SEO, or search engine optimizing is the practice of making your website attractive to the spiders for certain keywords. At it’s best, SEO can give put your site on page 1 of Google, Yahoo and MSN. Once there, the number of hits your site receives can increase dramatically. One of the most lucrative Internet businesses today is SEO, unfortunately it’s also one of the most abused business ideas out there too. There is so much scamming going on it’s difficult to choose an honest company that not only knows what they’re doing, but that actually does it! Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the Internet, a telephone and a lack of conscience can be your next “SEO Guru” and charge big bucks to boot.

I had the misfortune to answer the phone one Monday morning where I worked last January. The company that hosted our site at the time was on the line so I took the call even though our site wasn’t up for renewal for several months. It turned out to be a coincidence in the end as the same company, Mainstreethost, also does SEO marketing and as it turned out, this was a cold call for their SEO services. The caller’s name was Sammy and he was actually unaware that we were current clients of Mainstreethost. I figured Sammy was calling to update us on the sites progress and unintentionally spilled the beans that we were indeed current clients. I have to give Sammy credit for quick thinking and not missing a beat as he went from insulting our pitiful site (a site they designed, or had their 3rd grader do for them) to praising what an effective business tool it was that they had designed for us. So this went from a cold sales call from Mainstreethost for their SEO services, to Sammy two-stepping and realizing this wasn’t a cold call but a current client.

It actually turned out to be our good fortune that Sammy had called when he did, unbeknownst to us, tomorrow was in fact an important deadline that if missed, any progress our several year old site had made would be nullified! Holy shit! Google was hosting their “annual Electronic Ballet” where any site that wasn’t re-indexed would be tossed back to page fifty thousand…. something and basically lose any hard won placement. “Annual Electronic Ballet”? Godamnit! I did not know that.

Not only that, but Mainstreet had to do some pretty tricky electronic dancing and maneuvering of their own. They had to make certain our site wouldn’t lose current position but would benefit from their special work, with an increased chance at Google’s prestigious “Feeling Lucky” spot and a more than likely page 1 placement. Ah crap…….. I wasn’t aware of anything like this but at the time I wasn’t aware of much on the Net at all. Our business had always relied on the yellow pages for advertisement and had just recently forayed into Internet advertising. The good news is that if we could make up our minds today (5pm no less, Sammy might miss happy hour), we were in! Way to go Sammy! And to think, I mighta missed this important call….. we’d a been screwed!

The bad news….. Mainstreethost’s electronic dancers don’t come cheap. Further bad news, we have no time to think about it with his old skool time close ( financing was available if necessary!). Something was definitely fishy, but I could hardly take a chance at losing all we’d already paid for and earned in up-time. Why though, couldn’t they have given us more notice? Well as it sadly turned out, our old rep had contracted a serious illness (the poor fella) and we had been forgotten, lost in the shuffle so to speak. Fortunately for us, Sammy had found our file and was doing us the favor of “saving our asses, so being last minute couldn’t be helped”. He’s “not even profiting off such a small sale” after all. Way to go Sammy. Sammy’s the man.

Sammy was kind enough to speak with his stuporvisor, Kevin and arrange financing to make this a painless transaction. Kevin assured us that not only was Sammy on the up and up but that Mainstreethost was a top SEO company in addition to being our current Host. “Just look us up on pg 1 Google” said Kevin, and sure enough, top of the world, 1st spot. Needing some time to think, I agreed to call back, but the clock was ticking. How far would these guys go? They hosted the site, what could they do to it out of spite……..Reluctantly, and with much distress, the agreement was made. There was too much to risk losing and we could always investigate this in the future. Better to lose some now than much more later. I couldn’t help but feel I had just purchased a used car, and a broken down one at that. If I had only known to:

1. Look at their website (this is the best they can do?.
2. Type their name, Mainstreethost, followed by ’scams’, or ‘rip-offs’, or ‘robbery’ etc, into Google, sure enough, they’re Top of the World there too.

The one thing that really tipped me off in the end, besides the used car-like hard sales close, was Sammy, who said to me after the sale, and I quote, “you’ll be so happy and smiling wide enough to stick a banana in your mouth sideways“. WTF? “Stick a banana in my mouth?” What kind of close is that? Maybe Sammy was just slipping in a hopeful little gay pickup line or maybe just mocking the sucker for getting what he deserved falling for the hard-sale, no pun intended. Whichever, I got the point, and then did some research, thanks “Sammy bananas”, if for nothing else, the bitter lesson (and no thanks btw).

