In 1996 I published an article about SEO rip-offs, where I exposed the ways in which they commit fraud. I wrote it because the company I worked for signed up for services that I needed to re-do myself and repair the damage from.

While I received death threats and angry emails for exposing those people, (I never mentioned any names, just practices), I have no problem calling out those who give search engine optimization and marketing a bad reputation by continuing the practices of con artistry, Internet fraud, spam and least of which, a complete lack of integrity and responsibility.

This is one example, from today’s email In-box:

Hello

How are you? We hope you are doing fine.We would like to forward you our proposal for outsourcing SEO Services at competitive rates.We have been able to offer Seo Services to clients residing every corner of the world. Our Seo services are filtered through the minds of experts, who work with in deadline and are dedicated to uphold your online existence at any cost.

Hello back to you

How is it you knew my name when you emailed me, but miraculously forgot it when greeting me in your unsolicited “proposal for outsourcing SEO Services”? Not that I need your help or anything, since had you bothered to check, I’ve been doing SEO since 1996.

When presenting a proposal, it is recommended to provide proof of any claims of your “expert” help and staff. Just exactly who are your experts and why would they need your help by spamming for new business?

We specialize in.

* Link Building
* Directory Submissions
* Paid Directory Listing
* Blog Advertising Services
* Forum Posting
* Social Bookmaking Services
* Article Writing and Distribution
* Press Release Distribution
* PPC Management
* Social Media Optimization
* SEO Content Writing

Not to mention email spam and totally off-the-mark targeted marketing. Did you bother to check with the planet Neptune?

This ought to be enlightening.

Why to choose us

* 10 Year experience in Search Marketing Industry
* Big World Class Infrastructure with more than 100 staff members
* Sign-up the NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreement).
* White label for client re-selling and re branding.
* Timely and smooth communication etc.
* Frequent reporting with all required format and information.
* Ethical process and white hat technique only

“Why to choose”?  Great writing skills there.  And you’re spamming me because…what. A little bit of tooting your own horn to a search engine marketing speaker is going to get you some magical fairy dust?

Above all we offer best competitive prices :-
Manual Directory Submission

100 Directories Submission 15 USD
300 Directories Submission 35 USD
500 Directories Submission 50 USD
1000 Directories Submission 100 USD
1600 Directories Submission 125 USD
2000 Directories Submission 200 USD
2500 Directories Submission 250 USD
3000 Directories Submission 300 USD
4000 Directories Submission 400 USD
5200 Directories Submission 490 USD

Oh my freaking god! You’re taking money to link drop! Now I get it. So your classy company steals money from people who have no clue and this is what your “experts” call search engine optimization?

And, for the low low price of just $400,you can “guarantee” their listing in 100 directories. (Or for $90 more you can wing it to 5200 submissions and pray on your uncle’s grave.)

Blog Directory Submission

50 Blog Directory Submission 15usd
100 Blog directory submission 25usd

ARE YOU ON FARKING DRUGS? Which directories? What do you do when a blog or directory asks for a submission fee?

Does your client get to see the list? Can they choose where you put their site? What is the purpose of blog and directory submissions?

It wouldn’t be for link dropping would it? Wouldn’t be because someone fed you stories about page rank scores?

Okay.  Here comes the last nail ….

Forum Posting Services

Package I
10 Forums, 75 New Posts and 10 New Threads
45 USD

Package II
15 Forums, 150 New Posts and 40 New Threads
95 USD

Package III
30 Forums, 400 New Posts and 80 New Threads
200 USD

ARE YOU SERIOUS? You spammed a forums owner with this bit of baloney?

Every freaking day we submit new member criteria into a our own anti-spam system, (Including weekends, holidays, vacation…), because we are there to educate, discuss, advise, review sites and problem solve.  A Community does not thrive or grow on 1-liner posts and link drops.

We don’t let in anyone with a history of forum posts consisting of just profiles, link drops or one-liners. We check IP, email and domain history because, and I bet your pretty little heads didn’t know this, there are ways to track and block you freaking idiots!

Do you have a clue about “no follow” and forums like mine that “scramble” outgoing URLS inside profiles and posts?

Paid to spam forums….you should be put in jail. Clearly you have no integrity, nor do you have any freaking idea how much time and money a reputable forums’ staff puts into making their forums spammer free. Your clients pay TO NOT ENGAGE IN DISCUSSION, LINK DROP and POST IN THE NAME OF SOMEONE ELSE. (Which, by the way, impersonating someone is against the rules in some forums.) This means you take your clients money, your stupid posts get tossed out, they get banned and your client never has any idea why and you have their money. How so freaking clever of you!)

But, wait there’s more!

