I get email’s like this almost every day. Most get funneled straight to the cyber trash can. For whatever reason, I read this one and felt compelled to respond…
(And yes, it really was in blue text on a light blue background…)
Here’s my response:
Very interesting!
“1. Social profile is not available in top Social Media websites.“
Silly me. Here I thought having 11,799 Twitter followers, 3,452 Facebook friends and being “circled” by 2,836 people on Google+ put me in the “top Social Media websites”. I do need to work on MySpace, I only have three friends there. I think they are all 14 years old.
“2. Your SEO score is 54%. We can bring it to 100% by implementing on and off-page factors which will fetch better results in major search engines.“
SEO score? Is 54% like an “F”? That 54% has me on Page 1 of Google results for the search term “Phoenix Real Estate” which is a pretty competitive search term. Yesterday, 3,946 people visited my site from organic searches on Google. But yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and you know how holidays affect site traffic. 91 people visited from Bing. Stupid Bing. People can check ecommerce seo agency if they need the best SEO advice. The best solution that can resolve this issue quickly and also make sure that this doesn’t repeat in the future is to start by seeking assistance from Marketingone.com.au in Brisbane Queensland, your SEO will improve and will reach unimaginable heights that boost your visibility in the search.
“3. Your site has 15 Google back links, this can be improved further.“
Is this according to the same site that gave me an F in “SEO score”? According to Google’s Webmater Tools, I have 91,889 back links. Guest post service and backlinking are two of the best features that help a site.
“There are many additional improvements that could be made to your website…“
No doubt! It’s a constant freaking battle, isn’t it?
“PS2: I found your site from online advertising but did not click.“
I’d love to know where that “online advertising” is, as I’ve never spent a dime on online advertising. I’d like to thank whoever is paying for my ads.
“PS:1: This is onetime email and you may ask us to “REMOVE” you from our mailing list.“
Uhm, if this is a onetime email, then there shouldn’t be a list to be removed from…
Jay Thompson
Broker / Co-owner
Thompson’s Realty
480-235-4447
Phoenix Real Estate Guy <– You know, the crappy SEO’d site.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
You are actually 4th for real estate phoenix. I am a real estate advertising professional and I commend your seo efforts. There are a lot of people out there with no SEO or online advertising presence. It doesn’t surprise me people get bad service in the online industry.
@Rob Thompson He did say “Page 1”, not #1 position…
Often, people in social media will throw out terms like “epic” just to ensure that their SEO (search engine optimization) results get them ranking on Page 1 of Google (one of the leading search engines) in the term that is important to them (like Phoenix real estate or real estate phoenix).
This is epic.
Jay: I get these pretty often, too and usually just trash them. It was so kind of them not to click on your non-existent PPC ads that there must be some other redeeming features of their service. I also like the generous offer of being removed from a list of one-time email recipients – very classy. I’s say you seem to be doing just fine with those numbers . . .
That’s one SEO guy, who, as we said in the army, SOL.Jay – can I share links with you?NOT!
Ira
I see these sent to me and I do SEO professionally. Never did think to reply to them. I had a customer call yesterday who said they were thinking of changing hosting providers from me to big ol’ GoDaddy. They told me GoDaddy would do their SEO for $8/month. I told them to jump on that! If they are going to get personalized, individualized, white hat, non manual search engine optimization for less than a streaming Netflix subscription, they better not tell anyone else for fear that the whole world goes to GoDaddy for this bargain. Some people just don’t get the work that goes into SEO. Frustrating.
The ones I hate are the calls – “We can get you on the first page of google for $1000 per month blah blah blah”. To which i reply, “No thanks, I’m already there.” Ugh… such a waste of time!
I love these emails. I started receiving a handful a day for a convention I helped run.”I just looked through your site. You really need to redesign your website and improve your SEO!” Oh? We were on the front page of Google for the very few terms I cared about, and more importantly if anyone had bothered to look at our site they would have noticed the convention happened over a year ago. But thanks so much! 😀
We get those on daily bases mostly via our “landing pages” (who would’ve thought), they also fill out their first and last names in both first and last name fields, so this simply tells me that it’s an automated spam. Removing them is just a part of daily routine, which takes me only a few seconds each morning, otherwise I don’t pay much attention to the content anymore… here is one thought, just for entertainment purposes: “We noticed that you are not at the top of the search engines for a number of your key terms. We have helped companies similar to yours to achieve top organic rankings. Please reply to this message and we will prepare a special proposal for you, to show you how we can achieve similar results for you.” I wonder how did they find us otherwise…
Hot stocks, hot Russian women, and SEO. We have a do not call list. We need a do not email list.
