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Web-Listings.net – Don’t waste your time!

Apr 22, 2011 | My Thoughts | 1 comment

I recently received a letter in the mail, (yes, snail mail), from a company called Web Listings, Inc. Their website is www.web-listings.net. They are selling a bogus SEO service. Here is the scoop.

Firstly, the mailing is made to look like an invoice. This is to fool the novice into thinking this is part of their new website agreement and they should pay it. It does say it’s “not a bill” however.

Their “offer” is to submit your domain to “20 established search engines”. Then, they claim they will send you a monthly report on your listings, up to 8 keyword phrases.

Here’s the thing. There is no longer a need to submit your site to the search engines. This used to be the case many years ago. But, Google has especially gotten quite good at finding your site, and quickly, without you ever submitting it to them.

Believe me. Today, developers like myself need to block search engines from finding our sites while they are in development because they find them so fast! So, hiring a service to submit your site is simply a waste of your money.

About the reporting. They say they will send you a monthly report. My guess is they probably have a program like Web Position Gold where they simply enter the domain name, your keywords, and it automatically generates reports and sends them to you. While you may find some of these reports useful, you can get most of the same information by using Google Analytics. And, it’s free!

I’m also guessing once they have their hooks in you, they will try to upsell you on other SEO related services. In my opinion, if they are willing to sell you a service that is not needed for $85, I’m sure they will sell you more services that are either not needed or have inflated prices. I say stay away!

And lastly…how did they get your information? Probably by using the information you provided when you purchased your domain. If you did not choose to use “private registration”, then it’s easy for them to take this information and solicit. Should you choose private registration when purchasing a domain? Maybe. You also need to consider that many folks know how to do a WhoIs lookup to see who owns the domain and if they are legit, before making a purchase on your website. If it’s private, some may consider this a red flag and go elsewhere.

I hope this helps someone avoid spending hard earned money on worthless services like these.

Oh, by the way. If you look up the owner of web-listings.net, you’ll see they have registered it privately! I guess they don’t want to be solicited with worthless services too!

1 Comment

  1. Here is their phone number, please call it frequently to help annoy them

    Our number for your records is 1-888-871-0669.

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