A response to a the person who read a blog post; criticised it; made wrong assumptions about myself and my SEO work; went Ninja and hid behind a false email address and phone number.
If you read between the lines you will see that on at least two occasions they have threatened me using words like “but nobody that works in SEO wants any scrutiny. Who knows which way Google will interpret these things…”
Don’t Make Assumptions about WTF SEO Without Knowing the Facts!
I received a contact today from someone who had read my blog post Will Iglu Cruises Melt?. I thought I would show it here and respond as the person who sent it did not leave a real name; email address or phone number.
Now this person has made quite a few assumptions about things like link building and thinking that I am responsible for those that he/she listed without knowing the full facts and therefore needs to be corrected. With luck they will read this and respond to me so that we can chat about it in full.
I will add my comments in Bold after each paragraph.
Hello David,
I came across your IGLU post which I didn’t agree with, I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding in the SEO community as to how links are built and which links are in contravention of Google’s webmaster guidelines.
NO! A paid for link that does not contain a rel=”nofollow” tag DOES contravene Google’s webmaster guidelines. It is really that simple.
However, my main point of concern is that you work in the Cruises industry and you’re taking a ‘head on’ approach attacking your competitors, which in my opinion could come across as unprofessional, especially in the public domain, like this.
How can you justify that I am unprofessional when the follow up post was designed to HELP two other companies; indeed one of them has changed their robots file and now rank top 10 for cheap cruises. Indeed I spend more than half my working time giving FREE SEO advice. I am also entitled to an opinion.
Furthermore, your website: www.cruisez.co.uk doesn’t have a ‘great link’ profile either.
Update: I have left what I had originally written below however I will say I am no longer using Cruisez for what I was originally going to use it for due to the way the old site was built and spammed.
Three links removed as they are links that have been disavowed already; a fact that this person would have known IF they had contacted me instead of making assumptions.
Also; Cruisez was only purchased in October 2013; I have owned it for around four months. During this time I have disavowed via Google webmaster tools hundreds of links that ARE total spam; we agree on something. Now if you re-check the link profile you will see that I did not create (nor want) any of these links. Ask any SEO company I have worked with; I rarely build links; they are not as important as the once were and my advice is always quality over quantity.
I noticed that you worked for Adore Cruises, their links aren’t brilliant in places too:
Examples:
Three links should show here however I removed them as they are links that have been disavowed already; a fact that this person would have known IF they had contacted me instead of making assumptions.
Removed a link from the Telegraph (Even your client has a Telegraph link, was it given editorially? Possibly, but who wants the scrutiny?)
I am not responsible for any of the links that Adore Cruises has generated before December 2014; YES as late as that. I am NOW helping Adore Cruises try and get over a Manual Penalty they received at some point last year as well as am algorithmic penalty which happened on May 22nd 2013 the exact day when Google launched what they call Penguin 2.0.
As for the Telegraph link; this was done before I came on-board and will be disavowed the next time I disavow links. In fact there are just 4 links that I am happy with out of a few thousands.
The rest will go and Adore Cruises will be a virtual blank sheet again; however I will share image of the problem Adore Cruises have and I INHERITED. This image was generated as part of a report I carried out using Link Detox
Image lost somehow in a recent move…copy left the same though; so please use your imagination!
As you can see; there is a hell of a lot of problems with Adore Cruises; none of which has been created by myself.
Update: I have not done anything for the Adore Cruises website for quite a while as their various penalties were lifted. They are as mentioned earlier, a blank sheet for someone else to work on as I concentrate on Local SEO.
What About Freedom Travel? Well, I don’t really want to waste any more time, looking at these sites to demonstrate that we are all just trying to get on with our jobs without too much hassle.
I do know what Freedom is owned by the Co-Op and wow, these guys are sleezy. Especially in finance.
I have no relationship with Freedom Travel; the Co-Op nor any of their businesses. Adore Cruises may have a relationship with them; I don’t.
Everyone can do these sorts of things, they cost very little. Sometimes, people, like you get the wrong end of the stick. That’s okay, but nobody that works in SEO wants any scrutiny. Who knows which way Google will interpret these things….
Ah! You are threatening me. You also say I have the wrong end of the stick; yet you do not come up with a reason why I have supposedly got it wrong. Are you actually saying please don’t tell Google about us?
I am not employed by IGLU, [Why then are you so bothered? Perhaps you work for Talk Talk then? One thing is for certain; you are related to one of the websites listed in the original story] before you consider some banshee follow up blog post, but I would like to suggest that you might consider taking that blog post down, I think that at a professional level, that would be very decent of you.
Nope! The post stays; tell me; do you think it is right for Talk Talk to put other people websites in their sitemap? As for professionalism; I don’t care about being perceived as being professional; I care about what is right.
I don’t want to say “don’t throw stones in glass houses” we’ve all done it in the past, and I try not to.
However, on this occasion, I really do hope that my respectful request is taken to heart.
Regards,
A colleague of sorts.
This is so obviously another threat; I have your ip address from when you sent through your contact…