The SEO Scare Tactic

Some follow up on this post about a client who switched SEO companies 45 days into the campaign because he received spam...

The new company removed the PowerAdvocates design credit and replaced it with their own. Kind of annoying since that's how website design companies get more work, but hey, we're not creating Rembrandts. I still have my portfolio. What was interesting was checking into the company that took over the SEO. I now have some understanding of what happened.

Within a couple of weeks of putting the new website in our portfolio, our client got spam through his website. I had noticed that several of my clients had been contacted by this SEO company and a few of them forwarded the emails to me. Most ignored them. I'm honestly surprised that any would even read them. My first thought was always, "Uh, familiar with spam? They tend to make really big promises and the sender usually has a weird name."

This particular spam that the client in question fell for was so bad, I'm still scratching my head how it worked. The spam had no phone number, just 000-000-0000. The email address given was a gmail account and there was no company listed. All that existed was the promise of high Google rankings in weeks using "white hat ethical practices", which leads me to why I am following up.

Apparently this company has a reputation for scanning competitor portfolios, contacting those clients and telling them that their current SEO company is using "black hat unethical practices" and that their website will get banned from Google and other search engines. Fortunately for the client, their practices are the opposite and they are there to save the day. This has become such a headache for some companies that they have to spend a fair amount of time hand holding their clients thanks to the scare sales tactics used by this company.

Folks, spam is spam. A simple Google search quickly revealed this company's reputation among other SEO companies. As with any business, get a recommendation from someone you trust.

I do envision a day when SEO will be a regulated industry. It's simply too vulnerable to exploitation by predators.