SEO Shenanigans: A story in four emails
Mark Honeychurch - 31 March 2025
The NZ skeptics mailbox recently received a request from a company selling breathalysers in NZ. They wanted us to help them game the system when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, so that they could increase their sales. Given that I wrote about SEO just a few weeks ago, I figured the email exchange might be of interest to our readers. I think the emails tell the story quite well by themselves, so here they are in chronological order:
Hi,
Did you know that we can help improve each other’s websites, Domain Authority, by simply sharing a link?
I’m Dennis Anderson, a local Topic Expert at Breathalysers NZ. We provide world-leading products and support our customers with local advice relating to New Zealand drug and alcohol testing requirements.
I came across your article https://skeptics.nz/blog/page/3 when trying to find related information to our article https://www.breathalysers.co.nz/pre-employment-drug-test-nz/
From a Google SEO perspective, it would be mutually beneficial to have a link from our article to yours, and vice versa, plus it would not cost either of us to do so.
Please let me know what you think. Also, if you have any questions or need clarification, kindly feel free to reach out!
Thank you for your time
Dennis
Dennis Anderson
NZ Drug & Alcohol Testing Copywriter
p: +64 (09) 950 9227
Hi Dennis,
It would be great to hear some more details about why you think we should link to each other’s articles. Firstly, where do you see the connections between the two pages? Secondly, what do you envisage that each of us would gain from this linking? Finally, in what way do you suggest we should add the link to our article?
Cheers,
Mark Honeychurch
Secretary, NZ Skeptics
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your reply!
While our articles cover different aspects, they both contribute to discussions around workplace policies, testing practices, and evidence-based decision-making. Our article focuses on the practical and regulatory side of pre-employment drug testing in New Zealand, while your blog often engages with critical analysis and skepticism of such topics. Linking them helps provide a broader perspective for readers interested in workplace policies and testing reliability.
The connection doesn’t need to be exact—we just need a relevant phrase or anchor text that naturally fits within each article. This benefits both of us by improving SEO and making our content more accessible.
If you’re happy to proceed, we can promptly add a link to your article and wait for you to add ours within three days. Let me know your thoughts!
Best regards,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
At the NZ Skeptics we’re in the business of combating nonsense wherever we see it. This includes, as you say, critical analysis. Only a few weeks ago I published a critical piece in our newsletter about deceptive SEO practices, and honestly I think that that article would probably be a better place from which to link to your website than a random select committee submission of ours that just happens to have a couple of keywords that loosely intersect with your business interests.
Oh well, I guess at least I now have a follow-up article to write to my piece from a few weeks ago, about unsolicited requests for help with trying to fool Google’s page ranking system. I may even just publish our conversation as-is, to show our readers the kinds of companies that are looking to game the system to make a quick buck.
Cheers,
mark.
In case you’re interested in who these people are, it seems to be an American-based company who have decided to branch out into New Zealand. Despite their website claiming “We are 100% NZ owned and operated”, the sole Director of the company, Will Dustin, lives in Queensland, Australia. I also have a sneaking suspicion there’s no actual “operation” in New Zealand - just shipping from the manufacturer of these products overseas directly to consumers.
If this isn’t damning enough, the company actually thinks that an endorsement on their website from TV celebrity Dr Phil is something to be proud of. The endorsement is about 15 years old and, from what it looks like, the company simply paid for a promotional puff piece or two on the Dr Phil Show. While I was looking into this I had a quick read of Dr Phil’s Wikipedia page, and was totally unsurprised to see how extensive the “Controversies and lawsuits” section is.
