I am constantly flooded with SEO spam emails. For the most part these flow directly into my junk email folder and they are deleted in mass.

I honestly didn’t think much about them until I ran into cases where real people would fall for these scams. Yes they are in fact scams. I use the word scam because they can cause just as much havoc as the Nigerian prince who wants to give you his million dollar inheritance.

Replying to these emails will not only suck up your time, they will hurt your ranking in search and could potentially get you removed from the index all together.

These spammy emails offer promises of great returns. Sadly the dangers of falling for these offers of quick traffic for virtually no money are just as great.

Let’s explore some examples of these spam emails and review a few one by one.

Examples of Classic SEO Spam Emails

Spammy Email Example 1

Issues:

• Any SEO consultant who quotes you a blanket rate without any knowledge of your business, industry, competitors, geographical reach, website, or content are suspect. SEO isn’t universal across all websites and you cannot optimize all websites within the same amount of time.
• The amount of $99 is extremely low and well below industry standard. A quality SEO consultant charges between $150 – $300 per hour. In this email they promise to do all of my SEO work for an entire month at a low rate of $99.

Spammy Email Example 2

Issues:

• This email throws out a lot of acronyms and technical speak. While it is designed to impress, it should highlight the fact that the company is trying to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. It should serve as a red flag.
• Reread the sentence after the numbered list of expertise. The grammar is not proper English and it very chopped up and does not make a whole lot of sense. Good SEO depends on quality content. If that is the case, how could you possibly hire a company with poor writing to manage your website content?

Spammy Email Example 3

Issues:

• This is similar to the above emails of poor grammar.
• This email is entirely focused on guest posting, which can offer some great exposure. Unfortunately, it can also lead you into big trouble. If you’re hiring someone to assist with guest blog posting, you have to make sure he absolutely knows what he is doing and you’ll need to validate that his tactics are considered acceptable by search engines.

Spammy Email Example 4

Issues:

• Similar to the above examples, very poorly written and well below market rates.
• The other issue is you have absolutely no idea what type of SEO work will be performed. A quality SEO consultant will openly tell you what they will do, how it will be done, and what you need to do to support those efforts.

Spammy Email Example 5

Issues:

• Similar to the above example, this email is entirely focused on guest posting.
• Similar to the examples above, the grammar is below grade and not of high enough quality for SEO.
• The reference to spam in the footer is humorous. This email is entirely spam from start to finish.

SEO is Buyer Beware

Like many other things is life, SEO is buyer beware. Before you open up and reply to any of those SEO spam emails, remember this:

You have to know what you are buying and who you are buying it from before you sign any contracts or hand over any money.

Quality SEO consultants have enough work to keep them busy. They do not send out unsolicited emails offering services at extremely low rates. They don’t have to do so, because their work calendars are already full.

If you are looking for an SEO consultant, first don’t read any of these SEO spam emails. They are a recipe for disaster.

Instead ask around for a referral or even better, visit Google and search for an SEO consultant. Look for phrases like SEO expert, SEO consulting, etc. to locate a professional who can truly help.

If you’d like to perform your own SEO, consider taking my SEO course. I’ll walk you through my SEO process from start to finish and educate you so you can liberate yourself from external SEO consultants.