Toronto SEO Firm
Search Engine Optimization Marketing Services

A favorite of pretend SEO companies is to spin articles using software and then publishing them as unique.  Here is a shinning example (http://www.masquerademasksformen.com/2012/01/16/texas-automobile-recyclers-offer-opportunity-to-save-big-on-auto-repairs/)

With countless companies in the usa taking visits in cash flow, there may be one that will be in fact booming and supporting individuals save money concurrently. The auto these recycling marketplace isn’t getting smaller, its expanding and there are many main reasons driving this increase in business. A vey important just one requires salvaging the average consumer a considerable amount of money car repairs.

Just brutal and why any company would want their website or brand associated with an article like this is beyond me.

I put together a fake news story last week and it seems someone posted it to Reddit.com and then the fun began!  I got a phone call from my host at around 8pm and he said my website might be under a DoS attack because it was receiving 100+ http requests per second!!  Needless to say my poor shared hosting account crashed and my host was working hard to keep it live!

Here are the results so far

The website usually gets 200-300 visits a day.  The 86k requests I could not serve kinda sucks but I was not really expecting this to go as viral as it did.  I will update this after the 24 hour mark.

30 hour update!

Referers.

I watched about an hour of the live feed from the Senate antitrust hearing on Google and caught about 15 minutes o f Mr. Schmit’s testimony and what I heard wasn’t very good.  I felt he did not answer the questions posed very clearly and instead used each answer opportunity as a mini PR piece.

It seems the gossip around the blogesphere is mixed, many think Schmit did a good job at deflection the accusations and many more think Google is going to be facing an official inquiry by the FTC shortly.  My personal belief is that Google will come up with a proposal to self-regulate because they definitely don’t want the government dictating what they can do.

Forbes had a good article that was mostly against Google and some of the statements were very powerful, like this one:

The grand disconnect at the Google hearing was that Google was oblivious to the concern that they represented their business as non-threatening with no competitive conflict of interest in order to gain content owners trust and business, the bait, and then they violated that trust by flipping their business model mid-game and switching to be the most serious competitive threat these companies could face – all while publicly denying that they are now competitors at all.

Full article here http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottcleland/2011/09/22/googles-bait-switch-deception-exposed-at-hearing/

This whole bait and switch conspiracy might be a tad far-reaching but there are lots of factual examples to back it up.  I think Google would be smart to make a move to bury this whole thing before it reaches the general population because soon the pitch-forks will come out.

Just finished reading the submission by Jeremy Stoppelman and all I can say is ouch!!  He makes a really strong case (with lots of factual evidence)  which points to Google participating in very unsavory behavior.  I don’t know if Google can talk their way out of this one.  I will be watching this news closely, there is no doubt Google is a modern day success story and they have done some really amazing things (I love gmail) but I think their shareholders are so used to sky-high returns that it is pushing them out of the search game.

Read the full submission by Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp here.

Back in 2009 I took a look at some web directories that got their page rank and indexing sniped by Google.

Around a year and a half ago Google unleashed its’ wrath on general web directories.  With bolts of lightning (not quite but just as painful to the directory owners) it struck down the page rank of some of the best know directories for buying links.  Let’s see how they have faired 18 months later.

http://www.ewebpages.org/ still sitting at page rank 0

http://cdhnow.com/ stuck on page rank 0

http://www.dirspace.com/ zero it is

http://www.linkforever.net/ zero page rank bar love

and it goes on and on….it seems that almost all of these directories have remained in Google’s ‘bad’ list and in addition to having their page rank stipped they also don’t rank for their domain names.

I thought it might be fun to take a look at where they are now?

http://www.ewebpages.org is sitting with a healthy PR4 and is looking like it gets regular traffic

http://cdhnow.com/ is also back up to a PR4 and it looks somewhat active

http://www.dirspace.com/ also has a PR4 but is looking mildly neglected

http://www.linkforever.net/ chimes in with a PR2 and seems to get the odd submission

A quick peek at my first directory (I don’t own it anymore) www.2ListNow.com and it is still holding on with PR3 but the details pages seem broken.

All in all it looks like web directories have made it through the storm and I still think they have some limited value in building backlinks.

So as fast as Google can think up new ideas it seems the darker parts of the web are ready to profit from them!

There is already many websites out there selling this service.  Here are the promises made by one of them.

