I get a ton of spam, and for the most part I just ignore it. I happened to notice this one because of the sheer absurdity of the fact that this guy was sending a pitch for SEO services to an SEO firm.

Beyond that, I just hate the whole approach of promising #1 placement. It’s a tactic overused by the bottom-feeders in the industry. In fact, I regularly tell people that if a company promises to get your site to the top of Google/Yahoo/MSN, or promises you’ll be #1 in SERPs to just turn and run.

Typically companies like this Vertical Listings Optimization will use a very specific search term in order to “prove” their results. They’ll use your company name or some long, obscure long-tail term that has no real value.

If you’re considering going with someone who’s promised you top search engine rankings, make sure you ask what terms they’ll measure that with and make sure your payment is tied to their success. You should also ask about their tactics because if they’re using black-hat techniques, you might end up at the top for a week or two, but when you get your domain banned, you’ll be in a whole new world of pain.

Here’s the spam I got from Vertical Listings Optimization:

From: Jason Fitzpatrick <jason@verticalisitngs.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Subject: your website

I can put your site at the top of a search engines listings. This is no joke and I can show proven results from all our past clients. If this is something you might be interested in, send me a reply with the web addresses you want to promote and the best way to contact you with some options.

Thanks in advance,

Jason Fitzpatrick
Vertical Listings Optimization
3636 Gateway Center
San Diego, CA 92101