WE'VE MOVED!
We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co
We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co
Options
Pros and Cons of SEO?
shaunlemagne
subscriber Posts: 2
Hey, I`m considering working with an SEO company to help get my website ranked higher in search engines. They want to charge me $1500 to get me into the top 3--is this a good deal? They only charge if they get me into the top 3, so it`s based on their performance.
What do you guys think? Is it worth it?
What do you guys think? Is it worth it?
Sign In or Register to comment.
Comments
What do you guys think? Is it worth it?
In addition to Craig`s suggestion, you should also read Internet Scams and the Realm of Gullibility. And SEO Scams: 15 Ways to Avoid Them.
David Jackson
DavidJackson2/10/2009 7:37 AM
You didn`t update your profile yet so we don`t know what kind business you have or website. Nonetheless, $1500 could be a good deal or ripoff depending on your website and what exactly they intend to do. The practice of good SEO is no big secret if you understand that it is a practice (something you do all the time) and can handle the fact that it`s mostly grunt work.
That being said here are some things you can do to start exercising your SEO muscles:
Make sure that your page title contains your most important keyword. This is done with the <meta name> tag, or you can set that in the page properties dialog box as well.
Use the <meta description> tag and use your most important keywords in the text.
Use the <meta Keyword> tag and identify your most important keywords (or phrases) listed in order of importance (or weight). Don`t try to list a whole bunch of words, because after 8 or 9 the search engine spiders will ignore them anyway. And they might tag you for "Keyword Spamming". You can only optimize for a few keywords anyway if you`re doing it right, so deciding on the right ones is the most important.
Use the <H1> tags as headlines to your copy text and make sure they are keyword rich too. Some people don`t like to use <H1> tags because they look big and bulky, but you can modify the default design of a <H1> tag just like any other text you use on your page.
Make sure the copy on the page is keyword rich. Don`t try to hide extra keywords on the page with font colors or other goofy tricks like that because that can back-fire on you as well. Just make your copy strong and if you got the right keywords it should flow naturally anyway.
If you have images on your page; use the image <alt text> tag to give the image a keyword rich description. Depending on your editor you can usually right click the image and pull up the image properties dialog box and fill it in there. If you use button images or any graphic images you can also use those Alt Text tags to increase your spider content info.
Consider creating secondary information pages crosslinked to the primary page with additional content (Make sure this is new content and not just a copy of the same stuff, because the spiders frown on that as well) use important keywords in the text of the page hyperlinks. Also if you have a lot of navigation links use keywords in the text of those when you can. ( Not just "Click here")
If you`re active in blogs, forums, etc use keywords in the hyperlinks text back to your site in your postings. Like your post here. EXAMPLE: "I`m trying to increase the SEO ranking of my "Widget" page (Not that you should be using this site for your SEO but sites with relvent content to your website or page). You should get into the habit of back linking to your site always with SEO benefits in mind (Where its appropriate). The best are sites were people are talking about things that relate to your site. This kind of external linking carrys the heaviest weight with the spiders.
Submitted your website url and description to all the "Free" website submission pages. Start with www.dmoz.com and work your way down. A quick google search will give results for all the most popular submission sites. Don`t pay for it!
If you have an ecommerce site make sure to post your product datafeed to Google Base, Shopping.com, etc...
Anyway, I`m sure that the books and articles would be good for you if you`re not a web geek like us and aren`t up on the definitions and terms. So knowing all the above; is $1500 a good deal?
Well once you have your SEO muscles in shape, it should take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to optimize a page, depending on the keywords and strategy for their use. How big is your website? Take the total number of pages you want to optimize and divide it into the $1500 bucks. Determining if its a good deal is much easier then. What`s your time worth?
But whether you hire them or not, is not the most important thing. Do you understand what it is they`re supposed to be doing, and can you make sure they do what they say they`re going to do? As a business owner it`s not very cost effective to occupy your time doing grunt work, unless that`s the best use of your time at the momment. And since SEO is something you should always be thinking about and improving upon, its got to be a good idea to know what`s involved. After optimizing a page you`ll need to be patient, but you should start to see some ranking improvements in 2 to 3 weeks if you did all the right stuff. If it was me... I`d do it myself and save the $1500 bucks for a Google Adword campaign...but that`s a whole `nother story.
Good luck with your site!
davebarnes042/10/2009 9:03 PM
Is the company legitimate? Are there testimonials or references you can call? Or are they well known? (Or, are they located in the top 3 spot for any search terms?).
There is a lot of SEO books and materials you can read if you want to do it yourself, but there are professionals who constantly test search algorithms to determine what SEO techniques work best. These experts might deliver a much better job than any non-expert who just reads a few books.
The 1500 sounds good, but since search algorithms change constantly, how long are they promising to keep you in the top 3? Is there any kind of guarantee or service agreement?
Finally, do you want to spend time maintaining your site to make sure that the SEO is always in tip top shape (which would be a full time job)? If you can afford it, I would hire a reputable expert rather than do it yourself. MattThomas2/11/2009 4:24 PM