On the network of blogs that I run I get hundreds of comments each day, and companies that employ spam link builders to post nonsense, badly written comments in an effort to build links to their website are like a red rag to me. This latest company is a Cheshire based firm offering web design and ‘white hat’ SEO services. Obviously their SEO services aren’t quite as white hat as they claim, if the following blog comment is anything to go by:

Name: cheshire web design
Website: you-media.co.uk
Email: nicoleglass99@yahoo.co.uk
IP Addfress: 112.202.13.122
Date: Submitted on 2011/11/16 at 8:31 am

I differ with a lot of individuals right here; I ran across this web site submit We couldn’t leave right up until I completed, though it wasn’t precisely what I had been searching for, had been a great go through however. Let me instantaneously get the weblog supply to remain in effect of the improvements.

The name for the comment was ‘cheshire web design’, the keyword for which they’re trying to rank, and the email address used is a disposable Yahoo email (probably created by a foreign ‘link builder’). The comment itself is gibberish, and has probably been run through spinning software, translation software or just crafted by someone with a passing knowledge of English. Indeed, if you simply Google the first line of the comment you’ll see a number of examples where this dross has been published, linking to other websites that have also used the same link building company.

Rather that create quality back links for them, this gibberish has merely served to expose the black hat SEO tactics they employ, and the fact that they evidently use foreign suppliers for their link building (or they employ link builders who really cannot write intelligibly).

Good work You Media, your ‘white hat’ SEO skills are indeed impressive.

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This latest shit awful comment written by some pigeon English brandishing halfwit is for a website selling scooters. So, Dave’s Scooters, whoever you’ve hired to do your link building I’d suggest you sack them, it hasn’t really worked.

Author : scooters (IP: 84.241.194.168 , 84.241.194.168) E-mail : ObermanQuispe434@hotmail.com
URL    : http://www.davesscootershop.nl
Whois  : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/84.241.194.168
Comment:
Great post, very informative. I’m wondering why the other experts of this sector don’t notice this. You should proceed your writing. I’m sure, you have a huge readers’ base already!|What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It absolutely helpful and it has aided me out loads. I hope to contribute & help different users like its helped me. Great job.

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At StuckOn, based in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire (just round the corner from Cheshire Oaks) we’re looking for a web designer to join our team. We’re an SEO agency, but we also do a lot of website design. You can see our web design portfolio here for the sorts of sites we’ve built and the types of industries in which we work.

We’re looking for someone creative, although you don’t necessarily need to have worked professionally as a web designer, or have any formal qualifications in web design. We just want someone who has a genuine passion for web design and is in the Ellesmere Port/Liverpool area.

So, if you’re a keen web designer, or even someone with an interest in getting into website design, and you live in Ellesmere Port, or somewhere near (such as Liverpool, Chester or on the Wirral) then we’d like to hear from you at StuckOn.

Have a look at the job spec here and, if you’re interested in applying, fill in the contact form and send us your CV, together with some examples of your URLs. We’re looking to interview our first candidates next week, so you’ll need to act fast if you want to apply for this web design position.

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Now, while it’s very easy for me to identify which comments are genuine and which are posted purely for SEO purposes, it is interesting to see which companies and websites employ SEO companies that use these black hat, spam tactics.

So, here are a couple of the best spam comments I have received lately, complete with the emails of the ‘people’ who left them, and the websites who have been using dodgy SEO link building techniques.

Posted by: mark clayson
URL: markclaysoncomputers.com
Email: VercherArrollo90@gmail.com
IP: 217.219.115.133
Submitted on 2011/10/05 at 10:07 pm

Hi my loved one! I want to say that this article is amazing, great written and come with approximately all vital infos. I?d like to look extra posts like this .

I’m willing to guess that ‘Mark Clayson’ didn’t post this himself, as the English is so poor it’s clearly not from someone who has English as a first language. The email address used, a disposable Gmail address, is a clear giveaway that the poster is in the habit of posting bulk comments and isn’t actually Mark Clayson.

