Contacted by an SEO company..
-
We have been contacted by a free SEO company, who seem to use your domain and create articles for you on your site, linking to other relevant sites, while other relevant sites link to yours. All they ask is a small link on your homepage.
An excerpt of the instructions are:
-
Download the attached files in a folder to be uploaded to your server (public_html) folder
-
Set 777 permission to the folder. This allows our script to work on your site
-
Add the "site wide" link on your homepage, as well as on the inner pages, the same way we do in the article section.
-
Implement the "site wide" link following the instructions on the README.txt file
-
Copy the script on the file or you can provide us with a temporary FTP access to your server and we will do it for you.
-
Please note that if you can upload our folder to your site within 48 hours, you will be eligible to receive 20 bonus links for your SEO campaign.
Should we tread carefully?
-
-
Yeah never set a folder's permissions to 777, as that would allow any script in that folder to be run and that is never good! Definitely avoid these instructions. You were right to consult the SEO Moz Q+A before doing anything.
-
I'll just add that, if by "legit", you mean the company will do what they say they'll do, then possible. The problems is that:
(1) They automatically get more from the exchange than the customer does. You're giving them links before they do anything, so it's not free.
(2) They take no risk and you take all the risk. You're more likely to be penalized by linking out to this link-farm than they are, in some ways (fair or not).
So, they may do what they outline, but it's not legit in my sense of the word and it's high-risk, low-reward SEO.
That's best-case. Worst case, these folders contain malware or dangerous payloads that could steal data and destroy sites.
-
You could very well damage your rankings. They are asking you for the keys to your house (the folder you make and give full write permission to) and telling you to drink this magical potion (upload a script that we don't tell you what it's about) and you're going to be all skinny because of all of the wonderful stuff we do. You're giving them access to your server and letting them do things without consulting you or giving you any control over things.
-
If they do not submit good content you may be flagged as spam site and this will damage your rankings for sure. Better stay away from this.
-
I'm with youy Egol, i would of not have even finisned reading the email before it would be in my deleted folder
-
This is BS... do not do it.
-
Thankyou for all of your comments.
I didn't name the company, as I didn't want to imply they were not legit. However, the company is free-seo-company.com
As Fassa says above, the company remotely create and submit articles to a page on your site, linking to other relevant sites. They do the same for your website from other sites.
They were actually recommended to us by Smart-Traffic, who are a large SEO company based in Bristol, UK.
Just wanted to check with you guys on here first, that it wouldn't damage our rankings in anyway!
-
Hi Steve,
SEOmoz members already gave you a lot of their input on this. My answer will be simple. Stay away from them. It would be suicide.
Also, as Robert said, feel free to name them.
-
Steve
Frankly I am curious as to why you wouldn't just name them. If they are so well used by others they certainly shouldn't mind.
I cannot imagine an SEO need I have for a single client or for my company that any site wide link could provide enough value for. Anything you read will tell you that it is rare that anyone needs this much access. I would not give someone I have no knowledge of, have no work history with, etc. access to my FTP file no matter how temporary. It is quite typical of those who scam to state we do this for the XYZ company. Frankly, I cannot tell you how many Google Adwords Partners in an unnamed country have badges with links that when clicked on then state they are not partners. (Most people do not check it out.)
Think about 20 bonus links: Are they from high value authorities around what your site is? Or, are they links you could go out and get by providing your email address to a directory?
Most people I have known who have been scammed (OK, including me) have fallen for something that was going to make them richer quicker or something that was going to alleviate a headache, roadblock, etc. without real effort. Everyone in SEO is faced with choosing between the quick and easy and the steady and methodical every day. The biggest hurdle we face as an agency is that our clients hear every day how quick and easy it is: "Get you a hundred leads a day, Rank you #1 on Google, get you off the back pages we noticed you on."
