I regularly receive emails of the following type:

Hi, My name is XXXX and I’m writing to you on behalf of YYYY.

Invariably I simply ignore the email, and then I get several follow-ups over the course of the following days, weeks and months.

A couple of things.

This is a blog. The only time I make changes is if there’s something inaccurate, wrong, or there’s a worthwhile update that readers should be aware of.

I assume that these pages are targeted because if you enter the right search combination into Google, a page from my blog ends up somewhere vaguely towards the top of search results.

I literally have no interest in updating old pages. While this blog isn’t some kind of journalistic record, it does represent my thoughts and views at the time the entries were written. And just because you’ve got a better place for me to link to now, it’s kind of your fault if my original link was not great.

Of course, I completely realise that these emails are automated. But that knowledge makes me even less likely to make changes. Do not underestimate my intransigence!

But I do hope the companies that are employing these agencies to drive more traffic to things that they want to promote are completely wasting their money.

* When I say “infographic”, I mean some kind of feeble unsubstantiated graphic that has the most dubious information imaginable, and is basically an advert.