Company called "link positions"-Good or Bad?

[clarkhaddock]

I got a call from a company called link positions who will sell me PPC adds that tun up naturally on Google, Yahoo and MSN for $0.04 per click. They showed me one example of a site and it is some kind of redirect. They said something about doing something so that Alexa moves up my imporantce which makes my site come up naturally but if you put your mouse over the example site you will see the links goes to.......their website... which when clicked bring up mine. Like I said, some kind of redirect. Is this good or bad? Will it hurt me in the eyes of google? Has anyone heard of this company?

[GuyFromChicago]

If they put Alexa and important in the same sentance I would steer cleer.

I've never heard of the company though.

[clarkhaddock]

it is some kind of redirect that makes my listing come up and when the click the link it takes them to my site. Will this hurt me? Will or could it get on the blacklist?

[GuyFromChicago]

At first glance it looks to me like "their network" they keep talking about is people have installed their browser. They are definately not positioning you in the natural serps on the major (or minor) engines.

It doesn't appear that it would have any impact on your site's performance in the real serps what so ever.

Edit: It also appears that they are a new company or at least their domain is brand new. Their site has 1 page indexed in Google. Not that that is overly important, but it typically signifies a new company or start up. Personally, and this is just me, I would check back with them in 12 months or so and see if they are still around.

[Susi]

I signed up for Link Positions and so did my dad. We both have the same "lead generating" real estate websites, but in different regions of the country. (www.SearchSantaCruzHomes.com and www.livinginwinchester.com)

We have both had the following result:
According to our webstats, I AM getting thousands of CLICKS per week from Link Positions, BUT absolutely NOT ONE single person out of 14,000 entered their contact info to explore our site (you have to enter your email address to come into the site).

From our past experience with the Google PPC Ad Campaign, about 20% of people who click on the site are interested enough to enter their contact information. Of those people, another 20% actually contact us requesting some form of information about real estate.

To test Link Positions, I turned off my Google campaign, and although the traffic is unbelievably high, I have had ZERO results with people actually ENTERING my site, or contacting me.

My dad has had the exact same scenario with his site.

Also, Link Positions says that I will come up at the top on the left on the Google search page for "santa cruz real estate" but so far I have never seen it there, and 9/9 of my friends who I have asked to search for me, have never seen it there...

I don't know what is going on, but something isn't right. At this point, I definately can't reccommend Link Positions.
Please respond if you have any insights.

Thanks!

[MikeDammann]

If a company has "link" within their name, I normally get alarmed ;)

[Susi]

Not to sound like a dork, but I guess I'm not getting it. What is it about the word "link" that scares you off about a company?

[MikeDammann]

To me "link" has the spammy ring to it. As in tricking the search engines (or rather trying to). Even though linking works, you have to be more selective and shouldn't place all of your eggs into the same basket either. Normally those kinds of companies shoot for mass traffic and links, when in reality it is far more important to find the right sites to link to you. For both reasons: search engine rankings as well as traffic that you actually get something out of.

Mike

[MikeDammann]

Not to sound like a dork, but I guess I'm not getting it. What is it about the word "link" that scares you off about a company?
Looking at your sites that are real estate related, I would advise you NOT to participate in mass linking schemes. We have many discussions at www.realestateforum.com on strategies that work and don't work and IMO the best way to achieve good rankings for

Your area + real estate (or homes, houses etc.)

is thru links from local web sites and real estate web sites nationwide.
Aside from other factors such as structure of your site, content etc.

Mike

[Marcia]

If the "listings" are showing up at Google without Google putting them there, then it's because of adware/BHO's having been installed on people's computers.

[Marcia]

Your area + real estate (or homes, houses etc.)
is thru links from local web sites and real estate web sites nationwide. Really a good way is simply to have good rankings for the local search terms at the major search engines. In fact, that's how a lot of the traffic gets to the "nationwide" sites- by them having the local r/e search engine listings which individual realtors can get on their own if the sites are optimized.

A site that can't be entered except by filling in a form isn't a candidate for search listings, so probably AdWords is a good traffic-getter - or another site that people can see the content on and that crawlers can get to, so that it can get rankings.

so far I have never seen it there, and 9/9 of my friends who I have asked to search for me, have never seen it there...That's because you and 9/9 of your friends don't have scumware/spyware installed on your computer.

A good percentage of those are installed by driveby downloads that people don't even know are happening and may not even know there's anything wrong when they see links at the engines that aren't really there.

[Susi]

Eew, I hate adware...hope I didn't just inadvertantly fund it!

Thanks for all of your help!

[CallawayGuy]

I have already heard 2 pitches from companies similar to link positions - Windowsbillboards & GoDotless. They install adware on your computer (an IE plugin) and then when that individual looks up your term(s) in google then they will see your listings or advertisement. Now, in theory if people actually wanted this plugin and these companies didn't falsify their results with insane amounts of fraudulent clicks then there may be something to these types of programs but let's face it these companies are too small and too new to have a legitimate network built up. The thing is i've seen fairly reputable companies advertising with some of these guys - Zappos.com and Lexus to name a couple. I guess the old addage stays true - If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Perhaps someone else has more data to back this up.

[MikeDammann]

I have already heard 2 pitches from companies similar to link positions - Windowsbillboards & GoDotless. .
This is if you want to have a good laugh at GoDotless:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=19723&highlight=GoDotless

[mattw]

They called me today. The saleswoman confirmed that they do install adware - basically, they attach adware to freeware downloads; the woman on the phone also mentioned they offer a discount on software to people who agree to download and install their client as well.

Their client clearly intercepts search results and adds their paid placements at the top of the results; they appear as "natural listings".

I told the saleswoman I considered it grossly unethical; she replied that people "agreed to install it" and implied they knew what it did; I argued that, of course, most people don't read EULAs at all, and if we surveyed their users I was confident 5% or less would actually "know" what they'd installed.

In any event, there's the deal. It only changes the results for people who installed their software, and it's done with adware bundling.

[MikeDammann]

WOW is all that I can say :)