Avoid the Website Audit Scare

Throughout the country, many business owners are beginning to see a rise in what we at ResNexus sometimes call "web-guru scare tactics".

Using scare tactics as a marketing solution is nothing new in the world of sales. From early traveling salesmen to marketing professionals of today, businesses often try to convince potential customers that it is imperative to change or update their current products.

For example, the last time I had my oil changed, the mechanic all but guaranteed me that my car would fall apart if I did not spend over $700 for a new air filter, transmission flush, tires, and wiper blades. Such solicitation practices are no different when it comes to technology.

This article is to help inform and educate our customers on the rise in SEO solicitations, cutting through the scare tactics and misinformation.

How Does it Work?
Web-guru scare tactics are quite simple. The purpose of these companies is to sow seeds of doubt and worry about your website, particularly if your website is new.

The companies that use the web-guru scare tactics have an automated tool that constantly scans the internet to find new websites. This tool then sends the new website owner a "Health Report" detailing multiple defects and issues to make the owner believe their website is not up to par. Often these reports exaggerate the impact of small technical issues, or even report issues that are not even there. The report is intended to scare business owners into wanting/needing the services of the company, which is all too willing to correct the "defects" for a fee.

HERE'S A COMMON EXAMPLE OF WEBSITE HEALTH REPORT:

Whenever a business owner receives a "Health Report", it is important that they assess it with a critical eye. First, the fact that this "Health Report" is sent unsolicited to business owners should be a good indication that the company is trying to sell something.

A second aspect that may give away the true intent of the health report is that of the contact information. When the soliciting company's contact email is from the sales department (ex. sales@whitedigi.com), it should be a large clue that this is a marketing solicitation attempting to gain your business.

Many of these health reports originate from countries located in Eastern Europe and Asia. Often their reports are poorly constructed and difficult to follow. Grammatical errors abound, and much of the language is incorrectly formulated as if it was completed by a bot using Google Translate.

Once examined, business owners will find that their health report will point out as many negative "warnings" or "defects" as possible to try to inflict worry. All too often these "defects" are things that have little or no effect on SEO performance, can be changed easily for free in your ResNexus web builder, or are factually incorrect.

Using a recent "health report" received by one of our ResNexus website customers, here are some examples of what we mean.

Superficial Defects
In the report received by a ResNexus customer, the soliciting company ("Whitedigi") claims to find 19 "major issues". The fact that all issues in the report are labeled "major" is evidence of solicitation by attempting to increase the worry and concern of the business owner.

In fact, as mentioned before, many of these "defects" have little to no effect on SEO and would be considered minor at most, and are often just cosmetic. For example, the health report states that the site does not have any meta keyword: