What does SEO email spam look like?
At Roadside Dental Marketing, our clients occasionally forward us these kinds of emails they've received. They are often curious about the legitimacy of both the sender and more importantly the claims that are made about their website. Here’s a quick example of an “SEO spam email” that was sent to one of our clients.
Dear {name removed}
My experts were analyzing your website and found that your website is not handling recent updates from search engines.
Also your traffic flow is poor from last couple of months due to some of the reasons. You might know about recent Google UPDATES like Phantom 3.0, Panda 4.2, and Penguin 4.0.
Google has completely dropped all authorship functionality from the search results and web master tools. So be careful on it and take the help of a SEO company to fix it.
Google wants its visitors to have the best possible experience and these factors play an important role in determining your rank in SERP:
Yikes.
This example is filled with a number of red flags that tell you this is a spam email. Some of them you might spot immediately; the poor English and numerous grammatical mistakes, for example.
Some are a little more subtle. For example, the “Google updates” that are referred to were updates that were launched by Google during 2013-2015. Since we are approaching 2020, I highly doubt these updates suddenly started affecting your website nearly 7 years later. Thus, this extremely vague and jargon-filled email is 100% spam.
Now, although most unsolicited SEO emails are spam and automated, some SEO emails are actually from legitimate companies or people who are trying to generate more business. Even though most people hate this approach, it does occasionally work. Otherwise, spammers wouldn’t be using it as a tactic.
Another popular email scam involves claiming your domain is close to expiring and needs to be renewed. This scare tactic email is usually sent with a PDF looking like this:
At first glance, this may look like a legitimate form. However, let's take a look at the fine print:
It's not until you read the fine print that you realize this is not even a renewal service for your domain. Meaning the accompanying email claiming to be a renewal service was a complete scam. With tactics like this, it's no wonder how busy people can easily be tricked and manipulated.
So how do you tell if an email is legit or not?
- For most of the competitive keywords or phrases you rank beyond 100.
- Your website is not ready for upcoming responsive design update.
- So many technical errors present on your website making it difficult to index.
- Lack of theme based quality back links.
How to spot SEO spam emails (all the red flags)
The easiest way to spot SEO spam is to know what to look for. So here is a quick list of the most popular red flags:Red Flag #1: Numerous punctuation or grammatical mistakes (a.k.a “typos”)
We have all made a grammatical mistake when sending an email. That is not what I am talking about. I am referring to the hardly legible emails so riddled with mistakes that it reads like a bad 4th-grade homework assignment.Red Flag #2: The sending email is unprofessional or from a free email service like Hotmail
This is a clear marker of spam emails. Even if they aren’t spam, you likely won’t want to work together. If they can’t take the time to send you an email from a professional, personalized email connected to an actual business website; then what does that say about the quality of work you can expect for your business?Red Flag #3: They don’t have their own website or it looks poorly designed
Again, even if they were a legit agency or firm, would you want to work with someone who claims to be an “online marketing expert” without an online presence themselves?Red Flag #4: They recommend purchasing backlinks or try to sell you backlinks
This goes directly against Google’s guidelines. If they are offering this right off the bat, then move them straight to the trash can. Not only is this bad practice, but it can also get your website negatively penalized Opens in a new window to an article from Google".Red Flag #5: They have no real phone number or no company name
Without a proper business name, address, phone number, or website, it’s extremely hard to know who you are paying and if they can be trusted. Delete.Red Flag #6: You receive an identical pitch from multiple people
These types of emails are being sent in the thousands every single day to practices just like yours. If you are getting emails that look exactly the same, it’s likely spam.Red Flag #7: They make vague claims or very specific promises
This one is a little harder to spot immediately but is one of the best ways to assess a sender’s legitimacy. Here are some all too common vague statements I’ve personally seen in the wild:Claims Made By SEO Spammers | What To Ask Yourself |
“Your website isn’t ranking very well for major keywords in your niche” | What specific keywords? Has your website ever ranked very well for those keywords? |
“Your website is experiencing serious SEO issues” | Did they specify any issues at all? What makes them so “serious”? |
“Your website’s backlink profile is not efficient enough” | What did they use to assess this? Do they offer any proof? What do they claim is ''efficient”? How are my competitor’s backlinks? |
“Google’s latest update is affecting your website” | Which one exactly? (Google makes numerous algorithm updates every single day.) |
“Your website is experiencing indexing or crawling issues” | What proof do they have? How were they able to assess this? |
“The website’s online reputation is rather poor” | Based on what analysis? Has your online presence been growing? |
- We can’t control Google, their algorithms, or who they decide to rank.
- We can’t control what your competitors decide to do.