An SEO writes...

Posted by Stewart Twynham on 9 April 2009

When a “senior search consultant” kindly wrote to one of our clients offering search engine help, I thought I’d investigate further. Even I was surprised at what I’d discover about this particular scam.

As Chris Tarrant would say – it’s only easy when you know the answer – and that’s certainly true of search engines. Many businesses lack a basic knowledge of search engines and SEO, and often go on to make otherwise commercially sound decisions that unintentionally make their products and services harder to find on Google.

Sadly, this vacuum also leaves them wide open to approach by the more unscrupulous search engine businesses – businesses which play upon the fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding SEO.

When one of our long-standing customers – voiceover artist Emma Clarke – was approached by yet another search engine “specialist” I decided I’d check things out. I soon found out more than I was bargaining for.

Unsolicited benevolence

It started with a simple e-mail:

My name is xxx xxx, senior search consultant at xxx. We are an Internet solutions agency based in the UK. I am writing to tell you that I recently visited your website, www.emmaclarke.com, during a routine survey of web sites which may be capable of higher search engine performance.

I took the liberty to do some research on your website, and uncovered some interesting points. This may interest you, since it appears that you are trying to gain new business through your website.

Someone who was carrying out a survey has spotted a problem in our client’s website and taken the time and effort to carry out some simple research which may help our client. How warm and friendly is that? How incredibly benevolent? The e-mail then goes on to say:

We are in the business of doing two things for your website:
1) Ranking your site to the top of the search results, and
2) Blowing your online revenue off the charts.

Of course, I’m immediately cynical at this point:

• It goes without saying that if a search engine specialist is so great at hitting “the top of the search results” and “blowing online revenue off the charts” – why exactly do they need to resort to an unsolicited e-mail to generate sales for their own business?
• They’ve played the benevolence card – that horrible sales technique which exploits the principle of ‘reciprocity’ – “I’ve done something for you, now it’s your turn to do something for me”. Our search engine consultant is no different to the people that jump out and clean your windscreen at traffic lights.

The “research”

The e-mail would be nothing without its research, and our SEO friend has certainly not done his:

After checking the search engines, I ran a back-link check on your site. Back-links are the number of times your site is linked through another website. Your website has 32 back-links, meaning low search results. Back-links also help build your site’s Google Pagerank score. Right now your site has a Google Pagerank score of 5/10, which is probably one of the main reasons why your site isn’t showing up in the first page of the search results.

Firstly, he claims that the site has only 32 inbound links. It’s an easy mistake for the uninitiated to make – Google used to have a tool which allowed you to check for inbound links, but three to four years ago they crippled the functionality of the tool in order to combat link fraud. Today, only site owners or developers can check for the true numbers of back links – in Emma’s case her site has, wait for it… 4,489 inbound links. A mere 14,000% out then!

These 4,489 inbound links are of good quality – including every newspaper and news website around the globe such as the BBC, explaining the Page Rank of 5 out of 10… which, of course, is actually very good.

Anyone with an ounce of SEO knowledge would be able to compare a Page Rank of 5 with just 32 inbound links and know instantly something was very wrong – sadly it turns out that our “senior search engine consultant” may be lacking in such knowledge.

Spam, spam, spam…

If Emma’s site was under-performing and couldn’t be found on leading search engines, it always begs the question how they then knew how to contact her in the first place?

I entered phrases from the e-mail into Google which revealed that this particular e-mail had been sent to countless other businesses – some of which were SEO companies themselves! The truth is – they simply bought a spammer’s mailing list.

The reason that the “research” in the e-mail is so bad is because they don’t do any – the spammer’s mailing list simply gets run against an automated script which does some very quick background checks (which turn out to be hopelessly inaccurate).

They don’t carry out research – or they wouldn’t be sending e-mails to their direct competitors – so they clearly don’t give two hoots about your business. They probably send millions of these e-mails out, playing on the fears of their victims, and hoping to catch a few people out.

Pot meets kettle

Eager to learn more I carried out some of my own research into this so-called specialist.

