Has anyone else received a threat in a customer message? Is there a way to report this to Shopify and/or Google (since the threat includes a Gmail address)? Does anyone know if someone could actually carry out this threat? It seems doubtful to me and I’m certainly not going to add the requested links to my site.
Hi @UniqueCherie ,
This is pretty malicious behavior from this visitor. While Google works very hard to make sure that actions on third-party sites do not negatively affect a website, in some circumstances, incoming links can affect Google’s opinion of a page or site - so it’s probably a good idea to take this kind of threat seriously.
Google Search Console suggests that if you cannot get the links removed by their source (in this case “Olivia” probably wouldn’t be very obliging) then you should Disavow the bad links. And you absolutely should not consent to anything this visitor has requested of you.
As an added precaution, I’d recommend that you block that email address from being able to place any orders on your store using the Fraud Filter app, and you should be sure to practice our fraud prevention tips to ensure that no one places any orders on your store only to request chargebacks through their bank. Doing all of this should keep your store safe and ranking as it should!
How is your business doing otherwise? What are you selling and what stage are you at in your store’s development?
Thank you, Andrew, for this information. How will I know if there are bad links that I should “disavow”?
I sell high-quality, one-of-a-kind handmade jewelry and accessories. I’ve had a few recent sales, but business is slow. I think quality jewelry is viewed as a luxury in an economy that has slowed.
@UniqueCherie If the visitor actually goes through with their threat, you will be able to check where your site is being flagged for unnatural links. So it is a more reactive than proactive step you would be taking.
To your other reply, is quite possible that the economy is slowing, but people will always want something to pick themselves up and feel special. Retail therapy anyone?
The trick may be in deciding what angle to pitch your product line at, to help people decide how your jewelry can cheer them up in this recession. This may mean a little bit of rebranding or a change in strategy or direction even.
Who is your target demographic? Can you broaden or narrow that? And what is your unique selling point?
How are you leveraging content marketing and are you considering which channels your audience is using?
I’d love to know more about your brand to see if we can’t come up with a few new ideas to either diversify your range or make it, even more, niche!
Chargebacks can be easily dealt with through Shopify, provided one keeps a good digital paper trail of every order. I’ve had several and have won all of them. If most Shopify store owners are like me, however, they don’t have time to go out hunting for bad reviews or malicious backlinks when threatened by customers brazenly flouting your policy pages. There should be mechanisms in place to notify the victim, and there should be protocols in place to defer the presumption of guilt until the target of an attack has had the opportunity to contest it. Tools for contesting such threats should include a Shopify service to independently report and supply the revision of a store owner’s legal pages as of the date and time of an order, for example. If it can all be made to work like chargebacks, justice would prevail all year round in the world of e-commerce, and store owners, who are citizens too, after all, would be innocent until proven guilty.