The Fake SEO Salesman: A Warning to Other Small Businesses

Once upon a time a fake, cunning, and wretched SEO salesman approached one of my clients. He ran a questionable report, with a questionable analysis, and with a questionable video of him explaining SEO concepts.

My client signed up for $500 a month for this service as she honestly wanted to improve her website. This bloke charmed her with his magic and promised her the thing everyone wants but can’t have without payment, a spot at the top of Google. Oh yes, he promised.

After several months of paying she questioned the legitimacy of his services. The website went down suddenly and her clients complained. She reached out to the SEO magician and he appeased her worries: “No problem I will fix it ASAP, all good”. My client waited and waited, and… waited some more. Then suddenly, after all this time waiting, he still did… wait for it… absolutely nothing.

My client began to question the authenticity of his services especially because the SEO salesman stopped responding as quick once he received his handsome monthly payments, funny that. Then my client bumped into a friend of mine that recommended our website services. She reached out to us and explained the issues.

After we spoke with her we searched up her website and by golly it looked like frankenstein. She went through so many so-called web developers that put bandaids on top of bandaids, temporary fixes that fixed nothing. She went through graphic designers, overseas Indian developers, so called SEO specialists, and much more. The website required a complete rebuild from scratch, not just another bandaid fix, as the charlatan SEO expert promised.

I watched the video that the SEO guy sent to my client, I cringed through the entire video. He discussed technology he knew nothing about and mentioned concepts that the SEO docs of Google literally say not to perform otherwise they will punish and rank a website lower.

I call these types of people scum of the Earth. They prey on small businesses that honestly want their website to rank higher organically on Google. A plausible objective but used by so many to trick small businesses.

I went to the website of my client and saw that even the things he promised to fix he never fulfilled. I scoffed and continued to research this guy online. I landed on his website and overviewed his portfolio of work out of curiosity and noticed that he mentioned businesses he worked with that did not exist.

I searched for the websites of the companies he mentioned he worked with and found nothing. I watched his videos that he published where his clients endorse his services whilst they wear their business polo shirts. I searched each business in his video online and again, found NOTHING.

Let me summarise it succinctly for anyone reading this.

This fake SEO salesman tricks people into paying for a service per month where he performs no real services. He hopes a business continues to pay him whilst he mooches off of them as long as possible until they realise he performs no real SEO services.

Don’t worry the story ends well.

Once my client realised the SEO salesman performed no real services she sent him an email to cancel the service. After weeks of him not replying to her multiple emails for help he suddenly replied. Cut off their money supply and just like rats they scurry out from the sewer. He started to use threatening language with my client in anger of the cancellation, typical from this type of person.

We went on to rebuild her ecommerce website from scratch with Shopify and took no SEO payments, instead we built a high quality website with excellent content and a focus on website conversions, which actually leads to better SEO. We utilise the SEO documentation written by Google itself, not the fake stuff written on blogs on the internet by other fake SEO people. We follow the real source, not the chinese whispers on the street.

SEO actually works when performed correctly but due to the nature of the service many people leverage it to scam other businesses.

For any business that want to hire an SEO specialist I highly recommend to use the guide written by Google on how to hire an SEO specialist

Stay safe out there, scammers are on the rise.