I get a lot of marketing emails from SEO companies selling their services. I suppose I should really call them spammers since the emails are unsolicited but I feel a little harsh branding them with the same iron as offensive little worms that seem intent on literally breaking the internet.
The SEO guys must feel pretty desperate since WordPress makes it achingly easy to get picked up by Google in under 24 hours. I really do feel sorry for them. They are offering a service that simply isn’t needed anymore.
Selling SEO to WordPress bloggers is like selling Windows to Mac owners. It’s just not going to fly.
Here’s the latest email, quoted word for word including the grammatical errors but with changed names to spare their blushes, hustling for business, that arrived in my inbox today. Bear in mind that Upstart Blogger has a Google Page Rank of 7. I don’t want to brag, but my SEO mojo is pretty healthy. And not because of any tricks, just by blogging using an SEO friendly CMS, namely, WordPress.
Hello, my name is John Smith and I am an internet marketing specialist. I was looking at websites under the keyword need to make money and came across your website http://www.upstartblogger.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a need to make money search.
I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.
There’s no reason you can’t have a top three ranking for the keyword need to make money based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.
You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you’re interested I can help you with this…
I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for http://www.upstartblogger.com.
The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.
My partners and I own 1000′s websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.
I didn’t send this email out to very many people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your ‘keyword competitors’ as well. But I do favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted website traffic the keyword need to make money can deliver.
I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it’s risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.
Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?
That sounds to me like link farming. Google see that as spamming. The sort of thing that would be picked up by the Google robots as quick as a flash and potentially upset an already very stable apple cart.
And notice how he carefully mentions that he is approaching my so called competitors. That really made me smile.
Upstart Blogger doesn’t have any competitors. Thats not arrogance, it’s just the way I see things, I’m not in competition with anyone. I have friends and contemporaries online who run similar blogs but it’s not a competition. Some of them make ten times more than me and some of them make nothing but we don’t stay awake at night trying to figure out how to steal each others traffic. There’s plenty of traffic to go round. The world is a pretty big place. In this respect I see a close link between my blogging and music careers. I am not in competition with other musicians either. It’s just not the way it works.
The real irony here is that they are trying to sell SEO services via unsolicited email. Surely, if they had such dominance of the search engines at their fingertips they would not need to do any email marketing.
These guys need to find another business model, and fast. SEO is a dying art for the simple reason that there isn’t really an art to it anymore. If you want to get listed in Google and numerous other search engines then just start a WordPress blog and keep it updated with fresh content on a regular basis.
It’s that simple.
I wouldn’t have made it half way down that email without hitting delete, and your absolutely right, WordPress is the way to go. Period.
My new blog has been up for 2 weeks and we’re already indexed in all the major search engines, and getting trickles of commentators with very little social networking, and promo.
SEO isn’t dead, because it’s an art, it is simple not outsourced anymore. :)
I agree, SEO is a dying art. There are much better ways to get traffic i.e. actually having an audience who wants to check out your content. It just takes time, patience, and marketability- that’s something any ammount of black hating can’t get you.
-Jameson
Well, wordpress doesn’t include off-page SEO. Which is the most important thing (backlinks). Ofcourse you shouldn’t use these spam services to get more backlinks. Write quality content, and the links will come. (Or host a contest :))
Content is KING
100% right. Emails like that, with the obvious cut and paste surely can’t work, but I guess they must as these sort of emails dont seem to be slowing down so some poor people must be buying their services.
@ Ashley: loved the competition / music analogy – “its just not the way it works”. Spot on, and the same applies for most genuinely creative activity I suspect.
@Spence: you mentioned something that I’ve wondered about. “Surely these emails cant work, but I guess they do”. So by extension is all that internet breaking real spam still circulating because somebody somewhere is buying into it?! no, really? If I find out who it is I’ll be sure to put them in the picture. ;o)