Dealing With Those Pesky SEO Spam Emails

By Hazel Burgess on 10.22.16   /   SEO   /   Leave a comment

This article is long overdue as the issue I’m about to discuss has become quite annoying.

This article is NOT intended to offend any specific company or India country as a whole. It’s directed to the individuals and companies who are sending us spammy emails and website form submissions regarding their products and services — you know who you are.

Last year our company received a moderate amount of this type of spam email — just one or two per week which automatically went into our spam folder; no big deal.

This year and especially in the past six months or so, we’ve been getting several of these per day. Our spam filters catches a few here and there, but for the most part they do end up in our inbox. They all come from different Gmail accounts, but essentially offer the same thing with the same format and usually from a non U.S. countries.

If you’re a business owner, you no doubt have received a spam message trying to sell you SEO or web design services. The SEO and web design industries have become so overly saturated that some individuals and companies have resorted to scamming unsuspecting website owners just to make a quick buck.

I’m referring to those can you outsource some SEO business to us and the your website is missing out on 300 visitors per day types of emails that are mainly sent by companies and individuals based in countries such as India and the Philippines. They are worse than just spam emails — they are scams.

And if you’re thinking that all you need do is just reply with “unsubscribe” and that will stop their unsolicited emails — it won’t. Not only does replying add legitimacy to their spam email in their mind, but nine times out of ten instead of them complying, they will actually reply to your reply offering you another service. Yes, this can quickly become a head banging experience, not to mention wasting your time as the recipient.

Additionally, even if you spam block each one, most of them are sent from Gmail, Yahoo and other free email providers that typically have email filters that are suppose to prevent outgoing emails like these, but the sender is probably sending a few hundred emails, not the many thousands it may require to trigger automated anti-spam filters. So as not to be banned from using those email provider services, the senders just set up new email accounts every day or so.

What I find so unscrupulous about these companies; aside from the obvious email being spam of course, is that they actually know they can’t deliver what they’re claiming. At least not legitimately…you know, so Google won’t blacklist your website.

Sadly though, some site owners have fallen prey to these scammers. And if the victim’s website doesn’t get blacklisted by Google due to the scammers’ unethical SEO practices, the victim soon discovers that their company’s online reputation has been diminished to something that resembles a disconnected drawing on an Etch A Sketch — connected to irrelevant keywords and content poor websites, etc.

Some of our clients have taken the time from their busy schedules to forward a few of those spam emails they have received to us and asked us questions. I want to thank those clients for their loyalty and trust in the work we do for them and for having the foresight not to be scared into taking action which is what some of these spammy emails are meant to do — scare site owners into taking action, wasting money on promises that they will never see a return.

Ok, let’s look at some examples of these spam emails and examine a few one by one.

Spammy Email Example 1

Issues:

• No company or website name.
• Unsolicited message from a Gmail account trying to sell traffic services. This should be an immediate red flag. Spammers often use generic Gmail or Yahoo accounts because it adds a layer of protection and anonymity making it difficult for any spam complaints to actually come back and harm their domain.
• Look at the P.S. line. How would emailing from a Gmail account then switching to a corporate one possibly be part of a sound marketing strategy?

Spammy Email Example 2

Issues:

• The grammar is not proper English.
• This email is all about guest posting which is actually a good thing for for website exposure. It can also be a bad thing if the article writer doesn’t know what he/she is doing and are using invalid tactics that are not acceptable by the search engines.

As the saying goes, knowledge is power.

Be more aware and conscientious about what the email subject line is, the email address, etc. BEFORE you open an email. Examples: gain organic traffic, increase your website traffic, first page Google, seo offer, or similar email subjects — you should just slide those emails right over into your spam folder without opening them.

You should know what you’re buying and who you’re buying it from before you sign any contracts or pay money. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So, if there’s no company info, website, etc., slide it over into the spam folder.

Quality SEO consultants don’t send out unsolicited emails because their work calendars are usually full.

If you are looking for an SEO consultant, don’t read any of the SEO spam emails you receive. They will definitely steer you in the wrong direction by offering risky tactics.

Instead ask around for referrals or even better, your web design agency is a great place to start. If they don’t have an SEO consultant on staff, they may indeed have connections with consultants or agencies that they may feel comfortable recommending.