frontpagegoogle.co.nz
Posted August 31st, 2010 by peterWe have a client who was approached a few days ago by a company who calls themselves Front Page Google
They claim that they have secured the rights to the top 7 results in the Google location map which appears at the top of the serp in many service location searches – you know, the google map with listings on the side – he calls it “Balloon” map index
We were very surprised by this claim. We see it as part of our web services to protect our clients from rip offs and scams, so we decided to investigate some more.
Our client is very keen on the idea. They are getting their sites found well in the towns and smaller cities they are represented in, but competition is stiff for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – $475 + gst for a years guaranteed listing on the 1st page is a great deal.
Hang on – to our knowledge Google does not sell such a service (they sell “sponsored links” or adwords and there is no Guaranteed placement for that), so what is going on?
We made some calls and spoke to the original sales person who contacted our client – he told us, “I don’t know how it happens – it just happens – I am just selling it” and contacted me back with a phone number of the business owner
In the meantime we made a post in Google’s webmaster forum, asking about this – the result is that it has started a bit of a activity – click here to see the forum page
We think there is enough info there now for smart people to make up their own minds whether to deal with Front Page Google or not
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