So anyone who knows me knows I hate email.. I even had an email from someone who spammed this blog recently who (and I’m not making this up) complained that having had second thoughts, he couldn’t delete his spam comment.

I probably should publish those emails at some stage, but some dopey prick promoting Sri Lankan dating isn’t all that interesting in the big picture of things.

What is interesting is when a company using the RSPCA name asks you to remove a link to help their SEO ranking with Google.

I’ll note in advance: it’s not the RSPCA direct, but the company they use (and use their name, so guilt by association) to sell insurance.

Here’s the fun first email, cut and pasted into pure text…because you know Google loves that shit, particularly when they’re looking for folks who are trying to game their Google ranking 😉

RSPCA WebMaster rspcawebmaster@hollard.com.au
4 Feb (8 days ago)

Hi,

We have recently received a notification from Google stating that our website has unnatural links pointing towards it. This has negatively impacted our search engine rankings and as a result, we are trying to tidy things up. Our website url is www.rspcapetinsurance.org.au, which is part of the Hollard Australia Group.

We have found links pointing to our website from the following pages:

http://www.4aus.com/6330/free-pet-insurance-information-pack/

We appreciate this is inconvenient and isn’t a reflection on your website at all, but if you are able to remove the links, we would really appreciate it and would be very grateful.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Hollard Financial Services
P: 02 9253 6600
F: 02 9253 6699
58 Norwest Blvd?Bella Vista NSW 2153 Australia
www.hollard.com.au
www.rspcapetinsurance.org.au
Team Spirited | Results Driven | Customer Focused

 

Damn, an insurance company representing the RSPCA (be it that they are a kill shelter, another post, another day) is wanting me to help them game Google by removing an actual link to an actual offer they have up… because they reckon falsely that it’s bad for their Google ranking. Well fuck me 🙂

But wait…here’s today’s email (12/2)

Hi,

We would like to follow up on the link removal request we sent you last week.

We appreciate your time is important and so apologise for any inconvenience.

If you could please take a moment to remove the links as requested in the email below we would be extremely grateful.

If you have already removed the links and emailed us about it, then we thank you for your cooperation and please ignore this email.

If you have any questions please just reply to this email and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Otherwise we look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Hollard Financial Services
P: 02 9253 6600
F: 02 9253 6699
58 Norwest Blvd?Bella Vista NSW 2153 Australia
www.hollard.com.au
www.rspcapetinsurance.org.au
Team Spirited | Results Driven | Customer Focused?

Dear RSPCA, do you as an organisation support Google manipulation and fraud?

Decent question given your associated company is running around trying to game their Google results using your name.

Food for thought 🙂

Just for a change, I’ll bag someone other than the mainstream media.

Google News.

Its Valentines Day, Feb 14. 11:15am in the morning at I’m typing this.

And what is Google News showing in its latest Victoria news section? (hint, look at the dates of the stories)

Google Australia has launched Google Street View locally (via Simon Goudie). Privacy issues perhaps, but letter boxes have all been blurred out. Here’s our house in Google Street View:

Here’s a close up of the letter box

Interestingly, they’ve really gone all out in the coverage of Street View. My old house complete with sales sign (so it would have to have been in December/ January), notably in Australind, Western Australia. You can’t really get more regional than Australind

note though that although they have the house, the satelitte images are still woefully old for that part of the world