This is one in a series of posts reviewing and looking at how some of the SEO companies which use bulk emails/spam with ‘we can help your terrible site’ type emails really can (and actually mostly can’t!) help your site.
Read some simple explanations of some of the SEO terms used on this post…
This email came from a ‘Eliza’ who was using a @gmail.com email, although subsequent replies came from Neil from who was then using a @gcsoftwares.com email address.
Here’s the initial email from Eliza:
Hi, whychristmas.com Team,
I was on your website whychristmas.com and found, there are many scopes of improvement in the designing and development part. This will improve Google ranking and traffic to your website. It will also improve the overall usability and user-friendliness of your website.
If you are interested in more details, please let me know so that, I can send you the details regarding our pricing, packages, and plan of action.
Kind Regards,
Eliza Mirinda
During each December my Christmas site gets millions and millions of visits and is #1 on the whole of Google for a huge number of Christmas searches – so any SEO advice about the site is always ‘interesting’…
So I replied asking why they thought my site needed their help and here’s the first reply from Neil (which arrived less than hour later – speedy spammers!):
Hi James
Thanks for your quick response, I am Neil Smith from GC softwares and Eliza Mirinda forward me this mail as you are interested to revamp your website.
As I analyze your full website and found that we can make lucrative and glossy webpages and here is some pointers:
1. Fully Dynamic
2. Lucrative and Glossy
3. More informative Content.
4. Fully Responsive.
5. SEO friendly webpages.
6. SSL to secure the website and URL.
7. Lucrative themes and design.
We have an offer that if you go for website revamp you can get 1 month SEO absolutely free and you know SEO can help to generate more traffic and increase your revenue.
SEO we will taking care of:
Keywords analysis
Competitor keywords analysis
Keywords volume check
Keywords density analyze.
On page optimization
Off page optimization
Social media optimization and marketing
Backlinks
You Tube video optimization.
CRO( convertion rate optimization).I would say if you please provide your WhatsApp number so we can discuss more about it.
Waiting for your quick response.
Regards
Neil Smith.
Well that didn’t answer my questions, it was just a template email about how wonderful they are. So I replied to Neil asking again…
Hi Neil,
Thanks for that information but you haven’t answered my questions.
Why do you think my site needs your help?
What’s wrong with it at the moment?
Thanks,
James
This time I got some actually answers (and again the response came back super quick, it’s almost they’ve they’ve got nothing better to do…).
Hi James
Thanks for your quick response.
Why do you think my site needs your help?
James as a web designer you know from May 2020 Google is again changing their whole algorithm and this they will make sure that those website is not 100% responsive those website can’t perform in the search engine like Google along with that if you have website and you don’t have that much traffic then it not make sense any. So I mentioned that you will get 1 month SEO absolutely free. It will help you to analyze our work and quality. I am not say you that I am the only person or company that do this you can choose any other company as well but our price is best no one can’t beat us.What’s wrong with it at the moment?
Nothing wrong but yes it a technical wrong as well. If you go through the website it looks bit old version you have to go nowadays technology and design.
As a website designer I found that tell me honestly do you not think so?I also say that we are going to offer no one offer you this combo package website revamp along SEO for free.
You shod make your website more lucrative and glossy along with 100% responsive as well.
I don’t know I can make you happy or not by this reply but my intention is to give good and best website to everyone who can choose my company.
Waiting for your reply.
Regards
Neil Smith.
Well… hmmm… apart from the appalling English (which a native English speaker almost certainly wouldn’t use – more on that below), there are some contradictions from Neil, so I replied with my thoughts.
Hi Neil,
Are you getting confused about Google updates? Google’s been ‘Mobile first’ for their indexing since July 1st 2019 (https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing). And my site is already being indexed mobile first and Google is very happy with it!My site is also fully responsive, so nothing to worry about there!
In May 2020, Google are changing the way that some Google Ads are being displayed (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/all-google-ads-campaigns-to-utilize-standard-delivery-as-of-may-2020/345966/) but that’s nothing to do with responsive design or mobile first indexing…I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you mean with this paragraph:
“Nothing wrong but yes it a technical wrong as well. If you go through the website it looks bit old version you have to go nowadays technology and design. As a website designer I found that tell me honestly do you not think so?”
