doing an SEO job that is excruciatingly difficult..looking for a mentor/advisor to help

15 years ago

So basically, you went out and sold something you don't know how to provide?

No wonder IMers get such a bad name.

Tina

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Michael Oksa

15 years ago

Originally Posted by ttrance

hey i'm working on this project and every few weeks it seems like I've got it, than I feel lost...

Now I feel lost. The client says this is his "busy season" yet calls are down. I type in google some terms I hear are important and see this guy on page 1, he gets about 50 hits a day which is good in this local niche..

However when I goto webmaster tools, I see a whole other picture! He is on page one alot... lots of impressions, but at bad locations! rarely #1... I need some help getting down a system to increase this. I would say my experience/skill level in SEO is about 5.5/10, there are just sooo many variables to juggle!

So I'm asking around if there are any really really expert SEO ppl out there who can give me a little time and help me get on track.. We can chat through skype or google chat but I would soo appreciate a little time from one of the guru's!

thanks

If I needed a medical operation, I would want my surgeon to have an experience/skill level of at least 5.6/10.

5.5/10 is just too low.

Would you go to a mechanic who was only 55% proficient?

What if your computer had to be fixed, would you take it to a business that only half knew what it was doing?

Would you go to a dentist who scored 5.5 out of 10 on all of his tests in college?

Would you hire a lawyer who claimed to not know about 45% of the law?

Come on! We're not here to make up for your 45% for the JOB YOU ALREADY TOOK.

That being said, give them a refund immediately. Then, take enough time to really learn what you need to know. The best way to do that, in my opinion, is to figure out the solution to your current problem.

All the best,
Michael

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ttrance

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Michael Oksa

If I needed a medical operation, I would want my surgeon to have an experience/skill level of at least 5.6/10.

5.5/10 is just too low.

Would you go to a mechanic who was only 55% proficient?

What if your computer had to be fixed, would you take it to a business that only half knew what it was doing?

Would you go to a dentist who scored 5.5 out of 10 on all of his tests in college?

Would you hire a lawyer who claimed to not know about 45% of the law?

Come on! We're not here to make up for your 45% for the JOB YOU ALREADY TOOK.

That being said, give them a refund immediately. Then, take enough time to really learn what you need to know. The best way to do that, in my opinion, is to figure out the solution to your current problem.

All the best,
Michael

So are you saying the first Job you took you were 100% the best of the best at it? Sure.

A fresh mechanic out of school... So he is not allowed to work since he is not 100% right?

Great logic there...

A fresh lawyer and a seasoned lawyer.... Yes both are equal correct?

My cousins is a neonatologist and the skill and experience he has now is far greater than when he started. Should he not have started???

I've already done a LOT of learning in SEO. I have been trained, been learning well over 150+ hours. Countless tutorials. I myself have worked on and created over a dozen websites. I have worked in IT related jobs with over 1000 clients!!!!

I understand A LOT about SEO already, but I am still no where near the top... Maybe 5.5/10 was too low but I am trying to get across that I feel there is still a lot to learn.

Thanks for help buddy.

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Michael Oksa

15 years ago

Originally Posted by ttrance

So are you saying the first Job you took you were 100% the best of the best at it? Sure.

A fresh mechanic out of school... So he is not allowed to work since he is not 100% right?

Great logic there...

A fresh lawyer and a seasoned lawyer.... Yes both are equal correct?

My cousins is a neonatologist and the skill and experience he has now is far greater than when he started. Should he not have started???

I've already done a LOT of learning in SEO. I have been trained, been learning well over 150+ hours. Countless tutorials. I myself have worked on and created over a dozen websites. I have worked in IT related jobs with over 1000 clients!!!!

I understand A LOT about SEO already, but I am still no where near the top... Maybe 5.5/10 was too low but I am trying to get across that I feel there is still a lot to learn.

Thanks for help buddy.

No, and you know that's not what I'm saying.

But I still think 55% is too low, don't you?

Anyway, I sort of see what you're saying. Here's why. I would rather deal with somebody who thinks they only know 55% than somebody who claims to know 100% and only knows 55%.

Also, you may feel you only know about 55%, but compared to me it's probably much closer to 550%.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say the reason you think you only know 55% is because you have an idea of how much there is to learn. Plus, SEO isn't a static thing, so I would never expect 100% from anybody.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to help, but I wanted to point out my feelings on dealing with somebody who only knows half of their job (according to your calculations).

And, yeah, I caught the anti-semitic piece of garbage post earlier, too. Which was 100% uncalled for.

