Fraud Alert: Don’t Get Duped!

Fraud Alert: Don't Get Duped!

Fraud Alert: Don’t Get Duped!

Recently, several clients have reported that they received a call from someone offering to improve their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by registering their websites with various search engines and entering the ‘magical’ keywords and cleaning up or fixing negative comments or incorrect information throughout the world wide web, for a nominal fee of $200-$300. When they’re done, their content and reputation will be shiny and new, not to mention, their website ratings will be out of this world and bumped up to the top of each and every search engine.

Unfortunately, most negative comments and/or incorrect information on the web cannot be removed that easily. It takes an experienced SEO expert, hours to clean up this type of information, which can cost you thousands of dollars. Even if they’re able to clean up the information and you do not have your own social platform, it will hardly do you any good.

As for registering your web domain, you can do that yourself {free}, or you can have your web designer register it for you {the charge may already be included in the web design/development}.

If you manage your own WordPress blog, you may want to consider installing an SEO plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast. It’s simple to use and is very helpful in guiding you in adding keywords, excerpt, title, and meta description. You may want to also sign up for his blog and keep yourself in the SEO information loop.

Buyer beware, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

On another front…

You may have also heard about an alert sent out by the Federal Government announcing that ISIS has been hacking into WordPress websites through outdated plugins. In an effort to protect yourself be sure to keep all of your plugins updated and if you’re not using an installed plugin, go ahead and delete it. While you’re at it, you may want to go ahead and change your password.

Try not to get frustrated with all the happenings and goings on in the social marketing industry. That’s why there are professionals trained to help you and take care of your social marketing needs. It’s important to find someone you can trust. Meet with them first for a short consultation. Trust me, they do not want to work with anyone that they don’t feel comfortable with either.

Fraud and hacking are a real problem. The best way to protect yourself is to stay informed and if your run across something or someone that is questionable, either check with someone else or move on. You can never go wrong with going with your gut instinct.

Have you been a victim of fraud or with being hacked? How did you handle it? Were there warning signs?