Is it just me or are you finding more attempts by the SEO scammers & spammers of the world to get you to sign up with them in the last 6 months? I am sure like most other SEO’s out there their inbox, IM’s, blog comments, etc are usually flooded with these scammers/spammers. Sure most of them we don’t even see from automated anti-spamming software for each client that we use, but I am seeing more manual emails as well that get through. I am even seeing a lot of it through Twitter and Facebook now as well.
My thinking is that I am seeing more of these guys because of the rough economy we are all going through. I am sure business are desperate to improve the bottom line and increasing revenue through online sales/lead acquisition is definitely one way to do it. I bet many normal mom and pop shops are seeing these emails and are being enticed to do check into the spammers/scammers. I am here to say don’t fall for it!
Most of the time when an SEO company is approaching you as a cold lead it can lead to trouble down the road. About 99% of my work has come from companies approaching me from word of mouth or SERP (Search Engine Ranking Pages) on Google/Yahoo.
Here is an example of one of these emails that got through to me just this morning:
Your Name: Scammer
Email: scammer@gmail.com
Website: http://www.google.com
Message: Do you wish you could increase your online leads? Getting a GUARANTEED 1ST PAGE GOOGLE RANKING is easier and more cost-effective than you might think. We have helped a lot of businesses thrive in this market and we can help you! Simply hit reply and I’ll share with you the cost and the benefits. See you at the top!
I changed the name and email for privacy. He put in the address of his company as Google. Another red flag is if they don’t want you reviewing their websites or knowing where they work from, don’t even give them the time of day. Instead look for someone locally around you at SEO Consultants Directory. This is by far the most trusted directory of SEO consultants online.
The second big red flag is the word “GUARANTEED“. It is not possible to do this and if someone says they can don’t talk to them anymore. They are more interested in getting you to sign-up instead of working to your end goal of conversions/leads.
Once again I don’t want to get into how to pick an SEO company specifically as there are many resources out there that can help you with that. I just want to send another warning out to the people out there managing websites that may be struggling to hit targets at this point of the year. Don’t reach for the panic button and hire one of these SEO scammers and spammers as it will only make things worse.
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