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 time the email came in from ‘Riya’ who was using a gmail.com address which had lots of random letters and numbers in it! The subject was “Why a Website Redesign Is Important for whyeaster.com ?” and went:
Hi whyeaster.com,
Nowadays, the website is the most essential part of every business. As you know the first impression of every business solely depends on the website.
Website redesigning not just making your site look different. It will be a tool to help your business get to where it needs to be. You will experience the many ways benefit of redesigning your site. Like Improve SEO, Social Sharing, faster loading times, more security, and most importantly it will be mobile-friendly.
Shall I send you some past work?
Kind Regards,
Riya [name removed for privacy]
Although the email was signed by a ‘Riya’, the ‘from’ name on the email was from a ‘Sara’. So these spammers can’t even get their fake names done properly.
Anyway, I replied:
Hi,
Please can you tell me why my site needs a redesign?
Also, please can you tell me more about your company? Where are you located?
Thanks
And I got this response:
Hi James Cooper,
Thank you for your reply.
This is Susanta and I’m the manager of Luvcite Digital Marketing Agency. I will be taking care of your queries from now onwards.
We are based in India. We have a branch office in Ohio, USA. LuvCite Digital Marketing Agency is one of the leading digital marketing service providers offering different services. Our services bucket carries website design and development, website promotion (SEO & SMO), PPC advertisement (Google AdWords), online reputation management, etc. You can get more details about us @https://www.luvcite.com/
Here are few websites that we have done for our clients.
[There was a list of some of their clients which I’ve removed for privacy.]Shall I send you the proposal for redesign your website?
Kindly let me know your thoughts so that I will prepare a complete proposal and share it with you.
kind regards,
Susanta [name removed for privacy]
This email came in from an @luvcite.org email address. It’s interesting that they use the .org for emails and the .com for their site – perhaps because they don’t want the .com flagged as spammers?! However, they’d not answered my question and had just pasted in a spam template, so I asked again!
Hi,
Thanks, but please can you answer my question. “WHY” do you think my site need a redesign? What’s “wrong” with it at the moment?
Thanks
James
That got this reply:
Hi James,
Thank you for your reply.
I have attached the website analysis report with this email, Kindly find the attachment.
Website redesigning not just making your site look different. It will be a tool to help your business get to where it needs to be. You will experience the many ways benefit of redesigning your site. Like Improve SEO, Social Sharing, faster loading times, more security, and most importantly it will be mobile-friendly.
Responsive websites allow for your site to be automatically resized to fit screens of any size, no matter what device, it’s being viewed on a laptop, desktop monitor, smartphone, or tablet perfectly.
Here below I’ve mentioned the details of the work to be done for your website:
Complete HTML5 with CSS3 design
While making your website responsive, we will go for flexible grids and layouts, images and intelligent use of CSS media queries.
We need to study your existing code base and theme structure. It will be done after analyzing the technical team.
Mobile compatible features implementation
Word Press CMS implementation
The design should be a completely new one from our lab
The website will be eye-catching to visitors
Easy to navigate through the website
Latest Technology of coding
Most importantly it should be browser compatible with all the major browsers
Logo design (Optional)
Codes will be SEO friendly
Social media buttons
The header will be a nice one with the logo along with menu bar
Well organized body structure
Footer will be there with copyright to your organization
We’ll also, provide the site map for your website
Sliding banner of 4-5 imagesRegarding the Work Process,
We will design a Mockup for your website as per your requirement. After that, I will send you the mockup design. If you want any changes, we will do the same. we will do the changes till approval from your side. Your design will be unique and beautiful.Once you approve the design then we will start the development work. During the development work, we will send you a demo link of your new website so that you can see every update from your end as well as you can suggest to us if you need any changes likewise we will finish the project. Once the project is finished we need your approval to live your website and then we will transfer all files and live your website in your hosting server.
Shall we do the mock-up design for your website?
If you have any queries/concerns then please let me know so that we can discuss further.
Look forward to your kind response.
Kind Regards,
Susant [name removed for privacy]
I’ve replied asking Shivani why they use spam to get business, but I’ve not had a reply to that yet!
