SEO question

**s0luti0n** · 07-05-08

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I had been using an SEO company for the last 12 months on our site and ceased using them in January 2008 due to the credit crunch. We paid over £15,000 inc vat for 12 months which as per their contract was supposed to be getting me 780 one way back links (bolt on) and 212 paid directories. They achieved reasonable results and I was not to disgruntled with the work they did.

However I have since checked how many links I have in google and I only have 25. It looks like they have removed all the links from the website now that I am no longer contracted to them, although there is no mention about work being removed if you do not renew your contract.

I was wondering if anybody knew if this was normal? In my mind I have paid for 780 links and would assume that if I stop paying those links would still remain.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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**Stuart** · 07-05-08

This does not sound right to me... Some directories/web sites will charge an annual fee for links and therefore they may remove the lnks if these are not renewed, something the SEO company may have been doing for you as part of the fee. Do you have a written contract with them, any mention of paid links and annual fees in the contract?

Is this your site? solution-mortgages.co.uk
Br
Stuart

**s0luti0n** · 07-05-08

Originally Posted by Stuart

This does not sound right to me... Some directories/web sites will charge an annual fee for links and therefore they may remove the lnks if these are not renewed, something the SEO company may have been doing for you as part of the fee. Do you have a written contract with them, any mention of paid links and annual fees in the contract?

Is this your site? solution-mortgages.co.uk
Br
Stuart

Stuart,

Thanks for the reply. Yes this is our website. No mention of paid links only the 212 paid directories as stated in my e-mail. Also no mention of annual fees.

**Stuart** · 07-05-08

I would go back and discuss this with them, ask if the 212 paid directories are on an annual fee, if so why was this not mentioned in the contract...

If they have removed the links from the 212 paid directories due to non payment of annual fees then clearly they have done wrong as this should have bene written into the contract they provided.

Ask them for a list of all the links they obtained and why they have been removed, at least then if you need to get back onto the directories and pay an annual fee you can do this yourself.

Br
Stuart

**Mitchy** · 07-05-08

Hi Simon,

They haven't removed the backlinks, Google just doesn't show you a sites full link profile to "protect its algorithm". Use Yahoo! Site Explorer for a closer (but still not entirely full) representation of your backlinks profile.

Cheers

**s0luti0n** · 07-05-08

Originally Posted by Stuart

I would go back and discuss this with them, ask if the 212 paid directories are on an annual fee, if so why was this not mentioned in the contract...

If they have removed the links from the 212 paid directories due to non payment of annual fees then clearly they have done wrong as this should have bene written into the contract they provided.

Ask them for a list of all the links they obtained and why they have been removed, at least then if you need to get back onto the directories and pay an annual fee you can do this yourself.

Br
Stuart

Thanks Stuart. I appreciate your advice. I will also speak to our solicitor's ecommerce department. It has annoyed me. It is like paying a builder to build you an extension. You pay him. Then he knocks it down again!

Thanks again

**s0luti0n** · 07-05-08

Mitchy,

Thanks for replying. I have just tried that Yahoo site explorer. Is that not mainly internal links ie most of those showing are from my blog linking back to the relevant web pages?

I am sure they have removed the external links that I have paid for. I have been on the first page of google for bad credit remortgage and poor credit remortgage for months and months and I am now on page 20 and page 8 respectively. Adverse credit remortgage is now starting to drop as well but is still on the first page but we were top until yesterday.

**Mitchy** · 07-05-08

Sent you a PM Simon.

**gadget** · 07-05-08

I can only see 26 links too.

One other observation, you're site location is coming up as being in Germany. Do you use 1&1 to host?

**DioBach** · 07-05-08

Originally Posted by s0luti0n

I have been on the first page of google for bad credit remortgage and poor credit remortgage for months and months and I am now on page 20 and page 8 respectively. Adverse credit remortgage is now starting to drop as well but is still on the first page but we were top until yesterday.

To be honest, if you paid an SEO firm £15,000 just to buy you links, your money could have been better spent. There is the chance that this rash of bought links they got you tripped all the naughty link buyer filters at Google and caused your plummet down the SERPs. Also, if you were paying money for directories, most of them have next to no value in SEO as google have stopped most of them passing link juice as they were being used for spam so much.

**tbp** · 07-05-08

I completely agree with Diobach. It sounds like the links you were buying weren't worth much in the first place, and it's good that you've decided to stop using them.

Link building has to be very targetted to be effective, just adding links to directories no longer works. It's very easy to get links from directories, especially if you pay for them. Google knows this, and so places little value on them. Originally, the link system was supposed to be on the basis that if someone adds a link to you, then your site must be a valuable resource and so could help other people. However, the system was massively abused, and it meant that having a link to your site couldn't guarantee the sites content at all, especially when it came down to how much you could spend rather than how good your site is.

There are loads of SEO tips on this forum, so read everything you can and put them into action yourself. If you decide in the future to hire someone else to do your SEO, then ask for recommendations here first. Unfortunately it sounds like your SEO company has taken a lot of money for doing very little.

**s0luti0n** · 08-05-08

Thanks for all the advice everyone who has posted.

It was not just links we were buying, it was the full SEO package. As I say we were not to disappointed with how they carried out their work when we were under contract with them. We did achieve first page listings on Google for the majority of the keywords that we chose.

It boils down to what I believe links being removed after the contract expired. I have spoken to them and they told me that they use their own sites to build links. So in my mind they have effectively undone the work that we paid for.

Anyway, thanks again for everyones posts, I appreciate your time. I will read through older posts on this forum and get a better understanding of SEO techniques myself.

Cheers

**DioBach** · 08-05-08

Originally Posted by s0luti0n

Anyway, thanks again for everyones posts, I appreciate your time. I will read through older posts on this forum and get a better understanding of SEO techniques myself.
Cheers

It's not the older SEO stuff you want to keep abreast of, it's the newer stuff that tends to be more important. It sounds like your SEO firm were well up on the old stuff (link buying and farming, directory submission) with little regard for what's considered good practice and relevant today. Unfortunately there's a lot about SEO that's on the web that's not only irrelevant, but potentially dangerous.

Take a look at feeds from the likes of SEO Book, SEOmoz and other highly regarded SEO firms - they will give you a better idea of what's what. Always double check everything you think you might do as well, you don't want to make matters worse.

**Dave@Profitistic** · 08-05-08

Were the links provided on a 'quick as you can' basis or gradually built up over the year? If they were adding them all immediately, then I have little doubt that this could have harmed your SEO...

**s0luti0n** · 08-05-08

Originally Posted by Dave@Profitistic

Were the links provided on a 'quick as you can' basis or gradually built up over the year? If they were adding them all immediately, then I have little doubt that this could have harmed your SEO...

Dave,

It was 780 links over 12 months ie 65 a month. This is what we paid for along with other on page & off page optimisation work The cost for the 780 links was £10,140 as per the contract. But these links seem to have been removed since the contract expired.

As I say the SEO has deteriorated since February 2008 which is when we ceased using them and links started disappearing.

Cheers