Posted by: language blog, job market, bilingual jobs, multilingual jobs, expat employees, language jobs, blog
URL: blog.toplanguagejobs.com
Email: VerenChronister3005@gnumail.com
IP: 89.175.182.190
Submitted on 2011/10/06 at 12:11 pm

Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all people you actually recognise what you are speaking approximately! Bookmarked. Kindly also consult with my website =). We can have a link change arrangement among us

This meaningless drivel was posted on the same day, using a very similar email address format. What I like about this comment is that it’s absolute garbage, making no sense, yet is promoting a website offering ‘language jobs’. What a cracking advert for the website! I bet the marketing department at toplanguagejobs.com will be thrilled to have their website and brand associated with this kind of crap.

Building links for SEO is important, but not as important as building them properly. If you employ an SEO company or link builder that uses link building techniques such as this you’ll end up with some seriously poor quality links, and your brand damaged by the nature of the links – and you might end up as the subject of a blog on MrDaz.com, which is far worse!

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Now I don’t mind so much the odd recruitment consultant calling me as I know they’re only doing their jobs and trying to fill positions – but seriously, some of them haven’t even looked at my CV before calling – if the jobs they’re suggesting are anything to go by. I’ve been asked about positions ranging from an SEO manager in Dublin (interesting, for sure) to a developer role in Bristol – even though I’m not a developer. I’ve been asked about entry level developer positions… I’m 34 (for a few more days at least) and have worked in Internet marketing for the last 11 years!

I’m half expecting to get calls from bakery recruitment or transport recruitment agencies, such is the irrelevance of some of the calls I have been getting.

What makes matters even worse is how some of these recruitment consultants handle being told that I’m not interested. Some of them are fine, and say sorry and wish me a nice day. This is good. Some of them argue, saying that they’ve seen my CV and think the role they have would be very suitable, even though they have already been told I’m not interested.

Some of them, however, decide that the best, and quickest, option is to just hang up on me, which is unacceptable. As anyone who knows me, or reads this website regularly, will testify I am known for remembering infractions such as this and, suffice to say, StuckOn won’t be using recruitment agencies where its staff have behaved in this way.

A little tip there for recruitment consultants; when you phone someone about a job it’s best you’re not rude to them when they say they’re not interested because, just maybe, they could be responsible for recruitment where they are now… setting fire to those bridges isn’t a good idea.

As a side note, I have even been called by BD Recruitment in the last two weeks. I told them to Google BD Recruitment and then never phone me again. A read of this post will explain why.

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Anyhow – after some years it appears that Providence Properties has let its domain name slip and it’s been registered by someone else, someone who still remembers what happened and has decided to make a website dedicated to the whole affair. How nice.

Little SEO lesson for you all there; no matter how bad things get with your company, no matter how much of a balls up you make, never let your domain name lapse.

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Watch the SEO advice video on YouTube

The funny thing about this video, from a technical point of view, is that in order to get the video to look aged, with hairs in the gate and scratches, I had to export it from Adobe Premiere Pro (where it was edited) and import it into the rather basic Windows Movie Maker – which had loads of cool filters.

I feel cheap and dirty after doing that – but so long as you don’t tell anyone, I’ll be OK.

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Anyway, I received one today and was shocked at, firstly, the poor grammar and, secondly, the fact that the email offers ‘copywriting’ services – at least it would, if the illiterate imbecile who put finger to keyboard to scribe this dross knew the difference between ‘copywriting’ and ‘copyright’.

Check this out:

SEO| Internet Marketing| Website Designing

Hi

We are leading SEO service provider and web Development Company. We are expert in PHP,.NET, and many open sources like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Oscommerse ,Zencart and Blog Management. We offer best of quality work to our clients at the lowest possible prices. We can quickly promote your website.

We can place your website on top of the Natural Listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN. We do not use “”link farms”" or “”black hat”" methods that Google and the other search engines frown upon and can use to de-list or ban your site. . Price is never a constraint with us because we take pride in handling challenging work.

