Question

Topic: SEO/SEM

Seo... I Need That!

Posted by Anonymous on 4/4/2007 at 8:59 AM ET 100 Points
I am a knob when it comes to figuring out SEO and the like. I was wondering if any of you could recommend somebody that is good at this and affordable.

I am ranked far behind my competition and I have a far superior site... it is all for none if my natural listing is not there.

Any help would be wonderful.

Paul
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  • Posted by wnelson on 4/4/2007 at 9:23 AM Accepted
    Paul,

    There are three ways to help you achieve rankings.

    1. Organic ranking - this is achieved by having the right metawords on your website and having pages that contain at least 3% keyword content text. I looked at your website - the content could be improved from this point. This is a slower process to achieve ranking, but is reletively inexpensive and not too time consuming

    2. SEO programs - you can buy SEO programs and they will help. They are an upfront expense and will take a bunch of time to learn, master, and implement. Then, it will take a lot of time to play with to achieve your ranking. It takes a bit of time to achieve the results too - it's not instantaneous.

    3. Pay per click - for this, you can set a monthly budget and "buy" your way to the top. You can set budgets yourself with Google and Yahoo and the likes and monitor/adjust, you can buy programs to monitor and tweek, or you can hire someone outside to manage this for you. Typically, a budget of $200 per month is enough to rank you in the top 3 in a targeted region.


    If you want to be an SEO expert and like to play, you can do this all yourself. But, I'd recommend you manage your business and hire - this absorbs a bunch of time. Contact me off forum and I'll point you into the direction of an expert. Click on my name and in my profile, my website is displayed. There, you will find my email address.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by Shell Harris on 4/4/2007 at 9:32 AM Accepted
    This is the easiest question I have answered. I would suggest you use my company, Big Oak SEO. Of course it is easy to see who is good, take a look at their results for their current clients and be sure to ask for references from those clients.

    Affordable is subjective though. All of our long-time clients are on the first page and most often within the first 3 results so their businesses have many times the traffic and sales than before we began our SEO process. Our costs are very affordable considering the ROI applied to those costs.

    Take a look at our client list and case studies and if you are impressed, contact us.

    If you are looking for free advice you can find a checklist of what to do when you read Seven Secrets to SEO Success and take a look at all my SEO Tips.
  • Posted by easyE on 4/4/2007 at 10:10 AM Accepted
    I believe in the do-it-yourself method, because it is NOT as complicated as everyone makes it out to be and you will have a better understanding on what you need to do to get it right - NEVER PAY!!!
    I would suggest that you subscribe to the SEO News Letter at: https://www.soloseo.com/newsletter/2007/4/index.html.
    Then spend $25.00 and go through the SEO tutorial at: www.lynda.com.

    Good Luck!
  • Posted by excellira on 4/4/2007 at 5:31 PM Accepted
    I fully intend no disrespect to my fellow posters. But $50 and a few hours of time does not make an SEO. Just like a first aid class does not make a doctor.

    If you have a few years and thousands of dollars to spend on education and you can afford to wait, why not do it yourself. That is how I started.

    If this is not practical, then please give us a ring. We are regular contributors on marketing profs so please feel free to examine our posts so that you can get a feel a feel of how we operate.

    Regards,

    Greg
  • Posted by excellira on 4/7/2007 at 1:46 PM Member
    Again, I mean no disrespect to my fellow posters.

    It does actually take years, thousands of dollars and constant testing and research to be a good SEO. SEO is not just meta tags and keyword density. That is the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot to it. Anyone who thinks differently is simply not in the business or is a hack. It would be like reading an xhtml book and declaring yourself to be a site developer. How good could you possible be?

    Should you learn about SEO? Sure. In the worst case it helps you to be a more educated buyer. Should you do it yourself? It depends on many factors:

    How much time do you have before your site needs to reach a certain sales volume? If you need your site to achieve a certain sales volume in a short time then it is much less expensive to hire a good SEO. Believe me, I learned this one the hard way.

    If you have a long time in which to lose money (IE well funded) and are willing to learn by trial and error (trial by fire ;-) then do it yourself. Remember however, that some of your mistakes will cost you dearly.

    If you have too much on your plate and don't wish to be mired by yet another laborous task then you need an SEO.

    It really isn't that complicated if you ask yourself these questions.

    To be fair, SEO is highly technical but is not rocket science. But, whether you use us or not, please be weary of those that tell you that SEO can be learned quickly and cheaply. You will not be well served.
  • Posted on 4/13/2007 at 5:39 AM Accepted
    Enjoying the tete a tete so far, I'm going to have to throw my lot in with the "it doesn't take years"corner. Only for the reason that organic listing and search engine algorithms change on a fluid basis. What you have learnt last year, might not necessarily count for much now. An example now would be the meta keywords tags, implemented a lot years ago but means little now.

    To be fair to SEO companies and professionals, though I agree that SEO isn't necessarily that difficult, it does take up time and dedication on a daily basis keeping in the know and implementing strategies. If you have the time to do it then you can do it yourself, if not employ someone.
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