You say there’s nothing wrong but then it is ‘technical wrong as well’ that sentence seems to contradict itself – what do you mean?
Also what does “you have to go nowadays technology and design” actually mean?!
Now design is subjective, but I really like the way my site looks. It’s primarily designed for school children and I’ve had many teachers and children tell me how easy it is to use!
You also say “You shod make your website more lucrative and glossy along with 100% responsive as well.”
Well the site is already 100% responsive, so that’s ok. I’m not sure quite how you make a site ‘glossy’. I don’t run the site to make money. I run it for the love of Christmas.
Out of interest, how many visitors do you think the site gets?
Also where in the world is your company located and where are you emailing from?
Thanks,
James
And we got a reply from Neil…
Hi James
Thanks for teaching me a good lesson about all the information and technical support with reference links. I am very happy to read your email and I found that someone who also very technologically sound and smart person who teach me.
Okay, you are asking about the traffic I can’t tell you per day basis but I can assure you if you go for SEO service then it will increase definitely. As per the servey we know if any website run SEO campaign ( organic ranking) for minimum 3 then traffic will increase minimum 20% from the present traffic. I hope you also know about the SEO as well. As you know SEO is bit slow process and it will increase your website but it will take minimum 2-3 months of time.
I hope as you know we have to take care various side like
Keywords analysis
Competitor keywords analysis
Geo Location
Targeted market
Backlinks
Social media optimization and marketing
Content writing like blogs and articles
Onpage error fixing and optimization and off-page optimization and many more.where in the world is your company located and where are you emailing from?
Our company based in Miami Florida USA and our support team work from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
We email from both the cities.Waiting for your reply.
Regards
Neil Smith
Well, he keeps on pushing the offer doesn’t he! And it seems I’m teaching him, hmmmm. At least this spammer isn’t saying he knows what traffic my site is getting, unlike some! And they are also in India then (more on this below). So I replied, asking a few more questions…
Hi Neil,
I’m glad I could help help you with those links. However, are you now saying that there isn’t a May 2020 Google update? If so, why did you put that in your email in the first place? That doesn’t seem very trustworthy if you put mis-information in an email. It’s almost like you’re using it as a scare tactic to get people to use your services!
As for the traffic to my site. It gets over 20 MILLION page loads a year. It’s already #1 on all of Google for a huge number of searches. Have you even looked at that side of things?
Where are you emailing from, Miami or Bhubaneswar?
Thanks, James
And we got a reply from Neil (only it’s not Neil…)
Hi James
I am not scared any body as because I can’t force any one to take my service as you know in virtual world how I can scare someone any body can Google and take information, but it is true story that those website is not fully responsive ( not your) those website will be facing problem to ranking organically I believe you also know that.
As per the traffic in your website yes sounds good that you generate 20 Millions per year.
I am in Bhubaneswar and Neil Smith is my alias name I am Indian and my actual good name is ANKUR [surname not put here for privacy reasons].
I would say why you not going for mobile apps as you told me that your website is for children so if you have your own mobile apps it will give you more pleasure and satisfy. Your daily clients who visited your website they also feeling happy.
I am not forcing you I just sharing my ideas with you. We can make Android and iOS both the platform for your apps.
Our cost and price also very cost effective from others.
I hope you never mind I just tell you for app.
Waiting for your reply
Regards
Neil Smith (Ankur).
Well, there we go, an SEO spammer admitting that he’s using a fake name and has been lying about his identity! So I sent a reply raising my other concerns about his company and their site:
Hi Ankur,
So your name isn’t really Neil Smith. You might call it an alias. I’m afraid I call it lying.
I also call putting false information about Google updates into an email, to get people to use your services, lying. What you stated simply IS NOT TRUE! (Yes responsive sites won’t rank so well, but that is no excuse whatsoever for blatantly misleading people about an up-coming Google update.)
Your company’s website has addresses for the USA and UK. It doesn’t mention anything about having an office in India, why not?
And the addresses in the USA and UK are just virtual offices aren’t they? They’re not real offices!
Why doesn’t your company’s site have a privacy policy on it? That’s breaking the EU’s GDPR law for any EU visitors to your site!
