Lie #3: We have magic powers and can get you the best listings.
Apparently my advice sometimes irritates other companies and they initiate contact like this (spelling, grammar and sentence structure unaltered).
From: Todd H
To: inngenious.com
Subject: guys like make me laugh
Body: Here my front page listing for a very general key word I placed there about 6 months ago and it still remains there, for reasons you obviously don't know about! Lol little guys like you think you know it all, and making the claim that "knowone can guarantee front page listings" just show the fact that you are not in my league at all! I am ranked Google.ca " Best Global Webmaster " go ahead search it , its their cause I put it their, and organically I might add. So next time you think you know it all ? you might want to do some research, as a matter of fact I'm willing to seo your index page of this website to a top 5 placement for any key word you choose, for free , just to prove your theory is wrong and also to prove that you shouldn't make statements like that unless you know what your talking about. So send me your key words and your index page ill seo it and ill even opost it on my server to prove your only a peon that thinks he knows what hes talking g about.
Best Regards, Todd Herman
Senior Vice President
GlobalWebsiteCreations.com
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While the spelling, grammar and punctuation of a Senior VP ought to be better, and the tone sounds like a teenager thumping his chest, the theme is actually a common one. The theme of "I know something you don't know and have special / secret / magical powers" is a recurring one when it comes to scammers whether they be investment advisors, viagra salesmen, or magically endowed web designers. So let's take a look at how this email breaks down:
| The Lie: Here my front page listing for a very general key word I placed there about 6 months ago and it still remains there, for reasons you obviously don't know about! |
The Truth: Todd is trying to make me believe that "Best Global Webmaster" is a general keyword. While each word IS general, putting three common words that usually don't go together makes it not a general phrase. "Best Global Webmaster" is about as general as "think website canada" Both are low traffic phrases.
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| The Lie: Lol little guys like you think you know it all, and making the claim that "knowone can guarantee front page listings" just show the fact that you are not in my league at all! |
The Truth: I don't think I know it all (but I do know when to use know and no). I do know that Google, MSN and Yahoo all use the phrase "No one can guarantee top listings" as a way of pointing out when a company is trying to scam a person with fraudulent claims. So I guess that would be globalwebsitecreations.com that they are referring to.
Not in your league, that is true. I would never use a revisit-after meta tag which has never been supported by any search engine. I would never use Flash as a basic navigation. Nor would I use three domains to show nearly identical content for the sake of manipulating search engines
(
bcwebsitedesign.com, globalwebsitecreating.com, globalwebsitecreations.com) because I understand the concept of duplicate content filters and that these are against the terms of service for the three major search engines.
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| The Lie: "Best Global Webmaster " go ahead search it , its their cause I put it their, and organically I might add. |
The Truth: There, their, they're...hmm which to use. It is there not because you put it there. It is there because you used a variety of words on the page including "best", "global," and "webmaster".
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The Lie: So next time you think you know it all ? you might want to do some research, as a matter of fact I'm willing to seo your index page of this website to a top 5 placement for any key word you choose, for free , just to prove your theory is wrong and also to prove that you shouldn't make statements like that unless you know what your talking about.
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The Truth: Hmmm...once Todd figures out where to end a sentence and the difference between your and you're, he can prove his worth to the world by getting a top 5 placement for the word "microsoft". |
| The Boast: So send me your key words and your index page ill seo it and ill even opost it on my server to prove your only a peon that thinks he knows what hes talking g about. |
The Truth: I'll not be sending you anything. Not even a spelling dictionary. |
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The bottom line is that if you are approached by a web designer or SEO that spends more time thumping their chest like teenager and spelling like a grade schooler, it is probably a good idea to keep looking. Anyone that can't spell out what they are going to do and how they are going to do it should be avoided. There are no magical sure-fire methods. Good design and good SEO can both be explained. No need for smoke and mirrors.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Steve Wirt
Updated:
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