generating backward links

The Printed Bag Shop · Jul 2, 2007

Ive just had a company ring me saying how they can get my natural listing up amongst my competitors. This is what they are offering please could you tell me is it worth it or is it a waste of money.

Its Cold Outside Limited and The Printed Bag Shop
Itscoldoutside Limited guarantee using its PR Link Networking System to create PR articles across this network, generating backward links to your web site on up to three major key phrases.

The Itscoldoutside Limited PR Network consists of over 1,100 independent web sites.

It can take up to three months for the major search engines to crawl the network and catalogue the links.

You can count your links by going to www.yahoo.com or www.google.com or www.altavista.com and type link:www.yourdomainname.com. Then click search. This contract is based on the sum of these link look ups.

For the purposes of this contract, Itscoldoutside Limited will generate not less than the sum of 500 backward links to your website.

Itscoldoutside Limited cannot guarantee that by using this system you will achieve first page positions in any search engine. However it is widely recognised that generating backward links should assist your site in gaining positions in the major search engines.

On entering into this contract you are immediately required to pay the sum of £199.00+vat and return your direct debit form for £100.00+vat. Please remember to return your direct debit form immediately. Failure to do so within 7 days will result in termination of this agreement and any monies paid will be retained by Itscoldoutside Limited as an administration fee.

Your direct debit will be taken on the 15th of each month whilst your contract is running.

Available funds
Please do not sign this contract unless you have immediate available funds. Itscoldoutside Limited accepts most major credit/debit cards.
Duration of Contract.

This contract will run on a rolling monthly basis for a minimum of three months from the date of electronically signing your contract.

Cancellation of contract
You can cancel your contract only by giving 30 days notice in writing to Itscoldoutside Limited, 17 The Downs, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2QD, United Kingdom.

For full terms and conditions, please http://www.itscoldoutside.com/termsandconditions.htm. If you are happy to proceed please reply to this email saying I accept in the subject field of your email.

Mr Martin Leeney
Managing Director, Itscoldoutside Limited
Tel 0161 928 6999 Fax 0161 928 7999
Registered in England 4530060

wood1e2 · Jul 2, 2007

Backlinks are required. Quality backlinks that is, as Google now looks at the quality of the links websites have. So it all depends on whether you believe it is good value for money.

quikshop · Jul 2, 2007

Its called your link neighbourhood, and Google puts a lot of weight on the relevance on incoming and outgoing links from your web site and those you swap links with.

If a web site you are linking with is relevant to yours (has a similar theme), but they then go and link with every US drug store and viagra web site they can find, it could have a negative effect on your ranking.

Quality over quantity rules... well, quality AND quantity is better

Regards,
Dave

www.internetretailer.biz

postpack · Jul 2, 2007

Would steer clear of its cold outside - they are a hard sell organisation and have received bad press in the past - would suggest creating your own back links - as already mentioned it is not just about quality links but quality links that are relevant to your industry and products that are important - There are no real shortcuts but if you need a good genuine seo firm that won't rip you off speak to Rob at http://www.rdeurotech.com/ - Theyv'e worked very well for us.

DarrenC · Jul 2, 2007

postpack said:
There are no real shortcuts but if you need a good genuine seo firm that won't rip you off speak to Rob at http://www.rdeurotech.com/ - Theyv'e worked very well for us.

I have to jump in here.

You say that SEO company have worked very well for you but your site is not in first 4 pages for your targeted keywords, so have you just started working with them?

Alot of the SEO you can do yourself, its not a specialised arena, but its very time consuming and thats why the majority of companies tender this out to SEO companies.

postpack · Jul 2, 2007

Craig - just looked at your website and could be interested in your bag/box stamps as we supply mailing and boxes bags etc etc - look at our shop at www.postpack.co.uk and you can see there might be a lot more potential
Mark

RayB · Jul 2, 2007

I would not touch such a scheme with a barge pole - every chance it will do you more harm than good - and even if the links were ok you have a permanent monthly outgoing which if cancelled would see you drop out of the SERP's

postpack · Jul 2, 2007

DarrenC said:
I have to jump in here.

You say that SEO company have worked very well for you but your site is not in first 4 pages for your targeted keywords, so have you just started working with them?