All the best,
Michael

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ttrance

15 years ago

wow all that positivity! especially the last comment.. my location?!?! - anti-semite alert! Everyone starts from somewhere I'm working with a relative who already had done a lot of SEO.

Im shocked at these negative responses! Who do you think you are to berate me like this? As if you can judge me or my knowledge? I'm a System Admin who has been involved in IT/Tech for over 15 years but enjoy the SEO side a lot and am moving in this direction. I am asking for help and instead I get rebuke??? Those of you who responded clearly have some of your own issues.

A new employee at a company is not allowed to ask for help from fellow workers? I am not charging him anything like what a 'pro' SEO guy would charge.

Wow. Just WOW!

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licketysplit

15 years ago

Yeah, those were some really lame replies, to put it nicely.

Anyway, what type of stuff have you done so far? If he's already on page 1 for those terms it probably wouldn't take too many links to push him up a bit further...

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ttrance

15 years ago

so the issue is really since its a local business that relies 100% from his online site, its important for him to always be ranking high.

Since Google Local and the magic 7 came about, as well as "MayDay", it has shook up his site. It would not be a problem if he was selling one service, or something easily marketable. But his business is split up amongst lets say 100 different things. He services appliances so lets say you have, maytag washing machine, whirlpool dryer... countless others.

so we are dealing with the kind of SEO that is hardest to do (IMO). You need to get him ranking for all the top terms related to local searches in all the various categories he services. If I work lets say on 1 main search term, and it goes up, well that at most will only increase his business by a couple percent since the business overall come through many small avenues...

THIS is the problem!!! When looking in google webmaster tools, I see first page ranking for many terms, but no near the top positions and not on Google Local. So therefore lately his business has been sinking (not because of me)... He, and pretty much any other local business that has many services has this exact issue.

Example: If I do computer repair... People may search for "computer repair" or "hard disk repair" or one of many other terms... One term is not going to generally be far and above the rest...

So I guess one of the the questions is ... how to priortize and target the right keywords within a reasonable frame of time/money? (OF course when your already aware of all the keyword tools... You know terms that get traffic... you analyze the reports from webmaster tools and analytics...)

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Social-Media-Marketing

15 years ago

Originally Posted by ttrance

so the issue is really since its a local business that relies 100% from his online site, its important for him to always be ranking high.

Since Google Local and the magic 7 came about, as well as "MayDay", it has shook up his site. It would not be a problem if he was selling one service, or something easily marketable. But his business is split up amongst lets say 100 different things. He services appliances so lets say you have, maytag washing machine, whirlpool dryer... countless others.

so we are dealing with the kind of SEO that is hardest to do (IMO). You need to get him ranking for all the top terms related to local searches in all the various categories he services. If I work lets say on 1 main search term, and it goes up, well that at most will only increase his business by a couple percent since the business overall come through many small avenues...

THIS is the problem!!! When looking in google webmaster tools, I see first page ranking for many terms, but no near the top positions and not on Google Local. So therefore lately his business has been sinking (not because of me)... He, and pretty much any other local business that has many services has this exact issue.

Example: If I do computer repair... People may search for "computer repair" or "hard disk repair" or one of many other terms... One term is not going to generally be far and above the rest...

So I guess one of the the questions is ... how to priortize and target the right keywords within a reasonable frame of time/money? (OF course when your already aware of all the keyword tools... You know terms that get traffic... you analyze the reports from webmaster tools and analytics...)

You can rank #1 for the keyword phrase and if Google is showing a Local Search 7 pack at the top of the page, people will RARELY get around to clicking on anything else.

You answered your own question I think when you said:

Since Google Local and the magic 7 came about, as well as "MayDay", it has shook up his site. It would not be a problem if he was selling one service, or something

Quit focusing on organic rankings temporarily and focus first on Local Search. It's usually not that hard to get in the top 7 Local Search listings if you know what your doing. There's tons of "how to rank in local search" info on the web. Get him in the 7 pack for the local service related phrase that drive the most traffic.

Once he's in the 7 pack (or simultaneously) get to work on his local search phrases for organic rankings. If he's a local appliance repair man in Charlotte, NC, you're absolutely wasting your time trying to rank for "appliance repair" and "appliance repair man"... Those terms are too competitive, and 99.99999999% of the people searching for them are NOT looking for appliance repairs in Charlotte.

He should be trying to rank ONLY for local terms like "appliance repair charlotte nc" or "maytag repair charlotte nc". Every targeted keyword phrase should have his geographic info (typically city/state) in the phrase. These will be MUCH easier to rank for and each link you build will go a LOT farther towards getting his site to #1.

All of the above assumes, of course, that he is in fact a local company servicing primarily local people and/or businesses.

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jasonl70

15 years ago

if i were in your shoes, I would either set up his site so there's a page dedicated to each KW phrase he's wanting to rank for, and do some relevant backlinking to them.

And/Or I would make smaller 'mini sites' related to those keywords, and backlink to them...

And/Or use web2.0 sites for those other kw's.

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ttrance

15 years ago

Originally Posted by jasonl70

if i were in your shoes, I would either set up his site so there's a page dedicated to each KW phrase he's wanting to rank for, and do some relevant backlinking to them.

And/Or I would make smaller 'mini sites' related to those keywords, and backlink to them...

And/Or use web2.0 sites for those other kw's.

There is no way around it I suppose... I started with some articles geared towards the popular appliances, but for some reason I do not see much traffic if any traffic at all coming from those article pages. Should I submit some of these articles and point it to the actual pages on the website?

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miker501

15 years ago

Originally Posted by ttrance

There is no way around it I suppose... I started with some articles geared towards the popular appliances, but for some reason I do not see much traffic if any traffic at all coming from those article pages. Should I submit some of these articles and point it to the actual pages on the website?

Here is my opinion FWIW. Look on Webmaster tools - see what phrases he is getting traffic from. Some will be directly for the KW, some for other untargetted words on the page. Check the search volumes for all the keywords. If they look good on their own, or collectively, throw some article backlinks at them with the keywords in the anchor text you want to push up in the rankings. You can rank a single page for multiple keywrods of course.

It's pointless just writing article reviews pointing at the site if no-one is searching for those appliances. You need to make sure the traffic is there first. Once you can get traffic to the site you can then try to 'move' it to where you want it. ie "this appliance is great, but this one is better" (with link to the 'better' product page.)

I agree that if you have specific 'appliances' featured on the site, and they all get traffic via searches for models, brands etc, sure, create a separate page for each, and try to rank each one individually. But if the main KW is 'bosch mini fridge', then drive the traffic to that too and make sure the reviews on individual items are good enough to sell it to the customer.

sorry, a collection of ideas thrown in, in no specific order

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AzzamS

15 years ago

Originally Posted by jasonl70

if i were in your shoes, I would either set up his site so there's a page dedicated to each KW phrase he's wanting to rank for, and do some relevant backlinking to them.

And/Or I would make smaller 'mini sites' related to those keywords, and backlink to them...

And/Or use web2.0 sites for those other kw's.

I second this idea. Plus you need to understand Google and its frame of working, since the beginning Google has not change mainy of its core fundamentals therefore still gives a lot of love to a good internal site structure.

So more individual pages targeting specific keywords/keyword terms. These will link between each other [internal].
A category page will be created [or exists] that links to alll of these pages.

Category page is simply a html sitemap [it will just be loads of anchor text], but sitemaps do not usually get any link love so you need to give it some.

Categories need to be structured as if you are talking to a 5 year old, seriously; Google is not that smart [no matter what they tell you]

So if you have homepage ->cleaners->dyson [do not think it is a good structure]. Here is one of the best structures you will see;

Mobile Phones UK >> Mobile phone reviews, consumer reviews and best buys: BlackBerry 8520, HTC Desire, LG Cookie, Nokia 5230, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Samsung Tocco Lite, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini

Look at the category listing on the left. See the mention of every phone with the model. That guy is the don of Mobile phone affiliates. In a web 2.0 world not a sexy site but makes him serious £££££££.

OK, so the strucute would be homepage->cleaners->dyson cleaner; the additional keyword being 'cleaner' to dyson. You spelling it out to google here, if the listing will become too long then apply css to make the font smaller.

The pages that you create for each individual keyword/keyterm, just keeping bashing in the backlinks [using anchor text] you will reach a snowball effect when the internal structure and the offline link building will compliment each other and Google will give you super love.

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debra 15 years ago

What do you have going...staic pages or CMS platform?

Doesn't matter really...I can do the Google talk but I don't really want to open Skype cuz they bombard me.

I don't mind showing you how it's done.
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maggie0722

15 years ago

i have the same confuse with you. I find that SEO is a bit difficult for me. Still , i need much time to learn it.

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SeanSupplee

15 years ago

Ive had a lot of luck crate article pages on static sites which are targeted to a keyword I am shotting for then backlinking to it with LSI keywords and the main keyword. This seems to work the best.

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tferraro11

15 years ago

Let me know if you still need some help. I would be happy to coach you.

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ttrance

15 years ago

everyone -- thanks for the great feedback! To the original few trolls who posted... get a life!! Especially that neo-nazi... Hey bro the nazi's lost in the end, choose better battles to fight!

The company does just work locally. Now i'm not from America but the city he lives in seems to have 100+ 'sections' or districts or whatever you want to call it. I'm from Toronto Canada and we have the city broken up into various smaller areas, but when we speak about targetting the terms with geo in mind -- Yes that would be:
maytag washing machine repair service [area] x100 just for one variation!

What i'm doing now besides keyword research is a PPC campaign. Totally enjoying the PPC process vs the SEO process right now...

whats everyones opinion on this: Keyword research gives you good guesstimates. But when you take the keywords you get from keyword research and you put it into a ppc campaign you get actual results of what is REALLY going on! I got 100+ terms in a ppc campaign, and I see EXACTLY how many impressions each of those keyword terms get!
Could it be instead of going crazy with 10000 different combinations for one small company, I could just pick the top keyword terms from PPC and target all my SEO efforts for those??

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Peter Gregory

15 years ago

Originally Posted by ttrance

whats everyones opinion on this: Keyword research gives you good guesstimates. But when you take the keywords you get from keyword research and you put it into a ppc campaign you get actual results of what is REALLY going on! I got 100+ terms in a ppc campaign, and I see EXACTLY how many impressions each of those keyword terms get!
Could it be instead of going crazy with 10000 different combinations for one small company, I could just pick the top keyword terms from PPC and target all my SEO efforts for those??

Spot ON! A quick little ppc campaign can do wonders for determining where to focus your seo efforts. Much more reliable than ANY keyword tool out there. With that statement alone I would say you are much closer to the 6.5/10 rank

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Jayson L

15 years ago

Here is my formula and it generates more leads then my insurance agency needs.
1. Create 1 new page per day with something useful that will help people that come to the site.
2. Social bookmark each page with 20-25 different social bookmarking sites.
3. Create articles on article directories that are ranking well. (type in some major keywords and see what is showing up in the top 2 pages.)
4. Do some forum posing on forums that re relevant and would be able to use your product or service
5. join services like uaw, seolinkvine, or just pay for the services that will post a couple of articles on these clubs.
6. This is the most important. Pick buyer keywords that are possible to rank for and have enough traffic to make it worth your time.

Last, lose the attitude that because someone gave you bad feedback they hate jews. That is ridiculous and almost make me not give you one bit of help. Your anti semite statement was hopefully a joke.

Good luck and don't take responses in this, or any forum personally. Deffinately don't think instantly that it is a direct hit to your specefit religion.

I hope this helps,

Jayson L

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Peter Gregory

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Jayson L

Last, lose the attitude that because someone gave you bad feedback they hate jews. That is ridiculous and almost make me not give you one bit of help. Your anti semite statement was hopefully a joke.

Good luck and don't take responses in this, or any forum personally. Deffinately don't think instantly that it is a direct hit to your specefit religion.

I think the comment he was referring to was removed by the mods, because there was a definite anit-semitic statement in one of the posts that I remember reading which doesn't seem to exist any longer.

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Jayson L

15 years ago

If that's the case and I thought maybe it was, then this is why I gave me best advice that works for me. I believe new content targeting keywords that are easier to reach with keywords pointing to your home page for the tuff keywords works everytime. Backlink (not spam) the interior pages that are easier to rank for and point the big links to the home page and your on your way to success!

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ttrance

15 years ago

thanks for the killer advice everyone, I will be putting into action everything I can from the above advice and will try to help others with my results...

Jayson L: There was a post that got removed which was very wrong. Good job mods!

I believe new content targeting keywords that are easier to reach with keywords pointing to your home page for the tuff keywords works everytime. Backlink (not spam) the interior pages that are easier to rank for and point the big links to the home page and your on your way to success!

If I understand correctly:
create a new page which has content that mentions 4% density a keyword term I want for the homepage.
Anchor it and point it back to the homepage.
build backlinks for those content pages which point back to content created.

interesting Idea. In fact I already have 15 articles for the 15 top selling services of the client, and another 15 coming. I should go through that article and anchor the main keywords in those pages to the homepage, and than instead of building backlinks for the homepage, do it for the sidepages... IIINNNTTEEERRREESSTTTIINNNGGG!!

Thanks and have an excellent day

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doing an SEO job that is excruciatingly difficult..looking for a mentor/advisor to help

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