November 29, 2010 at 15:34Negative Feedback - Effective SEO
An interesting topic was raised by NY Times reporters. They conducted a journalistic investigation into the online store DecorMyEyes.com , which sells designer glasses, and discovered an incredible thing. It turns out that the owners of this store are doing everything possible so that people leave the maximum number of negative reviews about the store. A large number of such reviews can be easily verified simply by running a search on the store’s name on Google.
It would seem, why does the store create negative publicity for itself? Why are they specially rude to customers and issue them additional bills for services, balancing on the edge of the law? Why lie about the lack of goods and violate the delivery time? The answer is simple. Due to the large number of incoming links from various forums, the store’s website is in first place in the search results. For example, at the request of [ Christian Audigier glasses ] they are in fifth place, right after the official website of Christian Odiger, a famous French designer of glasses.
The store owners themselves assure that such tactics brings them significant financial benefits. The founder and owner of this Brooklyn store, Vitaly Borker, in an interview with NY Times cited statistics for one day: 120 orders, a turnover of $ 20 thousand, a profit of $ 3 thousand (you need to pay a salary and pay for advertising). On the second floor of his office there is a warehouse with returned goods from dissatisfied customers - there are about $ 500 thousand points stored there.
However, NY Times journalists admit that DecorMyEyes financial success is nothing more than a fiction. They can only believe in the word Vitaly Borker, although he often expresses it very rudely and few of his phrases in Russian can be understood by an American journalist. [His welcome mat is emblazoned with a Russian phrase that roughly translates to “go away”].
Vitaly says that the first time he received a complaint from the consumer protection society, he sent them a picture of his middle finger. In a similar style, he communicates with customers.
It must be recognized that such an approach can theoretically really be effective. Google’s algorithms cannot tell a positive review from a negative review - and simply count the number of links. And most people do not make inquiries about the store in which they want to make a purchase. Due to the high positions in the search, new customers come to the site every day.
DecorMyEyes is a reseller of items on eBay, and search engine optimization is their bargaining chip. If they were selling on eBay itself, then the seller’s negative rating would be immediately visible. And when you search through Google, you don’t see anything like this.
Vitaly Borker says that at first they hired SEO firms that posted positive reviews from the company to raise the site in search results. But over time, he realized that negative reviews give exactly the same effect for website promotion, while getting them is much easier and they do not cost a penny.
According to Borker, massive reviews of payments through Visa and Mastercard may become a real threat to his business. If for a certain month a sufficiently large number of buyers successfully withdraw payments, then it can be excluded from payment networks. So far this has been avoided, Borker controls the situation. In case of trouble, he says that he will open an account in the name of a friend and will give him 1% of the profit.
Vitaly Borker himself tries to correspond with dissatisfied customers, because you need to maintain a special communication style, and spends almost all his 19-hour work day on it (from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m.). Often have to attend court hearings. Well, these are the costs of such a business.
It would seem, why does the store create negative publicity for itself? Why are they specially rude to customers and issue them additional bills for services, balancing on the edge of the law? Why lie about the lack of goods and violate the delivery time? The answer is simple. Due to the large number of incoming links from various forums, the store’s website is in first place in the search results. For example, at the request of [ Christian Audigier glasses ] they are in fifth place, right after the official website of Christian Odiger, a famous French designer of glasses.
The store owners themselves assure that such tactics brings them significant financial benefits. The founder and owner of this Brooklyn store, Vitaly Borker, in an interview with NY Times cited statistics for one day: 120 orders, a turnover of $ 20 thousand, a profit of $ 3 thousand (you need to pay a salary and pay for advertising). On the second floor of his office there is a warehouse with returned goods from dissatisfied customers - there are about $ 500 thousand points stored there.
However, NY Times journalists admit that DecorMyEyes financial success is nothing more than a fiction. They can only believe in the word Vitaly Borker, although he often expresses it very rudely and few of his phrases in Russian can be understood by an American journalist. [His welcome mat is emblazoned with a Russian phrase that roughly translates to “go away”].
Vitaly says that the first time he received a complaint from the consumer protection society, he sent them a picture of his middle finger. In a similar style, he communicates with customers.
It must be recognized that such an approach can theoretically really be effective. Google’s algorithms cannot tell a positive review from a negative review - and simply count the number of links. And most people do not make inquiries about the store in which they want to make a purchase. Due to the high positions in the search, new customers come to the site every day.
DecorMyEyes is a reseller of items on eBay, and search engine optimization is their bargaining chip. If they were selling on eBay itself, then the seller’s negative rating would be immediately visible. And when you search through Google, you don’t see anything like this.
Vitaly Borker says that at first they hired SEO firms that posted positive reviews from the company to raise the site in search results. But over time, he realized that negative reviews give exactly the same effect for website promotion, while getting them is much easier and they do not cost a penny.
According to Borker, massive reviews of payments through Visa and Mastercard may become a real threat to his business. If for a certain month a sufficiently large number of buyers successfully withdraw payments, then it can be excluded from payment networks. So far this has been avoided, Borker controls the situation. In case of trouble, he says that he will open an account in the name of a friend and will give him 1% of the profit.
Vitaly Borker himself tries to correspond with dissatisfied customers, because you need to maintain a special communication style, and spends almost all his 19-hour work day on it (from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m.). Often have to attend court hearings. Well, these are the costs of such a business.