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SEO “Experts” Spamming You? 3 Steps To Avoid The SEO Hook

SEO. Google Rank. Mobile Friendly. Search results. These are all phrases that many companies claiming provide professional SEO services will throw at you to make you think twice about how effective your website is to your business. While all of these certainly have importance, these terms are often abused by these so-called “SEO Experts” to scare you into taking unnecessary action.

Download The SEO Solution: A Complete SEO Checklist for Beginners

Let’s really look into what these SEO expert emails are all about and debunk them. More importantly, we’ll review some tools that you can use to truly judge your website’s performance in the SEO world. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to react properly when shady SEO companies tell you you’re not ranking well on Google.

Step #1: Don’t Panic and Don’t Be Fooled

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Here are some common SEO scare tactic phrases you may have seen:

  • You website is not being found by customers!
  • You website is not in compliance with a Google algorithm!
  • Your website ranked  22% or “poor” in our website blah blah blah checker thingy!
  • Your website titles and content are incorrect!

But... these solicitors always have good news:

  • We can guarantee you the #1 search ranking on all Google!
  • We can get you on the first page of results!
  • In only 3 months, you will beat out your competitors!
  • Sign up for our complete SEO analysis of your website to get you on the right track!

Some SEO spam emails are easy to spot:
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But some are a bit more subtle...
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No matter what kind of SEO solicitation you receive, don’t respond to the email right away. There are a few steps to take that will provide you with more accurate information and hopefully put your mind at ease.

Step #2: Look into the Sender

When someone tells you an outlandish story or statistic, your first response is “who told you that” or “who’s your source?” If you are interested or concerned by the solicitation, you should first investigate the sender of the email.

Here’s what to look for:

  • Does the sender have a legitimate email address including the company name?
    • brianwilson@seocompany.com - legit
    • grc1337@yahoo.com - not so legit because it appears to be a personal email, not a company email
  • Does the email have a signature at the bottom with a company name, location, phone number, and company website link.

If the answers to the above is yes, now look at the company. Check out their website, and see if their company looks to be a serious marketing, web, or SEO company.
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Here’s what to look for on the company website:

  • A specific list of services - not just empty promises of your results. What do they actually do to improve your SEO?
  • Case Studies - do they have testimonials or proof that their services work?
  • Do they have a company team page? It’s good to know you’re working with humans and have the option to learn a bit about their credentials.
  • Does the company provide services other than SEO? The real magic behind search engine optimization is having a well-rounded digital presence. Do they provide other digital services and/or marketing? Do they have products or software available?

If you feel that the company that sent the email appears to be legitimate and professional, great! But you’re not done yet. Even a legitimate company can send sales emails without having accurately analyzed your website status.

Step #3: Dig a little into your own website

If these emails have you scared that your website is not ranking on Google, or that it’s not properly optimized, there are tools you can use to find out!
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Google Mobile Checker
Yes, having a website that Google considers to be mobile friendly is a must. SEO spam emails will often tell you that your website is not mobile friendly. Why take their word for it? Check it out yourself with Google’s Mobile Friendly Checker. All you have to do is type in your website address (URL) and you will know in seconds if your website is mobile friendly.

Hubspot Marketing Grader
SEO salespeople will try to scare you into thinking your website is performing poorly. They do this by revealing a low score on THEIR performance grader. Who knows how they got to this number? Before you respond, check out your website’s performance on the Hubspot Marketing Grader. This is a nationwide performance test that is unbiased and used by hundreds of corporations. You don’t need an account. Just type in your website URL, and you will immediately receive a summary on your website’s performance mobile status, SEO, and security.

SEO Moz Rank Checker
When an SEO email says you’re not ranking well for your services, it’s easy to believe them. They could be right. Or they could be wrong. Do yourself a favor and check out your own rankings first.

The SEO Moz Rank Checker will provide you with your current ranking standards, as well as recommended keywords to use based on industry research. You can even check on where your competition is ranking. SEO Moz does require you to set up an account - but you can start a 30 day trial for free! We highly recommend this to get a baseline of where your site is ranking.

AHA…..it was just spam

Once you do a little research into the email sender and dig into your website performance, you will be able to determine if the SEO email is a crock. You’ll feel a lot better about dragging that email into the trash bin.  

Do you feel that your website could use an SEO-lift, but you don’t want to take the risk with an “SEO expert?” No problem! Check out our FREE SEO checklist that will help guide you through the process of  optimizing your website content. It’s yours! No empty promises or faulty methods necessary.

Download the Complete SEO Checklist for Beginners

Take the guesswork out of SEO

This checklist includes tips, resources, and a checklist for designing a keyword strategy, improving your meta titles and descriptions, and working with on-page optimization. It is designed to get your blog and web content further up on the search engine results food chain!

Download Your Checklist