Our job is to say, sorry, we cannot do it. If you think they can, I would suggest giving them a try with say two or three pages that are lagging behind for some term. If they can get you to page one within a month, you won't owe us a thing for all the work we did in that month.
My experience is, there is rarely a quick and easy that does not have a concomitant cost that most are unaware of until they are forced to pay it.
Good Luck
-
Actually it may be legit. The technique is as follows ... you create a small article directory on your website which they use and they include your link on other such sites that create small article directories too. The thing is that they can go black hat real easy and also they can submit porn sites as well.
The way to determine whether to work with them or not is the following :
Check the source code of the pages ... or make your webmasters do it. Double check it!
If the source(here meaning the company) is trustworthy they will have at least a digital signature or something that makes you trust them. If you don't trust them completely do not do it.
-
That sounds very weird, never heard of anything like it.
Uploading a script you know nothing about and opening up your FTP don't sound like things I would be doing in a hurry, they could run phishing scams or anything through your site without you knowing about it.
If you are keen on doing this and trust the company I would ask what they script is and why they need FTP access. In theory they should be able to write articles and do a lot of the on page SEO all from your CMS...
-
Yes, very. Without considering the SEO side of it, I would be hesitant to upload anyone's files to my server. Considering SEO, though they claim it, I would research whether the links you would be receiving would be of any quality or relevance. Ultimately you want to build diverse, quality back link profiles - those that stand the test of time and Google's algorithm changes. Secondly, I know they said one link, but really how do you know what sites/links you are giving credit to? I'm not the most technical SEO, but speaking from experience, they could be hiding a lot in that file they want you to add to your site.
I had an experience with one of my wordpress sites a few months back where all of the sudden we were receiving impressions for keywords with "art" in them. This was not a site at all related to art. After doing some digging, I simply did a "view source" of my homepage code and found 200+ links hidden on my site all with anchor text including random art related key phrases. I still don't know how that file got uploaded to my wordpress site, but I finally found it and removed it.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Inbound links with malicious anchor text. Negative seo attack
Hi, What to do with more than 300 links with a malicious anchor text that has nothing to do with my content. I am disavowing those links for the last 5 years. Some of them are directed to URLs that have been changed more than 8 years ago. How can I block this malicious behavior? Thanks in advance
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Arlinaite470 -
Negative seo by Shady SEO Firm?
Recently a former client of man called me up and said that his rankings for his Auto Repair Shop in Tacoma WA had dropped and he had his worst November in sales since they hired this new SEO firm to rebuild their website and provide SEO. Of course the first thing I did was check his back links and sure enough there are 22 links from Yellowbook.com all pointed to different cities I checked the SEO firms website and they and they had 4 links from YellowBook. The problem was the links from YellowBook were all optimized from different cities. I am pretty sure Google penalized my client for the unnatural back-links to YellowCrook.com. Does the community agree that these links caused the penalty? I included the links in pictures on my LinkedIn Profile. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-study-how-google-erased-60-percent-revenue-from-small-meshach?published=t Here are the links. <colgroup><col width="202"> <col width="545"></colgroup>
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | DavidMeshah
| http://www.yellowpages.com/seattle-wa/automotive |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/seattle-wa/auto-transmission | Auto Transmission in Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/kent-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Kent, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/seattle-wa/truck-service-repair | Truck Service Repair in Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/lower-queen-anne-seattle-wa/truck-service-repair | Truck Service Repair in Lower Queen Anne Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/bonney-lake-wa/mechanic | Mechanic in Bonney Lake, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/seattle-wa/auto-mechanics | Auto Mechanics in Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/shoreline-wa/auto-transmission | Auto Transmission in Shoreline, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/kent-wa/auto-repair | Auto Repair in Kent, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/lynnwood-wa/auto-transmission | Auto Transmission in