Did my SEO developer in India do a good job?

[csa_dummy]

I just finished my 3 month term around a month ago with my SEO guy I hired from India, and the results I got out of it was less than what I expected. At first, I was around rank 9 or 10 in my most popular keyword, and now, I am around rank 7 in the same keyword. It is not too much of a difference, and it has been around 4-5 months since I first hired him. I was expecting more of being in the top 3 positions for my shortlisted 15 keywords.

SEO Tasks that he did was:

On Page Optimization:
Creating Content (keyword density)
Meta Tags, Sitemap, H1 header, etc.
Keyword Target Pages
Website Analysis (Load time, alt tags)

Off Page Optimization:
One Way Inbound links (150 Links, many which are PR0 and PR1)
Manual Submission to Search Engines
Directory Submission (30)
Article Creation and Submission (2 Articles, 10 directories)
Video Creation and Submission (1)
DMOZ Directory

I paid $1,000 for the services above.

1. Should I pursue my SEO with him, knowing that every month he can bring me 40 inbound links for $150 a month, and will that bring my ranking to a higher position? I would still want to target being in the top5 in my major keywords.

2. I have another website that is very similar to the site that was just optimized, more like a site offering the exact same products, but just a different design of the website. Should I have that site optimized as well? FYI, both of the sites are under the same webhost, if that should matter.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

Gray

[AndyBlackSEO]

You should never submit your sites to search engines. Just place your links in your forum signature or submit to busy web 2.0 sites such as Propeller etc.

I would question anyone who submits to search engines... it would indicate that they have either buried their head in teh sand or know very little about SEO and how search engines work.

Regarding this 2nd site of yours. Ensure that the content is DIFFERENT from the first site. If it's a clone apart from your template structure, it will sink.

Andy

[Jay Moreno]

hi gray

if you want to pm your url and search terms you where targeting i will gladly review your site.

thanks

jay aka ukescuba

[Liquidgraph]

I'm afraid you're getting ripped off. For $1000 I would expect at least 1000 links, if not more. The pathetic number of links you got could have been generated in 2 days works.

To rank well, you need serious numbers of links. For example, I can get 30+ directory links per day easy, not to mention 30 social bookmarking links. You can hire an India backlinker who'll generate 500 blog links for $300-500. Compare that to what you're getting.

Of course the reason metric is whether you're making extra money. If you are, then that $1000 was well spent.

[Evita]

OMG!

You paid a thousand bucks for that?

Sorry. Not trying to make you feel bad, but that is a rip off.
Hang around here for a while, develop a strategy, then outsource the individual components.
Much less expensive, much more effective.

Evita

[dome28]

Well just think SEO is not cheap,but my question is why overseas someone to do it ??

[kkchoon]

You can safely submit to Google webmaster, no reason google create this tool to trick you ...

However, $1000 for the service,m... a bit too much.

Join linkvana and purchase $2 post, you get $147 for the service, and $863 for 430+ articles gives you 430 high PR in-context blog post!

I still suggest mix back links, meaning you should try to mix other backlinks:

1. Directory maximizer - Good service for directory submission.
2. RSS directory
3. Blog comment
4. Yahoo Answer
5. Forum Signature
6. Article submission

and many more...

[Jay Moreno]

i dont think $1000 is too expensive to properly optimize your site for both onsite/offsite SEO

however by the sounds of it the offsite optimization doesnt look agressive enough...

there are SEO companies that do guarantee the work they do, not so much the actual position but more the page placement - for example 100% money back if your listed on page 3 or worse after a set period of time, 50% if your not listed on page 2 after a set period of time....

[csa_dummy]

Thanks for the responses!

1. Liquidgraph - Won't that get my site banned, if I generate that amount of inbound links per day? Also, aren't those scams as well?

2. Yes, the inbound links generated by my SEO guy is very irrelevant to my website. 90% - 95% of the links are either PR0 or PR1. He said that each inbound link typically costs $4.00 per link, and he gave me a discount on the whole package.

3. What do you think I can do to further improve my rankings in organic search listings for Google/Yahoo/MSN? It seems to me that hiring him for the monthly maintenance would not really boost up my rankings to my desired positions (top 5 results).

4. The SEO developer I hired is one of the most reviewed/most hired SEO developers in Elance.com. I based my decision on hiring him based on these factors. Of course, there were also many based in the U.S., but budget wise, there is a huge difference in hiring someone from India compared to hiring from the U.S.

5. ukescuba - Wow, that sounds very interesting, that there is a company that offers that type of a guarantee.

[Liquidgraph]

Originally Posted by csa_dummy

Thanks for the responses!

1. Liquidgraph - Won't that get my site banned, if I generate that amount of inbound links per day? Also, aren't those scams as well?...

You can easily do 50-100 links a day and not get banned. Quite the contrary, you'll get awesome rankings.

Outsourcing SEO isn't always a scam and you can find decent Indian SEO experts. The key is knowing how much to pay, and putting metrics in place. For example, when I outsource, I get guarantees for results. If I don't get on the first page, I don't pay the second half. BTW, you are only paying half upfront, right? Never pay the full price upfront. People need an incentive to keep working. That's why I establish bonuses like:

1st place: +$200
2nd place: +$100
3rd place: +$100
5th place: +$100

So, as my site gets more traffic, I share the love with my SEO guy. This way everyone's happy. Obviously you need to set your own prices based on how well you're monetizing traffic. Don't be afraid to pay a lot for top 3 positions if you see that it will bring in good traffic.

Also, ask for weekly link reports and put pressure on your SEO guy to create more and more links. Establish a baseline number of links your SEO guy should generate each week. That way, even if you don't reach #1, or first page, those links will still be worthwhile.