• All +1′s come from people with a google account that has been verified by phone (Phone Verified Accounts)
• All +1′s come from real people. No bots are being used!
• All +1′s are being given by manually going to your website and clicking the +1 button It’s untraceble because the +1′s are being given from different IP’s
• All +1′s are given dripped over a couple of days so it looks natural

It really is simple if you want to understand why guaranteed results SEO is always a scam.

If someone really had the super SEO skills or the inside scoop on the secret algorithms of search engines and they could guarantee ranking, then why would they do it for $50, $500, $5,000 or even $50,000?  The top spot for a competitive keyword (top 500 revenue generating) can be worth six figures easy, so why not do it for themselves and retire?  Why do it for you on the cheap?

Besides this obvious reasoning you might wonder why anyone would be so desperate for business that they would take a chance of working for free?  Most often they are either using paid search to place you on the first page and ripping you off, or they are ranking you for non-competitive keywords and ripping you off.

Caveat Emptor.

OK, as you can see it has not been perfected but www.trueknowledge.com is very cool anyways.  Take a spin and let me know your comments.

Judging by this photo of all the phone books that ended up in the garbage bin, I would have to say YES!

Every couple of days someone posts on Craislist looking for a Junior this or Entry level that but asks for senior management level design, marketing and SEO skills, then they give a really small budget or salary.

Get some laughs below!!

Top Notch Web Developer/Designer Required for Little or No Pay (Toronto)

• Do you enjoy stressful atmospheres and unreasonably tight deadlines?
• Do you like to work in poor uncomfortable office facilities with under quoted projects, and computer illiterate co-workers?
• If you had the choice between getting paid for hard work, and being able to afford food, would you choose neither?
• Are you willing to work 20 hour days and most weekends to get the job done “as the client sees fit”?
• Do you like it when a client takes your work and dismantles it into boxes with two colors from your beautiful design?
• Would you like to spend “more time than needed as required” on a project without pay?

If you said YES to any of these questions than we are looking for you!

A high-profile, top of the line, major corporation is looking for the smartest web sharp minds to help build its client websites. This multi-billion dollar company is seeking only the best and brightest to sustain its growth and dominate the web. Think of them as the next, Google, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn all rolled into one!

Please read below a list of expert requirements for this once in a lifetime opportunity!

RESPONSIBILITIES:

As an expert web designer and web developer you will be responsible for hard coding custom built CMS platforms, FACEBOOK applications, iPhone and iPad Apps, Apps for Blackberry and Android OS, as well as maintain over 100 websites and perform SEO maintenance on all of them, you will also be responsible for any simple computer problems that we may have (your our new IT guy too!!!), and managing a team of 12 like minded individuals. This role requires dedication and hard work, in this company you will also get us coffee, answer our phones, clean up the office after hours and take out the trash. We might also need you in case of emergency when we don’t know what to do and we need to blame somebody, that will be you!! This job has its perks too!! Some of the perks with working for a multi-million dollar company? We pay every quarter if that! We give you a nice cot to sleep in during your break in the parking garage, and we will not hesitate to keep the cars running so that you can listen to talk radio!

MUST HAVES:

• Degree or Masters in Web Design and Graphic Design
• 30+ years experience in Web Design and Development
• 45 + years of technical expertise in PHP, MySQL, LAMP, ASP, .NET, HTML 5, SEO, PPC, AS3, IIS, CD + DVD
• Own vehicle (or large enough BMW SUV to carpool our entire staff)
• Pirate Software like Adobe CS5, Final Cut Pro, AVID, MS Office 2010 (for our office use only)
• Lots of black sweaters and Starbucks Coffee Cups
• Home Depot Credit Card to help spruce up our office setting.

COMPENSATION:

• Due to our high-profile existence we will give you great reference!
• We will allow you to add our websites to your portfolio!
• We have access to one coffee machine!
• We will tell you that you are doing a good job!
• After a 6 month trial period we will pay $10.00/hr with possibility of raise after 10 years.
• We have full benefits after 6 months (the accountant is a pseudo dentist, and our secretary took nursing in school)

If you think you have what it takes to work with an exciting multi-million dollar company with the potential of earning hundreds of dollars, GIVE US A CALL OR SHOOT US AN EMAIL!!!

Here is our contact info: 666 Heaven Street Toronto, ON M5V 4A7 Phone: 1-866-SUCKER Fax: 416-567-8900 Email: info@hopelesscareers.com

All applicants MUST be located in Toronto, no outside agencies please!