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I received a message today that just goes to show the importance of monitoring what your seo agency does on your behaf because left unwatched they can do you a whole lot of damage.
With the environment being a hot topic these days seldom a day goes by when we don’t get someone joining The Environment Site with the sole aim of plugging their wares (ie spamming). After a while you get used to the signs and can deal with them quite quickly. This particular company used the traditional “I was surfing the web and came across this great site, thought you guys would like to check it out….” line. The members on TES are a generally savvy lot and can see through such lines pretty quickly.
Despite the sceptical questioning of the members the spammer still refused to own up that he was in fact working on behalf of the website he was plugging. The web being the wonderful thing, the thread was also picked up on the MoneySavingExpert forum (he’d also spammed there too) and so the mucher bigger audience that MSE gets were made aware of things too.
Reap what you sow
Anyway, it all kinda settled down and I didn’t investigate things further until today. Apparently one of our members had complained to the website about them spamming the forum. I received a message from the websites content editor (Mr A shall we say) suggesting that the spammer was nothing to do with them, could I remove all association between the member and their website.
It was then that I did some digging around and found out that the spammer was in fact the SEO manager of a digital marketing agency, one of whose clients was none other than the website in question. When I mentioned this to Mr A he claimed no knowledge that the spammer was doing this sort of thing.
That the process of astroturfing is now illegal is bad enough but I later received another message from the spammer still failing to own up to things and claiming that he was merely a helpful do gooder that happened to love this particular website.
Obviously the thread is live on the forum now for all to see, as it no doubt is on MSE as well as any other places this guy frequented. I somehow doubt that was what the company intended when they hired this company to do their seo. All of which underlines the importance of setting some clear guidelines and keeping an eye on what your seo agency are up to.
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When a spammer gets caught out, they really ought to make a hasty retreat with their tail firmly between their legs. Take the other approach and attempt to contest the issue, and they only make it worse for themselves, as in this case.
We had exactly the same thing happen over at Aardvark Travel, here. Hard to believe that such a large company can make such elementary mistakes.
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Haha, very good.
Unbelievable, isn’t it? I don’t know what the best option is for someone seeking further exposure for the site or business. Even if you keep the work in-house, you can’t be sure this kind of thing won’t occur. I guess you just have to either do it yourself, go with someone that has a track record, or keep a very watchful eye on whoever you recruit.
Luxury Travel’s last blog post..Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa launches exclusive whisky club
I guess the problem is if you don't have the knowledge in house, how will you know which agency is good and which bad? Likewise with monitoring performance. There is certainly an argument for outsourcing the leg work of seo but you still need strong knowlege internally I think as there will be things an agency can't provide.
Writing content for instance. Writing in an seo friendly manner isn't always intuitive so instilling that knowledge within your team will go a long way.
Looks like another eco site has fallen into this trap. This time http://www.click4carbon.com has been spamming The Environment Site (and a good few other sites too, including Digg). Sad that seemingly worthwhile causes have no idea how to market properly.