SEO Scam of the Week

I just received this email:

Hi there Rebecca Haden,

Domain Name: XYZ.com  (Account #6639387)

This email is being sent out to you because search registration for XYZ.com is pending.

Please register these domains to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo ASAP to avoid late fees.

Registering for search engines would help you show up in search results and increase your online presence.

You can register your domain at link given below :

http://XYZ.com&fname=Rebecca+Haden

We sincerely appreciate your business! If you require anything, we are at your service.

Remember… If you do not register your domain with the search engines, it may not appear in the search engine listing when people are looking for you. Failure to complete your domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may make it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web. Complete your search engine registration today.

Sincerely,

Search Register

110 Middle Road,
#07-03A Chiat Hong Building,
Singapore 188968.

Now, just to be clear:

• You don’t have to register your domains with search engines. Build a good website and your site will be found and indexed. You can submit your new website to the search engines if you choose to, and it’s even a good plan, but there is no “registration” involved.
• There are no fees for submitting your website to search engines. You can request a crawl or submit a site map to Google for free.
• Obviously, since there are no fees, there are no late fees.
• You don’t have to go to a specific website to submit your new website, though it’s easy to do so at Google’s Search Console.
• Since “domain name search registration” is not a real thing, it doesn’t have an expiration date.
• If search engines did have an official domain registration policy requiring completion, it is unlikely that the process for U.S.-registered domains would begin in Singapore. Not impossible, of course, and a search for this address finds you a nice photo of a nice hallway (after all the “SCAM” listings, of course), but it’s implausible.

So the technical term for the message in this email is “lies.”

But it’s easy to see how people could be taken in by this email. It sounds very official, and certainly we all want to avoid late fees.

If you get an email like this, here’s what you should do:

• Ignore it.
• Go ahead and do what you were planning to do with your domain.
• Upon launch, set up your Google Analytics and Search Console and submit your site map.
• Check a couple of weeks after you launch your website and make sure that your site is indexed. If not, look at your website and see why it hasn’t been indexed — it’s probably poor quality content.
• If you need help with your strategy or content, give us a call.

Remember, the internet belongs to all of us. If you receive an official-looking communication suggesting that you have to register your website or in any other way take official action to satisfy search engines, it’s a scam.