In the case of Nick Slevin's email, his email address leads to a non-existent web site. The email came to us out of the blue and with no prior business connection that I could find. Even Google appears to get marketing spam similar to this.

Generally, if you are a web site owner, you shouldn't throw money and the keys to the kingdom (your site's login) at places like this. Even in cases where the "scam" is not readily apparent, you may end up with a very minimally SEO'd web site and a lot of hidden pages. I've heard many horror stories and have spoken to several web site owners where they find that they've been added to Google's Malware list and have no idea why. They think back to that time they had the site "SEO'd" and wonder if that had anything to do with the current low rankings or malware notice.

When they have some one review the files on their web hosting account... They may end up finding a lot hidden pages, pages that are not linked from their normal web pages. Often these hidden pages include links to pirated software sites, spy ware installers, link exchanges they hadn't approved of, and the like.

These bad experiences can put a bad spin on SEO and make it harder for legitimate SEOs to successfully use email marketing. Because Google and other engines may decrease rankings or add pass-through/warning pages, with out much notice to the web master of the "bad" site or if they are even able to find a good email in a WHOIS record, it may look bad on the engines until a web site owner begins to understand that the problem is with their site rather than an engine. Google does have a review tool here but this may not root out the entire problem. If you've been working with an SEO from a random email, you may still want to have a look at the files and HTML pages in your web hosting account.

It is possible that this Nick Slevin is real, that he is creating a real SEO business, maybe, but who knows. An actual web site, some clients that tell the good and bad about your business, perhaps membership in organizations like Sempo or local search organizations similar to SEMPDX, and other activities can help to further back the legitimacy of a business. Not guarantee, but further the positive impression.

If you are an SEO reading this post and you've read Mr. Daz' post, an additional tip... You also shouldn't promise any top 10 rankings. Lets face it, the engines control the rankings. SEOs work with some of the art and science behind SEO but largely we are similar to coaches, professional resume writers, marketers of all stripes, and many other professions in that we try to shape an outcome that is largely out of our hands. It doesn't mean that you can't help to obtain top rankings, just that you can't guarantee rankings. Most site owners think that you mean top 10 rankings on competitive phrases, not the low hanging fruit that ranks just by adding some meta tags and a title tag.

When I get one of those "we guarantee top 10 rankings" emails, and I'm feeling ornery, I sometimes reply and ask that they guarantee that my site can rank in the top 10 for the terms: Google, MSN, or Yahoo within Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Or better yet, can they guarantee that they can put their own site in such a top spot? Odd, they don't usually reply and I don't see them in the rankings.

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