Straw Man SEO

Apr 3, 2004 - 10:13 am 0 by
Filed Under Spam

I received the following in a spam email today: "Hello, I am (name deleted), GOOGLE LISTS ME #1 IN THE WORLD FOR: 'PERSONAL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ACCOUNT REP'" There's a greater than zero chance that this post will outrank him in a couple weeks. I hate to be mean to Harry, but any fool can rank if they're the only one trying.

I refer to what (name deleted) is doing here as "straw man SEO" - you can't beat the real SEOs, so you construct a straw man like 'personal search engine optimization account rep.' Do people actually spend money with this guy, or did he resort to spam because he had no chance?

Poke fun in this thread at the Best Practices forums, about the worlds #1 ranked personal search engine optimization account rep.

Another good example of a phrase that is not competitive, would be MONEY BACK SEARCH ENGINE PLACEMENT PROS which is the latest conquest of our "Straw Man SEO of the Year." I wonder how long his #1 on Yahoo for that "gem" will hold up...

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 21, 2026

Jul 21, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google Ads

Google Local Services Ads Transitioning To Google Ads Platform

Jul 21, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Updates Performance Max Doc: AI Generates Text Customization & More

Jul 21, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google AdSense

Google Ads Google Analytics Bulk Linking

Jul 21, 2026 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Open Sitelinks Button In Search

Jul 21, 2026 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Image Section In Shopping Panel

Jul 21, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Commercial Applications that use Google API Accepted by Google