Is SEO sometimes a waste of time?

I see SEO, these days, as more a compliance thing, rather than a tactic. Google is more interested in context than individual keywords. They want to put your site on page one because it is relevant and contains information useful to their consumer - the searcher. Not because it is all 'tricked out' SEO wise.

SEO is dying, somewhat. Things like KW research will always be important, but many SEO agencies are branching out their services a bit. It is becoming more of just a checklist. Make sure stuff is 'optimized' and in the right place, etc.

Further, you are looking for SEO keyword based search results on a HIGHLY competitive term. I don't know what AdWords is charging per click for SEO related stuff, but I bet it ain't cheap.

I would suggest trying a different angle or approach.

SEO is never a waste of time if you implement it properly, but real optimization is a process that most internet marketers simply can't be bothered to committing to.

It's like saying you're going to wash you car but only spraying a little bit of water on the tires- your car is still going to look like crap afterwards. SEO works the exact same way; if you want to have great results, then you have to put in AT LEAST the same amount of effort that all the top businesses within your niche did when they started.

For some people, SEO works really well while for others it doesn't.

You can do SEO when you start out but this should be 10% of your overall actions. When you start out, 90% of your time and efforts should be to test all sorts of paid avenues to see which ones work best for you and which ones don't.

If you are in a "business", you should not hesitate to invest money into your business (Education, marketing, books on SEO, etc)

I start out with SEO at first, but the time taken to get a site ranked + all the stress of surviving the next animal update onslaught lead me to PPC.

Ever since then, I have a good sleep every night knowing with certainty I will see leads in my inbox the next day.

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I own two sites that will almost never get any search traffic (or very, very little) even if fully optized and ranking for major keywords because of my reputation in the community in which I operate. My brand spreads via word of mouth and social media. As such, I don't go out of my way and spend lots of time worrying about SEO and optimizing.

However, that doesn't mean I don't subscribe to good SEO practices out of good habit.

SEO is not waste of time.You should work with effective techniques or result oriented techniques.after latest update of Google quality content is a vital part of SEO for get ranked and quick results.

In two cases SEO is totally waste of time:

1. If you target very high competitive keywords to rank your site

2. If you don't go through a proper keyword research

I don't think that SEO is waste of time .always make sure that you are using quality contents and links for your webpages.

It is sure not as effective as it was 6 or 7 years ago.

There is not doubt that you can be successful with it.

But Google has taken measures to make it somewhat difficult to stay on top without a lot of fluctuations



- Robert Andrew

Indeed SEO is not waste of time or money. If you feel market saturated and adword is the way to go, just imagine the PPC rate. Again still websites ranking for competitive keywords using things like PBN, web 2.0. Keyword research is key to success, any niche market doesn't contain couple of keyword rather a list of main, secondary and long tail keywords so look into it and work on those keywords were SERP1st page have atleast 1 pr2 page

When you are making sites that are in hugely saturated markets, with a lot of authority sites already dominating the search engines results, SEO will NOT become COMPLETELY irrelevant especially when you concentrate on optimizing related keywords that are not optimized by your competitors.

When it comes to traffic, it all depends on how many people are searching for the keyword you have optimized. This means even if you rank no. 1 in your optimized keyword when only a few people search for that keyword then traffic will not that be huge.

It all depends on where you want your traffic to come from. If you want traffic from Google, then you need to give them what they want in the form of SEO and Optimization.

But I think Google Favors (after the big name sites) webmasters who focus more on content for their readers first, and search engines second.

When you don't need Google, that is when they will feed you.

I think this thread is going again in the direction of SEO vs PPC, which it should not.
Let's see the great possibilities what PPC can give us. Big keywords like "shoes online", for example. With PPC you can stand next or above Zappos, Amazon & Co. That's great, isn't it?
The point is, what is helping you and where are you standing with your business? Can you really utilize this being next to the giants? If you just have a small online shop with some 10 self designed sneakers, than you will certainly see your PPC customers leaving your page faster than you can pay for. Simply because you don't meet the expectations for 99% off the visitors.
On the other hand, if you go for the low competition keyword for "Customized designer sneakers" or something like that, than why you need to go for PPC? Here are no Amazons, so why not try with SEO?
I think, it's all about your business perspective and for sure if you have to push some products, you need both.
Leatherman

if you can not do the seo perfectly then it is waste of time

Most people fail to comprehend authority competition & keyword research.

Always target root keywords as If your trying to rank for those keywords but at the same time have realistic expectations. Example, you're not outranking apple.com for the keyword iphone, but that doesn't matter because we know apple.com will own that keyword in Google SERPs forever.

What matters is you target the root keyword to associate your own web pages with the keyword (ex: iphone).

This way you build up longtail keywords that can piggyback off your root keyword internal page/s authority. Example, so now you'll have authority anytime you want to target a longtail iphone keyword.

Here's an example how root keywords work in Google SERPs to create authority for longtail keywords.

Do a Google search for the keyword best or buy, bestbuy.com ranks #1 & #2. BestBuy has tons of backlinks with the anchor-text best & buy, those root keywords are their foot in the door for longtail keywords that include the keywords (best, buy).

Root keywords: best, buy

• best iphone
• best pc
• best tablet
• best cell phone
• etc...

• buy iphone
• buy pc
• buy tablet
• buy cell phone
• etc...

Don't confuse the domain name (best + buy + .com) with the authority backlinks & anchor-text.

Focus on the BIG picture & be realistic when it comes to SERP competition.

Forget about the old days of SEO where you can rank in competitive industries in the short term by throwing a bunch of links to a weak website.