Their Report & Recommendations
Their attached report (a PDF) gave my site a score of 67 (I’m guessing out of 100 although it didn’t actually say that!). There were 38 items which seemed to make up this score although no information was given about how they worked/were ‘rated’, etc. (It was basically identical in format to the ‘report’ from Desire Rankings, another SEO spammer I’ve looked at.)
The 38 items were given a rating of ‘Passed’, ‘To Improve’ and ‘Errors’. Let’s look at the ‘To Improve’ and ‘Errors’ items in the report.
Schema.org (Errors)
They say there’s not any ‘schema’ markup/code on the site. And they’re right, there isn’t. However, there a very good reason for this – the site doesn’t need it! Schema is a special kind of web code that can help things like search engines read addresses and phone numbers in context. It’s great for business sites (like this one) but it’s completely useless on my Easter site as that’s not a business and doesn’t have any info that would benefit from being in schema! So we’ll call this ‘Irrelevant’ (and if they’d checked the site properly and not just used an auto SEO scanning tool, they could have seen this…).
Open Graph Protocol (To Improve)
They say that the ‘Open Graph’ images aren’t coded correctly. But they are! Open Graph is a special kind of code which helps social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter when pages are shared. So as my images are OK, this is WRONG.
Twitter Card (Errors)
They say the site doesn’t have a Twitter Card (used to help Twitter know how to display a site when shared). This is correct. However, there’s also a good reason for this. Twitter will also happily use Open Graph code if there’s no specific Twitter Card code. It works fine! (Also not have a Twitter Card set-up WILL NOT directly affect SEO – it’s an added niceness.) So I’ll call this ‘Irrelevant’.
DMARC (Errors)
They say I don’t have DMARC set up on my emails. This is true. DMARC is one of several tools to ‘authenticate’ emails. But for my Easter site, its emails are piggy backed on another domain – which does have DMARC – so all is good! Again, it’s ‘Irrelevant’.
LuvCite don’t have DMARC on either the .com or .org versions of their domains. So, erm, yeah…!
Analytics (Errors)
They say they couldn’t find any analytics tools on my site. Well, that’s because I don’t use Google Analytics, but rather a privacy friendly one. So this is WRONG.
Traffic Estimations (Errors)
They say my site has very low traffic – and it does for much of the year – it’s a site about Easter. It will get busy in the next month or so! The site ranks VERY highly for the searches I’m aiming for (like in the top 2 or 3 of all of Google for ‘The Easter Story’!) which is actually what matters! I’ll go for WRONG on this one!
Social Media Engagement (To Improve)
They say that my site isn’t being shared much on social media (they only list Facebook). Again, this is probably true when they tested it, and, again, I wouldn’t expect it to be for most of the year!
Facebook Page (Errors)
They say I don’t have a FB page – and I don’t! For my Easter site’s social media I use it’s much bigger sister Christmas site’s social media. This works very well for my needs. So, again, ‘Irrelevant’
Twitter Account (Errors)
See above!
Instagram & LinkedIn Accounts (Errors)
These are listed as two errors but I’ll put them as one item. It’s true, I don’t have accounts on either Instagram or LinkedIn. This is simply because I don’t want them! They might help, but social media is a personal thing and I’m happy just using Facebook and Twitter for my Easter site (and LinkedIn would be completely wrong as it’s not a business site!).
But LuvCite don’t appear to have an Instagram account, so, erm, yeah.
So those 11 ‘issues’ are either wrong, irrelevant or are down to what social networks I want to engage with.
So the report is somewhat of a mixture! It’s got some useful information in it. However, other bits seem to contradict each other and some parts are just wrong. Also much of it is about things that won’t directly affect a site’s SEO…
LuvCite Digital Marketing Agency also have many of the same ‘errors’ that they’re giving me! There are also some items on the report which my site ‘passed’ and their site certainly wouldn’t (more on those below)!
Taking that all together, the ‘score’ of 67 is rather misleading as it really doesn’t give an accurate picture of the SEO state of the site!
Next, let’s look at the 18 things that LuvCite say needs to be done on my site to make it better…
Complete HTML5 with CSS3 design
The Site already uses HTML5 (which their SEO report actually said) and CSS3. So no need for this!
While making your website responsive, we will go for flexible grids and layouts, images and intelligent use of CSS media queries.
The site already uses all of these. So no need for this!
We need to study your existing code base and theme structure. It will be done after analyzing the technical team.
