Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Reviews

Occasionally I get an e-mail from someone in the industry about new sites that are launching.

And sometimes they’re actually worth spending a bit of time getting familiar with them.

Boris at Search Marketing Standard contacted me yesterday to let me know about a new site that their company has released.

It’s called SEMCompare and it looks like a pretty nice web 2.0 site.

What makes it web 2.0? Well, it’s full of user supplied content. Of course, that’s all the rage these days so does the site stack up to it’s mission?

Well, yes, I believe it does. The site is intended to let users review SEO, Pay Per Click Management, Social Media Marketing and Copywriting sites.

With a ranking system to let you rank 3 areas:

• Performance/Results
• Customer Service
• Value Received

And a section in the review to list both pros and cons, it looks like it could really take off.

At the very least, it will help people find decent companies to work with.

The sad fact of the matter is that if you troll the forums looking for a good company, more often than not, you’ll hear lots of horror stories but very few good things.

As a result, you’ll end up picking some unknown because they haven’t had any negative reviews yet.

SO! Are there any problems with this site?

Well, as a black hat, I immediately think about ways to game the system.

From an initial review, it looks like it would be pretty easy to game it simply by creating multiple accounts and ‘reviewing’ your company.

If they’re going to move forward with this and build trust with the users, I’d recommend three things with regards to this problem:

1. Track the IP of posters.
2. Display both the IP as well as the city and country the IP is located in.
3. Let the users see who a particular user has reviewed and the average score.

Although I would hate to see the site cluttered with ‘he said, she said’ type of stuff, it might be useful to let the companies respond to any reviews.

Another little nit that I have with the site is the Copywriting Services description:

Copywriting services supply your site with keyword rich content.

No, no and NO…Please, please, please change this! That’s not what copywriting is!!! Copywriting is about selling to the customer - not - stuffing your page with keywords.

Ugh. Hate, hate, hate that description

With a site like this, the privacy policy is very, very important. You’re posting information that someone might take exception to.

And when that happens, you want to know that SEMCompare isn’t going to fold and give up your information immediately or without a fight. (Emphasis Added by me)

We may release personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., a lawful subpoena, warrant or court order); to enforce or apply our policies or any other agreement with a user; to initiate, render, bill, and collect for amounts owed to us; to protect our rights or property; to protect our users from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of our Site or its services; to enforce contest, sweepstakes, promotions, or game rules; or if we reasonably believe that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of communications or justifies disclosure of records without delay.

While it’s good that they will relese it when appropriate to comply with the law, I would really prefer if they gave a bit more information. Yes, it’s just words but it would make me feel more comfortable.

One other quirk that I saw with their privacy policy:

We do not rent, sell or disclose personal information to third parties without your prior consent, except as described in this privacy policy. We may share personal information when we have your consent to do so, when required by law, when required to protect our rights or property, as necessary to complete a transaction you have requested, or for marketing purposes. We reserve the right to use and disclose any non-personal information that we collect. We may use third party service providers to assist us with the administration of the Site or Review Service or to perform other services for us, including transaction processing and sending email. These third parties may be given or may have access to your personal information, but agree to receive and use such information solely to provide services to us or on our behalf.

So are you going to share my info or not?

I feel sorry for them when someone tries to spam their reviews…It would be trivial to do so even with the ’spam protection’ they have.

Other than those few minor nits, I think the site has a lot of potential and could be very valuable for users.

G-Man