Article Submissions

* Our article submission services are manual.
* We will create Your separate account on each article directory with your Email account
* We will handover the control of author account on each articles directory at the time of completion of article submit job
* We will use three to four different anchor text in links on different directories to give you natural linking
* We will submit you the daily report of submission
* Our article acceptance rate is more than 50%
* We provide a list of sites where your article is published in a two week time

Packages :-
Submission to 50 Article Directories 20USD
Submission to 100 Article Directories 30USD
Manual Submission to 200 Article Directories 50USD
Manual Submission to 300 Article Directories 70USD

Lemme tell you what’s “manual”! ##$$%^^@@@^&*

Let’s back up to the part where you claim you have “experts”. You get a 50% article acceptance rate. So for a minimum of $20, you write an article for me (on what topic?), submit it to 50 article directories (less than $1 per submit) and there is maybe a 50/50 chance it is accepted.

You sent this “proposal” to a blog  writer, web site columnist and magazine writer?  Dumb Ass Move!

Do your expert article writers know how to write?  Of the 300 article directories, how many are in the language your client uses? How many cover your client’s web site topic? Who is the author, you or the client?

Guaranteed Directory Listing:-
* 100% static links
* One-way theme based listings
* All website directories will be search engine friendly and regularly indexed.
* You can use different anchor text and descriptions for listings
* Complete report with exact listing location will be given for your records.

50 listings 225USD
100 listings 400USD

Which should I go with. $500 for a MAYBE listing acceptance or $400 for GUARANTEED?

See above – “5200 Directories Submission 490 USD ”

Link marketing and article writing are a precise process. True experts never, ever take risks with client web site property.

We follow quality guidelines to ensure that you not only get full value for your investments in a link building campaign but also secure your investments for a long term. We never take short cuts, use automated tools or questionable tactics. We work smart, creatively and treat every site as if it were our own. Please feel free to revert back to me for more details or queries you might have regarding our services.

We are looking forward starting a long and healthy business relationship with you.

With best regards
Diana

Dear Dirty Diana from the software company that spammed me today,

Your SEO services are a fraud. One search provided me a little bit of luscious information.

Your site is not listed in DMOZ
It’s value is the grand total of $2056.00
Daily ad revenue is under $3
Google indexed 42 of your site’s pages, while Bing and Yahoo! have no idea who you are.
Your site age is 2 years old.

I discovered the spammy directories you submitted your site to within the past few weeks.

Your SEO services page is tucked away in the third level of your website. It consists of a 1/4 page of content that makes claims but has no backup, no proof of expertise, no pricing, and says, “the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources”

What?   Those gosh darned search engines sure have the power, eh?

It’s safe to say you’re doing whatever you can to help them

suck.

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My Response to an UnSolicited Letter from Yet Another SEO Rip-Off

I’m always looking for talented new people because I’m asked for referrals or people to implement recommendations from the site audits I do. It’s extremely rare to find multi-skilled folks or else they’re happily employed by some lucky companies.

A. I’m looking for web site designers who can demonstrate expertise in combination user experience and search engine optimized web page design. This means they understand that the two practices work together and their clients know they are getting usable, crawlable web sites. For me and some of my business partners to recommend you, I will need to see the user interface and source code, plus search engine results for the site.

You must be able to work with a team, be extremely professional, affordable and flexible with pay and time.

B. Hungry? Are you an SEO, social media fanatic, web developer or web designer with a few years experience who wants to ramp up your work load? Need a reputation boost? Do you have some time?

Cre8asiteforums as been around since 1998. We have been staffed by some of the biggest names in the SEO/M industries over the years and still are. I’ve learned over the years that persons chosen to be forums moderators eventually find a huge pay off from their time volunteering by experiencing a gigantic boost to their own businesses. We like to choose new moderators from the membership and will continue to do so. If you’ve ever wanted a way to make a name for yourself, a great way is by helping and teaching people what you know. Start discussions. Do web site reviews. Do you have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of folks like Jill Whalen, Rand Fishkin, Ammon Johns, Bryan Eisenberg, Dazzlin’ Donna…to name a faint few who have staffed Cre8asiteforums ?

To be considered as a moderator/staffer, you must first join the forums. Then, we look for:

Well written posts
Skilled advice and help
Generous personality
Open minded (critical)
Never self promotional
A “good fit” with the present Cre8tive Family
Dedicated to the growth of the Cre8tive Community and industries we serve

We want to meet and get to know you. And, in return, you may find that your involvement gives your own career a healthy boost.

Please use information on the contact page to ask me any questions or send me information. Thanks!

Economy blues? It's not too late to increase your web site conversions with Kim's affordable usability audits. Get the answers you need NOW!

