Behind Some Lovely SEO Company Emails
My business is well… booming… and in fact I can’t take more SEO work at the moment and in many cases I have to refer some SEO work to other SEO professionals.
That’s why I wonder why other SEO companies seem to be struggling.
I mean, if you provide value, if you are honest and you do things properly, you should be able to get proper results for your clients… and then, well… your reputation will grow.
That’s why I find amazing when a supposed Australian SEO company, decides to take INDIAN TACTICS (and if you are Indian, READ ON….) and decide spamming their SEO services.
But what I find even more UBER-STUPID is when they SPAM their crappy offers to ANOTHER SEO company. (well, I’m not a company but you guys get the point)
Dam, how stupid can they REALLY BE?????
Well welcome to SEO COMPANY (NAME REMOVED), the new SEO company in town… where this morning I got this beautiful email from his “NATIONAL SALES MANAGER” <—- very important title
SEO COMPANY (NAME REMOVED) UNREQUESTED EMAIL:
I visited your website http://www.seoforayear.com.au and I noticed that you are currently missing out on first page rankings in Google for keywords and key phrases that are potentially profitable for your business. These keywords are used thousands of times monthly by potential customers looking for what your business has to offer.
We specialize in achieving first page, organic, search engine rankings for businesses like yours. We are an Australian company that has helped hundreds of Australian and International businesses and I would welcome the opportunity to do the same for your business.
We are so confident in our ability that we offer no contracts – you can cancel at any time – and we give you your money back in full if we cannot deliver on our promise. This is our guarantee to you.
That means all our clients could cancel today, if we did not deliver the profits that we promise. Our unique methods consistently increase rankings for all the keywords vital to our client’s business success.
You are competing for the first page. If you don’t do this, your competitors will.
Can I call you?
I would like to have a chat with you to explain to you in minutes how we can achieve this for you.
If you prefer I can email you with further information on our company which includes our proposal. Please let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you.
National Sales Manager
NAME REMOVE TO AVOID SHAME ON THEM
Level 29, Chifley Tower
2 Chifley Square
Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia
Off course the most lovely idea is that this comes from a website with zero page rank, and 41 backlinks that NOBODY has ever heard off.
So let’s try to figure out why this “AUSTRALIAN” SEO company behaves like the typical INDIAN SEO Company… shall we?
First let’s look at who owns the site?
These are the records from the Australian whois.
Domain Name
Last Modified 18-Aug-2011 07:49:47 UTC
Registrar ID Aust Domains
Registrar Name Aust Domains
Status ok
Eligibility Type Partnership
Registrant Contact ID R-001291132-SN
Registrant Contact Name Prince Vasquez
Registrant Contact Email prince@websitedesignph.com
Mmm interesting, prince@websitedesignph.com …. will PH means Philippines?
Lets check it out by visiting websitedesignph.com.
So what do we found here?
Established in 2008, Website Design PH is a full service web design and SEO company and interactive internet marketing agency headquartered in Quezon City Philippines.
So yes… is in fact a website owned by someone in the Philippines? (It seems like) Mmmm now we understand a bit who is behind the SPAM I got this morning.
OK. Cool, now let’s look a little bit more about the history of the “company”
So far the so called SEO company has..
- No clear info in their website about who they are.
- No Customers profile on their site.
- No domain name age history
- No Domain name Authority
- and No idea about Australian law for email marketing (or spam)
Also… it’s registered in Australia by a company called “NAME REMOVE ONCE AGAIN” but their contact name is someone in the Philippines called “Prince Vasquez” .
Mmm so I’m getting confused here.
But may be it’s me.May be it’s my latino blood that makes me look at the “bad side” always. So let’s keep digging…
Let’s do a bit of research and try to find where they are located.
Because may be Gab is wrong and these guys are in fact a huge SEO company and I’m making a big mistake.
Level 29, Chifley Tower
2 Chifley Square
Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia
And guess what I found?
Mmm a virtual office!
Part of “http://www.servcorp.com.au/virtual-offices”
SURPRISE SURPRISE…
Ok… so I guess I will try to find who Terry Norris is:
Well, when googling their SEO manager name and any term related to SEO, I had no luck. He simply doesn’t exist ….
OK…. but may be I’m wrong, may be this SEO company is in fact emailing me from Australia… Right?
WRONG AGAIN GAB!!
Let’s look at the email:
IP Location: Philippines Philippines Pldt_gntc10ki01_dhcp
ASN: AS9299
Resolve Host: 112.201.224.178.pldt.net
Gosh… ! So they are in fact sending me an email frm the Philippines.
And not only from the Philippines but Mr Prince (Very cool name) is sending me the email directly.
X-Source-Sender: (PrinceVAIO) [112.201.224.178]:58161
X-Source-Auth: vasquezp
X-Email-Count: 3
So if Mr Prince is sending me the email… do I need to call the Sales manager to understand why an Australian SEO company is spamming me about SEO, when clearly they have NO IDEA about SEO and they are so stupid they even spam another SEO person in the same industry.
