If you are looking to get your website to appear more prominently in the search engines then often people will turn to a search engine optimisation company to get help.  There are some good companies out there. There are also a lot of very poor companies.

My experience with Web on High was very poor indeed. To their advantage their customer service team is  friendly and eager to please. However if you are looking for results then my advice would be to stay well clear of Web on High.

The site that Web On High worked on was in a competitive marketplace. It was agreed that we would pay a substantial monthly charge for their services. I was happy to do so as I was confident in the promises that Web On high had made to me. The site required strong backlinks to be obtained to maintain the prominence in the search engine. Web On High initially tweaked the design of the site over the first month of using them.  They did a good job of this however from this moment on Web On High began to fail.

After a month or so activity and communication from Web On High seemed to cease altogether. I expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of communication regarding the work that was supposedly being carried out. It is clear that results cannot be achieved overnight with SEO however I expressed that I wanted to be kept in the loop to be sure that things were happening in an acceptable manner rather than wait for 12 months to realise the job was not being done or being done to a substandard level. Rather than the results improving, the site started to drop down the rankings for important keywords.

A meeting was arranged to discuss what had been going on.

At the meeting I requested to know what link building had already taken place. Initially I was shocked at Web On High’s policy to not reveal where they obtain their links. This was crazy to me as I wanted to be able to easily monitor the performance I could only assume they did not want to reveal where they obtained their links because they did not want to reveal unethical or black hat practices. Perhaps now I look back it might have been because of how few links they would attempt to achieve It was agreed that an exception would be made and Web On High would indeed divulge a monthly report of what links were obtained.  At the meeting the sales manager from Web On High agreed that the current work was not good enough and things would be stepped up to ensure results did not slip. I agreed to continue with Web On High with the assurances things would improve.

A lot of time was taken to make clear the keywords we wanted to rank for- our primary product range. Initially Web On High had come up with a list of around 20 primary phrases and 20 secondary phrases. It was clear from the work they were doing Web On High would never be able to focus on a list this long so it was refined down to 5 or 6 keyphrases.

After the meeting I received an email from Web on High with a list of links that were currently being sought after. The list contained around 20 sites and the majority looked like they could well provide a high quality link.

Three months later results were still slipping. I received a report showing a bunch of irrelevant phrases that had moved in the search engines. My list of primary phrases seemed to have been disregarded. After several requests for the list of links achieved by Web On High I was presented with  a small handful of links that had been achieved within three months.   One was placed on a site that Web on High owns – so not much work to get this. Another was placed clearly on a page that offered a reciprocal link service – something that Google and other search engines frown upon. Not only would it carry no value but it could also ultimately have a negative affect on our campaign. The other links were made up by them rewriting three old articles.

I one again expressed dissatisfaction as the promises that had been made three months ago clearly had not been forthcoming. I was contacted by the managing director of Web On High, Alan Eager who expressed his concerns and promised to look into things but he could not do so immediately. I accepted this though did ask for someone to get back to me to update me as to what work was going to happen to repair the damage the innactivity had caused.

After hearing nothing from anyone else at Web on High I wrote again to the managing director of Web On High. He had not realised I wanted a response back from someone else, perhaps a misunderstanding, fair enough but this was now two weeks later, two more weeks of inactivity, two more weeks of paying a high premium to not receive any service. He again acknowledged that work had been not up to scratch and referred to it a being a “blip” he offered one months fee refunded. I was not prepared to accept this as the work had clearly been substandard for some months.

Mr Eager then got very defensive. He seemed most upset by the fact that I had started my email to him with just “Good morning”.  His previous acknowledgments that the service provided by Web On High was not good enough seemed to vanish and he seemed very upset that I even wanted to question the work that Web On High was not doing.  Realising now that Web On High were never going to achieve any results using their methods and realising that the fee they were charging was extortionate for the actual working time they were putting in I terminated the contract.

To summarise Web On High have friendly staff and are capable of on site optimistation. Web On high unfortunately however seem to have no care or clue in off site optimisation at all which is really what the majority of ranking in the search engines is all about. Web On High also makes promises that they do not keep and the managing director of Web on High perceives a customer wanting to be updated about work that they are paying for but not receiving as  just an inconvenience.

Since terminating with Web on High the site is recovering nicely. Work has been taken on for a fraction of Web On High’s charges and regular updates are provided to justify the work that is being paid for.