We have a special relationship with Google! Really?
If you work in the SEO industry, no doubt you have heard the phrase ‘We have a special relationship with Google’. This is massively frustrating from an organic optimisation company point of view, basically companies are essentially using Google Adwords and misinforming customers about services they offer, often trying to take clients away from honest SEO companies.
So what do they say ?
- We as a company have a special relationship with Google or we are part of Google. WRONG! Google Adwords does not make you a Google affiliate.
- We can get you page 1 position 1 for your phrases and they will remain their forever. WRONG! PPC obviously only stays their for your set budget.
- Go on click your advert a thousand times, it won’t disappear! WRONG! If you click the same advert from one machine it only counts as one click, this is designed so that competitors can’t sit their clicking your listing all day. (if you think you may be involved with such a company, then ask 10 friends to click your listing and see if it remains)
So what do they do ?
- Target cheap uncompetitive key phrases on PPC (making them cheap to buy)
- Take a huge payment for the set up fee.
- Take a monthly budget, then put a set amount on Adwords, while they pocket the rest.
- Never send you reports of traffic, click through rate etc.
In essence this type of sales approach doesn’t say much for the integrity of the company saying and doing these things. It kind of like a solicitors saying that they have an affiliation or special relationship with the courts and that they can ensure that you win every case.
We had a client went with such a company and they took nearly £300 PCM for the single phrase ‘Leicester Locksmith’, can you image what the profit margin was on this campaign? I just logged into my Adwords account to get an estimate of cost and traffic. Check out the figures:
Estimated Avergare Cost Per Click - £0.00 - £2.05
Clicks per day - 0
The cost of 0 (Zero) clicks times by the average cost (lets take the upper bracket) £2.05 equals 0 (Zero).
0 x 2.05 = 0
Not a great ROI (return on investment) for the client and with no reports or communication how was he supposed to know what was going on? In the end we helped him as much as possible and he came to us with and continued his organic optimisation campaign.
I also read something on the same subject, which can be found here: http://www.oldwelshguy.co.uk/web-marketing/the-special-relationship-with-google-a-new-approach-to-selling-top-listings .
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