And then we wonder why some new SEO players in this industry never achieve any type of success.
the Answer:
Lack of Brain cells mate! Lack of brain cells!
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Interesting update: THE SEO COMPANY contact me today and in a very non happy way they announced that they are not breaking any law and this is a free world and that my site is about SEO and they can send me any type of email.
You are a fly on the wall mate – they said. We can do what ever we want.
I don’t agree: This is a copy of SPAM ACT
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_310513
Te Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages- known as spam – with an Australian link. A message has an Australian link if it originates or was commissioned in Australia, or originates overseas but was sent to an address accessed in Australia.
If your business uses any form of e-marketing, including email, SMS (text message), MMS (image-based text messages) or instant messaging, you must understand and meet the following three key requirements of the Spam Act:
- Consent – the message must be sent with the recipient’s consent. The recipient may give express consent, or under certain circumstances consent may be inferred from their conduct or an existing business or other relationships
- Identify – the message must contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message and how to contact them
- Unsubscribe – the message must contain a functional ‘unsubscribe’ facility to allow the recipient to opt out from receiving messages from that source in the future. Unsubscribe requests must be honoured within five working days.
A message does not necessarily have to be sent out to numerous addresses to be considered spam. Under Australian law, a single electronic message can be considered spam.
(my Notes: IN THIS CASE, : They didn’t have my concent, and I coudn’t unsubscribe. )
The supply or use of address harvesting software or harvested email addresses for the purpose of sending spam is prohibited.
IN THIS CASE, they didn’t contact my email address, they in fact contact me via the email in my “whois” , therefor It seems they may have use some type of automatic email system.
(My Notes: Regardless the case.. it seems that when I spoke to the SALES MANAGEr [ the guy that told me I'm a fly in the wall] , and it seems he forgot what a commercial email is… so here we go)
What is a commercial electronic message?
The Spam Act defines a commercial electronic message as any electronic message that:
- offers, advertises or promotes the supply of goods, services, land or business or investment opportunities
- advertises or promotes a supplier of goods, services, land or a provider of business or investment opportunities
- assists a person to dishonestly obtain property, commercial advantage or other gain from another person.
The Act classifies an electronic message as ‘commercial’ by considering:
- the content of the message
- the way in which the message is presented
- any links, phone numbers or contact information in the message that lead to content that has a commercial purpose – as these may also lead the message to be defined as ‘commercial’ in nature.
——————————–
Last update
The company keep sending Spam. now they are targeting some other SEO industry members in WA. funny wise they don’t seem to learn…
About the author
I'm an SEO professional living in the South Coast of NSW - Australia. SEO is what I do... I'm not a web guy, or a webmaster, or a designer... I just do SEO ;) Love it. Enjoy it and I still have fun doing it.
That’s crazy! But I guess they figure being outside the country they’re safe from prosecution, so they can do what they want. There’s so much SEO work out there that no-one should have to resort to email spam to get new clients! Thanks for the rundown on the legal situation: it can be a little hard to keep up at times.
Mike Haydon´s last [type] ..Correlation v Causation in SEO
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
September 22nd, 2011 at 10:01 pm
The interesting thing is that they claim “we contacted you to the email in your site” … but obviously they scrapped my gmail email from the whois of the domain name. So clearly they are using a scrapper.
Anyway, Mike, the more dodgy companies out there, the better WE look.
Launching soon HonestSEOcompanies.com.au – stay tuned mate.
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LOL love how you dug into that. We all seem to be getting these ridiculous messages and I think, why don’t they just spend the same about of time and effort actually building a reputable business?! Some poor folks must buy into it to make it worth their while! How unfortunate
sandip´s last [type] ..I will can send 20,000 Traffic Visitors To Your Website for $10
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They’re simply cold-calling you via email. I’m surprised you took so much time writing this post about it. Didn’t take them more than a second to email you a standard template.
Bob Jones´s last [type] ..Old = Expensive. Especially cars.
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
September 22nd, 2011 at 10:00 pm
cold-calling via email is not allowed in Australia, and SEO companies usually have some standard. (trust me this post got a few calls in my mobile from PROPER SEO companies asking me the name of these clowns).
The point of taking time is to explain how dodgy companies work…. and clearly to highlight what rules need to be followed in Australia.
this is not India where you can “cold-call” people via email .
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Even so, he’s not mailing you from Australia, as you clearly established in your post. So this is where it gets tricky
Bob Jones´s last [type] ..Old = Expensive. Especially cars.
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Fair point Bob… but “The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages- known as spam – with an Australian link. A message has an Australian link if it originates or was commissioned in Australia, or originates overseas but was sent to an address accessed in Australia”
Anyway, this industry has a huge KARMA…
thanks for replying mate. (I used to live in the NL for 1 year…)
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There are many people of teh same type who are trying to do some kind of business in such a way. I got tons of such letters every day and when I need some service, I use only recommed\ndation to deal with a company.