Darren,
what are you classing as our targeted keywords? - there are literally 000s of them for our industry & product range - try looking at the following:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=packaging+supplies&hl=en&start=10&sa=N

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=PACKING+BOXES&hl=en&start=10&sa=N

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=packaging&hl=en&start=30&sa=N

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=buy+packaging&btnG=Search&meta=

Not sure what you are seaching for with regards to our products but you can see we are featuring highly - Incidently we were 276 th for the keyword 'packaging' 6 weeks ago!! I would consider that good progress.
Cheers
Mark

Aspect Investments · Jul 2, 2007

This company seems to be contacting a lot of people lately.

Basically what they do is create links to your site from their network of sites. When you stop paying they take these links away.

Google does not like this form of SEO as the links are artificial. It will only be a matter of time before their activities are reported to Google, and their network is dropped.

They are basically a link farm. There are much better, and more ethical ways to generate backlinks.

office man · Jul 2, 2007

quikshop said:
Quality over quantity rules... well, quality AND quantity is better

Regards,
Dave

I have to agree, i can send you thousands of free directories for you or a member of your staff to submit to but a link from someone in your niche is viewed much better by Google (and lets face it Google is the only one that matters)

ccjo · Jul 2, 2007

I've seen that name a few times in the last year or so & no good comments have been associated with it. They are hard sell & seem very keen to take your money. Personally I would never sign up to pay a guaranteed monthly amount anyway. One link to an old discussion below - just google their name & you'll find plenty of negative on them.

http://www.searchengineforums.com/a...thread/thread::1106766109/forum::seo-general/

Just my two penneth...

Jo

PI Guy · Jul 2, 2007

prateeksha said:
I would suggest you spend first on Ebay Listing,

how do u get an ebay listing?

PI Guy · Jul 2, 2007

prateeksha said:
hi..

register yourself... you will be an About Me page.. post your service and your link.

sell your services there and post your link.

Sumeet Shroff
Prateeksha Web Design

Thanks for that. I have done it now. http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=salgadoinvestigations

CraigD · Jul 3, 2007

I agree with a lot of the posts here. In terms of getting your website up the rankings you can do most of it yourself. There are literally only about 12 things you can do to push yourself up the rankings. It's just a matter of doing them better than other people on your search terms.

Not having looked at your product the money might be better spent on an advert in one of the big directories that rank top for your product. I've met lots of people who have stopped paying SEO companies and just bought targetted ads online and saw a much larger Return on their Investment.

The big news from Google lately is that the organic placement of sites is going to be categorised - something they've touched on before. On screen you'll see at the top the Pay Per Click ads, then Quality Content sites, then organic sites and then directories. Mainly because the organic searches are dominated by directories at the moment and it goes against Google's own policy of getting the right knowledge to the right people.

There's a big shift to Yahoo and MSN for people looking to get information at the moment. because they know if they search on google they're going to get a whole raft of yellow pages copycats.

So for the moment, I'd have a look at the directories and paying them direct for a well placed ad with relevant content around it rather than paying a company that promises hundreds of links.

One way to check, and I managed to get a couple of companies to do this already, is to ask them to trial it for you for a couple of months - they won't mind doing this if they're confident in their product. Most will shut up and end the call which means they're that confident in their product. In fact I recommend you try this for ANY company that tries to sell you links or online advertising.

Hope this helps.

toystoyou · Jul 3, 2007

Ooooohhh, stay away from It's Cold Outside!!!
I signed up with them about 2 years ago and they promised me the SEO earth for my website.
They did nothing and my site was basically offline (ie nobody could find us) cos they did nothing to optimise it.
They phone people up tell them they're only taking on a couple of companies from within your industry and give you the hard sell. They're salespeople are very good, their other staff are useless or just plain lazy I don't know which.
Please stay away from them.
After much arguing with them I eventually got my money back from them but handing my SEO over to them could've been the end of my business.
Please stay away from them, please!!!!
Although there may be others out there who have had good experiences with them, I did not and would never recommend them to anyone.
Julie

lockie · Jul 3, 2007

I personally dont think anyone will put as much effort into promoting your site as you will yourself. Ive managed to get onto page 1 of google for a lucrative search term without spending anything.Its taken a lot of work and late nights, hardwork is the key, no shortcuts unless you spam.

Christiane · Oct 5, 2007

Phew! I got itscoldoutside on the phone on Wednesday and again today! Good job I checked on here first!

