I had a client recently forward unsolicited emails she had recently received that claimed to offer SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. I wanted to share these emails with you and to give you my comments on their legitimacy, or lack thereof.

Here’s the first email:

Dear Website Owner,

70% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re ranked on first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I assist you to achieve at least 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by getting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?

Our internet marketing company is ranked on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search phrase “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can come up for your main keyword search phrases as well? All of our methodologies use the most ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your site banned or penalized.

This proprietary SEO service includes:
• No setup costs
• Cancel at any time
• Guaranteed increase in traffic

Please reply to my email and I would be delighted to supply you a custom proposal
Warm Regards,
Don H.Ritz

5021 VERDUGO WAY, STE 105
CAMARILLO, CA 93012 - USA

Wow, this sounds pretty good doesn’t it? But wait, let’s look a little closer. Where’s the company name? Where’s the company website? Hmmm.

Let’s look at the email address: pencilling80370@gmail.com

Now, why would someone who has a legitimate SEO business use a junk email address from gmail, rather than a more professional email address, like Don@TheBestSEOCompany.com?

Because it’s fake. This is a good example of an SEO scam email. This person got my client’s email from her website and sent her this message, in an (weak) attempt to get her to pay him money for nothing.

Let’s look at another example. The same lucky client of mine got an email from Jen@bigwavetraffic.com. Here’s the email:

From: Jen Evans [mailto:jen@bigwavetraffic.com]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:10 PM
To: Info
Subject: your website

I can get your site to the top of a search engines listings.
If you’re interested, reply with the web addresses you want to promote and
the best way to contact you with some options.

Thanks in advance,

Jen Evan

So I looked up BigWaveTraffic.com. What did I find when I looked it up?

Coming soon? The page title reads “Absolute Listings SEO SEM” so I know I’ve gotten the right website.

So the morale to the story is this: If you’re a small business owner and you get a email from someone you don’t know, claiming to be able to boost your website traffic - do a bit of research. Look at the website of the company. Put in the keywords they should be targeting and see if you can find them on the first, or second, or third page of Google. If you can’t, they are not a legitimate SEO company and it’s simply one of the many email scam attempts.

Be careful out there!

UPDATE: I just received the exact same email above that starts with “Dear Website Owner”…but this time, the return email is for “Barry Burn” and the email address is listed as fanciable44243@gmail.com - it’s a SEO email scam alright! And another one, this time from borneo90856@gmail.com with the name Joseph Samules.

ANOTHER UPDATE: My client just received another one, this time from “Blaze Web Design Inc”. Here’s the email:

Hello,

My name is Mark J. Blazick from Dade City, Florida and previously from Akron, Ohio and I think you have a great looking website.

I am an SEO that has been attaining and maintaining top search engine placement in Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other search engines for businesses across the USA.

We help companies get ranked at the top of the search engines so that they can spend less on sponsored links and Google AdWords. Our prices are very affordable and we have references as well as 12 years experience in Search Engine Submission and Website Optimization.

Did you know that only 20% of people searching will click on a sponsored link or Google AdWord while 80% will click on a ranked listing in a search engine?

You can bring in much more business via your website by getting your site ranked at the top of the search engines in their ranked listings. Google is always our main target followed by Yahoo, MSN and Ask but we do submit to many other search engines as well.

Your site has meta tags but they are not optimized strongly. We code strong page specific meta tags so that the title, description and keywords meta tags for a specific page work together. The title, description and keywords meta tags are coded so that they have a synergy with each other in order to give very strong emphasis to your most important keyword phrases.

We also work with you to get a synergy between the page specific meta tags and the page specific text content of your websites pages. We assist in getting pages to support other pages as well so that the site can rank well when ranked as an entire website.

Please phone me at 352-458-9217 and we can talk about your site and how to make it much more of an asset to your business.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Mark J. Blazick
President
Blaze Web Design, Inc.
352-458-9217
blazeman@tampabay.rr.com

Notice the similarity? A website designer without a website? So I googled “Blaze Web Design” and found a website and looked at their “Promotion” page. A long list of mostly extremely minor search engines that they’ll submit your website to - nothing more specific. And by the way, submitting your site to different search engines is FREE, you don’t need to pay anyone for this.

So here’s a test you can do to see how good a company is at SEO. Start with their home page. See what their title is. The title is visible at the very top of your browser window.

My title starts with “Aldebaran Website Design Seattle”. So just Google “Website Design Seattle” and see where my home page is ranked. As of the writing of this post entry, I’m ranked on the first page at #3. Not too shabby.

Do the same with this company. The title on the home page is “Search Engine Optimization”. Let’s see where the home page is ranked. I use a tool on GoogleRankings.com to search for where a website is ranked for their keywords because it can search the top 1000 automatically. The result? This website is not within the first 1000 results for the very keywords they should have optimized their own website for.

Now, perhaps it’s harsh of me to pick on this particular company. But they sent one of my clients a scammy email in a plain attempt to take her money. So this blog article is fair play I figure. I’m protective of my clients, and of all small business owners who may not know much about SEO and respond to emails such as these.

So if you get one of these emails, just do what I do. Look up the website, if there is one listed. Look at the home page title and Google it. If they’re not on the first page, delete the email and forget about them.

UPDATE 8/20/08: I just got another SEO Scam Email:

Dear Business Owner,

75% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I could get as much as 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by promoting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?

Our company is consistently on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search term “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can rank for your main keyword terms as well? All of our techniques use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization methods that will not get your website banned or penalized.

This search engine optimization program includes:
• No upfront fees
• A month to month program (no long term contracts)
• Guaranteed increase in traffic

Simply reply to this email and I would be delighted to send you a custom proposal
_________________________________________________________

Warm Regards,
Erroll

2060 AVENIDA DE LOS ARBOLES, STE D
THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91362-1361 - USA

I guess they never learn. They keep sending me spam SEO emails, I will keep posting them to my blog to help warn other folks.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 8:32 am and is filed under the Getting Traffic, Rants, SEO category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design.