We would be happy to send you best fit proposal for web development and designing and if you have a SEO requirement we will send you a proposal using the top search phrases for your area of expertise.

In order for us to respond to your request for information, please include your company’s website address (mandatory) and /or phone number.

Sincerely,
Aden Clark
clarkaden634@gmail.com
COMPLETE INTERNET MARKETING SOLUTION
SEO – Link Building – Copyright – Web Designing – PHP

He’s offering ‘copyright’ services? What, he’s offering to secure a patent on something for me, to register a trademark? What?

Can someone please offer ‘copywriting’ services to the idiots that offer ‘copyright’ services via unsolicited emails?

Also note the use of a ‘gmail’ email address. They do this so that no actual SEO company can be immediately linked with the sending of spam emails. If I were to reply to this moron (who, admittedly, probably doesn’t exist anyway) I would receive a reply from a different email address, from someone who would say something along the lines of ‘I am taking over from Aden’…

It frightens me that some people would actually fall for this. No wonder the SEO industry has a bad reputation.

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For example, the following ‘comment’ was left on one of our sites recently (today actually, on a Saturday) using an IP address based in Asia. As you can see, the comment is asking for a link to the client’s website (an ‘SEO’ company based in London) and has been written by someone who clearly has English as a second language. The line: ‘There is following our link details once you will add then confirm the same’ demonstrates the poor use of English.

Have a read of the comment we received:

Author : smith (IP: 110.172.26.20 , 110.172.26.20) E-mail : smith.adairs@gmail.com
URL : http://www.digital-spark.co.uk/
Whois : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/110.172.26.20
Comment:
Dear webmaster,

I just visited your website. After reviewing your website, I thought you would be a great resource for exchanging link.

There is following our link details once you will add then confirm the same.

By using following details:

Title: seo company
URL: http://www.digital-spark.co.uk/
Description: SEO Consultant London – Digital Spark

Awaiting for your response

Thanks & Regards,
Link Exchange Expert

This type of spam link building doesn’t do a website any favours, and merely serves to highlight the unethical practices of the SEO company involved. The fact that these links are FOR the SEO company makes matters even worse.

You shouldn’t spam websites for links using poor quality, broken English.

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The people that do this, without any real knowledge of SEO, tend to be web designers (or sorts) who have realised that their clients now want SEO and, rather than pass them on to a credible SEO agency, claim to be able to do it themselves. They’ll often charge a flat rate for one off work too, because, let’s face it, they don’t really know what they’re doing anyway so what difference does it make how they do it?

Whether you’re a plumber in Cheshire or a national accounting firm, whether you’re going after geographical keywords or generic keywords, they charge the same… because they have little or no idea of how to rank a website anyway, why the heck not?

I was looking at one website this last week and noticed they’d had SEO done (kind of) but there were a few, shall we say, glaring errors. It was apparent that whoever had performed the SEO wasn’t an expert in their field, and had more likely cribbed off some notes from a blog or forum before attempting the work. For example, they’d even spelt the word ‘Stockport’ wrong in the client’s Title tag!

So, I looked at the website for the company responsible and found that they were in fact a rather well known design agency in Chester… a design agency also offering ‘SEO services’; well, who doesn’t these days?

A quick look through their site and I could see just how they’d have made a mistake with the client’s website; their blog didn’t even feature a Title tag… on ANY of the pages. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of SEO will tell you about the importance of a Title tag, yet this SEO company didn’t even have one, on any of the blog’s pages. The Title tag was blank…

I presume this was an oversight; perhaps someone was updating the template and forgot to put the Title tag generator back in? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t checked and the rankings of the website will be affected as a result; just like any website’s Google rankings would be affected if similar errors were made while optimising a website.

When you let someone loose on your website for SEO, make sure they know what they’re doing.

Oh, did you want to know who the SEO company in question is? Sorry; I’m not tipping them off

See, I’ve grown as a person.

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