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SEO Company FirstFound.co.uk

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Jimbob1208, Mar 11, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi,

    Has anyone heard of an SEO Company called First Found at www.firstfound.co.uk (or www.firstfound.co.uk/new which is being launched soon)?

    Has anyone had any dealing with them or experience of their their services?

    Has anyone heard of any reports (good or bad) about them as a company or of their services?

    As a potential buyer of their services what pertinent questions did I ought to be asking them before I make a decision (I already have some of my own)?

    Regards

    Jimbob
     
    Jimbob1208, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  2. Vic_mackey

    Vic_mackey Banned

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    #2
    Call me sceptical, but when any brand new forum member comes on and says "what do you think of this site", or "check this site" etc, I can only assume its spam.
     
    Vic_mackey, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  3. Jimbob1208

    Jimbob1208 Active Member

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    #3
    You are wrong to be sceptical and I am just another member like you politely asking for some support.

    Thanks
     
    Jimbob1208, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  4. Grahampen

    Grahampen Peon

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    #4
    i do not know then and have never used them - but!

    i can tell you they are a trading arm of Leven Consultants Ltd (this from their website). Leven Consultants look credit worthy if they wanted to be my customer ( ie they have a positive net worth). As a guess I would put their total turnover at between £450k and £700k - so small but stable. They have been going since 1999, so I would assume have some steady business by now.

    Not quite the answer you wanted - but it gives some confidence they are not just a man in a shed with a website!
     
    Grahampen, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  5. govindseo

    govindseo Banned

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    #5
    i am agree with you.:confused:
     
    govindseo, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  6. seconnection

    seconnection Peon

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    #6
    I love the smell of spam in the morning
     
    seconnection, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  7. Jimbob1208

    Jimbob1208 Active Member

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    #7
    Thanks for providing this info.

    First Found.co.uk are offering the following service, but I was put off by the hard sell on the phone and this has left me feeling sceptical about them;

    £717 +vat (£249 for initial setup and £39 per month for SEO work) for a 12 month contract that includes;

    Initial Consultation
    Keyword Analysis
    Competition Analysis
    Submission Process
    Daily site performance monitoring

    They claim they allocate a dedicated SEO technician who manages a portfolio of clients (me being one of them) who reviews my website and its SEO performance 365 days a year and makes the necessary adjustments to keep them on page one of google.com organically.

    They claim their objective is client retention and thus the reason why it is important to keep us on page one.

    They say that there are no guarantees, however, they report a good success rate and have clients we can speak to and aim to get us on page one for generic keywords within 10 weeks and then page one for almost all of our keywords within 4 to 6 months.

    This sounds too good to be true.

    Jimbob
     
    Jimbob1208, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  8. Jimbob1208

    Jimbob1208 Active Member

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    #8
    Are all members normally this rude to other members who are asking for advice and support.

    If you don't have anything constructive to contribute then perhaps this forum isn't the place for you????
     
    Jimbob1208, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  9. Vic_mackey

    Vic_mackey Banned

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    #9
    When you've been here a little longer you'll see absolute, blatant spam from 1 post wonders. I bet if you are still a member 3 months from now, and you see a post similar to the one you made to start this thread, you'll probably think its someone spamming. Maybe you'll hang around the forum and then I'll have been wrong when I said spam. Either way, in general people here aren't rude and pretty much any question you ask will get a decent answer.
     
    Vic_mackey, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  10. Dave E

    Dave E Well-Known Member

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    #10
    FistFound have been in the game a long time, although I have not spoken with any of their clients I would imagine they are quite good as I have not heard any bad reports about them. I only ever hear about SEO companies when they are bad.

    The price they have given you is very low, that would only get you 1 month if that with many SEO companies. However the information you have provided does not say much about link building, links are the key.
     
    Dave E, Mar 11, 2008 IP
  11. Tony Butcher

    Tony Butcher Guest

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    #11
    I was at the receiving end of firstfound's extremely aggressive telesales script. all about being on page 1 of the main search engines, guaranteed. The problem is they don't understand when a prospect is simply not interested in their services.

    Firstly they ask you to type in "Search Engine Consultants" (not used a lot as a keyword query according to Overture) to show they have the No. 1 spot; when you ask them why they are not at No.1 for the more frequently searched SEO terms, they tell you they made a conscious decision not to be at No. 1 for those terms because they wouldn't be able to cope with all the enquiries!!!!! What a scam. Having traded since 1999 doesn't mean a lot, many scams survive for decades because they simply move on from victim to victim.
     
    Tony Butcher, Mar 12, 2008 IP
  12. chaitanya.seo

    chaitanya.seo Banned

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    #12
    Don't you think this is a web promotion for the company itself?
     
    chaitanya.seo, Mar 12, 2008 IP
  13. Talmid

    Talmid Guest

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    #13
    People get skeptical when new members in their first 5 posts make a comment about a specific website, anyway I no one to judge if this is Spam or just a confused user.
     
    Talmid, Mar 12, 2008 IP
  14. Tony Butcher

    Tony Butcher Guest

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    #14
    Jimbob1208 probably works for firstfound, if he does, firstfound is clearly a scam, which reputable SEO company would resort to "advertise" on this forum in this manner.

    Oh yes, "Grahampen" does work for firstfound, that is so obvious it is laughable: how can you "guess" someone's turnover from looking at a website, or state that they have a positive "net worth". What a joke!
     
