In this video I investigate SEO Spam. Who’s sending it? You’d be surprised at the answer, I was! Watch as I show you the results of replying to those pesky SEO Spam Emails that we all get.
Transcript:
What happens when you reply to SEO Spam?
We all get it. Some of us, more than others. (screenshot of my email).
But have you ever wanted to reply to it? I’m the worlds most curious person, so of course I have, so I did.
I chose three emails at random and replied to them from my personal email address.
The first one was from a “Sydney based SEO Agency that provide 1st Page Google Results”. “Aussie SEO Experts” these guys sound professional. So I replied,
“hey,
I need SEO for my fathers small dental business in Berwick, Australia. This is my fathers site.
Can you let me know what you can do for me? My number is X but i’d rather you email me as I get lots of phone calls about seo so I wouldn’t know if it’s you who’s calling.
Thanks, Luke”
And quite quickly the reply came,
“Greetings Luke.
Thanks for your interested reply.
I am ‘Suraj Ghosh’ and I am Managing Director of ‘Best SEO Impressions’ company. A colleagues of mine ‘Sophia Morgan’ just forwarded your email to discuss about SEO of your father’s website.”
“Yours Sincerely,
Suraj Ghosh – Managing Director
Best SEO Impressions”
Oh, I thought it was Aussie SEO experts. Turned out “Sydney Based” was hyperbole as they meant New Delhi. A surprisingly common mistake!
I replied back letting them know I’m not interested because they’re clearly not sydney based.
So then I try someone else, and they never got back to me. So I kept searching and this one caught my eye.
“Imagine if your website created all the leads you wanted/needed?”
“an Australian based digital marketing agency”
“Jessica Anderson
Business Optimiser
Boost Your Business SEO”
I was sold, so I sent off the same email again. Believing I’d get the same spammer from overseas. And a day later I get a call while I’m in the office — mind you I did request not to be called — “Hi Luke it’s Ian from Boost Your Business”.
Where’s my Jessica Anderson i thought to myself? I quickly got him off the phone and he forwarded me this proposal.
I did consider blurring the business name once I found it was Australian, but then again, they have sent me like 10 emails promoting themselves, so I thought i’d help them out.
Unfortunately people fall into these scams all the time, businesses like “Boost Your Business” use these tactics because it’s hard to get clients for SEO. And it’s harder when you’re bad at it. So if you cast a net as wide as possible and spam everyone, eventually someone will bite.
It is however Illegal to send spam like this, under the Spam Act, that’s why both businesses that I had replied to, used a fake email address first, then once I replied, they revealed their real email address and business information.
I hope this gave you a quick look into the world of SEO spam and why people do it and why you keep receiving it. If you’ve got any questions about Digital Marketing, the good, the bad or the ugly then feel free to leave a quick message in the comments of this video!
Due to the nature of the transcript some differences may be present between this and the video.
