As a professional SEO consultant, it is fairly easy for me to quickly figure out whether an unsolicited offer to “dramatically increase my web traffic and sales”, or an offer to fix my website because “your website is not ranking for your keywords and we can fix it” are real or just a bunch of SPAM emails put out by some hired hands from India or other overseas operation. Usually they are SPAM.

How can you ferret out a professional request? Let’s take a look at the following common request I receive:

We offer quality Search Engine Optimization / SEO Services and Internet Marketing Solutions. Our dedicated team of SEO Professionals ensures Top 10 search engine rankings. Our SEO Processes are designed in view of the SEO guidelines, and white hat SEO techniques are strictly followed to ensure that our clients from world over get the best SEO services. Please reply to this email so we can send you more details.

There are two dead tells here, one I omitted. The sender had a gmail email account. The second tell is the guarantee to get you top 10 search engine rankings. This statement is a sure fire clue that you are not dealing with a true SEO professional, you are dealing with a salesman.

All SEO professionals know that it is impossible to ensure or guarantee top 10 rankings. So, if you are facing this offer, get it in writing, with a money back guarantee. You’ll need it.

If you are interested in SEO for your site, please give me a call for an honest assessment.