Deconstructing SEO Spam
It's a classic salutation from a search firm trying to snag business -- but it's also a tell-tale sign of SEO spam. Todd Mintz deconstructs his latest piece of unsolicited email in this article, taking shots at supposedly reputable SEO firms who blast poorly-targeted, misleading messages at Web site owners.
The company didn't use his name, clearly had no clue that the site they were referencing was for personal use (with no marketing or e-commerce aspirations), and alluded to their "proprietary" techniques and "closely held trade secrets" for driving traffic and delivering "more top rankings than anyone else."
Mintz adds that with a little detective work, he gleaned that the company didn't even have a physical presence -- just a UPS Store address that's coincidentally shared with a successful adult media enterprise.
A Webmaster who spends his day managing PPC campaigns might not even blink at this kind of spam. But for someone new to SEO or a site owner with plans to hire a search firm, following up on an email like this (which Mintz concedes "is probably the best written SEO spam" he'd ever received) could lead to lost dollars and negative results.
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