on Search Engine Optimization and PageRank, see our post Google SEO and Other Search Engine Results Performance Suggestions.

Biking Directions with Google Maps

Rick — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:47:49 +0000

Google recently added biking directions with Google Maps. See Bicycling as a drop-down option when looking for directions.

Beta Warning

The yellow note at the bottom to use caution isn’t just for legal reasons. Many have reported mistakes, such as directions to bike through Arlington Cemetery.

But, like everything Google, it seems to get better over time. People report these mistakes to Google by either clicking the here link at the bottom of the Beta warning or clicking Report a Problem at the bottom right of any Google Map.

With the snow melting away in DC, it should be fun to bike again soon. Give Google Maps biking directions a try.

Haiti Disaster Relief

Rick — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:40:10 +0000

Google’s Crisis Response page for the Haiti earthquake has news, donation links, maps, satellite imagery, videos, and a Person Finder tool to look for or report on missing people.

This video is from the White House Haiti Earthquake Relief site: