SEO Snake Oil Salesmen
I've been meaning to post this story for a while, but kept forgetting. It's the true story of a humble SEO consultant called Leann who uses white-hat techniques and runs a professional SEO business in the U.S. for small to medium business clients.
One day, Leann had a call from a client whom she's had for 3 years. It seemed this client had in turn received a call from a snake oil salesman claiming to be an "SEO expert" who told them that their website was "about to be banned in Google". When the client asked for more information, the seo snake oil sales guy told them that their site was "on a list to be banned due to link farm abuse". Now this rang some warning bells for the client because they knew that Leann was VERY careful about building links for the client and never used any Free For All or link farm techniques. Mr Snakeoil sent the client a link to a low quality links page where their site was listed (which Leann had never even heard of!).
The client asked if the caller worked for Google and he said no, but that he was certain the site was about to be banned and didn't want to see that happen. The client started to become concerned and so asked the salesman to contact their web developer and seo (Leann) directly to discuss the issue. The salesman refused, claiming that the client's web developer was the one causing the issue, did not have the client's best interests at heart and would not want to hear from him. Luckily, Leann's client became very suspicious at this point and simply ended the call quickly, forwarding the snake oil salesman's details on to Leann.
Not to be outdone, the salesman later emailed Leann's client citing the removal of BMW.de from Google's index as some sort of "proof" his claims were legitimate. When the client politely declined his services, Mr Snakeoil turned nasty, saying he was going to report the client to Google for link farming:
Be warned! These type of scammers use fear, threats and bribery to get your attention. Don't be fooled. You can read the whole sorry saga from Leann's perspective here.
One day, Leann had a call from a client whom she's had for 3 years. It seemed this client had in turn received a call from a snake oil salesman claiming to be an "SEO expert" who told them that their website was "about to be banned in Google". When the client asked for more information, the seo snake oil sales guy told them that their site was "on a list to be banned due to link farm abuse". Now this rang some warning bells for the client because they knew that Leann was VERY careful about building links for the client and never used any Free For All or link farm techniques. Mr Snakeoil sent the client a link to a low quality links page where their site was listed (which Leann had never even heard of!).
The client asked if the caller worked for Google and he said no, but that he was certain the site was about to be banned and didn't want to see that happen. The client started to become concerned and so asked the salesman to contact their web developer and seo (Leann) directly to discuss the issue. The salesman refused, claiming that the client's web developer was the one causing the issue, did not have the client's best interests at heart and would not want to hear from him. Luckily, Leann's client became very suspicious at this point and simply ended the call quickly, forwarding the snake oil salesman's details on to Leann.
Not to be outdone, the salesman later emailed Leann's client citing the removal of BMW.de from Google's index as some sort of "proof" his claims were legitimate. When the client politely declined his services, Mr Snakeoil turned nasty, saying he was going to report the client to Google for link farming:
"I make sure to report you to Google for link farming. I’m sorry. Your website will be banned and you will not be able to be found on Google not even with your company name".At this point, Leann's client had had enough and decided to ask Mr Snakeoil some specific questions about his service that any professional web developer or SEO could answer. He refused to answer, instead saying "Pay Me". Luckily the client wasn't fooled and alerted Leann to this guy's approach.
Be warned! These type of scammers use fear, threats and bribery to get your attention. Don't be fooled. You can read the whole sorry saga from Leann's perspective here.
Labels: search engine spam
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