Better Not Piss Off The SEO Guy!

Here is an interesting story I wanted to share with everyone. I am an “SEO Guy”, I make good money offering SEO services and I like the work. I have been doing SEO and Internet Marketing since 1999. That is 10 years (A Lifetime in “internet Years”).

Since I have been around for a while, I get to meet a lot of interesting characters. One of my “SEO Friends”, which we will call “BOB”, recently told me and showed me something he had done to a guy that pissed him off.

Here is what happened, my seo buddy “Bob” landed an SEO gig with a mortgage company that wanted to rank well for a few tough keywords. “Bob” offered a monthly payment plan of about $3000.00 a month for 12 months. After working for 3 months the client’s website ranked good and “Bob” told them that they needed to continue with the SEO campaign because it will not “Stick” if they didn’t. The company said no. Then after another 3 months went by, the site was no where to be found on Google. So, “Bob” was right they should have continued with the campaign for at least a year.

Well, the company charged back (Reversed) their credit card payments that they paid “Bob”.  The company states that “Bob” did not deliver what he promised. Remember “Bob” told them to continue with the original contract and agreement because the rankings would not last. The company told “Bob” no, and “Bob” said no problem, and they parted ways on good terms.  So this company decided to stop and hope that the ranking results that “Bob” got them would stick, although “Bob” warned them and explained that they may fall off of the top of Google if they stopped before the contract was complete.

After “Bob” noticed a few thousand dollars got sucked out of his bank account because of the reversal, he called the client and asked if there was a mistake. The client was rude and told him not to call back and they then blocked his number and emails.

What did Bob do? He made sure that when you search for this company that they would not be found, and to add to the payback “Bob” filed several highly visible online complaints and blog rants about this company.

When you search for this company’s name, website name, phone number, owners name and employee’s names, you now see over 5 pages of complaints against the company. All of the pages rank better than there own website does! The negative SEO campaign or smear campaign took “Bob” about 12 hours of time over 4 weeks. This company’s online reputation is ruined now.

The company even changed their company name to try and fix the issue. They however forgot to change their phone number. This led “Bob” to their new company name. Before the company could start promoting, “Bob” had already smeared that name as well.

Did this company deserve to be crucified like this? Maybe not, but this story is true and holds one lesson for everyone to learn. DO NOT PISS OFF THE SEO GUY!

What would you have done if you were in the same position as “Bob”? Let us know by posting a comment.