Hello digitalpoint members. I'm new to this site and all together new to seo but I have been approached by an seo company located in burlington named rankhigher.ca that says they can get me in the top of the search engines and specifically google.ca (not google.com, they say it's too difficult) but one of the ways they want to get me in the top spots is by me paying them a monthly fee that will cover them soliciting other website owners asking them if they can buy text links where those website owners will link back to my site. im just not too sure if this is a good idea. they (rankhigher.ca) haven't told me what the costs will be for each link but want me to pay over $5000 a month. Does this seem like a good idea or a good investment? Any ideas or alternatives would especially be appreciated.
If your site has world wide appeal then ranking in Google.com would be nice. I am in Toronto, check my site in my signature if you want a second opinion.
It sounds like a very bad idea. Google advises against paid links, asks webmasters to report them, in fact. And 5000 dollars a month is on the high side for a seo service, let alone one that's based on doing something that google tells you not to.
At $5,000 CA per month just for links brings only one word to mind: SCREWED! rankhigher.ca is a PR2 site and where do they show up in a Google search for "Internet Marketing" (their targeted keyword)? No where. At least when you ask us where we rank for our targeted keyword "Internet Marketing Services" we can say "Oh, I think we are #14 or 15 today" on Google (US). Talk is cheap in SEO, but if the firm can not show you what they have done for THEIR web site, then they are just taking credit for someone elses work. And at $5,000 US, you should get SEO and Links with money to spare for PPC management. And finally, when you stop paying for the links, they go away. And so does your site. There are 10 to 15 great SEO companies including us that will not BS you. PM me for the list.
Seeking professional advice that help you maintain a nice and clean site is always a good idea, but soliciting links, exchanges, etc. is not recommended if you operate a company. It is better to stick to sound principles. As in individual I might resort to such tactics and if get caught, can apply under a different name, use other networks, etc. But if you are selling your own products for example, as a company, getting banned or penalized by search engines will be a disaster. Have someone doing the SEO for you but stay away from dubious methods.
It all depends on your market, targeted keywords, age of the site, your on site optimization, etc. Unless you are in the gambling, pharmas, sex, dating, loans or any other really competitive industry for $5000 a month they should be able to rank you in google.CA, google.COM, google.FR, google.CO.UK, google.WHATEVER . As far as the link buying it all depends on your industry, it's true that most times once you stop paying your link will disappear and unless done properly it will get in you in trouble, but in some industries link buying is the only option to compete.
OK so this so-called company (rankhigher.ca) is scamming me? And Google is against paid links? So what happens if they find out and how would they find out?
well i guess im looking for just general seo services, without having to buy links from other websites. im sure there are ways in seo or marketing where i don't have to pay an arm or a leg to get better rankings and more traffic. rankhigher.ca isn't even too clear about these link buying services so i don't know...but i do thank you all for your services and will message some of you shortly to find out more about your services.
It all depends on your industry! Don't scream scammer before time, $5000 a month is a bargain for some industries. Google is against paid links but some markets highly depend on them to rank high. Look at the sports gambling industry and you'll see that the top 20 positions have hundreds of thousands paid links. Google finds out if the bought link is really obvious or if someone else reports you. In the case someone reports you they'll have to prove some how that you paid for that link, so unless the website you bought the link from clearly offers to sell links there is no way they can prove it. If it was as easy as sending an email to Google, wouldn't everybody report their competitors for every suspicious link even if they didn't buy them. If you want an honest opinion you would have to either share your url or your targeted keywords.