In your emails, not only are you lying about who you are, you also put in deliberately false information.
Why did Eliza (if that her real name…) contact me using a Gmail address and not a GS Softwares email address? And her emailing me like also broke a UK law called PECR. Oops!
So I’m afraid that you are spammers who are breaking several international laws.
You own site has a huge number of HTML, SEO and accessibility issues.
So I will not be using your services.
Thanks,
James
ps, I’ve thought about apps for my site. I’m planning on making the site a PWA.
Funnily enough, I never heard back from Ankur after this…
Looking at Their Site
With SEO spammers, I also like to look at their sites, to see if they practice what they preach (I mean would you trust a plumber who had leaking and rusty pipes all over their own house?!); and also to compare their site with a site they say they can help…
Their site is: http://gcsoftwares.com/ [This site is no longer online!]
For HTML Validation, my site has no errors. Their site has 59 errors and 42 warnings. (That’s REALLY not good!)
On Google Pagespeed their site gets:
Desktop: 66/100 (that’s ok-ish…)
Mobile: 21/100 (that is not good…)
My site gets:
Desktop: 100/100
Mobile: 99/100 – so both considerably better using Google’s own speed testing tool!
Using the ‘WAVE’ Accessibility Testing Tool, their site has 55 errors and 10 contrast errors. My site has no errors of either kind! (They don’t seem to know what image ‘alts’ are at all…)
Their site has no privacy policy and doesn’t use HTTPS/SSL (having the padlock). This is really not good an in 2020 there is really no excuse whatsoever for not having either of those things on a site.
They have social media icons for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in their site’s header and footer – only none of them are linked to anything (and I can’t actually find that they’ve got accounts on those platforms). There’s also an email address in the header as well; guess what, it’s also not linked correctly.
There’s annoying popup on their site which offers ‘New Year’ deals from the 25th December 2019 to 6th January 2020 – BUT it’s March and that’s still on their site! (The copyright in the footer still says 2019 as well…)
They’re also an SEO company, but they don’t actually seem to know how to do the basics of SEO on a site. Their meta ‘title’ is just ‘SEO Marketing Agency’ which is ok-ish but not great. However, what’s less than great is that they have NO meta ‘description’, the ‘heading 1’ on their site is ‘Portfolio’ and the alt of the site’s logo is ‘logo’. Those are TERRIBLE for an SEO company!
There are three items in their ‘portfolio’ which they claim shows their work. Only they don’t.
- The first item is a screenshot of a WordPress ‘travel’ theme created by a very large WordPress theme company – they didn’t design or create this.
- The second item is a screenshot of a WordPress ‘bakery’ theme created by a different WordPress theme company – they didn’t design or create this.
- The third item is a screenshot of a WordPress ‘cars/auto’ theme created by yet another different WordPress theme company – they didn’t design or create this.
So they are lying about all the items in their portfolio.
GC Softwares claim to be based in the USA on their site and they have address for both the USA and the UK on their contact page. However, looking up the addresses, we find that the USA address is for a ‘virtual’ office complex in Miami; and the UK address (in London, very near where the London Olympics took place) is also a visual office complex.
So neither of their addresses are ‘real’.
The time which ‘Eliza’ sent her first email was about half past midnight in Miami, about 5.30am in London but 9.30am in India (and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands)….
Neil’s emails were also routed through GoDaddy’s servers in Singapore. This is normal for Indian web traffic, but not for US traffic (that comes via USA servers).
Conclusion
On their site, GC Softwares say that they want to have ‘Transparent communication’ and state ‘We believe in open and shared data, creating an atmosphere of trust, reliability and partnership between the client and us.’
Hmmmm, considering that they’re happy to:
Lie about who’s actually emailing you by using fake name;
Lie about all the items in their ‘portfolio’ by stealing them from other web developers;
Lie about where they are actually located;
I’d say that they are less than ‘Transparent’!
And on top of that, they aren’t practising what they’re preach in terms of their own SEO ‘optimisation’ and they also don’t seem to know how to set-up a site properly…
So if GC Softwares want to help with your site, I’d seriously think again.
But the choice, as ever, is yours.