SEO Company Spam Email
Spam email is ignored by most of us, but some businesses still fall prey to them. Below is an example from my spam email today.
From: Max Williams <seo3@googlepositions.com>
Subject:
Message Body:
Top Ranking On Google
Telephone: 7077060205
Pickup Top Ranking On Google
Service Top Ranking On Google
Reception Hello and good morning
I am Max Alias Jitesh, Marketing Manager with a reputable online marketing company based in India.
We can fairly quickly promote your website to the top of the search rankings with no long-term contracts!
We can place your website on top of the Natural Listings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Our Search Engine Optimization team delivers more top rankings than anyone else and we can prove it. We do not use “link farms” or “black hat” methods that Google and the other search engines frown upon and can use to de-list or ban your site. The techniques are proprietary, involving some valuable closely held trade secrets. Our prices are less than half of what other companies charge.
We would be happy to send you a proposal using the top search phrases for your area of expertise. Please contact me at your convenience so we can start saving you some money.
In order for us to respond to your request for information, please include your company’s website address (mandatory) and or phone number.
So let me know if you would like me to mail you more details or schedule a call. We’ll be pleased to serve you.
I look forward to your mail.
Thanks and Regards
Max Alias Jitesh
Fake SEO Companies and Spam Email
As I stated above, I got the above spam email today and instead of just deleting it without even looking, I did look. After all, in some ways, I am in direct competition with these fake SEO companies. Why do I call these companies fake?
Just going from the above, well firstly, he doesn’t name his company in his email! (I get the feeling that he takes in work and sells it to the lowest bidder keeping the difference for himself. There are actually several Irish SEO companies who do the same so I shouldn’t really be too hard on him for this.)
Secondly, I have checked out googlepositions.com and there is no website! In case you are wondering where I got Google Positions, check out his email address.
Finally using whois.com we can see that a person called Sanjeev Kumar is actually the owner of the domain name and that the domain name is not attached to any business.
What You Should Be Watching Out For
If hiring SEO companies that come to your attention in this way without at least using the 3 simple checks above you will be in serious trouble. Most of these SEO companies ( I am not saying all!) will be using link farms to supply your rankings. Unfortunately, this means that your website will be hit with Google penalties in a few months at best. They will just move on to someone new and you will be left with a blacklisted website. Disavowing can be a long slow process as Google doesn’t be in a hurry to give your website the all clear. Their opinion is, if you were bold they are not going to be in a hurry to forgive you!
An example of my own would be a client who had hired me to get him ranking on the first page of Google for several local counties. (Localized SEO is one of our specialties.) Once he was there he decided to move to a cheaper foreign SEO company. In just over a week all his rankings had dropped ( I wouldn’t have believed it was possible!) and he had even lost the first page for 2 counties. 3 months later things have gotten much worse. When he came back to us at No 1 SEO Ireland, unfortunately, the amount of extra work needed to repair his website meant that our fees would have to be increased. To the best of our knowledge, he is on at least his third foreign company. We wish him all the best.
Black Hat SEO Methods
I have recently read a very good article about Black Hat methods. It shows you that Google is aware of these processes and it’s algorithm actively penalizes websites for using Black Hat methods.
My advice would be to find an established company with a person who can talk to you about the methods they will use to rank your website. They should be able to go through your website with you pointing out any problems and what they will do to correct them. Backlinks while still a VERY important ranking factor are also the most likely to cause trouble. Find out how they plan to build you a backlink network without causing trouble in the future.
BTW, expect to be annoyed with your web developer! But remember, they are intent on building you a great looking website. How it gets ranked is not up to them! If you can, find a company that offers both AND does it SEO research before starting to build the website. This saves time that the SEO specialist would have to spend doing back-end changes in things like the menus and URLs etc.
Talk to No 1 SEO Ireland
I wouldn’t be being fair to my own business if I didn’t give No 1 SEO Ireland a mention.
You can call us on 089 479 9227 or use our contact form and we will give your website a free once-over. We can make recommendations for improvements on your website and if you are running a PPC Campaign we can give it once over as well. Many people don’t realize how much money they waste on badly run PPC marketing.