I got one of the maddening phone calls today. It was an unsolicited call from Web dot com offering me SEO services. They claimed that I had requested to be contacted during a recent domain registration. But nothing could be farther from the truth. I never hit the contact me check box when buying anything as I know it's an invitation to have my information sold all over the place.
Moving on... What really offended me was how the sales guy was trying to fast-talk me on SEO services. I normally get off the phone quite quickly in these circumstances, but given that this is my industry, I decided to hear his pitch. Maybe there would be something in there we should include in our affordable SEO plan. He said their service was something along the lines that for $70 per month the could "get me in Google." I asked questions to clarify if they would be running ads and he specified that the $70 SEO services package will get my url on page 1 for Google organic results. Clearly not something he can or should promise. I then further asked what on-going value I would get for my money. He informed me that each month they would run a "14 point test to ensure my website was compliant with Google and would remain in the search engine. They change their rules every few months to stay ahead of the spammers, you know." While not entirely untrue, it was such a load of c@$%.
Whenever we get one of these calls, Chad and I debrief and wonder if we are happy being an ethical SEO services firm. We usually end on the usual sour note. Something like "crime doesn't pay." And, "it's good to be able to sleep at night." But we have to wonder how many of those $70 / month plans we could sell if we hired a call center and started cold-calling unsuspecting buyers. And do people really believe that they can get good SEO for that price?