Probably for the 42nd time, I have received an email from someone named Dr. Marc Schneider, apparently a Ph.D. from a company called “Global Vibration, Inc.” in Washington, D.C.. Have you received this email? Most likely if you’re a web site owner then you have. He claims that your web site cannot be found on foreign search engines. Let’s take a look at the email that this spammer sends out.
By the way, I am calling Marc Schneider and Global Vibration, Inc. spammers because they send out Unsolicited Commercial Email. And yes, I believe this email spam is just as bad as those adult-related emails we receive all the time because the Marc Schneider and Global Vibration Inc. emails are giving false information and making the entire search engine marketing industry look bad.
Here is the email that Marc Schneider and Global Vibration, Inc. is sending out:
—–Original Message—–
From: Marc Schneider [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 1:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: http://www.your-domain-name.com – Contact neededI am Dr. Marc Schneider and I work for Global Vibration Inc. in Washington DC ( Tel: 1 202-787-3989 ) – I would like to speak with the person in charge of your international clientele. Who is my contact? Who should I speak to??
In fact, after visiting http://www.your-domain-name.com, I have noticed that your website cannot be found on foreign search engines (I tested it on Hispanic search engines, German search engines, Asian search engines, etc.) Our company is specialized in multilingual search engine promotions in 28 languages . From the Japanese Google to the German Yahoo, from the AOL in Spanish to the MSN in Chinese, we can show you how to develop a true international online presence by promoting your website on foreign search engines.
Let us show you how to develop a presence on the multilingual web without having to translate your website: It is not necessary to translate your website in order to submit to foreign search engines, however, you need to have at least 1 page in Japanese optimized with Japanese keywords and meta tags in order to submit to Japanese search engines, at least 1 page in Spanish optimized with Spanish keywords in order to submit to Hispanic search engines and so on…
I strongly suggest that you watch our online presentation which will explains clearly how to get top rankings on foreign search engines with only 1 entry page per language (click on the following link or copy-paste it into your web browser): http://www.mplw.net/demo
From the Japanese Google to the German Yahoo, from the AOL in Spanish to the MSN in Chinese, get users to find your website when searching with YOUR KEYWORDS in their Native language.
Please call me at 1 (202) 787-3989 or email me and let’s work on giving your website the true international exposure which it deserves to have with foreign native online users!!
Regards,
Marc Schneider, Ph.D.
[email protected]
_____________________GLOBAL VIBRATION INC.
1250 Connecticut Ave N.W. Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036 USA
TEL: 1(202)-787-3989 – FAX: 1 (202)-318-2453
http://www.mplw.net :
Multilingual Search Engine Promotion Services since 1999.
There are several reasons why believe that these emails should be considered spam and stopped. But, let’s take a look exactly whether or not you really DO want to “be found” on foreign search engines.
First, take a look at your web site’s overall goal:
— Do you sell something online? If so, do you want “foreign” customers? Can you ship your products or do you want to ship your products to foreign countries? If someone from Spain (who only speaks Spanish) contacts you are you able to respond to their request in Spanish? What about French? Russian? Chinese? Japanese?
— Is your web site informational in nature? Perhaps you have an informational web sites that offers articles and other web content. Are you trying to monetize that web site? Are the ways you’re monetizing it (through an affiliate program, etc.) in another language so that foreign visitors can click on an ad and buy something: thus you then making the affiliate income from that sale? If a foreign search engine visitor comes to your web site and will you monetize your web site?
— Do you have a corporate web site? Do you have an office presence in multiple countries worldwide? Or is all of the contact information on your web site only for one country? Perhaps your corporate headquarters is in the United States? Do you really need visitors from China and Japan contacting you? If so, will you do business with them?
There are a lot of questions like this that you will want to answer even before you consider promoting your web site in the “foreign search engines”. In fact, I recently talked to someone who actually wanted to block all internet traffic to their web site from certain countries because they did not want to do business with them.
