When I get emails like this, they may very well be legit, but several things make me believe they’re spam.
From: Mark Peterson [[email protected]]
Hello,
Hope you are well. As part of our client research, we’ve come across your website online “Earth.com” and noticed your site is not on the top ranking for most important search engine like Google Yahoo.& Bing I am wondering if you would be interested in Search engine optimization done for your website at a very low cost.
Search engine optimization will increase your brand recognition and your sales, which is why you have a web site to begin with right?
We can make your website on 1st page placement on Google, Yahoo, or Bing in three to six months guaranteed with our “National SEO” package! Three to six months is typical for all our SEO packages!
So let me know if you would be interested or like me to mail you more details or schedule a call. We would love to work with you!
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Mark Peterson
Business Development Manager
The first flag is that this email is from a gmail account and not a business account.
There are no links in the email to direct me to Mark’s company, his linkedin profile, or any other online business profile.
Grammatical errors. I’m not the best when it comes to writing proper English, but Mark’s English and his spelling should definitely be more professional.
Last, but certainly not least,
- NO SEO EXPERT CAN GUARANTEE THAT YOU’LL GET TO THE FIRST PAGE OF Google OR ANY OTHER SEARCH ENGINE.
When someone offers this guarantee, they’re most likely doing black hat methods that will eventually get found out by Google and other search engines. When you’re found doing black hat methods, you’ve gotta do a ton of digging to get out of the hole search engines will put you in. See, I ended that last sentence in a preposition. A big no-no, but you get the point. : )
I’ve been developing sites, doing SEO, and going to conferences to further my education for many years. Using good white hat methods, we’ve had a lot of good success with getting our sites ranked favorably. #1 in several cases, but certainly not all cases. However, even using those same good methods on certain sites, for whatever reason, those sites either lose their ranking quickly, or never get favorably ranked. We use to spend a lot of time scratching our heads as to why. Several consultants later, we learned that Google simply didn’t like the domain. We made reconsideration request after reconsideration request and finally came to realize we needed to move on to another domain/project. Trust me when I say, it’s not as easy as these ‘SEO Experts’ make it out to be. So when you’re considering SEO, you’re going to get what you pay for. The best thing you can do is spend the time to educate yourself on best practices and methods. These practices and methods are always changing so you will have to do some continuing education. Knowing about SEO will save you a lot of time and money so when the right ‘Mark Peterson’ comes along, you’ll be able to know if they’re full of it or legit.
Katie says
May 26, 2013 at 11:08 pmHi Brian
I received the same email three days ago and came to the same conclusions.
The only thing which was different was the email, but it was still from a Gmail account.
Thanks for uncovering people like this. As a sales rep, emails like this make it much harder for genuine pitches. Not only that, these emails do not work. Ever.
Brian Gilbert says
May 27, 2013 at 3:37 amHi Katie, thanks for posting and glad you found the article useful.
Warren Brier says
May 29, 2013 at 11:13 amHi Brian
I got the same email .. lol Mark is a busy lad 😛
and popular as well .. I just typed in google : Mark Peterson SEO
and found him instantly plasterd on google, Thats how i ended up here !
…..Hmm ? If he can get your website as popular as
he has got himself mabe he is worth a try … Ha Ha !
Brian Gilbert says
May 29, 2013 at 11:18 amLOL Warren! I wonder if he uses my site/article about him in his case studies. 🙂
mick says
June 19, 2013 at 9:07 amHe is still at it.
I got the same myself today.
As you suggest yourself a non formal email and no company details included cause immediate suspiceon.
A brain storm idea for a legitimate SEO service may be to do as you have done here and republish such emails. That way they will pick up targeted search traffic from people googling information that has been spammed to them.
That is exactly how I got here. 🙂
Cheers
Mick
Brian Gilbert says
June 19, 2013 at 9:23 amThanks for stopping by Mick! Makes me wonder what his conversion rates are. I suppose if his email marketing weren’t working, he wouldn’t be doing it. A shame really.
Sue says
July 4, 2013 at 3:06 pmI also got same email and it made me suspicious. I found you by googling Mark Peterson
Brian Gilbert says
July 4, 2013 at 3:38 pmI hope you found the article useful. : )
Andy Watts says
July 8, 2013 at 4:31 amI’ve had many of these emails, thunderbird marks them all as junk 🙂 The daft this is, the emails relate to a website of mine that IS at the top of google serps as it relates to a computer repair service in my city.. Great article !
Sean Humby says
August 21, 2013 at 11:13 amJust had the same one – thank you for the article – really does help sort the wheat from the chaff.
So much for the know, like and trust elements so crucial to any business relationship – Mark seems to have neglected these.
Kelly Lynch says
November 19, 2013 at 8:43 amI just received the same email – almost identical. Like others on here I also found your page by googling him….
Thanks for your article – I found it really helpful and interesting!
Brian Gilbert says
November 19, 2013 at 12:06 pmGlad the article was helpful to you Kelly.
Elizabeth Y says
December 2, 2013 at 12:27 pm& he’s still at it! Thanks for posting your findings. All the red flags are still there!
Brian Gilbert says
December 11, 2013 at 10:44 amUpdate: I just got another email from Mark Peterson. However, the email address he’s sending from is now different. This one came from [email protected]. His English is a little better in the new email, but all the flags still go up that this is SPAM.
Jana Rose Carrero says
January 9, 2014 at 10:31 amHi Brian,
Great article! Was number 1 when I Googled “Mark Peterson SEO.” I just received this same exact spam mail. His address was [email protected]
Thx!
Jana
Matt K says
January 27, 2014 at 10:32 amThanks for posting this. Just got an email from Mark too, and oddly enough it’s for a domain well outside of my control… one to which I’ve merely uploaded a public Google maps feed. I’m a registered user with said site, with a single file uploaded to my account… that’s about it.
Question, possibly a stupid one… would it be a mistake to reply to Mark to let him know his number is up (and that he’s got the wrong guy for this domain)? I even thought about sending link to this page. Then again, they say any reply to a spam email is gold to the spammer as it signifies a working, monitored email address.
Should I just leave it alone?
Brian Gilbert says
January 27, 2014 at 1:37 pmI doubt replying will do you any good. He doesn’t care that the large percentage of people he emails don’t respond or respond negatively. He only cares about the small percentage that don’t search for his name and do reply with work for him. It’s a shame that people like this are allowed to do business this way. I’m thankful that some people are smart enough to search and find articles like mine that keep them from signing up for his services.