Lynnwood, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/monroe-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Monroe, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/auburn-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Auburn, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/redmond-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Redmond, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/matthews-beach-seattle-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Matthews Beach Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/kent-wa/auto-transmission | Auto Transmission in Kent, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/monroe-wa/truck-service-repair | Truck Service Repair in Monroe, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/wilburton-bellevue-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Wilburton Bellevue, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/laurelhurst-seattle-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Laurelhurst Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/seattle-wa-98166/auto-oil-lube |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/gig-harbor-wa/auto-oil-lube | Auto Oil Lube in Gig Harbor, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/northeast-seattle-seattle-wa/auto-repair-service | Auto Repair Service in Northeast Seattle Seattle, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/auburn-wa/auto-transmission |
| http://www.yellowpages.com/burien-wa/automotive | Automotive in Burien, Washington with Reviews & Ratings - YP.com |0 -
'SEO Footers'
We have an internal debate going on right now about the use of a link list of SEO pages in the footer. My stance is that they serve no purpose to people (heatmaps consistently show near zero activity), therefore they shouldn't be used. I believe that if something on a website is user-facing, then it should also beneficial to a user - not solely there for bots. There are much better ways to get bots to those pages, and for those people who didn't enter through an SEO page, internal linking where appropriate will be much more effective at getting them there. However, I have some opposition to this theory and wanted to get some community feedback on the topic. Anyone have thoughts, experience, or data to share on this subject?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LoganRay1 -
Competition cheating on seo
So im trying to rank for O'fallon lawn care. And my competitor bought a domain lawncareofallonmo.com and now ranks number one....there is even a link to "take me to my homepage" What is going on i thought this was so 2008 not 2014.....
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | grnside10 -
How to save website from Negative SEO?
Hi, I have read couple of good blog post on Negative SEO and come to know about few solution which may help me to save my website during Negative SEO. Here, I want to share my experience and live data regarding Negative SEO. Someone is creating bad inbound links to my website. I come to know about it via Google webmaster tools. Honestly, I have implemented certain solutions like Google disavow tool, contact to certain websites and many more. But, I can see negative impact on organic visits. Organic visits are going down since last two months. And, I am thinking, These bad inbound links are biggest reasons behind it. You can visit following URLs to know more about it. Can anyone share your experience to save website from negative SEO? How can I save any website from Negative SEO (~Bad Inbound Links) https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxyEDFdgDN-iR0xMd2FHeVlzYVU/edit https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxyEDFdgDN-iMEtneXU1YmhWX2s/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxyEDFdgDN-iSzNXdEJRdVJJVGM/edit?usp=sharing
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Subdomain and root domain effects on SEO
I have a domain lets say it's mydomain.com, which has my web app already hosted on this domain. I wanted to create a sub-product from my company, the concept is a bit different than my original web app that is on mydomain.com and I am planning to host this on mynewapp.mydomain.com. I am having doubts that using a sub-domain will have an impact on my existing or new web app. Can anyone give me any pointers on this? As much as I wanted to use a directory mydomain.com/mynewapp, this is not possible because it will just confuse existing users of the new product/web app. I've heard that subdomains are essentially treated as a new site, is this true? If it is then I am fine with this, but is it also true that subdomains are harder to reach the top rank rather than a root domain?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | herlamba0 -
Looking for recent bad SEO / black hat example such as JC Penney example from 2011
I am giving a presentation in a few weeks and looking for a "what not to do" larger brand example that made poor SEO choices to try and game Google with black hat tactics. Any examples you can point me to?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jfeitlinger0 -
Img alt tags and creating a small image in the background ? New Golf Clothing Company.
On a page I am trying to make it have a better on page analysis for a keyword. Is it worth creating a small image that you cant see in the background 5 pixels by 5 pixels with the keyword img alt, or does google see this negatively? I know they say to create good content for the reader / viewer but an image wouldnt be suitable as it is a category page within my ecommerce website. http://www.funktiongolf.co.uk/mens-golf-clothing-21-c.asp e.g Mens golf Clothing category
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | funktiongolf0