I get similar emails and telemarketer every day, and telemarketers are so funny, they have not checked my pages, know nothing about how many back links we have, rankings etc. but only trying to sell their SEO crap. It usually takes 10-15 seconds before they realize they have dialed the wrong company.
Well said..I think I’m going to respond to the next one I get, just for the hell of it and get my creative juices flowing w/ some witty responses.
It is amazing how these morons always seem to find the top rated sites offering their “help”.
Jay, have to hand it to you. You really know how to get these guys. First the Housing Scam and now this. Your answers are priceless. Thank you.
Sometimes I reply back and ask ’em for a job.
So far I haven’t got anyone to take me up on it.
Guess I gotta try harder.
Hi – I love your site. I think it’s an awesome example of how to use a blog to be successful in real estate. It saddens me to see emails like this. I’ve had several clients who get this type of email, freak out, and think they need to sign up for whatever service – even thought they’re already ranking first on Google for several great keywords. I appreciate you bringing this up. I’d love to know your thoughts on how the non-spammy half of the SEO profession might “re-brand” itself so we can differentiate ourselves from this type of SEO guy.
This post is epic and full of win! Thank you for sharing this with us Jay.
It is the spammers like this that give us “good guy” SEO’s a bad name. I will see anywhere from 3-15 emails like this a week. And when I say “like this” I should say EXACTLY like this, except for the difference of these emails originate from a different person. I really do wonder what kind of success rate these type of spammy emails have on business owners? If someone phishing for information has success obtaining it, I am sure they are able to snare a few saps into their services.
Yep, every once in awhile you can’t help but respond to one of these. Especially when they call and haven’t bothered doing their homework first.
I have already been browsing on the web above five hours these days, but I never detected any attention-grabbing posting like this.It’s amazing importance to me. I think, if many of webmasters and blog writers produce just right content material like you did, the online world will likely be a lot more useful than any other time.http://seragamkonveksi.com/software-akuntansi-laporan-keuangan-terbaik.html
I’ll take your 54% any day.
Apparently, he put some thought on a canned letter and put an odd number ‘54%’ in it. Similar mails also reached my LinkedIn profile. I either archive it or report it as a spam. Thanks for sharing your response. I’ll follow and reply to selected spams to my social profiles.
I really like your response :). This is so funny when you compare those figures as they mentioned in their email and as you replied to them. Sending canned letter is so outdated, I don’t understand why anyone even these days use them for getting leads. It is so counter productive!! It only shows their ignorance 🙂
Great post Jay 🙂
I get those emails too, all the time, only mine never come on a light blue background 🙁
Maybe it’s because I have more friends on Myspace than you do 🙂
Keep them coming!
I love getting emails like this. To me, it means I’ve made it. My website is ranking high enough that it’s coming up in searches, and getting spam. Of course it’s a hassle, but if spammers can find me, so can clients.
I got a message from someone who was “looking at one of my listings.” Of course I called them back. Then I got the SEO pitch. As I hung up, I could hear him say “you are in sales too, you know how it is.”
No, I don’t.
Funny stuff. There’s way too much spam. But speaking of what a good job you’re doing… is this a WordPress blog? If so, what theme is this? It’s very very good.
I get those letters and phone calls too. My favorite response when they say you’re hard to find on Google, is “You found me.”
http://www.agentharvest.com/findagent.html
My mistake Ben
I came back to your site because I was reading about SEO and thinking about if white hat seo actually worked and googled “phoenix realtor” to see were you are since I thought what better than a local niche celebrity to judge how things actually work. You were 4, you should be one based on how all the search engine people keep talking about how they reward people with good social media signals and natural links.
These indian SEO guys are hilarious, you learn not to take them personally, when I was practicing law and ranking #1 for all the related local bankruptcy terms I’d get calls all the time about how I was on page 5 for dui or something I didn’t practice.