How to detect a lead generation company “disguised” as a vendor online

    (updated 6.26)

 Note I've broken some URL hyperlinks below.

    In some competitive "high ticket" B2C market areas online, many of your competitors on Google, Bing and other search engines may be lead generation (a.k.a. lead gen) companies & agencies (thinly) disguised as what appears to be a vendor of the product in question. Lead gen companies & agencies are not eligible for a Google Business Profile (a.k.a. Google Map listing) - thus you can report their profiles there to GOOG.

    Some websites of these lead generation businesses disguised as vendors might be considered "deceptive" websites (Google describes these as containing “pages that do not deliver promised online or real-life services with intent to mislead or defraud the user”) and thus you can report them to Google & Bing (noye that https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a states, “Microsoft may take action against deceptive or abusive behavior” : see https://search.google.com/search-console/report-spam / https://www.bing.com/webmasters/support .

    The following may suggest a lead gen company (thinly) disguised as a vendor online:

1. 1. Website Privacy Policy: if this is present look for the term "Data Controller." Legally under the GDPR, they must list the registered company name here. You may find this footprint across multiple websites.

   2. The Footer Disclaimer / About Us pages: Look for a (small-print) sentence stating something like e.g. "We are not a double glazing company .We are a marketing company that works with accredited partners". On their “About Us” page it might state they “earn their revenue through quotes” / “we pass your details to selected partners" or similar.

   3. no (limited) company name on the website (or a fake company name that is not registered at Companies House UK ) - a general lack of specific information (e.g. staff names, case studies etc) might be a give away. 

   4. no Google Map listing for their business (for the reason previously stated). A  Google Map business address at a residential property might be a large red flag!

   5. fake / few (or no) reviews online e.g. on Google Map – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnfpSNOe2CE

   6. another (what appears to be a) thinly disguised lead generation business at the same address (search Google for the address) .

   7. Google the phone number / Company Registration & ICO Registration Number (as appropriate) as well as they might show related businesses

   8. look for other websites on the same IP address with https://dnslytics .com/reverse-ip/

   9. examine the website in question's backlinks as it may have links from “sister” websites
      
      

   It is possible to use Google's LLM Gemini to research related “sister” websites of lead generation agencies disguised as what appear to be vendors. See https://lnkd.in/etzDZ2gh . You can use a prompt like "list all the the urls of all similar "disguised" lead generation websites to https://XXXXXwindows.co.uk/ (of the network this website is in) operating in the windows / doors market in the uk".

    I was quite surprised that with simple prompting like the above Claude was able to uncover a “network “of “sister” lead gen websites of one lead gen agency website by:

1. identifying multiple identical text patterns found on multiple websites including patterns in phone numbers (the websites in question did not share the same number nor area code - I'm being deliberately vague here )
3. identifying what may be a virtual office address for one website / "business" (a virtual office is not eligible for a Google Business Profile listing)

   It may be that the websites detected were created to "rank and rent" (a digital marketing strategy where a led gen agent builds a website targeting a local service e.g. "plumber in Doncaster", optimises it with the aim of ranking highly on Google, and then leases the website or sells the generated leads to a local business owner for a fee).

     My previous research relating to the backlinks of the website in question / websites on the same IP address did not uncover these connections (some lead generation agencies interlink their lead gen websites from what I see). See some sample feedback from Gemini below