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Hi Gab,
i got the same spam email yesterday.
from:
Terry Norris
National Sales Manager
SEO Web Registry
Level 29, Chifley Tower
2 Chifley Square
Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia
Ph: 02-8005 0720
info@seowebregistry.com.au
seowebregistry.com.au
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Yes. Same company.
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Well, I got the same email from SEOwebregistry… and yes the IP comes from the Philippines. I called the ACMA and yes, they are breaching the SPAM Act.
So let’s see what the ACMA thinks of SEO Web Registry
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Amazing, you would think they at least stay away from us… (us the people in the internet game). I got the same email…
Sometimes I don’t understand the laziness of some people. If you going with email harvesting software, at least spend some time and remove the emails of other SEO’s… Maybe I should write a book “Email Harvesting For Dummies” or something similar.
@Sandip – hey building a business takes time, and some people just not prepared to do it. Pushing few buttons seems so much more attractive. The sad thing is that some poor business owner will fall for it.
Recently I had a opportunity to speak to one of the biggest MLM names in the industry (By the way, I’m not in MLM).. and he told me: “You know that you have built a business, when you know that you can delete all your websites and clients will still find you to do business with you”
It makes perfect sense… see I can almost guarantee if “Internet Ninja” turned his websites off for a while… people will still look for him… WHY?… because of what he does, how he does it…
Great post Gab.
Alem
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
To kind mate… thanks mate.
The funny thing of this so-called SEO company is the fact that they can’t even SPAM in a smart way.
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Amazing. I just found this post while searching for SEO web registry. I also got the spam today and send it back to the ACMA abuse department.
So who the hell is this Terry Norris???
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Well, he has no idea about SEO, his site doesn’t rank for any term at all… so a bit of a non-SEO guy for sure.
(may be he can learn from us?)
Gab: If you google “SEO Web Registry” your site already ranks.
SWEEEEEEETTTTT
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Terry Norris = Brother of Chuck Norris
Alem´s last [type] ..SEO In Australia
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Chuck behaves better and I bet he is more polite.
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ha ha nice. was the terry rude?
Alem´s last [type] ..SEO In Australia
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 7:29 am
“My Lawyer works for Google”……
– he said to me.
I haven’t heard that one before…… (yeah right)
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Well, Oh Dear… I can’t believe I’m not the only victim of the SPAM of SEO Web Registry. I received the same email from Terry Norris in 5 different accounts.
In fact I found this post when I google “Terry Norris SEO” .
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Hi Gabriel, Rob from WA.
I’m not in the SEO industry, but I was also spammed by this clown @ SEO web registry.
Thanks for the good post.
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:30 pm
No problem Rob. Thanks for stopping by.
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Hi Gab, Linda from Melb. My small web design company also got spammed by Web SEO registry, I tried to call them but clearly… no answer.
I also contacted the ACMA ====> just in case ^_^
Keep up blogging Ninja! love your work!
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Hi Susan, you are not the only one. I spoke to 3 companies during the weekend… same deal. Funny wise, they decided to talk to ME about SEO. So it seems the more emails they sent… the more it backfires and the more comments I get in this post. Crazy.
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Hi Gab,
I really wonder why people have to spam like this and why some people fall into it. Whenever I receive something like this in my inbox, I immediately mark it as spam or delete it. But I understand why you featured this spam in your post. This should serve as a lesson to them and to other spammers and for all of us to be aware of these tactics.
Alexis´s last [type] ..New appointments at 2H Offshore
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Specially when they still believe they are “Not spamming”
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Hi Gabriel, thank you so much for this post.
I was contacted by Terry Norris… and I decided to Google him.
THANK GOD I read this post.
I love what you are doing for this industry. You are a real Internet Ninja!!!!!!!!!
*_* Keep up *_* don’t stop
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Ha ha Gab they picked the wrong guy to email.
BTW Terry is no relation, lol.
Dan Norris´s last [type] ..On page SEO
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
October 10th, 2011 at 6:44 am
So he is not your evil twin Brother Dan?
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Not that I know of!
Dan´s last [type] ..Small business search engine domination
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Hey Dan,
That was a really interesting blog and it’s also a wake up call to all SEO salesmen out there not just located in overseas but in Australia.
If you spam or belligerently flout the law, you are only doing your business a disservice. Sure it’s a numbers game to you, but to people like myself this is my passion and when you tarnish it with absolute snake-oil marketing, you are also giving the industry a collective bad name.
Oh well, black hat and “ambulance-chasing” (or is that rank-promising lol) salesmen will always exist, and it is up to us; the more ethical and professional consultants to keep defending our fair trade.
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Gabriel Machuret Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Well said Adam! The more crap these people do… the better people like us look.
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Ha! Thanks for the read very interesting.
I’m a Graphic/Web Designer and I get an Indian company with very similar tactics telling me how awful my site is and how they can do it better & cheaper. “I should hire them to handle all my client work at a cheaper rate”. Interestingly enough their site is awful! My 2 year old nephew could do better.
I may just send them your link about ‘spamming’ in Australia!
Cheers!!
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