SEO is a waste of time if you do it wrong... If your mindset is to build a quick thing for a quick buck then you better look to target extremely non competitive keywords and be SUPER smart about how you get links.

Outreach and getting your hands dirty is the way to build good quality links nowadays. Sort of "begging" for links.

It short SEO is not a waste of time if you have a proper purpose and plan for it.

ANYTHING you do with online marketing, if done wrong, can be a waste of time. Or your results will simply not be as good as they could if you had done thngs right.

I don't think SEO is a waste of time. I have found that SEO has impact in long run. So I think SEO is always important.

Is SEO a waste of time?

Well, it depends.

If you follow Google's rule, then it's not and you will get all the benefits from Google.

If you are using blackhat technique and want to cheat Google, then you digging a hole for yourself.

Just follow their rule and you'll be fine.

In our case, here is the order of priority for any new business and sites we create:

1. Sales page - make sure it converts...it doesn't matter where the traffic comes from is your sales/offer page sucks. So, we test this with combination of paid, affiliate and some SEO traffic early on to make sure the page is going to perform

2. We then create a sales funnel to pre-sell that page - and we test that. This includes a landing page/squeeze page with giveaway, an offer (either free bonus to get subscribers or to get the lead into our sales funnel and then on to the sales page)

3. Traffic generation - we typically implement a combination of partnership/affiliate strategies along with paid FB, Adwords and sometimes solo or blog ads, on some sites we create high value content through blogs, podcasts, forums, etc...and then ensure we have social setup around YouTube, Twitter and either FB, Instagram or Pintrest depending on the market segment and approach we will take (visual versus otherwise). We do pay attention to SEO with our content but that is only after we determine which content is most appealing to our customers - some basic optimizations from there.

Our traffic is about 50/50 between SEO and non-SEO, conversions though are much higher on non-SEO (and always will in our experience across our own sites and coaching customers - even with a highly optimized campaign)

Jeff

The answer is NO.

SEO is simply a technique to increase your website traffic. If you don't have a web optimized site for search engines, then searches to your website will be at the very bottom of the list and will not gain traction.

1. Keywords must be enough but not too spammy
2. Website codes (specially HTML and other languages used like JavaScript and PHP) must be functional. Example, a website done with automatically generated like Webly and all that isn't as search engine friendly as a real customized website done by a web developer (not web designers).

Good luck!

-john

If your market is saturated and the top spots are already claimed then I would not do SEO, you can spend your dollars elsewhere. But if there is room then yes, you can and should put an effort into SEO. It is not that hard if you pick the right words and do things right.

SEO is never a waste of time. It'll help you to get much traffics to your website and will increase your ranking. But without SEO normally I think it is difficult to get good amount of traffic and higher ranking.

Wether SEO works depends on the situation, so there's no easy answer. Even with a saturated market you could find a strategy that works for you. Or you may just find out that it's irrelevant because your target market isn't using the search for some reason.

SEO can be everything from the main strategy to sort of an amplifier for the overall branding and marketing. It should not be the only tool in the war chest.

it's a waste of time if your methods are not gonna work. But hey SEO is all about trial and error so learn to adopt the changes and prepare to implement needed adjustments.

SEO has made me a millionaire so is it a waste of time no? What you can do is have goals and realistic expectations. In some niches I let clients know we can go grey, black, and white with our tactics with each having different life spans. Sometimes the white hat never pans out at a reasonable cost and the black hat pays off other times it is the opposite.

Seo is never irrelevant or waste of time. It is a modern day technique for generating high ranking for your website on any search engine at no time. It is irrelevant only when your backlinks dose not follow proper seo rules.

Its never wasting of time if legally you are doing it...this service is very powerful to increased your business.Never Think it is wasting of time...Social media and another things are subsidiary part of it and all are too much useful nowadays!

I don't thibk SEO is waste of time. SEO is worthwhile when you follow some white hat rules. Obviously It is a long term task to achieve high rank on search engines. But once you achieve it then you become popular world wide. I advise you that don't get frustrate for whatever happens against you. Keep post unique contents and share it on social media and content curation sites. These days its a better way to drive traffics to our blog or article.

SEO will be a waste of time if you doesn't even know what you are doing in the website. I would like to state that every website needs different SEO.

SEO is never a waste of your time IF you're doing the right things. If you want to do proper SEO you need to be consistent and keep up with everyone else, it'll be difficult especially at first since you are new and the others are already way ahead of you, but definitely don't ignore it altogether!

I agree SEO is not a waste of time but it does take time and effort. Good SEO is a long term commitment that pays of in the long run. You just have to work very hard at it.

SEO has never been a waste of time and never will be. It has evolved a lot over the years and is now more focused on the content rather than other factors. There are some permanent things like keyword researching and on page SEO that need to be done carefully and if implemented correctly, then it would be a long term benefit. Another factor to be remembered is the implementation of responsive design for newer websites and upgrading older ones. Google is giving priority to this thing very much.

If you want to utilize your time properly and effectively in terms of productivity then you should do your homework first. Research your niche, find out your competitors, profitable keywords and make sure to check your competitors backlink profile so that you can get links from same place the way they did. With time and effort you will eventually outrank your competitors in no time!

If you don't concentrate on the quality then it can be a waste of time building hundreds of virtual useless links.

SEO is an absolute necessity if you want traffic from a search engine. Even in a ridiculously competitive market, you can find some things to attract search engine visitors. The key to on page SEO is to do it thoroughly.

Without on page SEO, your PPC prices I imagine would be ridiculously high.

Shall i ask one question . Your business will die ? same as until our business on online seo will alive .