After having some time and speaking with some people more knowledgeable on the ways of the Net, we realized what suckers we were. We immediately canceled the contract with MSH to make certain they had no way of further damaging the company. We were a little paranoid though not being accustomed to dealing with such outright crooks and liars, and Sammy and Kevin weren’t so friendly anymore. Fortunately, we were able to get most of the money back by explaining in detail their deceptive practices to their credit processor, which isn’t easy by the way. Credit processors generally support their clients as long as their paperwork is properly detailed. I won’t get into the extent of their rip-off due to a general laziness, but it turned out they had performed so little work, ‘crafted’ such a poor example of a childish-looking website’ that the processor returned our money without complication. If anyone has little knowledge of the Net and how Internet ads work, I would recommend doing some research before investing time and money into any SEO marketing campaigns.

There are legitimate marketers out there but these ones aren’t operating boiler rooms and Spam email campaigns for business. Legitimate business people do not rely on catching the most Internet-naive when cold calling and spewing their fantastic lies and unrealistic projectile garbage. The funny part is that if they had fulfilled their small end of the contract, which still wouldn’t have accomplished much, I would not have been able to receive a refund. Caveat Emptor. I don’t doubt that MSH (AKA; Utilities International Inc.) has some satisfied clients and is able to do a decent job, (regardless of their own site) but they did nothing for us. We had given them more than ample time to reasonably make up for their ineptitude. Hopefully they’ll do something for my former employers but I doubt it. I feel for the 2,000+ clients they’re currently hosting and hope they check the actual services being performed, or not being performed. I won’t even mention the extended periods of downtime I had to inform them about!

SEO isn’t really that difficult for small businesses and simply takes time, a bit of research and a good deal of work. Google provides the info and tips small sites need to become competitive in all but the most difficult markets. If you do get caught with your trousers down and don’t want to hang up on a fellow human being, type the company name and follow it with ’scams’ while the cold caller is on the line. Ask him to explain the numerous complaints and blog posts detailing their questionable practices. Chances are, you won’t be the one rudely hanging up on somebody.

“Another satisfied MSH client…..”

Buyer Beware: Mainstreethost.com AKA: Utilities International

4250 Ridge Lea Road Suite 69
Amherst, New York 14226
Local Phone: (716) 831-9716
Toll Free: (888) 874-3791
NetRange: 64.78.208.0 – 64.78.223.255
CIDR: 64.78.208.0/2

UPDATE, 11/20/09: I was impressed with this blogger’s entry on their happy dealings with Mainstreethost that I thought I’d post a link to both our favorite SEO companies; Mainstreethost. This gentleman was kind enough to detail the steps necessary to file complaints with their States Attorney. That could get their attention.

I’ve been lacking on keeping up with Mainstreethost’s new scam blogs lately but funnily I was called by another of their clueless marketers just yesterday, no shit. I informed the poor kid, terrible salesman btw, what my experience with Mainstreethost was like……. his response was; “would you like to give it another try?” OK, I’ll give him perseverance but an IQ of about 85. Not that bad really, a bit above all but the brightest of chimps. No offense to chimpanzees intended.

Seems like they’ve been listening to some of the bloggers highlighting their deficient services or lack of (Lord knows they scan this one enough) and created a new site. Looks to have been created by one of the free programs that many Hosting companies provide, way to go Mainstreethost! Might have spent a little more time on it, but who can spare it with all them cold calls to catch up on? There’s too many business people still naive enough about the Net to get suckered into bullshit, worthless service scams to worry about such frivolities.

Got ripped by Mainstreet? Not a problem. Just cancel your card with the detailed info showing what they promised, and what they actually did (not do). Don’t be down when you can’t find anything… that’s what to show to your card processor. That’s what I did and got a quick and full refund. Problem Mainstreet? I suppose I could post the dispute. Step by step instructions for your victims to get their due refunds in full.

Looking for real SEO by a company that walks you through the process, explains what they can realistically do and what you might expect? They do exist. One such company in my experience, and I’m receiving nothing in return for this is Hubspot.com. Check out what they offer. Their free diagnostics is more than I got from Mainstreethost’s “full services” (which they really shouldn’t put in writing….. ended up screwing themselves). Check out their site for some cool free tools if nothing else. If you’re interested in a company that adheres to the novel idea of working for their clients, Hubspot might be right for you. I wouldn’t expect a cold call from them anytime soon though. They even offer some great free tools, DIYers can gain a competitive edge without spending a cent.