Denise · Oct 5, 2007

I used Itscoldoutside when I first started in business.. the worst thing i ever did...wasted £1000'S

sabian1982 · Oct 5, 2007

I'd say shop around and see what other companies offer! Getting a cold call doesn't really automatically mean you have to go with them... perhaps their just stuggling for business, hence their own SEO obviously isn't up to scratch!!!

RedEvo · Oct 5, 2007

lockie said:
I personally dont think anyone will put as much effort into promoting your site as you will yourself. Ive managed to get onto page 1 of google for a lucrative search term without spending anything.Its taken a lot of work and late nights, hardwork is the key, no shortcuts unless you spam.

This is bang on. We offer SEO and earn good fees from it but as lockie says, this is more because it's time consuming than anything else. You CAN do it yourself so long as you are happy to burn the midnight oil.

d

RayB · Oct 5, 2007

RedEvo said:
This is bang on. We offer SEO and earn good fees from it but as lockie says, this is more because it's time consuming than anything else. You CAN do it yourself so long as you are happy to burn the midnight oil.

d

I'm with Lockie and RedEvo 100%

I would find a good "onsite" SEO to make sure your site is optimised properly and then look after the link building yourself. yes it takes ages but hard work and time = results (and sustainable ones at that)

JKF · Feb 18, 2008

I agree with everyone else on this, i'm having a nightmare getting my money back after i was sold 500 backlinks, being told it would get me up google on our 3 choosen search terms...

Once bitten twice shy in my case, i'll be staying away from these kind of companies in future, and certainly Its Cold Outside!

I've read above people saying, "i got this and that by hard work and late nights", i just don't get how spending time will improve a ranking, do you mean adding yourself to directories and forums etc?

Thanks

RedEvo · Feb 18, 2008

JKF said:
I agree with everyone else on this, i'm having a nightmare getting my money back after i was sold 500 backlinks, being told it would get me up google on our 3 choosen search terms...

Once bitten twice shy in my case, i'll be staying away from these kind of companies in future, and certainly Its Cold Outside!

I've read above people saying, "i got this and that by hard work and late nights", i just don't get how spending time will improve a ranking, do you mean adding yourself to directories and forums etc?

Thanks

Keyword research
Writing great content
On page optimisation
Link building
Competitor analysis
The list goes on.......

d

ken_uk · Feb 18, 2008

500 paid "pr" backlinks sounds like a great way to get into trouble with google.

And as mentioned many times earlier, not a good move for all the reasons mentioned.

No quick fixes really, you either need to shell out good money to get a reputable pro, who will find quality, on topic links, or work on that yourself.

500 links from a network of 1100, with zero mention of relevance or quality is not a good sign.

Its a ongoing thing, keep the site upto date, keep getting quality links, keep getting the name out there, new content, keep doing seo, because when you stop, somewhere, a competitor wont be stopping, and they will out do you in time.

JKF · Feb 18, 2008

Thanks for the advice... I didn't really know much about SEO when i agreed to this backlinks scheme, i wish i hadn't now... Although i have noticed that my site how has a "low" page rank in google webmaster tools, whereas before it didn't have anything.

Hopefully Google won't distroy me for going with something like this...

I only started at the company i'm with now 6 months ago, i'm a web developer mostly, the site and brand has been around for years, but the website when i took over was hardly listed for anything and the code / pages were nasty, a re-design and some work later and its getting there slowly... I just wish google would update everything a little more often!

wood1e2 · Feb 18, 2008

Unfortunatley, things are never easy I have to agree with [FONT=arial, sans-serif]RedEvo[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Keyword research
Writing great content
On page optimisation
Link building
Competitor analysis
The list goes on.......[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]And it is not about a one off either, with highly competitive keywords, it is constant...[/FONT]

cozydunt · Jun 1, 2009

The easiest way to choose an seo company is type "seo" into google and use the compnay at number 1. I cant see "its cold outside" that says it all.

quikshop · Jun 1, 2009

cozydunt said:
The easiest way to choose an seo company is type "seo" into google and use the compnay at number 1. I cant see "its cold outside" that says it all.

Do a search for "its cold outside" on this forum and spend time digesting the feedback from paying customers, I suspect that might temper your enthusiasm

Cookie Consent

Essential

Analytics

Marketing

generating backward links

DarrenC

RayB

Aspect Investments

office man

PI Guy

PI Guy

CraigD

Christiane

Denise

RayB