Online Video Production Blog

My mother works at a major supplier of mountain bread here in Melbourne Australia, she sits on the end of the sales@ email address and as such gets a mix of legitimate and spam mail.  Knowing my interest in SEO she forwarded me this email.

Now I think there is something highly ironic about a company offering SEO services and guaranteeing to get top position "in major search engines" that 1. doesn't have a website itself, 2. doesn't even rank for their own company name (thats not rocket science, I have ranked number one for camthecameraman for over 3 years!! and I make no big claims about that no one else is even trying) and 3 they promise to "evaluate your site for free" and havent even checked to see that the Mountain Bread Company does indeed rank top spot for the phrase "mountain bread" in its local google search and number 2 in google worldwide.

I have included a text version of this email in the hope that the "marketing expert" Calla Barstow's email may be harvested by spammers like herself and signed onto many lists as possible and also to highlight the spammy nature of the email. Interestingly a search of the unique name "Calla Barstow" doesnt return any useful contact data.

 From: "Barstow, Calla" 
To: "Sales" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 2:04 AM
Subject: website.traffic

Dear Sales

Do you want the top position in the major search engines? We can help you,
quickly and with little expense. Our work is guaranteed, see for yourself.
Email
us now at barstow.c@gmail.com and we'll evaluate your site for free. Make
sure to include the best way to contact you with our comments.

Sincerely,
Calla Barstow
Marathon Marketing

So lets recap, Marathon Marketing dont rank even for their own company name; a yellow pages entry for a company in Wahroonga NSW, maybe this is the company, we would never know based on the email.  Calla Barstow's personal brand is so low that she is not represented in google searches; so much for being active in web communities as suggested by hundreds of good SEO companies and Google themselves. (In a few days  searching for her name may result in this article being displayed!!). And finally the company they spammed already ranks number one in google for their key phrase "mountain bread" and as an aside also ranks number one for the phrase "wrap bread".  Me thinks the marketing company and specifically Calla Barstow could take some marketing and SEO lessons from Mountain Bread Pty Ltd!!

Oh, if you have received some of this spam from Marathon Marketing and it piqued your interest in ranking high in google, can I suggest a SEO company in Melbourne called StewArt Media, very good with proven results