1. If they’d done that before spamming me, then that first sentence wouldn’t be needed (along with points one and two above). 2. That second sentence doesn’t make sense. So no need for this!
Mobile compatible features implementation
The site is already fully mobile compatible. So no need for this!
Word Press CMS implementation
I’m a fan of WordPress (there’s no space in between the words…) but not every site needs it and my Easter site certainly doesn’t. So no need for this!
The design should be a completely new one from our lab
Erm, well I guess they did spam me for a redesign. But I like my design!
The website will be eye-catching to visitors
Well I’d hope so, that’s kind of the point of design! Oh, and my site already is. So no need for this!
Easy to navigate through the website
Yep, got this covered. So no need for this!
Latest Technology of coding
What, like HTLM5, CSS3 and Flexbox, etc. (see above…) So no need for this!
Most importantly it should be browser compatible with all the major browsers
I know. That’s why my site is! So no need for this!
Logo design (Optional)
Already got a logo thanks. So no need for this!
Codes will be SEO friendly
Thanks, but they already are. So no need for this!
Social media buttons
What, like the ones in the footer of the site already?! So no need for this!
The header will be a nice one with the logo along with menu bar
They read my mind – already done. So no need for this!
Well organized body structure
This too! So no need for this!
Footer will be there with copyright to your organization
Oh and this one! So no need for this!
We’ll also, provide the site map for your website
An HTML one or an XML one? Oh, never mind, my site already has both! So no need for this!
Sliding banner of 4-5 images
NO NO NO NO NO. Sliders/Carousels are generally never a good idea… https://shouldiuseacarousel.com/ (The answer is no.)
So out of those 18 items. 15 are already on the site. I don’t wont or need a new logo, the site doesn’t need to be in WordPress and having a carousel is a lousy idea.
Hmmmm. I think I’ll give their redesign a miss then!
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 https://www.luvcite.com/
For HTML Validation, my site has no errors. Their site has 28 errors and 35 warnings.
Using the ‘WAVE’ Accessibility Testing Tool, their site has 30 errors and 15 contrast errors. My site has no errors of either kind!
Using the GTMetrix speed test tool their site gets:
Overall Grade: E
Performance 38%
Structure 77%
My site gets:
Overall Grade: A
Performance 100%
Structure 100%
So my site is rather better!
Their home pages has four Heading 1s. You should only ever have one!
There’s no privacy policy on the site. That’s not good practise and is basically illegal in many countries…
On their about page, the intro para is so full of marketing jargon that it doesn’t actually tell you anything! It includes such meaningless phrases as “Our contemporary mixture of strategic or creative people is churning out solutions that will let you strike the road.” (Erm what?!)
On the home page there’s a portfolio carousel with screenshots of some of their clients. They also show the country were the client is along with a flag. Only ALL the flags are the USA flag – no matter what country the client is in!!!
There’s a call to action on many of their pages – but it’s got the dummy latin filler text left in it – oops!
In their email they say they’re in India but have ‘a branch office in Ohio, USA’. There is indeed an address in Ohio (very rural Ohio). But when I investigated the address, it’s actually for a company selling karting and motor sport supplies. And funnily enough LuvCite made their site (and it’s on their portfolio)…
And just like their own site, sadly the motorsport site is not very well made. There’s dummy latin text left on the home and and ALL of the about page is dummy/rubbish English filler text. I always find that very trustworthy when I visit a site (not)! (The site is also full of basic HTML, accessibility and SEO errors – like no Heading 1 or meta description on the home page – both rather important for SEO!)
All of LuvCite’s social media profiles state they’re in Bhubaneswar, India. There’s no mention of Ohio anywhere.
So is it possible that LuvCite are using the address of one of their clients in the USA as a ‘branch office’ to make it look like they’ve got an address in the USA!? I hope their client knows they’re doing that! Hmmmm.
Conclusion
LuvCite Digital Marketing Agency are yet another SEO spammer who use fake email accounts to spam people from and then claim to be ‘one of the leading’ agencies out there…
NONE of the things they said needed doing on my site actually do.
They also don’t seem to know how to set-up their own site very well.
So if LuvCite Digital Marketing Agency think your site needs a redesign, you might want to press the delete button on their spam instead.
But, as ever, the choice is yours.