Contacted by an SEO company..

[filarinskis]

We have been contacted by a free SEO company, who seem to use your domain and create articles for you on your site, linking to other relevant sites, while other relevant sites link to yours. All they ask is a small link on your homepage.

An excerpt of the instructions are:

• Download the attached files in a folder to be uploaded to your server (public_html) folder

• Set 777 permission to the folder. This allows our script to work on your site

• Add the "site wide" link on your homepage, as well as on the inner pages, the same way we do in the article section.

• Implement the "site wide" link following the instructions on the README.txt file

• Copy the script on the file or you can provide us with a temporary FTP access to your server and we will do it for you.

• Please note that if you can upload our folder to your site within 48 hours, you will be eligible to receive 20 bonus links for your SEO campaign.

Should we tread carefully?

[LeslieVS]

Yes, very. Without considering the SEO side of it, I would be hesitant to upload anyone's files to my server. Considering SEO, though they claim it, I would research whether the links you would be receiving would be of any quality or relevance. Ultimately you want to build diverse, quality back link profiles - those that stand the test of time and Google's algorithm changes. Secondly, I know they said one link, but really how do you know what sites/links you are giving credit to? I'm not the most technical SEO, but speaking from experience, they could be hiding a lot in that file they want you to add to your site.

I had an experience with one of my wordpress sites a few months back where all of the sudden we were receiving impressions for keywords with "art" in them. This was not a site at all related to art. After doing some digging, I simply did a "view source" of my homepage code and found 200+ links hidden on my site all with anchor text including random art related key phrases. I still don't know how that file got uploaded to my wordpress site, but I finally found it and removed it.

[RikkiD22]

That sounds very weird, never heard of anything like it.

Uploading a script you know nothing about and opening up your FTP don't sound like things I would be doing in a hurry, they could run phishing scams or anything through your site without you knowing about it.

If you are keen on doing this and trust the company I would ask what they script is and why they need FTP access. In theory they should be able to write articles and do a lot of the on page SEO all from your CMS...

[fassa]

Actually it may be legit. The technique is as follows ... you create a small article directory on your website which they use and they include your link on other such sites that create small article directories too. The thing is that they can go black hat real easy and also they can submit porn sites as well.

The way to determine whether to work with them or not is the following :

Check the source code of the pages ... or make your webmasters do it. Double check it!

If the source(here meaning the company) is trustworthy they will have at least a digital signature or something that makes you trust them. If you don't trust them completely do not do it.

[RobertFisher]

Steve

Frankly I am curious as to why you wouldn't just name them. If they are so well used by others they certainly shouldn't mind.

I cannot imagine an SEO need I have for a single client or for my company that any site wide link could provide enough value for. Anything you read will tell you that it is rare that anyone needs this much access. I would not give someone I have no knowledge of, have no work history with, etc. access to my FTP file no matter how temporary. It is quite typical of those who scam to state we do this for the XYZ company. Frankly, I cannot tell you how many Google Adwords Partners in an unnamed country have badges with links that when clicked on then state they are not partners. (Most people do not check it out.)

Think about 20 bonus links: Are they from high value authorities around what your site is? Or, are they links you could go out and get by providing your email address to a directory?

Most people I have known who have been scammed (OK, including me) have fallen for something that was going to make them richer quicker or something that was going to alleviate a headache, roadblock, etc. without real effort. Everyone in SEO is faced with choosing between the quick and easy and the steady and methodical every day. The biggest hurdle we face as an agency is that our clients hear every day how quick and easy it is: "Get you a hundred leads a day, Rank you #1 on Google, get you off the back pages we noticed you on."

Our job is to say, sorry, we cannot do it. If you think they can, I would suggest giving them a try with say two or three pages that are lagging behind for some term. If they can get you to page one within a month, you won't owe us a thing for all the work we did in that month.

My experience is, there is rarely a quick and easy that does not have a concomitant cost that most are unaware of until they are forced to pay it.

Good Luck

[Banar]

Hi Steve,

SEOmoz members already gave you a lot of their input on this. My answer will be simple. Stay away from them. It would be suicide.

Also, as Robert said, feel free to name them.

[filarinskis]

Thankyou for all of your comments.

I didn't name the company, as I didn't want to imply they were not legit. However, the company is free-seo-company.com

As Fassa says above, the company remotely create and submit articles to a page on your site, linking to other relevant sites. They do the same for your website from other sites.

They were actually recommended to us by Smart-Traffic, who are a large SEO company based in Bristol, UK.

Just wanted to check with you guys on here first, that it wouldn't damage our rankings in anyway!

[EGOL]

This is BS... do not do it.

[AlanMosley]

I'm with youy Egol, i would of not have even finisned reading the email before it would be in my deleted folder

[fassa]

If they do not submit good content you may be flagged as spam site and this will damage your rankings for sure. Better stay away from this.

[KeriMorgret]

You could very well damage your rankings. They are asking you for the keys to your house (the folder you make and give full write permission to) and telling you to drink this magical potion (upload a script that we don't tell you what it's about) and you're going to be all skinny because of all of the wonderful stuff we do. You're giving them access to your server and letting them do things without consulting you or giving you any control over things.

[Dr-Pete]

I'll just add that, if by "legit", you mean the company will do what they say they'll do, then possible. The problems is that:

(1) They automatically get more from the exchange than the customer does. You're giving them links before they do anything, so it's not free.

(2) They take no risk and you take all the risk. You're more likely to be penalized by linking out to this link-farm than they are, in some ways (fair or not).

So, they may do what they outline, but it's not legit in my sense of the word and it's high-risk, low-reward SEO.

That's best-case. Worst case, these folders contain malware or dangerous payloads that could steal data and destroy sites.

[blacey]

Yeah never set a folder's permissions to 777, as that would allow any script in that folder to be run and that is never good! Definitely avoid these instructions. You were right to consult the SEO Moz Q+A before doing anything.