• The website given in the e-mail is just the front page to a spam site.
• Checking their details in the UK’s domain name registry, I eventually traced them to offices in the North of England.
• The company claims to have been in business for ten years, but according to Companies House they’ve only been in business since 2007 and have yet to file any statutory accounts.

Shockingly, the reason that they make their own website hard to find is simple – it only has a Page Rank of 4/10 – which is obviously less than Emma’s own site.

Some search engine experts they’re turning out to be!

“We’ll take the problem off your hands”

There is one final trick up the sleeve of these people – and it’s a compelling one. The e-mail explains how they’ll take the problem away from the client with just a simple monthly fee.

For most businesses, the thought of having SEO headaches taken away is an extremely attractive proposition. The reality, though, is that the business becomes more and more dependent on their SEO partner – and can lose control of their online activities. This can be a particularly bad thing if things go wrong – as one client found out recently.

At least 50% of online marketing doesn’t involve your website, or even search engines. When was the last time your business actually made the headlines? How often are you doing PR? When did you send out your last press release? What is your social networking strategy?

The most important part of an SEO strategy is the client – which is why we always put clients right at the centre of theirs. We provide training, coaching and support on all aspects of SEO – it’s not an art, it’s a science, and once you know the answers it can be surprisingly easy for anyone in charge of the company website.

Our clients not only know how search engines work, they also understand other critical components as well. For example, when was the last time your SEO company sat you down and explained to you how people actually search?

It might appear attractive to hand your website to someone else, but in our experience no-one will ever care more for your business than you do. If your SEO partner doesn’t involve you, it’s time to change your SEO partner. If you feel that you’re not prepared to get involved, then I would genuinely question your own commitment to, belief in, or basic understanding of SEO – something which must be addressed before you can make sensible decisions about an SEO strategy.

How to avoid getting scammed by rogue SEO companies

It’s a tough time for many businesses at the moment, so people are often tempted to grasp at anything that just makes things better. Resist the temptation to leap too soon and follow this simple advice:

• If you receive unsolicited offers of search engine help from businesses or individuals you don’t know, just bin or delete the offer. Search engine experts do not resort to spam to drum up business – they generate leads by successfully using…search engines!
• Any SEO company which offers “guarantees” is simply not telling you the truth about SEO.  “We’ll get you to the first page for Google” is easy, but very few people actually search for “dog food manufacturer upper high street Swindon uk”.
• Anyone offering to “take the SEO problem away” leaves your business dependent on that supplier indefinitely, and may ultimately cause damage to your business’s online reputation.  Remember that no-one cares more for your business than you…so it’s only right that you and your business should be at the very centre of any SEO campaign.
• 50% of search engine optimisation is nothing to do with either your website, or search engines.  Marketing and PR are essential, and very few SEO specialists can actually engage in these activities.
  

Update 16 April 2009: Emma’s written a blog about this herself, on her website, which also makes interesting reading.

Comments

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Labrow Marketing takes no responsibility for any comments below, as these do not necessarily represent our views.

On 10 April 2009, Bob Bradley said:

Hi Peter and co - just to reaffirm your thoughts really. In my experience running a reasonably large business myself, and making good progress in migrating from TV to Web, and in my experience working with SME Managing Directors in our MD2MD group, including one that has migrated very successfully from direct mail to Web (mainly SEO), there is a massive gap between the hype of the 'SEO gurus' and the reality of revenues and profits. It's not that Google and SEO aren't critical compenents of business success in today's market, but they have to be addressed in the context of the market, and on the basis of a real understanding of the customer and their thought process and behaviour. It is all very well offering to get someone to the top on Google for XZQUILENT, but how many people will be searching on that word. (Which by the way is made up so apologies for any similarity to any real business!) Bob Bradley Chairman MD2MD - Inspiring Managing Directors www.md2md.co.uk

On 10 April 2009, Claire Palmer said:

Great info Peter to be shared.

On 16 April 2009, Emma Clarke said:

Excellent blog, Stewart. And thanks for the uber thorough research! I've written my own blog about this on my site too: http://www.emmaclarke.com/blogs/2009/april/search-engine-optimization-'experts'--don't-make-me-laugh!