Don't Take SEO Candy (From Strangers)

Today I received an unsolicited email offering SEO services for one of my domains. Bottom line is, it’s worthless — but many people wouldn’t know it. For a business owner desperate to improve his rankings in search engines, this might sound tempting. Let’s deconstruct…
Here’s the message, with the name and address withheld.

Dear Business Owner,

75% of POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you’re on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or MSN. If I could get as much as 4 times more INTERNET traffic to your website by promoting you to the top of the search engines would you be interested?

Our company is consistently on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search term “SEO Company.” We would like to do the same for your Company’s website so you can rank for your main keyword terms as well? All of our techniques use the most ethical “white hat” Search Engine Optimization methods that will not get your website banned or penalized.

This search engine optimization program includes:
• No upfront fees
• A month to month program (no long term contracts)
• Guaranteed increase in traffic

Simply reply to this email and I would be delighted to send you a custom proposal
_________________________________________________________

Warm Regards,
[Name] [Address] _________________________________________________________

P.S. This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2007 . We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form. We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the web search and not through any illegal way. If you find this mail unsolicited, please reply with “Remove” in the subject line and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail.

Let’s look at what’s wrong here:

1. If “Our company” was a legit company, the company name would be listed. It’s not.
2. Since there’s no company name, it’s not possible to verify whether they really are “consistently on the first page.”
3. The message came from a gmail account. Legitimate companies use mail from their own domain name.
4. The physical address (which I hid here) is for a UPS store in Thousand Oaks, CA. They rent mailboxes there.
5. There is no CAN-SPAM Act of 2007. (CAN-SPAM was enacted in 2003.)

Should you reply to junk like this? No. Even though the message includes information on how to remove yourself from the list, you have no way of verifying whether you have or have not been removed. By replying to an unknown source, you risk that your “live” email address will get sold to other junk mailers.