A business owner in Columbus, Ohio is offering fellow business owners free advice on how to rank quickly in the Google search results while staying away from costly SEO firms and using Search Engine Optimization to rank number one in Google. But there’s only one catch. This free advice comes with only one requirement: businesses must set up or switch their credit card processing function to his company.
Kevin Cross, owner of Accept By Phone Inc., says that he knows the value (first hand, apparently) of ranking well in Google. According to his press release announcing the service, between “2006 and 2012, 98% of new customers came to him as a result of Internet search. His online visibility has allowed him to grow and expand his business and now Kevin is looking to share his success with other companies.”
But wait.
I checked the rankings for “Accept Credit Cards by Phone”, apparently his number one keyword (it’s located in the Accept By Phone website’s home page title tag), and I couldn’t find Accept By Phone in the first 9 pages of Google search results.
I think I know why, though. Let’s look at the history of Accept By Phone’s search engine rankings, according to SEMrush.com:
Whoops! Apparently Mr. Cross does know the value of good search engine rankings. At least he had a taste of those good rankings from September 2011 to May 2012. In April, 2012, Accept by Phone’s website was hit by Google Penguin or Google Panda (not sure exactly which, I haven’t fully analyzed the site).
But whatever the case, if a business was to take Mr. Cross’s free advice (after switching all their credit card processing to his business), they would be taking that advice from a business owner who “did all the wrong types of SEO” that got his site penalized in Google. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I wouldn’t want to get SEO advice from someone who has gotten their own website penalized in Google.
Rather than taking the advice of someone who has been severely penalized by Google, I would like to personally offer anyone reading this a free half hour SEO consultation on how they can recover from a Google penalty (such as Google Panda or Google Penguin) and steer them in the right direction. This offer is also extended to Accept By Phone, as well.