BAD SEO! Bad! Internet Advancement Gets Busted and What It Means
April 11, 2008 by ian
Internet Advancement is going to have to pay about $450,000 in penalties and refunds after the Washington State Attorney busted them for:
- Deceptive advertising: They guaranteed top 25 rankings for their clients.
- Charging customer credit cards without authorization.
- Failing to respond to customer complaints etc. etc..
Internet Advancement charged folks between $1000 and $4000 'set up' and then $149/month for SEO.
I'm not one to dance on anyone's grave, but Internet Advancement won't be going out of business, so:
:)-/<
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And so on. I am sick of having to compete with crooks and liars who have no business goals except "rip off as many customers as possible".
What This Means
I've said it before, I'll say it again: If it sounds to good to be true, it is. $149/month might pay for a link on a spam site. It won't get you spit in a rainstorm when it comes to long-term, successful SEO.Internet Advancement promises things like 'submission to major search engines' and 'META tag optimization'. Both are outdated, worthless tactics that should scare any savvy customer away.
But they don't go after savvy customers. They use the promise of high rankings to lure in naive ones. Then they made money by charging their cards again and again and hoping the clients wouldn't notice.
In short, this ruling means that Internet Advancement Is bad, and that they're getting their comeuppance. Except that they're still allowed to be in business, which frustrates the hell out of me.
More in a moment about what this means for the SEO Standards debate.
Join the Conversation:
Jessica Faltot says:
April 13, 2008 14:50
I agree. We've got enough of a challenge trying to help clients increase their presence online (organically) by building up and optimizing their web site without having so-called "SEO" companies ripping people off. Now if we could only find a way to reach potential clients about those web design company's who still take money and do very little in the way of optimization for clients...maybe we could get a better reputation.
Ian
says:
April 13, 2008 17:52
@jessica what makes me crazy is talking to a client who says something like "Why can't you..." and then describes some ridiculous concept/trick/promise they got from a crook like this.
Jim Carlson says:
April 14, 2008 10:11
Any one guaranteeing SEO results should have a money back clause.
I tell my clients that SEO is a 'best practice', as the search engines determine that they feel is relevant to the search terms their users enter.
That being said, usability and SEO go hand in hand. Building a site that is readable to the user and the engines is always best practice.