Lots of friends / clients / website owners get contacted by different SEO / Content / Website Design companies with the promise that they can improve their online presence. Invariably they start with lots of promises and a ‘sweet’ deal but after giving them your ftp details and paying a small deposit the company holds you to ‘ransom’ and then make more financial demands and you end up with a potentially non-functional website that breaks Google Guidelines, here is some example / sample communication from one such company that demonstrate their desperation / incompetence and as always these emails / introductions should be ignored if you value your website placement.
[‘Let me fix your website‘ type company] to website owners: I have tried to find the fonts, pressure and tail ends but with no joy; these might be MAC based fonts. It might just be best to get the company that did the sign for you to email me the jpg/tiff of the logo and then I can do a good job of the top of your web page. Alternatively, I can do some sort of 3d logo for the website so will have a play this afternoon. You can have a different logo on the website? Are you waiting for an invoice as I am ready to go but have not received payment.
I have been designing logos for years and with the web, you can have something similar but a bit more 3d. What it comes down to is enquiries so I will crack on with that as soon as I have payment. The company that host your website need to give me the ftp info when you are happy with the top half as I cannot do the natural free listings as I need to change some of the back end coding that is not visible and I will make a bit of text change and add some additional pages. I will get the traffic up from free listings and also get you some good listings in paid for rankings, all of which are tracked.
Am away until next Thursday so happy to chat about this via email or can chat on the phone next Friday about this, equally if this is a simply change you want I can get someone to do it for you if you send the update via email
On telling the 3rd party company that they didnt want to give them access to their site they ‘turned up the pressure’ with this email designed to frighten the website client:
What is highly important about domain names and hosting is some companies hold a gun to your head and this is wrong. You do a good job and you stay with them like I am sure is your morals. I always let customers have control over their domain names so if I drop dead, it is not a hassle to move it. I would recommend that at worst, you go to Nominet and get the ips tag changed (techy talk), you can always sign an authority letter and I can do all this for you. I would then get you a FREE account with Fasthosts and you then control the desitination of your domain name. That is paramount. I had an incident with a client that had been trading for 15 years and lost a domain name that was then sold for £15,000. At no cost I will sort this out for you but you may have to pay £14 to Nominet if the person administering the domain name will not change the IPS tag that needs to be set to our IPS Tag.
This is not where it is hosted but where it can be administered and you have control over it once changed. Your website will still remain live but if the person that is hosting it, the site might be down for 24 hours. I have tried to back up the website but cannot get the animation down but will do that tomorrow so you have an offline copy.
It is easy to identify why the rankings are poor and it has nothing to do with blogs or Facebook links, it is to do with page content. I am unable to set the world on fire here but I can see some indication of poor rankings. Quite simple to understand the principle behind it and this might be a good opportunity for you to think about what phrases you want and at the same time think laterally. Also it can work geographically so someone in Newcastle that puts in “cheap double glazing” that is in Newcastle will not see you listed as there is no point. The main things you do are on your home page.
As mentioned, there is little I can do until I have the FTP info but at the moment you have a live site and we can work from there. I will do everything for you to gain control if you want me to. Trust me to get you control of the domain name and at worst it will cost you £14 to do this and have it in an account where you are in control and as long as you trust me, you can allow me access but block me at any time.
As for search engines, I am going to sort out the £30 Bing credit for you and you will be in the top 3 of Bing and Yahoo as they are the same database. There are two separate sections to a search engine, the free listings and the paid for listings. With access to your website, I can polish up the keyword density as it is known and if you really want to set the world alight, I can keep you in the top 3 forever. The split is 80% Google and 20% Bing but it is best to target Bing. I am sure my IT Director won’t mind me saying that all the search engine work I have done has led to many enquires but I can take it to another level but let’s get you happy with what I have promised and then take it from there.
If you have any problems getting the domain name released, let me know but all you need to do is ask for an IPS tag change and I will look after it. If you would like me to speak and do all this for you I will gladly do so as well!
[Website Owner] to Website Designers I have had a few suggestions made by a friend with regards my photos on my website, and the site is still not coming up on Google with most searches. This is why I requested the ftp details and would be great full if you can pass them on. I do appreciate what you are saying but I still would like the FTP details.
[Delicious Webdesign] to website owner: We don’t give FTP details to clients – After working in IT and in the Internet / Web Design world for 20 years I speak from experience that ‘normally’ when this is requested this is invariably due to clients being contacted by companies that have cold-called or send marketing emails to them promising website improvements and want to add something to the website to ‘improve it’ we have seen some absolute terrible / nightmare scenarios where websites (and businesses) have been ruined due to this. I am on your side here and want to protect your site but equally happy to do any updates you require but will keep the integrity of your website intact by reviewing all changes you are requesting / have been asked to complete to ensure your website doesn’t suffer.
