Not an SEO Expert; Not a Web Designer; $6500 = Zero Site Traffic

I contracted with Stephanie Faust and BottomLineSearch.com on November 25th, 2010. She promised to bring traffic to my website through SEO tactics that she had learned over many years. She presented herself as an expert in the field.
As of March, 2001, her work has provided virtually NO hits. I am publishing this complaint so the innocent public can be informed about Ms. Faust’s extraordinary and inexcusable incompetence.

STEPHENIE FAUST IS NOT AN SEO EXPERT

Stephanie Faust recommended that I buy new domain names using keywords that would attract business. I agreed, since I didn’t know any better. As it turned out, these keywords were not active. Google ranked most of them at zero. This means that users were not entering the terms in their web browsers, so we could never achieve any traffic from the major search engines. Stephanie’s grand plan was to post blogs that would create new traffic for the terms. But her concept was foolish. Most of the traffic on the Internet is generated by requests made from search browsers such as Google. You cannot create your own traffic in any significant numbers. Certainly my experience backs that up. So what gave Stephanie Faust the nerve to claim she could bring results through these useless methodologies? The answer is simple: each time she suckers somebody into one of these business arrangements, she gets paid. In my case, I had to pay in full upon completion. When a month went gone by without results, Stephanie blithely announced that she was too busy to “help” me. She advised that I should continue her program on my own or I might “lose business”. I had no time energy or desire to continue her idiotic program. So now she can point the finger back at me and blame me for “not following through”.
I did a real search for an SEO expert – this time using Google itself to see what SEO specialists were at the top of the rankings – and interviewed a half-dozen of them about Stephanie Faust’s work. Here is what they all said:

(1) The domain names that Stephanie had me purchase were odd keyword combinations, and were not being actively searched on Google or other major search engines. They were of no use whatsoever in attracting users to my site.

(2) Posting blogs with links was hopeless; traffic is gained when you tap off of existing search terms.

(3) Stephanie had me buy hosting from GoDaddy.Com (maybe she got some affiliates fees? Go Stephanie!) My site load speed was so slow that even if I attracted users, they would not stay.

(4) Stephanie also put all of my domains under one server with one IP address. This is a major non-no; Google ignores all web pages involved in such scenarios. (Stephanie later denied this, since she had no intention of drawing Google traffic. Thanks for the warning, Stephanie!)

(5) The site was full of SEO defects, including broken links. Only a hack amateur would post a website with a broken link.

STEPHENIE FAUST IS NOT A WEB DESIGNER

Stephanie spent nearly three months to get my site fully operational. She said this was my fault, since I was so demanding. In fact, what I demanded was that the site be clearly readable. So I had to teach Stephanie about how to use a cascading style sheet to create space around words and between bullet points, etc. I also had to correct Stephanie’s tendency towards amateurish design and her inability to understand visual coherence.

STEPHANIE KNOWS HOW TO WRITE A SELF-SERVING CONTRACT

Stephanie Faust is clever enough to create contracts that explain her services. Since the contract is a long, complex legal document, the average person signs it without understanding that Stephanie is releasing herself from any responsibility to perform on her verbal promises.
My only remaining remedy is to publish my experience to forewarn the general public about Stephanie Faust and BotomLineSearch.com.

Mark Teller