why bother!

[fleetwood]

Here's a call I've just fielded (not untypical, we get loads):

Caller: "Hi this is Mike calling from First Found. I understand your the person who deals with your website"

Me: "Thats correct" (I'm already smirking, I have a fair idea whats coming next)

C: "Our research team has found that you don't rank very highly with search engines such as Google and the like" (clearly, he only knows the word Google).

M: "Oh really! I thought we ranked quite highly for our relevant keywords. What sort of words don't we rank highly on?"

C: "Umm, I'm not really sure whats relevant to your business..."

M: "How about 'comic shops' - after all we are a comic shop. I'll just pop that into Google, and oh look, we are 4th over the entire web. Thats not too bad considering there are 100-200 comics shops in the UK alone!"

C: "Oh er, I only know what my research team tell me"

M: "Best go back and do some more research then". Goodbye..."

Sorry if I come across as at all arrogant ;), but I can't stand cold callers who clearly don't know what they are talking about. Is it just me?

[TraceyHand]

hahaha
nice one Martin!

*takes Martin's number down and makes plans to give it out to all marketing callers*

[Sean Williams]

Is it just me?

Certainly not - we get this all the ***** time.

You're far more polite than I am - by the time they reach the end of their first sentence I've already hung up.

Ol' Mr Grumps is in again today .....:D

[Darren B]

me too, i dont even bother anymore, unless im feeling in a weird mood and i might string them along for a bit

[TraceyHand]

unless im feeling in a weird mood

you?
weird?
never!
:p

[Darren B]

behave you and stop trashing peoples threads

[Mike Hughes]

I had a guy on from Lycos this morning trying to get me to sponsor a listing. Most definitely a case of "Why bother". I just checked and their market share is now down in 18th place at 0.16% (about 1/200th of Google's).

When I told him no-one was using Lycos, he started naming a couple of my competitors at which point I gave up.

Mike

PS. Link for Darren - http://www.seo-theory.com/wordpress/2008/09/10/august-2008-real-search-market-per-quantcast/

[Darren B]

Thanks mike

[dave_finlayson]

I had a guy on from Lycos this morning trying to get me to sponsor a listing. Most definitely a case of "Why bother". I just checked and their market share is now down in 18th place at 0.16% (about 1/200th of Google's).

When I told him no-one was using Lycos, he started naming a couple of my competitors at which point I gave up.

Snap! They must be doing the rounds! The guy sounded most miffed when I told him Lycos would be the last search engine I would spend money on!

[jont]

Ask him what search term to find Lycos should you use on Google :cool:

[chris ashdown]

Found lycos on page 10 of google for "search Engines"

But only 3 non google search engines on first 10 pages, which would seem to indicate self protection by google, i thought they said they play fair

[Darren B]

Perhaps in their eyes that is playing fair, its their search engine and they are happy to let them have a free listing, that gives them 3%of the results or 1% each, what are you expecting Chris :D

[Paragon]

But why look for a search engine on a search engine??
You'd end up in a never ending loop, create a black-hole and the world would end

[Mike Hughes]

But only 3 non google search engines on first 10 pages

I can't say I'm surprised about the other search engines positioning:

- Pages not optimised to do well in Google (they can't really can they)
- Too many duplicate / non-unique pages. Probably hit a google spam filter.
- No Keyword focus - Don't have 'Search engine' in titles, link anchor text, etc
- No links to / from other relevant sites / pages.
- No adword spending. (unproven point, I know).

Mike

[Darren B]

But why look for a search engine on a search engine??

Coz you can :D

[TraceyHand]

Coz you can :D

coz you're weird?!

[pinbrook]

But why look for a search engine on a search engine??
You'd end up in a never ending loop, create a black-hole and the world would end cheaper than cern to get te same effect