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 a ‘Tomato Smith’ (yes TOMATO SMITH) who was using an @gmail.com email address with their name and and bunch of numbers in it. (So that seems like a very real name and person then…)
This was another ‘we can do all you SEO for you’ type of SEO spam – rather than saying “you site is bad…”.
The subject of the spam was “SEO/PPC Outsourcing at Low Cost?” and went:
Hello,
Do you want to slash your SEO/PPC cost by 60%? We offer White Label outsourcing solutions to Digital agencies.
Why partner with us?1. Tailored SEO and Paid Ads Plan.
2. Free Audit Report.
3. White label monthly reports with 24×7 support on Skype and basecamp.
4. We have a success score of 95% for our SEO campaigns.
5. A dedicated team of 45+ professionals ready to jump into your project right away, save up to 60% on marketing as well as resource hiring cost.You are interested? Please share your ideas. If you want to talk over a call, we can schedule a meeting with my Manager. He can give you a demo of our work and discuss your ideas.
If this sounds good to you, I can send you our past work details, company information and an affordable quotation with the best offer. Let’s hop on a Skype/Phone call for better communication.
Let’s stay in touch!
Warm Regards
Tomato smith
Well, I had to reply to someone called “Tomato” didn’t I?! So I sent a one liner:
What company are you?
That got me a reply from ‘Tomato’ which also cc-ed in an email from an @seoexpertsagency.co address and went:
Hello There,
Thank you for getting back to me, I am looping in my Manager, Kiranpreet. She is our lead in strategic partnership and business growth. She’ll get back to you and discuss your requirements in detail. She’ll also discuss agency pricing with you.
Please share your Skype/WhatsApp details for faster communication.
Best Regards
Tomato smith
Well, I didn’t reply to that, I just waited. In a few days I go the following reply from the @seoexpertsagency.co address which was cc-ed in. It went:
Hello There,
Thank you for expressing your interest in SEO Experts Company India!
I am Kiran Smith’s manager from SECI. This email is in reference to your discussion with Smith regarding the White Label Services
Our company SEO Experts Company India has worked with various clients and helped them generate great business organically. I would like to mention that we also offer a tailored custom SEO strategy for every business, we analyze the business their end goals their competitors, and then based on their inputs we propose the best SEO strategy along with cost.
If you’re interested in acquiring our services then I’d love to schedule a brief phone call with you to discuss your detailed requirements.
Please review our portfolio for your reference-
[link removed for privacy – from SEO Experts Company India]Meanwhile please review some of our case studies blog links for your reference:
[links removed for privacy – two were from SEO Experts Company India and two were from Visibility Gurus]You can also book a meeting here: [link removed for privacy] for the time that works the best for you and we can plan out an Apt solution.
Please review the pricing and let me know if you have any queries and I will be happy to answer them for you.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Kiran
Business Development Manager[contact removed for privacy]
Websites: visibilitygurus.com , seoexpertscompanyindia.com
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I replied to Kiran asking why they were spamming me…
Hi Kiran,
I’ve been a web designer and developer for 20 over years. I like to reply to SEO spammers to see what ‘services’ they offer and the things they say and use to get clients.
I have some questions.
Please can you tell me why you think it’s ok to spam people, from random email accounts, to get business?
Are you happy breaching multiple international laws?
Your initial email was IN BREACH OF ALL the pieces of anti-spam legislation listed below (and many others from around the world).
For the UK (where I live) you are not allowed to sent marketing emails to an individual without their permission – you did this: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/electronic-and-telephone-marketing/electronic-mail-marketing/ (Under UK law, I am an ‘individual’ as I’m a Sole Trader, not a Ltd Company.)
For the USA (where your site says you’re based), you are breaking several aspects of CAN-SPAM compliance: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
For CASL in Canada, you need consent to send electronic marketing – which you did not have: https://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/00008.html (You also need other business identifiers in the emails, which your emails do not have.)
The Anti Spam Act in Australia has similar conditions for consent and identity, which your emails also do not meet: https://www.acma.gov.au/avoid-sending-spam
In South Africa there is the Protection of Personal Information Act, which says you have to have consent to send people marketing emails, which you did not have: https://ispa.org.za/spam/
In France the Trust in the Digital Economy Act says that you have to have consent to send marketing emails, which you did not have: https://www.culture.gouv.fr/en/Thematiques/Industries-culturelles-et-creatives/Dossiers-thematiques/Le-spam/Le-cadre-juridique-La-legislation-francaise-en-matiere-de-spam
For The Netherlands, the Dutch Telecommunications Act says that you need consent to send people marketing emails, which you did not have. It also says that the true identity of the party should be disclosed up front, which you did not do. https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/document/nld/1988/telecommunications_act_of_the_netherlands.html?
