{"id":2081,"date":"2013-01-06T13:36:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T17:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2025-07-01T13:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:08:56","slug":"seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html","title":{"rendered":"SEO Scams \u2013 Unsolicited Advertising Snake Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SEO scams are on the increase. What gives?<\/p>\n<p>If you own a website with a contact form, if you maintain a blog that is open to comments, you\u2019ve most likely received SEO scams in the form of unsolicited email advertising.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve reviewed your site. Did you know that you don\u2019t have h tags? That your meta data is missing? We can help you correct the problems. Our top-secret methods will achieve #1 search engine rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Your business is not listed on Yext. A Yext listing will help your search engine ranking. Give us a call. We will submit your site to 1000s of directories. We can get you a #1 ranking.<\/p>\n<p>Your keywords are\/keyword density is all wrong. Using long-tailed keywords of 5 or more words will get you a #1 ranking. We perform in-depth keyword assessment, and give you the keywords you should be using.<\/p>\n<p>Yada-yada-yada. You\u2019ve received something similar to the above, haven\u2019t you?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe you\u2019ve even opened the email worried about your site. Even if you are working with a reputable SEO\/SEM firm like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\">Directory One<\/a> to keep your site ranking.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever heard of the term &#8220;snake oil&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>For those of you who don\u2019t know, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Snake_oil\">snake oil<\/a> is a 19th century term for those miraculous tinctures that can cure everything from a hangnail to an abscess and everything in between.  Snake oil didn\u2019t work. It was fraudulent representation of a product to make a buck.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s still a rip-off.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re working with a trustworthy SEO firm, you know that they take time to build a close relationship with you. They know you and your business and what makes your company stand out from your competition. They work closely with you to develop your site\u2019s keywords, content, and advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Your SEO firm takes helps you analyze your industry and your potential visitors to drive traffic to your website. You receive monthly analytics to review how you are getting visitors and what keywords you are using. You are given recommendations on how to adjust your site and coordinate your advertising and website content for approval.<\/p>\n<p>Your SEO firm continually makes updates to your site to keep you ranked and the leads coming.<\/p>\n<p>A good SEO\/SEM firm does not send unsolicited SEO spam email advertisements. They don\u2019t have to, since their reputation speaks for them. Period.<\/p>\n<p>So what are these con-artists up to?<\/p>\n<p>With the stagnant economy, it seems email advertisement is increasing. The SEO spammers have all sorts of methods up their sleeves to turn a quick buck once you sign up for their services.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the things that could possibly happen.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Attack of the robots. The SEO analysis you pay for is generated by a computer program. It takes people to interpret the numbers or adjust reporting parameters.<\/li>\n<li>Your hundreds, even thousands of backlinks may be built from spamming other sites. Even if the backlink is created on a related site, the site may not be relevant. Since your URL is used, it\u2019s your spam, and you could be reported.<\/li>\n<li>Generating article backlinks could mean that they write a whole bunch of articles and submit them to article databases like Ezine. While there is some really good articles in article databases, most of them are really bad. The Penguin algorithm has given many of these databases a demotion, so the backlinks may either be ignored or at worst decrease your site\u2019s ranking.<\/li>\n<li>They could actually mess up your site\u2019s current ranking by changing tags, titles, and meta data.<\/li>\n<li>Once they have all your site information, they can easily set up a phishing site. This is illegal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you\u2019ve received an SEO scam unsolicited email advertisement, contact your SEO firm and discuss the issues that the email brought up.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re comfortable with the service your current SEO company provides and recognizes an SEO scam, just use the delete button.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing feels better than round-canning SEO spam emails. And calling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/seocreed-code-of-ethics.htm\">Directory One<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEO scams are on the increase. What gives? If you own a website with a contact form, if you maintain a blog that is open to comments, you\u2019ve most likely received SEO scams in the form of unsolicited email advertising. We\u2019ve reviewed your site. Did you know that you don\u2019t have h tags? That your meta data is missing? We can help you correct the problems. Our top-secret methods will achieve #1 search engine rankings. Your business is not listed on Yext. A Yext listing will help your search engine ranking. Give us a call. We will submit your site to 1000s of directories. We can get you a #1 ranking. Your keywords are\/keyword density is all wrong. Using long-tailed keywords of 5 or more words will get you a #1 ranking. We perform in-depth keyword assessment, and give you the keywords you should be using. Yada-yada-yada. You\u2019ve received something similar to the above, haven\u2019t you? Maybe you\u2019ve even opened the email worried about your site. Even if you are working with a reputable SEO\/SEM firm like Directory One to keep your site ranking. Have you ever heard of the term &#8220;snake oil&#8221;? For those of you who don\u2019t know,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1154,1155,1153,1152],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search-engine-optimization","tag-seo-fraud-protection","tag-seo-scam-prevention","tag-seo-scam-warnings","tag-seo-scams"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Search Engine Marketing &amp; Optimization Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1132\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip O&#039;Hara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip O&#039;Hara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Philip O'Hara\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"headline\":\"SEO Scams \u2013 Unsolicited Advertising Snake Oil\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\"},\"wordCount\":682,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"SEO fraud protection\",\"SEO scam prevention\",\"SEO scam warnings\",\"SEO Scams\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Search Engine Optimization | SEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\",\"name\":\"SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\"},\"description\":\"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg\",\"width\":1132,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SEO Scams \u2013 Unsolicited Advertising Snake Oil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Search Engine Marketing &amp; Optimization Blog\",\"description\":\"Directory One\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8\",\"name\":\"Philip O'Hara\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Philip O'Hara\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/author\/philip\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers","description":"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers","og_description":"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html","og_site_name":"Search Engine Marketing &amp; Optimization Blog","article_published_time":"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1132,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip O'Hara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip O'Hara","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html"},"author":{"name":"Philip O'Hara","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8"},"headline":"SEO Scams \u2013 Unsolicited Advertising Snake Oil","datePublished":"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html"},"wordCount":682,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg","keywords":["SEO fraud protection","SEO scam prevention","SEO scam warnings","SEO Scams"],"articleSection":["Search Engine Optimization | SEO"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html","name":"SEO Scams: How to Avoid Unsolicited Snake Oil Offers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg","datePublished":"2013-01-06T17:36:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T18:08:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8"},"description":"Learn how to spot SEO scams and avoid misleading offers. Protect your business from unethical SEO practices with expert advice on real, effective strategies.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/seo-scam.jpg","width":1132,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/seo-scams-unsolicited-advertising-snake-oil.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SEO Scams \u2013 Unsolicited Advertising Snake Oil"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/","name":"Search Engine Marketing &amp; Optimization Blog","description":"Directory One","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c12d79fe6de0228be0c8b1a5f638e8","name":"Philip O'Hara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f50ee825a5ca27a3414764c22cebf5cf053ea9e8fed32b88969d19e919bfbb54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Philip O'Hara"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/author\/philip"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}