Emails that say: “You are nowhere to be seen in search engines for the keywords that are vital to your business”

I recently travelled to Leicester to carry out a review of our internet marketing efforts for a Day Care Nursery.
We’ve helped this particular client for over 6 years with link building to make his business appear in the top spots on Google’s natural listings (sometimes referred to as organic listings).
At the end of the meeting the client’s voice became hushed as he asked me if he could show me an email he had recently received. Naturally I agreed as my curiosity was aroused. We gathered around his computer to read an email that went along the lines of…
“We have conducted a thorough review of your website and you are nowhere to be seen in search engines for the keywords that are vital to your business”
For the client this was a scary email to read and made him doubt for a moment that DBS was doing a proper job for him.
Fortunately we were sitting near a computer so I was able to go onto Google and show the client that the email was completely untrue and that he appeared in search engines for his keywords. I also had a print out of all the keywords that we link build for, how many people searched for these keywords a month and where they were positioned on Google which I left behind with him.
“David” he asked “why would they send me an email that wasn’t true?”
I replied with the following…
These type of companies don’t sit down and thoroughly investigate what the important keywords are for a business and how visible they are on Google. They fling out a blanket email to any email address they can beg, steal or borrow with the hope that it will strike a chord with someone, somewhere who has poor visibility in search engines.DBS continually receives hundreds of these emails for our own website when I know we rank highly – usually at #1.
The blanket emails normally make statements such as:
· We’ll get you to #1 on Google – guaranteed
· We have a special relationship with Google
· We will submit your site to hundreds of search engines and directories
These statements might sound appealing to the unknowing but would make me run a mile. Those of you who have seen me recently will realise this would be quite an achievement.
If you are in the market place for an internet marketing company:
1. make sure they have a proven track record
2. ask for client references which if they are worth their salt should be on their website.
3. clarify that they are a Google AdWords Certified Partner
The internet is powerful but won’t be able to show you that as you were reading the 3 points above I was coughing loudly and pointing to myself.
If you receive any emails like the one my client in Leicester did then feel free to forward them to me to add to my collection.