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Bizarre true story of evil as an SEO strategy

by mmoconnor
10 replies
Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/bu.../28borker.html is a very weird but true story of how an evil marketer is using complaints about his fake products and rude customer service to keep his online store at the top of Google.

He discovered that his site shot up to the top of the search engines when his pissed-off customers wrote scathing reviews linking to his online store.

I don't know if this method has any practical value for reputable marketers but it certainly is interesting.
#bizarre #evil #seo #story #strategy #true
  • Profile picture of the author Bill Eliott
    Wow , bizzaro marketing .
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      That is quite amazing. It's even more amazing that he threatens the woman in question with this...

      "Listen, bitch," he fumed, according to Ms. Rodriguez. "I know your address. I'm one bridge over" -- a reference, it turned out, to the company's office in Brooklyn. Then, she said, he threatened to find her and commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper.
      I know thats just what she claimed but whats even more amazing still is she didn't contact the police straight away or in some peoples case, a hitman.

      If I'd bought something and they'd tacked an extra $125 on top and he'd said the above to me or anyone I knew...well, I'd call that s**t hitting the fan.

      Instead we have...

      Ms. Rodriguez was shaken but undaunted
      Shaken but undaunted? Come on, who the heck wouldn't be undaunted by that?
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      Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

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      • Profile picture of the author potimus
        I wonder if he is making sales?

        Seems like bad customer service will ultimately lead to your being put out of business. Word of mouth is huge, and now that the news stories are spreading it even faster, seems like for sure you would have no customers. Even if you were the top of google.

        If it works, it is probably a short term strategy.

        Weird.

        I wouldn't use that tactic.
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  • Profile picture of the author awesometbn
    I just read about this. Amazing and sad at the same time. He's getting tons of backlinks but it appears that most of those are related to "bad customer service" reviews and related stuff. Why is he able to get such high page rank? Doesn't this point out once and for all how broken the mighty G really is? And that page rank means nothing?
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  • Profile picture of the author ReachOneMedia
    What an horror story...
    Strange too
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    • Profile picture of the author Eager2SEO
      He even bullies ebay sellers, forcing them to ship to 3rd parties when they lose return protection.

      I'm not generalizing, but coming from his neighborhood and knowing the mindset of some people there this story does not shock me. The threats are truly out of line though. He is likely going to be prosecuted.

      This quote takes the cake...

      We say our goodbyes, and I ask him to sit for a photograph. No, too many psychos out there, he explains. Besides, he doesn’t need his face in the newspaper. What he needs is his company’s name visible for all the world to see — and all the search engines to crawl — in the online version of The New York Times. Along with some keywords, of course.
      “Just throw in ‘designer eyeglasses,’ ‘designer eyewear’ and a couple different brand names,” he says, “and I’m all set.”
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  • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
    “Listen, bitch,” he fumed, according to Ms. Rodriguez. “I know your address. I’m one bridge over” — a reference, it turned out, to the company’s office in Brooklyn. Then, she said, he threatened to find her and commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper.
    If that is a true story, then it sounds like he may have a potential charge of "making a terroristic threat" hanging over his head.

    That's a very real charge with serious prison time. Especially when directed at a person or persons.

    Not a smart thing to put into the ether where it lingers for eons.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by Kirk Ward View Post

      If that is a true story, then it sounds like he may have a potential charge of "making a terroristic threat" hanging over his head.

      That's a very real charge with serious prison time. Especially when directed at a person or persons.

      Not a smart thing to put into the ether where it lingers for eons.
      Exactly Kirk. Worse still as I mentioned...

      Ms. Rodriguez was shaken but undaunted
      Whaaaat? How on earth can anyone be "shaken but undaunted" by it?
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      Wibble, bark, my old man's a mushroom etc...

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  • Profile picture of the author Matt.Lake
    It is pretty sick.

    I really don't think those links from the negative report sites would carry much weight. At least in the long term. I wouldn't be surprised if Google takes this sort of thing into account, or at least they will more so in the future.

    I read though some of the comments on that article... people were saying "only use trusted retailers such as Amazon and eBay etc"...

    Another case of the minority making it difficult for the honest, trust worthy sellers... i.e. probably 95% of ecommerce sellers.
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  • Profile picture of the author awesometbn
    Just an update, not sure if this was mentioned on WF in another thread, but it looks like Google made a change to their algorithm in response to this exact situation.

    Official Google Blog: Being bad to your customers is bad for business

    Also a lively discussion on slashdot . . .
    Google Algorithm Discriminates Against Bad Reviews - Slashdot
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