    Tony Butcher, Mar 12, 2008 IP
  15. Jimbob1208

    Jimbob1208 Active Member

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    #15
    Hi,

    I can assure you that I do not work with this company (FF). I approached them with a view to them doing some SEO work for my businesses, these are;

    www.giggleberries.co.uk
    www.wikicoaching.co.uk
    www.janekeightley.co.uk

    I have since found an alternative seo company and based on the above comments regarding FF, I am seriously thinking of using this alternative (www.niddocks.com in association with www.webviz.com)

    Jimbob
     
    Jimbob1208, Mar 14, 2008 IP
  16. Diablos

    Diablos Guest

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    #16
    I have actually heard bad things about this company, a few clients that we work for came to us from them claiming that they got results initially then left it to go bad.
    When I checked out what they ahd actually done it was all just basic SEO work.
     
    Diablos, Mar 14, 2008 IP
  17. deryk.marl

    deryk.marl Peon

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    #17
    Hi, just been researching this company. They sure do harrass you over the phone. They've been pestering me for weeks now and I keep trying to get them to take the hint that we're just not interested.

    I've tried saying we don't need it, they won't take that as an answer and just try to use "logic" to "prove" that we do (and won't get off the phone until I pretend that it all makes perfect sense).

    I've tried putting them off repeatedly to consult others in the company in the hope they'll get bored - they're always desperate for an answer same-day but will at least get off the phone if you give them an exact date you think you'll have an answer. But that just keeps them off my back for a couple of days then it's full harassment mode again.

    We even have our own in-house SEO expert, and they won't take that for an answer either ("well doesn't he do other things?" etc). The sales person I'm dealing with can have quite a patronising tone too.

    Conversations go something like:
    "Blah blah blah so don't you think it's cost effective?"
    "Not really, no"
    "Blah blah blah so don't you think it's cost effective?"
    "Not really, no"
    "Blah blah blah so don't you think it's cost effective?"
    "Not really, no"
    "Blah blah blah so don't you think it's cost effective?"
    "OH ALL RIGHT YES WHATEVER"
    "Right, so do you want to go ahead?"
    "I'll think about it"
    "Why do you have to think about it, don't you think it's cost effective?"
    ARGH GO AWAY

    I can't help wondering why they're so desperate for business, and the more she pesters me the less likely I am (though it was already unlikely) to use their services. If they're this stroppy in Sales, what are they going to be like when they have our money?!

    Oh, and our in house SEO expert who used to work for one of the SEO companies says Firstfound are a bunch of cowboys and to avoid them like the plague. I haven't been rude enough to tell them that yet, but it's next on the list shortly followed by telling them to stop bugging us and putting the phone down.

    Has anyone found a way to get rid of them other than being forced to hang up on them?
     
    deryk.marl, Apr 11, 2008 IP
  18. KingPin08

    KingPin08 Banned

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    #18
    These guys are clueless and cowboys. Just like many other "Media" companies in the UK these days.

    I can roll of a list of cowboy Media companies in the UK right now. How do I know? because I have had their clients come to me after tell me stuff and because they were not happy with the services provided by these so called "SEO Media Companies"

    It's one thing to talk about SEO but doing it is another and most of these joke companies know sweet FA.

    KP
     
    KingPin08, Apr 11, 2008 IP
  19. swamiseo

    swamiseo Peon

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    #19
    You are my man :)

    Sorry to be blunt and rude but following are true.. from real experience
    ..

    I heard of such so called "Digital Media Company" and digital this digital that.

    Sic of them

    You visit their websites and find the same tune
    Who are we
    What we do
    Who are our (screwed up) client
    How we screw clients...
    Our (Screwers) Management
    blah blah ..

    And all (most which I've known personally working with them) are dumb.

    One specially I worked for, Web Development work for their own website, were bunch of brainless people. They even didn't know what exactly they are looking for in their own website and they call themselves Media company (Web + SEO)

    If that is not enough read some of their job advertisements. they coin up their own words and expect someone to know it like back if their palm...

    You should answer this and that without Searching internet. And if you search then you will find only one reference and that would be their own job advertisement LOL :D

    But one thing is for sure they are doing great business in squeezing blood out of their clients.

    I'm also thinking to go digital huge money man you know what I'm talking ;)

    It is 2 to 1 (USD vs GBP) it is boom time here :) Make hey while sun shines (it is raining actually now)
     
    swamiseo, Apr 11, 2008 IP
  20. KingPin08

    KingPin08 Banned

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    #20
    The problem is that more and more people are looking to get SEO, a perfect example is the BBC reporting that online advertising budget are about to outstrip TV advertising budgets.

    SEO is a big business and many of these so called "Media" companies are web design based and offering SEO as a "bolt on" package.

    To may people read what the Celebrity SEO's write and hang on every word they say and most of them don't even work in the SEO field anymore, they just write about it.

    Web design companies should stick to what they do and design sites. I am an SEO Specialist, I can't code a website and I NEVER sell that service. I would refer my client to someone who can do the job.

    If you can't do it, don't promote it, pure and as simple as that.

    It's tossers like these companies that give us REAL SEO's that do this job day in day out a bad name and tarnish my industry.

    KP
     
    KingPin08, Apr 11, 2008 IP