I look forward to getting your answers to my questions.
It’s been well over a week now I’ve not heard back from them. I’ll post an update if I ever do get a reply (I doubt one will ever arrive).
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…
This spammer seems to have multiple domains and sites…
Then they have two sites for their businesses seoexpertscompanyindia.com – registered in May 2015 and visibilitygurus.com – registered in August 2016.
They used seoexpertsagency.co for their emails. Interestingly, it was only registered in August 2022 – so less than two months before they spammed me. Hmmmm. So another spammer trying to keep their main domain emails ‘clean’ by using another domain for their ’email leads’….
I’ll take a look at both of their business sites.
First up is SEO Experts Company India at https://www.seoexpertscompanyindia.com
For HTML Validation, their site has 26 errors and 23 warnings. Not a great start.
Using the ‘WAVE’ Accessibility Testing Tool, their site has 0 errors and 4 contrast errors – That’s about the best I’ve ever seen for an SEO spammer. But it’s basically down to the theme they’re using being good in that way.
Using the Google Lighthouse speed test tool their site gets:
Performance: 79
Accessibility: 92
Best Practices: 100
SEO: 100
Again, that’s about the best I’ve seen from an SEO spammer – but again it’s down to the good theme they’re using!
But there are also some ‘interesting’ things on their site…
The alt text on their logo is “SEO Experts Company Logo v2.1”. Erm, why is there a version number in there!? (Their shouldn’t be.)
There’s no privacy policy on the site. That breaks multiple international privacy laws.
At the top of their home page, one of the main headings is “Over 600 Businesses Have Trusted Our SEO Experts…”. Lower down on the home page, there’s a ‘numbers panel’ where it says they’ve had ‘135 Happy Clients’ – so what is it 135 or over 600?! You’d think they’d know!
There are three testimonials on the site. Shall we say that I’m not convinced that they’re genuine. There are photos with the testimonials. Two of the three are clearly stock model photos (confirmed by reserve image searches).
On one of the testimonials, the photo is of an asian woman, but the name with it is one normally associated with a Spanish/latin man!
Now let’s have a look the Visibility Gurus site at https://visibilitygurus.com/
For HTML Validation, their site has 49 errors and 3 warnings. Hmmm, so worse then.
Using the ‘WAVE’ Accessibility Testing Tool, their site has 38 errors and 5 contrast errors – Also not good then.
Using the Google Lighthouse speed test tool their site gets:
Performance: 36
Accessibility: 80
Best Practices: 83
SEO: 77
Ah, that’s more like it for an SEO spammer – especially the ‘Performance’ part!
The Visibility Gurus also has some ‘interesting things’ on it…
There’s no alt text on their logo – that’s not good.
Like the SEO Experts Company India site, there’s no privacy policy. They’re also setting analytics cookies without telling on the Visibility Gurus, that’s even worse legally…
Just like on the SEO Experts Company India site, there are also some testimonials with photos. The first one is for a man called ‘Connor’, only the photo’s file name is ‘kevin.jpg’ and it seems to belong to an SEO person called Kevin from South Africa! (Reverse image searches also show that it was on the SEO Experts Company India site at one point in time, although the page it was on is no longer active.)
The next one is for an ‘Estelle’ and this one might be genuine. But the third one isn’t! It’s meant to be for a ‘Shaun’ but the image file name is ‘client03.png’ and it’s from a stock photo called ‘handsome young man with magazine’!
What is it with spammy SEO companies and using fake names and photos on their ‘reviews’?!
Conclusion
So we know that SEO Experts Company India / Visibility Gurus are SEO spammers.
They use generic gmail accounts to send out their spam, with the most amazingly fake name I’ve ever seen, breaking multiple international anti-spam laws.
When asked why they do this, they don’t answer. (It’s funny how spammers don’t like answering questions about why they send out spam…)
They’ve got a newly registered domain they’re using for sending out ’email leads’ (spam replies).
They’ve got two sites, both with, erm, ‘interesting things’…
So if SEO Experts Company India / Visibility Gurus say they can manage SEO things for you, the delete button might be a better option.
But, as ever, the choice is yours…