3 November 2008 8 Comments

Wanna get in on a little secret? Yeah, I bet you do. Well I have a little secret. Actually, its not really as much a secret as it is a self-perceived blemish on my record. There is something that I was a part of that I’m not particularly proud of. Something that, when there’s too much quiet time, weighs on my mind quite a bit. Something that, when I hear about from another person, makes my blood boil with anger. Something that, when I’m working, is an extremely powerful driving force behind what I do, second only to my family. So what is it? It is The Company.

I’ve discussed my workings with The Company before in passing, but never by name. I’ve never written their company name in a blog post or article. I’ve actually only spoken about them either in person, or written about them in very vague terms. Why do I not mention their name? Because soon, they will be in direct competition, and the last thing I need is their better lawyers coming at me (we can play like that later).

Also, this is the only warning I’m giving that this post may rant off or become incoherent. I don’t get to vent about The Company, and when I do speak of them, I have to do so in a positive manner (I am a professional, you know).

My First Days as an SEO
Take a step back in time with me, will you? My younger career was that of a call center jockey. Outbound sales, customer care, tech support; I’ve done it all. That was my job, wherever I went, and in the days of little to no responsibility, it paid enough and kept up with my laziness.

One day, I start a customer service job for a “website design” company. Being a computer guy, I had played with HTML before, so nothing was out of sorts with this job. This company (from no on known as “The Company”) also offered Internet marketing. That’s interesting, how do market on the Internet? With SEO, that’s how. What a really neat concept. Gaining rankings in Google, and on purpose!

Because this concept of gaining rankings on purpose was so intriguing to me, it was merely months before I was THE SEO for the company. But let’s take just one more step back before I get into the mushroom cloud rant I’m about to get into.

My job was simple. Customer calls in, we talk about their website, I tell them what to do to gain rankings. Neat. After about a month of talking a bunch of lines that had been given to me by The Company, I started to wonder if it was really that easy to rank in Google. Surely its a bit more difficult than adding a few keywords, but that’s what I was telling my customers.

I started learning. I started to read forums (that was the thing back then) and a few blogs (that was new back then). I started to take part in discussions about rankings. I even started a site of my own. Oh how reality bit me in the ass (first time I’ve ever cussed on this site, mark it down).

I realized that you can’t just change a few keywords and call it a day. There’s more to it. And where the hell (that’s 2, I think) were these keywords coming from? We never did any research.

I diplomatically voiced my “hey, I think there’s more to it” concerns, and I became the SEO for The Company. Soon, it was my job to return the calls of the customers that either weren’t happy with the answers they received from customer care, or of the websites that just didn’t rank. Wanna take a quick stab at guessing how quickly and to what degree my work piled up? Alas, I was the guy saving the day. I would call these people, and advise on things they should be doing to rank better. And it was working. I had done enough research to get some decent results (decent at best. Not as good now as they seemed then). But there was a piece to this puzzle that bugged me. The service The Company was selling didn’t make any sense.

400
That’s how many search engines The Company submitted your site to. Yup, it was one of those companies. In reality, that was the best part of their service. Sure, they had a ton of marketing speak, but there was nothing to it. If you were a customer, you paid your monthly bill and had no idea that you were being ripped off. You could call customer support, and they would answer your question (with extremely low integrity), and you would think all was well.

The Fights
I think I still hold the record for “most time spent in the VPs office” at The Company. I would collect a bunch of cases, fight with management on the crap we were telling people, spend a few hours making reports, then repeat. It never ended. I was almost fired for sending an email to the entire customer care team stating that “if any customer calls for SEO advice, tell them I will call them back. Do not under any circumstance discuss SEO with our clients.” Well, it was their job to discuss SEO with our clients, and management was upset, to say the least (the email came from me, so everyone listened, and it was funny to see the calls pile up). These fights were useless.

My Part
“Single handedly I would make this company a better place. I swear it.” That’s what I thought. I honestly thought I could take all comers, educate them and get them something that would resemble SEO success. This actually had a chance at working. Customer care even took to my rule as best as they could. However, this just wasn’t logistically sound. The calls piled up and the appointments were missed. It didn’t work.

You Get The Idea
I think you understand enough about The Company. Plainly put, they were the crap company that sold a nice, big helping of snake oil.

SEO Factor
While working for The Company, I decided to start my own service. I would offer an affordable solution with a real return. This turned out very well for me (you’re reading my blog, aren’t you?). I pulled in a few clients, and was on my way to becoming a real company. Unfortunately, The Company was not happy about this. The things I preached on my blog were not something they could risk their clients seeing (it didn’t help that I directed customers to specific posts to answer questions). I was asked several times to close this site (that didn’t site well with me).

The Guilt
I would like to say that as soon as I realized what type of company I worked for, I got up from my desk, flicked the owner off, and walked away. The truth is, it was a long time before I left. I knew fully to what extent we were lying to people, and I had seen too many extreme cases in which our actions certainly ruined businesses. I had even lied to some small business owner myself; “sure you can cancel, but your rankings are going to drop.”

I know this sounds cheesy, but I feel incredibly guilty when I think about my work at The Company. I know I’m supposed to be more business-minded, but at the end of the day, I’m still young and idealistic. I remember all the good people I had spoken to and convinced to keep the service because it was good for the online visibility. Eventually, this did indeed lead to my leaving. And I’m happy I did.

Why Am I Writing This Post
Well, I got tired of specifically writing myself in circles when I spoke about The Company. This post will serve as a reference when I speak about them. Also, I would like to let people know where I’m coming from when I speak with such passion about these crap services. And finally, I am in the middle of starting a company that will be in direct competition with The Company. It’s been a couple of years since I left The Company, and they have had plenty of time to change things (at least that can be their rebuttal if it ever comes up). I think its fair game now.

Also, believe it or not, people from the company still call me. They still want to offer me a job. I really don’t know why, but they do. So, when I get emails from them, I think it would be a simpler to just link to this post.

I’m going to release more information on the new company soon, but for now, just know that we plan to offer affordable services to small business owners, that coincidently isn’t a complete ripoff. This is going to be difficult. The Company has access to a lot of money, and every time I turn around they buy another company. Difficult to compete with that. However, I have something they don’t. As destructive as passion and ideals can be if you let them, I use my ideals and passion to push me. I guess that’s one good thing that came from The Company. A desire to go at them.

In Closing
I highly doubt I will ever speak directly about The Company. Like I said, they have a lot of money, and it wouldn’t take much of it for them and their lawyers to shut me down; regardless of what is right or wrong. And in the end, any negative comments from me would be viewed as those of a disgruntled employee. So, instead, I’ll be a bit more constructive.

I’m coming for you, The Company. And I’ve got fire in my eyes.