Search engine optimization: what not to look for
Have you received spam emails from people promising to increase traffic to your website by ranking it high in the SERPS (search engine results pages)? We get them all the time. In fact, Google claims that they even receive these spam requests. Here is an example of an email from Google received in the past:
“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”
Funny, huh? But how many people respond to these ridiculous emails and spend a lot of money hoping they can increase traffic to their website? What’s worse, many of these companies are able to brainwash their customers into thinking that they are actually profiting! Companies that use these unethical business practices give the entire SEO (search engine optimization) community a bad reputation.
Two Point Enterprise writes this article on what NOT to look for when buying SEO so you can arm yourself to make an informed decision. We know of no better way to illustrate this article for you than to submit a spam email we received from one of these rogue companies. Please read the email in the screenshot below carefully, and then see our feedback.
Click here to see a screenshot of the email
The subject of the email was “Do you want referrals from your website?” (I guess they were in such a hurry to send this email that they didn’t even take the time to check the spelling.)
The first red flag is receiving the email in the first place! Check out Google’s Webmaster Information and you’ll see the first thing they tell you is “Beware of SEO companies sending you emails out of the blue.”
The next thing the author of this spam tries to do is make a feeble attempt to identify himself with real estate agents. Hence the words, “Location, Location, Location.” (Sorry mate, you’re not going to get into bed with me.) They then pay the credit that you may already have a good website, but if traffic could be increased, it could drive millions of customers and billions of dollars to your website. Apparently they dismiss pay-per-click services without giving credence to the fact that real estate is actually something that pay-per-click can do quite well with, that is, in big cities. Finally, as with all spam emails like this, they think they have the solution you’ve been looking for!
We couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the next line where they increase the font size and announce: “!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (One more exclamation point and I think everyone in the office will have I wet my pants.) Seriously Mr. Spammer, what’s here? Is this SEO services with a perpetual monthly fee to guarantee you recurring income? I hate to crash the party, but SEO was around long before that you registered your domain on September 24, 2004. And monthly fees were invented a long time ago, too. I’ll give them a little credit for guaranteeing your satisfaction rather than your ranking. Google’s rule #2 is: “No one can guarantee #1. However, they don’t tell you how they guarantee your satisfaction in the email. I’d be surprised if it’s a guarantee of 100% money back. I bet they have it set up where they end up pocketing money one way or another. If they can brainwash you into thinking they’re doing a good job, they don’t have to pay you back.
The next thing this spam does is try to establish credibility for themselves. They want you to go to a search engine and search for the massive, noncompetitive five keyword phrase “neighborhood prospecting websites for real estate agents.” If the reader did not delete the email and put it in the recycle bin, you will see that the company that sent this email is currently ranked first in this search. We inserted the five-word phrase into a Google AdWords campaign and made an offer of $5. After submitting, Google automatically adjusted the price to $0.02 (because that’s its value), gave it the first position on the page (because there’s no competition for that phrase), and estimated our cost per day for the phrase to be $0.00 ( because nobody in the world would be looking for that). So big deal guys if you are the #1 result for “neighborhood prospecting websites for realtors”. That’s because no one else wants it!
Now look down some more and see what we have here! Well, if it’s not copyright and trademark infringement against the search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo!. I’d be willing to bet that these search engines did not authorize any use of their trademarks. I also do not see any notices at the bottom identifying the rightful owners of the trademarks, nor do I see the author disclaim any affiliation with these search engines. Subtle little images like this can mislead the reader into thinking that some sort of special relationship, or affiliation, has been altered with the search engines. Google says “beware of SEOs that alleviate a ‘special relationship’ with Google.” My guess is that Google has no plans to enter into any sort of strategic partnership with these child prodigies any time soon.
Next we have the registration button where we can make our monthly donation to these people. How thoughtful of you to make the button so nice and big. We don’t want to get lost when we try to click the mouse!
At the bottom, they try to abide by the rules and offer you and your little one a link to opt out of future emails from them. Unless they’re compensating you, why should you take time out of your day to opt out of this email you didn’t ask for in the first place? Good luck with that, by the way. Two weeks ago we received this email and asked you to stop spamming us. They responded and told us that we got it because we signed up for something, which we know damn well we didn’t. However, we gave them some slack and scrapped it. Then on 2-3-2006 we received this same email again after we told them 2 weeks before to stop emailing us.
I hope you enjoyed the article! Good luck with your SEO!