We can update your photos or website logo within 1 hour if you simply email it to us I did sent a long email to your PA about website ftp access as we don’t generally give you access to that due to the fact its almost guaranteed that problems occur when 3rd party companies / friends try to update something they don’t know about.
Regarding website visitors / searches – your site has been live with us for just over a year now and has over 875 visits per month which is a good number but like every website you could rank better but it ranks in the top 10 for one of your key search phrases and in the top 20 for another.
If you still want the ftp details I would really like to know why (from experience its because you have been promised by a new website design / SEO company something that is unrealistic) and due to security concerns we can only provide the source code in a zipped up format to you for a standard fee, if you want your friend to update the logo then he can use these files to update them then send them back to us so we can update your website (this will be done within 1 hour during a working day or 24 hours maximum at the weekend).
Happy for you to phone me about this as I can assure you this is for your own website’s protection (to protect it from corruption / incompetence / viruses) and its not about being over-protective. I hope you appreciate the work we have done on the news section today and think it looks much better now. Hope you agree.
Those high rankings let us know its going in the right direction, having built / promoted hundreds of website we need to ‘urge’ you to add more content (posts and photos) to your website (blog) and to build and promote your facebook page. I can assure you that your site is Search friendly but is up against a huge amount of competition and needs your regular updates to make it rank higher / get more visitors (and obviously more calls / emails to you). We have improved the rankings / visitor numbers massively for other double glazing companies, a big number of building / construction companies as well as countless other sites so can assure you we know what we are doing but you need to do the work for yourself or get us to do it (seo and content creation) to improve your ranking quicker. SEO (website promotion) is an ongoing concern and it’s not easy so can help you if you are willing to do the work / listen / work with us on it.
Your email prompted me to look at your site and have had my guys do some work on it today (blog updates / fixes / image resizing etc.) If you look at the news section now you will notice that the first blog posts are correctly formatted (you need to copy what we have done) ideally provide more text so the posts are better for the website / search engines and it fills up the box meaning they don’t get corrupted when viewing them together. Some images were uploaded in a massive format which is very bad for the search engines / users so they have been resized for you. The news section itself has been updated and a new image viewer installed (click on a news section photo to see it in action)
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] to website owner: This is standard (bad) practice for a large website design/SEO company so they can squeeze every penny out of you. To be fair, it is a lovely website but the top does not portray your logo and it has NOT been optimised. Please bear in mind that the best way to get high free rankings [Delicious Webdesign – ‘high free ranking’ got to love that phrase] is getting people to link to you but there are some tweaks that can be made and getting inbound links is highly time consuming. I have done a search for you locally and you do not even show up on Google Maps or on the first page.
They have produced a lovely website but there is no search engine work done on this site at all. Please do not forward this on, and also please take into account that you cannot put viruses into web pages unless you install adverts etc which is not what I am intending to do; this is rubbish and bad practice to give unprofessional untruthful advice. I think I have sent you the attached before which show the search engine work I do back end. I am sure with a tracker I put on there, I can monitor an increase in traffic and then nail you for more money to duplicate this 100 times over as I have done for a certain Essex based company that get over 100 new web visitors a week.
I think it is poor practice to charge a client for work you have paid for and I would suggest that you write back and ask who owns the rights to the actual website as I normally provide a copy at any time if someone wants it. You have paid for it to be created and I would suggest that I host it for you and as you are a friend of a friend, I can do this for £5 a month, put the domain name somewhere where you control it in case I drop dead. It is a great domain name and you do not want someone holding a gun to your head. I think it also a cheek to suggest that you were cold called, I was a recommendation and you should pull them up on that.
Nominet are the governing body for domain names and they charge £14 for changing a bit of info. I am going to spend a bit of time tomorrow with other software as I cannot download a certain part of your site but would love to phone you tomorrow and say I have an offline copy for you in case they hold a gun to your head.
Tomorrow is search engine marketing day for me as I like to do clients in batches as it is complex so I get in a flow with it. But I would love to phone you and say don’t worry, I have downloaded your site and then if they want silly fees, for £14 you are rid of them.
Can I please phone the people that did your sign writing on the van and they will I am sure, email it as I cannot get these fonts and recreate it. It is no skin off their nose.
You own the artwork and the domain name as far as I am concerned and if they wish to charge fees for the content they are not a decent company although the design and content is great.
Just to let you know, if your current website design and hosting company start asking for big fees, I think I have managed to download your whole website so I now have an offline copy which I can burn onto a CD for you. I do have to say that their skills are more advanced on this front but I am starting to wonder if the website needs to be more complex than it is and I can take over updates for you? I see in their email about a news section but want to know how much time per week you put into the website? If you have the time to update it and can track volume of traffic to see how many people are looking at it, then you can weigh up the amount of time it is worth.