I would like to give you an specific example of frustration of “being found on the foreign search engines” has done to my wife and I and our family. In fact, being found on the “foreign version” of Google, without doing anything, has caused us to receive calls from foreign countries in the middle of the night. Talk about frustrating! My wife and I breed labrador retrievers. Because of the search engine optimization I have done for our other web site, www.hartzer.com, we have had to remove the phone number from our web site and only respond to inquiries via email because we started getting calls from all over the world in the middle of the night, inquiring about our puppies. In fact, being found on the foreign search engines (without doing any foreign search engine promotion) has brought us a lot of unwanted search engine traffic. I do not want to sell a puppy to someone who lives in Turkey and I will not ship a puppy to Turkey. If you are going to adopt one of our puppies, you must come to our house in Texas and meet us in person. That’s after you have waited for over 2 to 3 years on our current waiting list for puppies.
Let’s also consider the fact that most likely your web site CAN be found in the foreign search engines. Let’s look at this search result in the Google Spain “search engine”. I certainly would consider Google Spain to be a foreign search engine. Well, would you believe that if you search for my name, Bill Hartzer, you can actually find me in a foreign search engine? What about your company and your company name? Can you be found in Google in other countries? Certainly.
One of the issues that March Schneider and Global Vibration, Inc. bring up in their Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE spam) is being found in the foreign search engines for “your keywords”. I’ve already discussed some of the reasons why you wouldn’t want to be found in the foreign search engines. But, let’s say that you DO want to be found in the foreign search engines for your keywords. What do you really need to do?
First, I would go read my Translating Web Sites article about translating web sites into another language. There’s also the 2006 article I wrote here.
Next, I would consider not only translating your web pages, but actually getting someone who is a specialist in that language to re-write your content and publish it on a new web site with a new domain name. So, if you’re targeting Spain you want want to get the Spanish version of your web site up on yourdomain.es, build links to that web site from other Spanish web sites, and soforth.
Before you go responding to unsolicited commercial emails like Marc Schneider, Martin Vermont, Multilingual Search Engine Promotions, Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc, or Global Vibration, make sure that you really DO want to be found on the foreign search engines. From personal experience, I can tell you that being found of “foreign search engines” is something that you need to take very seriously: it’s a business decision, not just the fact that you’ll get more free web site traffic.
Update: February 2011
Apparently, “Marc Schneider” has hired an assistant named “Martin Vermont” to send out SPAM emails for him, trying to get unsuspecting businesses to hire them to translate their web site. This time someone named “Martin Vermont” is sending out SPAM emails–to me, of all people, one of his toughest critics! So, since I have received this spam email today, I thought I would post it here:
Subject: http://www.billhartzer.com: Did you receive this email? Please confirm
From: “Martin Vermont”
Date: Mon, February 7, 2011 6:08 pmDid you receive the email copied here below sent to you last month?
Please confirm good reception.
Cordially,
Martin Vermont
I am Martin Vermont and I work for Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc. in
Washington DC (Tel: 1-202-250-3620) – I am Dr. Marc Schneider’s new assistant – I
would like to speak with the person in charge of your international clientele. Who
is my contact? Who should I speak to?In fact, after visiting http://www.billhartzer.com, we have noticed that your
website cannot be found on foreign search engines (I tested it on Hispanic search
engines, German search engines, Asian search engines, etc.) Our company is
specialized in multilingual search engine promotions in 28 languages. From the
Japanese Google to the German Yahoo, from the AOL in Spanish to the MSN in Chinese,
we can show you how to develop a true international online presence by promoting
your website on foreign search engines.I strongly suggest that you watch our online presentation which will explains
clearly how to get top rankings on foreign search engines with only 1 entry page per
language (click on the following link or copy-paste it into your web browser):
http://www.os28.net/demoPlease call me at +1 (202) 250-3620 or email me and let’s work on giving your
website the true international exposure which it deserves to have with foreign
native online users!!Regards,
Martin Vermont
Multilingual Search Engine Optimization Inc.
1250 Connecticut Ave N.W. Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036 USA
TEL: +1 (202) 250-3620
http://www.os28.net
Multilingual Search Engine Promotion Services since 1999
Again, before you hire someone or some firm claiming that they will translate your web site, make sure that once your web site is translated that you can support those who are going to contact you. If you don’t speak Spanish and do not have someone who on staff who speaks Spanish, then why would you possibly want to translate your web site into Spanish?
Better yet, why are you responding to someone who has sent you an unsolicited commercial email (SPAM), which is against the law? Dr. Marc Schneider and his new assistant, Martin Vermont, are not someone who I would personally recommend that you do business with.