SEO Spam Emails What To Look For

Now if you haven’t started getting any of these Unsolicited SEO spam emails offering top keyword rankings, then don’t bother starting now 🙂

It seems there are tons of different people and companies out there these days offering these SEO Services in your inbox.  Many of my clients contact me daily and say what is this?  Should I call them?  Why are they saying my site can’t be found in the search engines? and much more…

What I find more often then not, is that the only reason they are even emailing you is because you are already doing okay in the search engine ranking or on the verge of moving up in placements.

Here is an example of what some of those spam emails look like.  This is edited slightly not reveal the offender that sent me spam (after-all, we need to protect the rights of the guilty these days).

From: Debra Dontost [mailto:tdebradontostnow@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 3:47 PM
To: Search Engines Etc.
Subject: Your Website

I’ve taken a look at your website and where it currently ranks for your business keywords. To get to that first page of Google there are a few changes that will need to be made to the code of your site and more importantly, you need higher quality backlinks.

I am a US based SEO consultant with years of experience and would love to call you over the next few days. Is that acceptable and what’s the best number/method of contact?

Thank you for your time,

Debra Dontost – SEOrank Consultant
219 Street Name, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Affordable SEO Servcies

Now when I refer to these emails as spam emails, I am merely categorizing all unsolicited SEO emails as spam.  Some my be from legitimate companies and some may not.  I actually tried to contact a few of these companies before and never even received a response back.  Which then made me wonder why these companies even bother sending these emails in the first place???

So after getting hundreds if not thousands of these through the years to my personal accounts and clients accounts, I have developed a checklist to help you understand and identify these spam SEO emails better and if you should just hit the delete button or possibly look into it more.  For starters, I consider any unsolicited email spam.  Therefore, I generally won’t give the time-of-day to any of these emails.  So this formula could apply to other emails as well.

If any of the following rules apply, I general hit delete:

1. If they don’t include a phone number – SPAM!
2. If they don’t include a signature line – SPAM!
3. If they don’t include their website and a link to it -SPAM!
4. If they don’t address you or your website by name – SPAM!
5. If it looks like a text generic plain email – SPAM!
6. If they tell you how bad your rankings are (especially if you know you have good rankings) – SPAM!
7. If they don’t mention the keywords that they claim you don’t rank for – SPAM!
8. Promoting Backlinks (Generally Spam) – SPAM! *Note backlinks are needed and are extremely helpful, however there are so many spammy “Black Hat” companies developing backlinks these days that any mention of it sets off a red flag for me.  Read More about Backlinks.
9. If they use words and terms you don’t understand – SPAM!
10. If the grammar, spelling, and/or punctuation is incorrect – SPAM!
11. If they say you are not ranking well, then they need to be specific about what term they were referring to.  In other words, if you have a tire shop and you don’t rank well for airline tickets 🙂
12. If they promise the first page Rankings.  This can be done, but most reputable firms don’t normally promise the first page organically unless it is a really easy low competitive term.  For example:  It will be much easier to rank of the first page for the search term “Music Schools in Little Town, TX” as apposed to the term “Music”.  Top ranking can be achieved on all terms, but the harder the term, the bigger the $$$$$.

I will be covering the more later so check back for updates.  In the meantime keep in mind that there are plenty of reputable SEO firms out there just look them up and call them if you need search engine or Internet marketing work, consulting, or services.  Or you can always contact us 🙂

Thanks