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Did you ever get a letter from Internet Corporation Listing Service? If you did, and you are in the business of SEO, you will see right through the scam that is being offered. But the problem with this way of customer acquisition is that not everybody who receives this letter knows about SEO.

This is the second time that I get a letter in the mail from Internet Corporation Listing Service. ICLS.net from their website:

Internet Corporation Listing Services is not a domain name registrar and does not provide domain name registrations or renewals, web hosting or email services. ICLS.NET is a search engine ranking and submission services firm. Our goal is to improve your rankings on search engines.

From the letter:

Domain name submission to 14 established search engines, quarterly search engine position and ranking reports for eight keyword/phrase listings from 14 major search engines.

This service will cost you $35 per year, $60 for 2 years, or $140 for 5 years.

The disclaimer in the letter is clear about what the letter is for:

This Internet listing offer is provided to millions of websites throughout the United States to enhance their website exposure. This is a solicitation for the order of goods or services, or both, and not a bill, invoice, or statement of account due. You are under no obligation to make any payment on account of this offer unless you accept this offer.

Right, this is the reason why the SEO world is being seen by some as sleazy. What a joke, submitting a domain to 14 search engines, and reporting on the whooping number of 8 keywords.

Internet Corporation Listing Service

From their About Us page on the website:

Internet Corporation Listing Service is a professional services firm specializing in search engine ranking reports and submission. Internet Corporation Listing Service has found a cost effective way to improve your website rankings on various search engines. We have developed comprehensive processes to ensure that more qualified prospects visit your web site. Our search engine submission efforts lead to high search engine rankings and improved visibility across all the major search properties, increasing your market reach and brand awareness. The value we provide is measured in increased conversions, a competitive advantage and increased returns on your Web investment.

This sounds so promising, and if you had no idea how the search engine market works, you would almost fall for these words. We continue…

Internet Corporation Listing Service was founded by a group of technology and search engine professionals, who are dedicated to helping businesses achieve greater position on the global market. The founders believe that through the Internet, and specifically through the 60 million + user base of search engines, that business can take a more prominent position than was ever previously achievable in the global economy.

I agree with most of this here, as the Internet, and specifically SEO should play a major role in the marketing strategy of every company. What I question is the fact that the founders are a group of technology and search engine professionals.

I will explain why by simply reviewing their website. If these people are such search engine professionals and experts in the SEO field, their website should be highly SEO-ed, and showcase the latest techniques in SEO. Don’t you agree…?

Now lets have a look at the website of Internet Corporation Listing Service.

ICLS.net

First thing you will see on their homepage is the following image:

So the question really is, why would you put the content that describes your main service in an image. This is a rookie mistake. Your most important content about your service should be readable for the crawlers.

Here are some SEO 101 tips if you do want to use an images:

1. Give the image a name that uses the keywords you would like to rank for. Here the ICLS has given the image the simple name: advert.gif. Useless for SEO.
2. The image is missing an alt tag. Alt tags are not only necessary to make your website accessible for people who have a vision handicap, it also makes it easier for crawlers to understand what your images are about.

Title & Meta Tags

The whole website of ICLS is poorly optimized if we look at the Title & Meta tags.

Every page has the same title:

Internet Corporation Listing Service - icls.net

No page has any Meta descriptions or Meta keywords.

Although ICLS has a full page on meta tags and even a meta tag generator, they don’t use these themselves. Now what does this tell you about their expertise. Especially as they use time and time again Altavista in their text. Clearly this text has not been updated since 2003.

…this is what Altavista would show in it’s description, and it wouldn’t give the viewer any idea of what your site actually covered. Of course, not all search engines work this way, I’d suggest you ferret around a little bit to see exactly how the popular engines work, and certainly the major search engines such as Altavista, Lycos, Google, Infoseek and Excite.

If you look at the Meta tag generator page, you will see that the default date of the expiry date of the file is set to Mon, 31 Dec 2003. 2003…? What a joke!

Robots.txt

The site does not have a robots.txt file.

Usage of “nofollow”

Like expected, there is no usage of the nofollow atribute on any of the internal links. This means that all pages, including the sign up page, are being indexed.

Footer

All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. © 2002-04 by Internet Corporation Listing Service

Great footer text, only we have left the year 2004 already 3 years behind us. Updating your website with up to date content and information is key to grow trust with future clients.

Their service

Let’s have a quick look at the sample report they offer.

Project: New
Run Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 07:07:59 PM
Performed For: www.adobe.com
Keywords: acrobat

Congratulations! You were TopDog on 1 out of 5 search engines.
Your site was listed:

• by 5 of 5 search engines.
• 5 times among the top ten positions.

Your TopDog average scores are:

• 96 out of 100 among search engines that list your site.
• 96 out of 100 for all search engines.

Conclusion

We can go on and on, making use of all the free SEO tools available to show how bad these people are in SEO, but I think all above says enough.

In my opinion: this service is one big rip off. The only reason why Internet Corporation Listing Service still exists, is that there are so many people who don’t understand the search engine market. These people receive a letting in the mail, and think that the $35 investment in better ranking is worth the risk. It’s a small enough amount to loose, but big enough for ICLS to keep sending these letters and still make money. I guess not paying tax by being listed on the Bahamas helps in keeping margins high

The last thing I did in this review, is Google their name. First ranking is a Wikipedia result. Wow, this scam company has their own Wikipedia page…? Guess what it says:

The Internet Corporation Listing Service is a fraudulent corporation that solicits website owners using the US Postal Service. They present the website owner with what looks like a fake bill or invoice and attempt to get them to pay between $35 to $95 dollars for submitting their website to 14 major search engines. This information is delivered by the ICLS via email though it is freely available online.

LOL…

Technorati tags: Internet Corporation Listing Service, ICLS