Spam SEO Offers – Don’t Become a Victim

8 July 2019 | | Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation

Poaching in the Industry

If you’re involved in the marketing and/or management of a business, you would have most likely received an email regarding “We can rank you position 1 on Google”. The most suitable term for these people would be “Poachers” – They essentially send out mass emails to a list targeting businesses with websites, social media, and Ad campaigns.

The offer may appear appealing at the beginning, anyone with a website has the goal of reaching the top rank, it’s the money spot. Due to this there are businesses that jump on the proposed offers, and will end up extremely disappointed once locked into a rolling contract.

The process often works like this:

1) Send out a mass email with a lucrative sounding offer, enticing businesses to agree on receiving an initial audit report.

2) The poachers will use any free SEO auditing tool to crawl the website and nit-pick any “issues” that appear. They will then list on the report any minor issues that are picked up from the audit and exaggerate to the business creating worry. As they are not an Online Marketer they know no better and their main concern is dealing with the “issues” presented to them.

3) Once a sense of concern is presented by the business, a poacher will then bombard them with technical jargon and more reports highlighting exaggerated issues. Due to this they may agree to go with the SEO services offered and move the control over.

4) Often the agreed offer is a 3, 6, or 12 month contract, locking them into a large payment. Once the contract is signed and agreed the actual service the business receives is of poor quality and the points raised are not worked on. The poacher may use black hat techniques (A term for SEO methods outside of Google guidelines) to bring in traffic, fulfilling the “improvement” on the reports. This traffic will more often than not be fake clicks to present the sense of a job well done.

5) After the contract is over, if the business wishes to renew then the same service will be provided, never actually improving the ROI as the statistics are faked. If they cancel then the transfer process can be disorganised and damaging to the site. Due to the black hat techniques worked on, there is a high chance of receiving a Google penalty.

This scenario is one of the worst cases, but it is so common in the industry. There is much more to SEO than ranking page one and I would advise anyone considering SEO to research and trust the supplier before agreeing to any form of contract. If you believe you have been victim to a poacher then please feel free to get in touch on 01202 677 277 to discuss your website and SEO, we would be more than happy to help.

More posts from our team


Previous Post:
Next Post:

Back to all news

Reviews2024
Five Star
Reviewed Marketing
5 gold stars
google review logofacebook review with 5 stars
"Excellent service from James at Dental Design, thank you very much for your prompt attention whenever I get in touch! Would definitely recommend to a friend" Alison Tarmey View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Would definitely recommend to a friend"
5 gold stars
"As a dental practice manager I cannot recommend Dental Design highly enough. They are just brilliant at what they do. Lucy and her colleagues are just an email or a phone call away...." Emma Smith View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "I cannot recommend Dental Design highly enough"
5 gold stars
"Really great company to deal with. They always respond quickly and are truly reliable. I would 100% recommend, the staff are so friendly and helpful." Michelle Molloy View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Really great company to deal with"
5 gold stars
"I got increased traffic and new patients applying to my surgery, once Dental Design upgraded my website. They are very professional, efficient & adaptive to new situations..." Joanna Gallop View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Very professional, efficient & adaptive to new situations"
5 gold stars
"Lucy has been a star, responding to and acting upon our requests in a prompt, efficient and professional manner, as well as the rest of the Dental Design team..." Abhay Shah View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "I cannot recommend them highly enough"
5 gold stars
"...Since the website has been up and running Lucy Mander has been our point of contact. She has been invaluable and gone out of her way to help us, especially during COVID-19 lockdown... " Lucy Jones View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Has been invaluable and gone out of her way to help us"
5 gold stars
"Thank you for all your help and support, and the provision of valuable learning aids for our patients and staff alike in these difficult times. We love the look of our practice website. Very professional!" Sandra Luck View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "We love the look of our practice website. Very professional!"
5 gold stars
"Dental Design stood out both in their knowledge of the industry and their professionalism and can-do attitude. All of their staff are exceptionally competent and knowledgeable..." Harvey Rook View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Dental Design stood out both in their knowledge of the industry and their professionalism"
5 gold stars
"Having done extensive research into all the dental website companies, the team and package offered at dental design was unrivalled..." Neil Shah View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "The team and package offered at dental design was unrivalled"
5 gold stars
"The team at dental design (especially Rosie) are absolutely fantastic and are always on hand to help. They are professional, friendly and extremely efficient. Rosie always gets back..." KiKi Wilmot View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "absolutely fantastic and are always on hand to help"
5 gold stars
"Dental Design are fantastic to work with, our website is amazing and the support they provide is second to none. Our account manager Rosie L is a fabulous point..." Luke Lucas View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Dental Design are fantastic to work with"
5 gold stars
"Having worked with the Dental Design team for the last six months, I've found them not only helpful, but friendly and approachable too. I bombard Marcus with regular..." Sophie Harper View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "always met with a swift and professional response"
5 gold stars
desk with branded documents