I see a lot of people saying follow us on Facebook and there is no new information on the Facebook website with aged posts which has a negative affect and puts people off. Following means that you have to spend the time to make constant interesting updates and the same is true with your news feed. Your website has had no optimisation whatsoever done to it [delicious webdesign – well there is a statement !!], I cannot possibly affect the coding to damage the site [delicious webdesign – are you sure about that?] as I always create a back up. I understand that if you do not wish to disclose what you are paying your current website design company on a monthly retainer basis but as such, unless you have a need for major updates, you should be paying no more than £20 for hosting and support with minor updates.
To cut a long story short, I can take it over if you pay £14 to Nominet and then I can control the domain name for you and put the domain name somewhere, where you are in control of the domain name.
I still cannot do anything other than design a new top section for you to view in an alternative location with your full website so that you can double check I have grabbed it perfectly so you are not charged a fee for release of material which is another trick some of the big companies try.
[Website Owner] to ‘Dodgy SEO Company’ As a simple business owner I am now unsure who owns my website? I know I own the domain name if I pay £14 to Nominet how much are you going to charge to make changes to site and get higher rankings on search engines. Do I notify them or just change it all over?
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] to website owner – You have paid me. No other costs but for £20 a month I would update it and host it or just £10 a month to host is only. If you really want to kill the market in the Canterbury area, I would create multiple sites and get multiple listings but let me prove this with your current one. I cannot do anything about the free listings but no search engine work has been done and I cannot do that without access. Let us leave it until you are back but I have been paid and will do it all immediately when you get back. Do I have permission to speak to your current website design company?
Just to put your mind at rest I have spoken to your current website designers. You are in the right hands with them and I would not take the site away even if you asked me to. He knows what he is doing. I would like to confirm that I have never said anything derogatory about him and I have always been complimentary about your website which has some features that I am not capable of doing. He has agreed to give me free ftp info and has told me what he charges a year (roughly) so stick with him. I will crack on while you are away and what I need to do will be uploaded on Monday so you are not paying any money. I wish to prove this works and then I can sting you for a few hundred quid in a month or so time to have other websites in the Canterbury area that generate leads. Your existing website design company could see that there was room for improvement with the coding so we are in full co-operation.
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] to Delicious Webdesign – Thank you for your time on the telephone. I have emailed the website owners Sorry to go on about detrimental comment but I have not been at all, and the website owner will tell you that! Will do the changes. As a suggestion, can you back up the site, let me have ftp access next week, make the changes and then if I bugger anything up, you can delete and reload? That is an answer. My only concern is some of the java you use. I appreciate your protection of your client’s website.
[Delicious Webdesign] to ‘Dodgy SEO Company’ Thanks for the call earlier but to be crystal clear we wont give you ftp access but will upload your changes for you, If our client agrees. I think you said you would make the changes to the website code that you already have then email the new code or give us ftp access to your changed version of the code once complete and will be very happy to do that for you on behalf of the website client. I will stress that we are acting on our client’s best interest and have advised him to proceed with caution when dealing with companies wanting access to their website files as we dont see or hear any evidence that you are qualified to improve what they have already.
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] That is fine. It would be nice if I gave you some ftp webspace as these free offline site grabbers can miss some script but I will upload it on Monday and you can look at it and see if there is anything missing if you like. I am going to do the work on Monday now as a family commitment has come up. Would you later next week (on holiday) speak to the website owner and he will give authority for us to work as a bit of a team.
Your costs are reasonable and I would like to know what you charge him, especially if you are taking the time once a month to send over Google Analytics, you are probably cheaper than I am in cost. Just got back from a wild night out and got an email from the website owner and he confirmed I have never said anything derogatory about your work!!! Would be good to see the analytics and what jump in improvement there is. As mentioned, I am more into cheating Bing and I might duplicate the site under a different domain name because I can’t keep asking you to ftp a new sub-domain once a week.
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] to website owner – I have not been well but I have nearly done all of the work and can upload it for you . The company hosting your site are not giving me direct access to upload the changes. Please can you ask them to give me ftp info and access. They are rightfully being cautious so I do not do any damage. They have a back up and I can do no damage. I am just making some minor changes to help your search engine rankings. I have agreed not to put my tracker on there but that annoys me as Google Analytics is designed for massive sites. I will apply the Bing credit but I am frustrated with this company. I want the hosting left there so I am not trying to nick that. It is a two minute job to give me the log in info and then you get what you have already paid for. I would suggest you consider managing this hosting and have full control of the domain name yourself. It is painful dealing with a third party and I think you should allow me, at no cost to host this elsewhere and you pay about £4 a month but have control of your domain name and allow who you choose to file upload.