Looking for Talented, Driven Folks (Web Design/Marketing/Search)

I love to write for the Just Behave usability and seo column at Search Engine Land. Every month we have a deadline and each time I hit a brick wall with no idea what to write about. And then…the stuff just comes.

Today’s article is called It’s A Fatal Mistake To Copy Successful Web Sites, I relate a true experience. During the Q & A part of a session at a search marketing conference in which I spoke, someone asked why we don’t all just copy Amazon’s web site. I spoke into the microphone with a definite, “Never, ever copy Amazon.” The audience gasped with surprise.

Although I had a quick moment to clarify my statement, I didn’t have the opportunity to clearly outline what I meant or why my statement could be helpful to audience members. The article I wrote for Search Engine Land goes into that detail and makes many points you may not have considered before.

When someone says they will make your website easier to use, ask them what mental model they are referring to. Are they going to make it easier for search engines to crawl and rank it? This is a searcher mental model and one an SEO is more likely to be focused on. An information architect wants to know the mental model of your target users. What are your customer needs? What types of behaviors can you expect from them? Many websites have different user paths on one website.

The other article I wrote a few weeks back is a personal favorite. It, too, is based on real situations. It’s called The Algorithm Chasers

Algorithm chasers rely on analytical tools to help understand searcher behavior. They are equipped with keyword data, target market information and demographics. But are they able to determine the emotional power of the written word on web pages? Why is content so vital to search results?

I hope these articles are helpful and offer you some new ideas to try on your own web sites.

Economy blues? It's not too late to increase your web site conversions with Kim's affordable usability audits. Get the answers you need NOW!

How to Give Your Web Site The Special Stuff for Success

As web site development requires intricate skills and knowledge of ever-changing technical skills, the traditional session on Site Architecture at the Search Engine Strategies conferences continues to inspire the audience.

I will be joined by Adam Audette, Shari Thurow and Kristjan Mar Hauksson on Tuesday, March 23, in New York city to present Successful Information Architecture (previously known as Successful Site Architecture). In addition to the (outdated) description below, we cover information architecture how-to and its relationship to search engine optimization, findability and usability. There are technical issues, as well as user interface and content elements that we discuss in an effort to present a plan for your own web site.

Nearly every project I take these days is a re-design, whether it be for a web site or an Internet application. Because user behavior is better researched, traffic is analyzed, search engine algorithms and indexing procedures are changing, conversions and rank success require starting all over again. The information architecture industry has been bursting at the seams with companies seeking IA, UX and usability hires with expertise.

It’s rare to find persons skilled in IA, usability, findability and SEO. However, you will get the pleasure of those combined talents in the session. If you wish to obtain a 20% discount on conference registration, register online and to use the following priority code: 20SPG

Successful Information Architecture
March 23, 12:45-1:45pm

This session will provide a fresh look at how to successfully architect your site for search engines and how specific page elements and design technologies may impact your ability to gain good organic listings. The speakers will cover topics such as directory and file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage, and much more. If time allows, volunteers from the audience will have their sites examined to see how changes could be made to their site architecture and design to increase search engine traffic.

* Moderator:
Adam Audette, President, AudetteMedia, Inc.

* Speakers:
Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive
Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Dir. Search & Online Comm./ Managing Partner, Nordic eMarketing
Kimberly Krause Berg, Usability/SEO/IA Consultant, UsabilityEffect.com

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Information Architecture Session Held at SES New York

Just plucking out some of the good stuff from my pile…

Information Architects Are From Venus, SEOs Are From Mars

Here are some common mistakes that SEO professionals make that can negatively affect a website’s search engine visibility and ROI…

Decisiveness and Search: Two Different Strategies

A new study out of Wesleyan University explores the actual cognitive mechanisms of decisiveness. This has direct implications for search marketers, because every time we use a search engine, we’re forced to make decisions. In fact, every online interaction is a branching tree of decisions.

Web Form Innovations on Mobile Devices

The limitations of mobile devices have forced developers and designers to find new ways to make providing input faster and easier. Several of these innovations are now making their way back to the desktop and beyond.

Priming

Priming can be perceptual or conceptual. Perceptual priming is based on the form of the stimulus and is enhanced by the match between the early and later stimuli. Perceptual priming is sensitive to the modality and exact format of the stimulus. An example of perceptual priming is the identification of the incomplete sketch in the experiment described above. Conceptual priming is based on the meaning of a stimulus and is enhanced by semantic tasks. For example, table, will show priming effects on chair, because table and chair belong to the same category.

Economy blues? It's not too late to increase your web site conversions with Kim's affordable usability audits. Get the answers you need NOW!

Readings from Planet UX