Beware SEO SpammersOctober 28th, 2021

If you have a website, you are receiving what I call SEO Spam each and every day. They promise free audit reports and tell you they can make you number one for any and all keywords under the sun.

Fact: they cannot

First off, they never even ask you what you want to be found for, just a blanket promise that they can make you number one. OK, what if I want to be found for Apple computers? See how ridiculous their promises are?

The sheer volume of these emails has gotten out of hand. While I am sure that there are some legitimate companies out there, they wouldn’t resort to sending spam.

Here is one day, over a 10-minute period, 7 SEO Spam Emails!

So what should you do?

When you respond to spammers, your email address is flagged as live. Spammers have no shame, they sell these list to others. So I never respond. Even their unsubscribe links are fake and used to determine what email addresses are live. The best thing you can do is mark them spam and delete. If you are receiving multiple emails with the same language, set up rules to discard their garbage.

So, what separates RooSites from the SEO spammers?

Simple, search engine optimization (SEO) is included with all our service plans. BUT, we never make false promises. And we NEVER send spam or unwanted emails of any kind. We will work with our clients to devise a plan to improve their search engine rankings. Depending on what they want to be found for, many times we do reach that vaunted number one spot in Google. This, of course, is dependent on what they want to be found for. In my joke above, obviously I won’t get somebody to be number one for Apple computers. But I might be able to get them a number for something reasonable. What we can promise is that if they follow the plan we set up for them, they will improve. Improving your search rankings is work, and if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can improve.

If it was as easy as the SEO spammers say, then ask yourself: Why aren’t they number one for SEO? If you check out most of the companies that are sending you Spam, they aren’t even on the first page for SEO or Search Engine Optimization! In fact, most aren’t in the top hundred listings!

Will this get better in the future?

I doubt it, although Spam detection has gotten much better we still find our inboxes and spam filters full of garbage each and every day. Some email providers are much better than others, which is why I always recommend a third-party email service rather than hosting your own website email on your server.

If you like Microsoft Products then go with Office 365
If you prefer Google products and Gmail, then G-Suite is the way to go.

Bottom line:

You have to always be on guard against spammers and scammers. Always assume any email coming in or pop-ups are from malicious sources looking to hack and or install Trojan processes on your computer. But as I said, in terms of the SEO Spam, mark as spam, delete and set up rules.

Lessons learned from a poorly run golf courseSeptember 12th, 2021

I bet you’re wondering why I would write about lessons learned from a golf course? Many things remind of my business (which is helping small businesses succeed via the web). I had an experience this week at a golf course which got me thinking, and I came up with four lessons I learned from a bad experience.

Here is the story:

My wife asked me if I wanted to play golf last Friday. I was busy but decided to take a break and play nine holes at a local par 3 course.

As it was a Friday and a workday, we did not call for a tee time, we figured we’d stop by and see how crowded it was. When we got there, there was nobody on the tee box, and the back nine was empty as well. My wife went in to pay and there was a young man at the desk. He said, the best I can do is get you a tee time in an hour or so. My wife said: “There’s nobody here!” He again said sorry, I can’t let you start for an hour. She again said, there is nobody on the tee or even waiting in the parking lot. Well, he said sorry, you’ll have to wait an hour.

What did we do? We left.

The four lessons I learned from this poorly run golf course:

Turning Down Money Is Never A Good Idea
The course was empty, and they had an opportunity to make a little bit of extra money. Instead, they alienated us, and I won’t be back for a while, if ever. While, this seems obvious, much of my business comes from people who are fed up with web designers and developers who can’t even be bothered to call them back or answer an email about perspective business. It always amazes me when people can’t be bothered and leave money on the table. But this happens more than you think. In this economy, it’s never a good idea to alienate prospective business. This golf course did, and so do many of my competitors. The easiest thing you can do in business is be responsive to your client/customer needs. It cost you nothing to call someone back, or answer a simple email.

Imagine if I stood on the street with a fist full of hundreds trying to give them out, would you take them or would you say no? If you don’t respond to calls and emails, that is exactly what you are doing.

I know, that’s an exaggeration, but it truly amazes me that companies actually turn away money in the form of customers/clients.
Flexibility
The one thing you need in today’s world is to be flexible. If you want to stay in business, you must change with the times and be willing and open-minded about your business. Now, if this course was full and there were groups waiting to go out and play, then I totally would’ve understood. Unfortunately, the dolt they left in charge, was unable to think about the situation logically, otherwise he takes our money and sent us on our way to play. The world has changed, and you have to change with the times and be willing to do things a bit different from perhaps you did in the past. Otherwise, you end up a dinosaur and as you know, they are extinct and now only found at the bottom of your gas tank! Learn more about flexibility in business [↗]
Great Service
One sure way to lose customers/clients is to have poor service. In this case, they left such a bad taste in our mouth’s that we are unlikely to return and will also tell our friends and colleagues about what happen today. In fact, I’ve already told a few people about the situation. What he should’ve done is look for a way to satisfy us. Had he looked out at the 10^th tee as an example, he would’ve seen there were no groups even two or three holes away and could’ve easily sent us out. We would’ve been happy at the service he provided and left with a good feeling about the course. Think about it, had he told us we needed a tee time, but then went out of his way to help us, we would’ve been thrilled. This of course would’ve required him to have flexibility, as we covered in number two. Again, I find this in my industry as well. People are rigid and don’t help their clients/customers, and their poor service typically leads to losing business. At Roosites, I have always tried to provide the best customer service I can, and always respond to a request the very same day. This is why we are still in business after over 20 years.
Enable Your Staff
Now, perhaps the kid at the desk was told never to let anyone on who didn’t have a tee time. If this is the case, shame on the golf course. What they should’ve said is, if no one is out on the course and someone comes by, by all means send them out to play. This is something I have learned over the years, you have to enable your people and give them the opportunity to make some decisions. When I work with designers and developers, I try to give them freedom to be creative, and the results are often positive. When you try to be too rigid, people get nervous, and they never do their best work, or as in the case today they leave money on the table.

Bottom line

There are lessons learned everywhere if you pay attention. Unfortunately, most of the time we learn those lessons from watching what not to do. Always put yourself in the place of your customer/client. Think about how you would react to a situation. In Friday’s debacle at the golf course, they did everything wrong and lost potential customers. With Covid, so many things are still up in the air, and you cannot afford to lose any business.

Note: I purposely left out the name of this course, as I am not trying to be vengeful. Hopefully this was a one-time error, but I probably won’t find out in the near future.

Tag: Clearwater FL Web Design