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Is SEO A Big Scam?
DaleKing
subscriber Posts: 141
If you visit the various webmaster and business forums like I do, it`s pretty apparent that a lot of people think paying someone to do SEO is akin to magic pills, leprechauns and pixie dust. In other words... A BIG SCAM!While I agree, there are definitely a lot of bad apples in SEO, there are also legitimate SEO companies who can and do deliver results consistently.A few of the best SEO experts around include Shari Thurow, Jill Whalen and Danny Sullivan. If you read and heed their advice, you will never go wrong.Do any of you have any opinions about SEO that you would like to share?
Dale KingDKing2007-7-2 14:11:36
Dale KingDKing2007-7-2 14:11:36
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Comments
Dale KingDKing2007-7-3 17:33:11
I disagree with that advice. Just because someone comes up on the first page doesn`t necessarily make them legitimate. Besides, there is only room for ten spots on the first page, but there are many more than ten legitimate SEO experts - which means they`re on the second, third and fourth page.
For example, Jill Whalen comes up on the second page. Yet her reputation is sterling.
When choosing an SEO expert, yes, do your research, of course. But don`t make your decision based on whether or not they`re ranked on the first page.
That doesn`t guarantee anything!
Dale King
DKing2007-7-5 17:31:55
site:SEOBookThe important thing to
remember though is that your <span style="font-weight:
bold;">user</span> and your <span style="font-weight:
bold;">content</span> always come first. SEO all you want ... after those 2
are satisfied.
I agree with this. Nothing beats unique/quality content. That`s what we`ve
discovered with the businesses participating in our private beta.
searchguru2007-7-11 12:59:31
I totally disagree with these two statements.
Please explain how submitting to smaller search engines can hurt you. And I`d really like you to explain how article marketing can be overdone.
Dale King
I like what everyone has had to say and what each one`s take is on the foundational seo tactics.
One thing I did not hear mentioned is the word "theme". No one talked about how important the theme of one`s website ought to be and the on-page factors relating to its theme.
Here`s a basic example of what I mean. If you have a widget website portal, your website might talk about blue widgets, red widgets, and yellow widgets. But, your widget website should not talk about dog training. That would confuse the search engines (not to mention the visitor) and would therefore cause your site to be less relevant than if "dog training" were not mentioned.
This concept leads to theme bleeding and how you not only want to stay on-topic, but you also do not want to give away page rank to outbound links, unless there is a VERY good reason to doing so.
When implementing off-page factors, you want to keep your website theme in mind. You will want to include submitting your links to theme-related websites. Notice I said "include", meaning this is in addition to submitting your links to places like general website directories (that are SEO-friendly, of course), etc.
You will also want to have a keyword list strategy when submitting your links. Why? Because you don`t want to put money and effort to off-page promotion of just ANY related keyword. You want to conduct deliberate and purposeful off-page promotions, because you want your effort to count. Therefore, you`ll benefit most when you submit your top-level theme keywords and links (I`m not referring to the index page of the main site). I believe in deep-linking.
All of this means you ought to know the value of the keywords you are targeting. To give an example, why would you want to do off-page promotion for a long-tail keyword phrase that only has 100 competing pages? You could easily rank for this phrase just by mentioning it in the article body of your theme-relevant website. No off-page needed in that case.
So, this means you are mindful of the competition of all keywords in your theme cluster.
Sound daunting? Sure. I agree that it is. But there are tools out there to get that information, as well as learning to do this manually. So, it`s not impossible.
Now, I`m ready for any critiques to my view point . After all, this is just my take, and to each his/her own! If it works for you, keep doing it. This works for me, and I love it.
Best all,
Evekrakkenseo9/8/2008 8:21 PM
Real SEO is just a good web master making sure that all of the pieces of the puzzle are present and in the correct place. I therefore have to agree with houseofjerkyjanie`s post. There are web master`s out there who take care of their clients SEO because it is a part of the job. My clients are happy with the SEO they get from my company. We never use tactics that would be considered "not legitimate".
We only handle SEO for websites that we have designed. The reason is that content is a part of that puzzle. nhgnikole post is also correct. I can not do much for a site that is not built correctly in the first place. evideoproductions stated that their site is being redone. It may not be the case in this instance but, I often redo sites for clients who are looking for better results. The site has to be corrected sometimes to complete the puzzle.
DaleKing replied "Just because someone comes up on the first page doesn`t necessarily make them legitimate." and I have to agree with that statement. There are horror stories about scams taking allot of money to get a client on the first page. The client is initially happy with the results until they learn that a week or a month later they are penalized for things like hidden text (just as an example). There are ways to get to the first page that are not legitimate, if you (or the company you hire) use those practices you will not maintain that first page for long.
There are good companies out there. Do your research to be sure you are hiring one of them.
PrimoSites9/20/2008 2:46 AM
My advice is to perform a research just like you would when buying a car. Make sure the SEO agency you are hiring has some portfolio to show. Just because they say they know SEO does not mean they will get you to a visible spot so make sure they can show you some strong rankigns on the web. SEO is about rankigns anyone that claims to be an expert but has nothing to show is not worth paying the money too because most likely you will end up in the bottom of the pile with no visits.
sdhinteractive is correct. I like to tell my clients that SEO is not like driving a fast car. Fast turns and fast results are not real. It is more like steering a cruise ship. You adjust course when needed and it takes time to see the results. When those results appear they are real. Keeping a steady course is the goal. Once on course it is not hard to keep it there so long as you have a captain steering the ship!
Really looking into the business who will be providing this service is imperative to the health of your website so do your home work.