I have had all the work as good as done but your existing website designer wants me to upload to a bit on my server and then he will download, check he thinks it is OK and then overwrite the current site. This is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. If you do not mind me saying, you have been referred by a mutual associate and I have done a lot and my credentials stand for themselves.
The domain is yours and if the your current website designer makes it difficult, you can pay £12 and move it and I will put it in a safe place for you so you are wearing the trousers.
Great domain name. I do want to say that I am sure your existing website designers are very technically skilled but he they are “techy”. When I have a client, I do what the client says as my client is the boss. I hope this makes sense?
The other concern I have is that they do not want me to add a tracker as he they are running Google analytics, which again is like having a Ferrari engine in a Ford Focus. I want this go activate fast as I can currently get £50 of Bing credit for you at no cost and I have other ideas too but just want to get the ball rolling.
It is your call, I do not profit from hosting or domain names, I charge for my time and experience and have the best welfare of your company in mind only.
[Website Owners] Sounds good you say you charge for your time is this going to cost me any more money? If my website designer is being a pain and I have the right to do what I want with the web site do it.
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] It won’t cost you any more money at all but it makes my life easier and will put your mind at rest as you are in full control.
I will put the domain in an account in your name in case I drop dead. You will need to send him an email to change the IPS tag or give authority to james to work on your behalf so I can do that for you. The worst case scenario if they won’t change the tag is that you have to pay £12 to the UK governing body called Nominet.
You have paid me and it would make my job so much easier if I did not have to deal with the existing website designers for minor changes. He is a very clever man but has taken technology too far and I can make this work for you. I believe you pay them £120 a year? I can reduce this to about £50 a year and the quality is just as good. I can explain all over the phone but he has complicated the wheel and has not allowed me to add a tracker as he uses google Analytics which is so complex whereas mine is easier for you to understand. Where the traffic has come from and what key words people have used. I am in all day tomorrow so call any time.
Have you heard from your website designer? I can’t and won’t do anything working the way he wishes to work but I have £50 of Bing credit, search engine work all done and I want my simplified tracker on the site. another guy from another company has £525 of free credit sitting there ready to go as he has 10 sites with me, and he gets enough free enquiries through my work. I really want to help you as I do get at least two referrals per client which is how I am growing my business. I am now contracted to a big company but I am always contactable by email or text and will reply by phone usually within the hour of any day during reasonable hours. Either your existing website designers give me permanent website access or it has to be moved. This is not an ultimatum to you but I cannot set the world alight for you with this hurdle in the way. You have paid me up and I am just trying to all I can for you without any additional cost.
I will do all I can to help! But your website design company has to release the domain name. I cannot do it unless you want to pay £12 to Nominet. A good company will release it as it is your domain name. I think you should suffer the £12 and I will put the domain name in an account so that if you are not happy with me, you are in control. Quite simply, if you do a good job, you stick with the same company. But you do not want a fight and this situation in the future so you have control and I can set this up for you at no cost. Can you give me a phone number for your existing website designers as I had it on my laptop but I lost it.
There are two sides to web traffic and I can help with both but I cannot work with someone that will not allow me access, you cannot get a response from and will not allow me to put a more simplified tracker on. I will phone your website design company if you give me his phone number. His charges are reasonable so to save a mess and you are the boss, demand I have permanent ftp access so I can make amendments. Please call me or email me, I am in all day until 3.30pm and can pick up my emails this evening after about 6pm.
This is messy but I will solve it. You should always have control of your own domain name and I can put it in a home where you can choose who looks after your site. To put it simply, it is like call divert, you have a phone at home but you can redirect calls to any number so if say a mobile phone breaks or you change numbers, within a few minutes, you redirect but at the moment your existing website design company has control and that is not right. The cost to renew your domain name is about £6 every two years and you pay that directly.
I will wait on your instructions. I can really increase enquiries for you, I am happy to let the existing website design company (Delicious Webdesign) host the site on the basis of you having control of the domain and me having access to make changes.
[‘Let me fix your website’ Company] to website designers The website owner want me to take over the hosting of this website as I need to tinker with it a lot and I think having analytics is overkill. I am sure you will need confirmation from them but if you will do a change, please set the IPS tag (they did this without permission!)
The result
After these communication the client decided to stop any work by this ‘SEO’ company. They clearly demonstrated to myself that they were simply incompetent and were trying to ‘convince’ our client that they were a professional and competent company without any history of doing any similar work / projects and by describing to ourselves that their main ‘SEO technique’ was to create a sub-domain then apply to Bing for free PPC credit as a new website. There is no short cuts in Website design and SEO and if anyone tells you differently they are lying.
