Paying for SEO?

by 17 replies
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I stumbled across this forum while searching for something else business related a little while ago. Since then I have read so much, found out a out so many tools, and gotten many different ideas and angles to take my business that it's staggering and I'm finding it difficult to concertante and focus on any one thing. Right now I do everything myself related to my business. One thing I'd read long ago was to stay away from SEO companies that solicit me nonstop via spam emails. Now that I have been here I'm wondering about paying someone to do some seo work for me. How do I know if it's worth it? My biggest concern would be someone using techniques that would get me blacklisted in the interest of justifying further cost/work because of immediate favorable results not bothering to be concerned about the long term impact to me.

How do I shop for an seo contractor? What things should I be looking for?
#search engine optimization #paying #seo
  • It would be good to learn a bit about SEO before hiring a person to do it. This way you can keep an eye on what that person is doing with your sites.
    And offcourse you can track the ranking of your site for targeted keyword to see if the things are really working for you or now.
    • [1] reply
    • You are right because some times many SEO are misguide to their client and other thing is that you can take participate in discussion and know the progress of your site.
  • I'm not in the dark about SEO. I read up on it and practice as much as I can but it's just that I'm spread too thin so it might be time to start contracting out.

    Thanks to whenever moved the thread. I was going to start it here but the forum description said it was for discussing Adwords and Adsense so I didn't think this fit.
  • It all depends on your budget really. You want an SEO that builds high quality links and not links by the thousands. The question of what is safe these days is a hard one to answer. Even guest posting has recently got some people in hot water.

    There is always a risk that the SEO work done today may not be recommended tomorrow.

    You should look for someone that values their time and it reflects in their prices. You can never expect great results on a shoestring budget. You want someone that is reputable. If the company offers profile links, article directories or some other form of SEO that is pure garbage, run the other way. The best bet would be some form of high quality contextual links that come from relevant sites. All of this depends on your ultimate budget.
  • Banned
    You could build a new same niche domain & rank those pages until you can find an SEO you trust. That way your branded domain isn't involved.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • SEO is not that difficult. You can learn in spare time and implement them on our blog.
  • Check and make sure they do on page SEO.

    If all they are doing is backlinks run away, they're probably just out sourcing them. Make sure you can talk to them over skype or google hangouts and find out exactly what they are going to do for you and your website.

    There are a lot of good companies out there, but there are a lot of bad eggs as well.
    • [1] reply
    • In my opinion, even folks that are spread ultra thin can still be able to manage their own SEO.

      Off-page SEO (given that your target is organic traffic and SERP rank increase) boils down to simply backlinks. All you need to know is:

      - The anchor text distribution Google is looking for
      - Where to find high power, relevant backlink sources
      - How to schedule your backlinks (link velocity)

      Once you have all that, you can do your own backlink purchasing/renting and cut out the middle man. Of course, if you're looking for keyword research, referral traffic, or a social presence, a SEO outsourcing company is more complex. But if you're just looking for rank climbing, it shouldnt take more than 30 min/week of your time.
      • [1] reply
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  • Ask for references!

    No matter which SEO company you use, they should be able to produce a lengthy list of satisfied website customers (site owners/bloggers) that were happy with the results achieved by this company.

    If the company has a list, but won't provide it or doesn't allow you to contact them, then you should suspect something.

    The successful SEO company who can provide search engine ranking results you want, will be more than happy to show off their satisfied customers.
  • Even references aren't enough. You need to either hire a main-stream SEO guy or learn SEO yourself. Most sellers on WarriorForum are Fiverr re-sellers offering the same stuff for 10x to 20x more the price (cut the middle man, avoid WSOs). Even if they have positive reviews in their WSO thread, that's meaningless. Many give away free services or even pay people to write fake positive reviews.

    If you have a small site doing local SEO, that is a bit easier to do, but still you really should learn SEO for yourself if you want be safe on hiring the right company. And remember, you get what you pay for.

    After you learn SEO for yourself, you can outsource the work and get it done much cheaper... cut the middle-man.
  • A really good, professional SEO firm will offer you a free trial and show you results.

    Trust SEO firms based on results and nothing else - or you may very well be setting yourself up for disappointment.

    Hope I helped!
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks Alvin, my only concern about showing me results during a free trial is that they will need to show results to get me on the hook and thus can be more apt to use blackhat tactics which end up affecting me later....after I've already in and started paying on a contract.
      • [1] reply
  • I've done SEO for many years I finally had an epiphany why not SEO my own site drive a ton of traffic and make Adsense money?

    Now making a living of my own SEO effort I have a different perspective on the whole SEO thing. I'm guessing your company doesn't really need SEO, what it needs is fresh leads right?
    SEO means you want people specifically from Google or Bing. But do you really care where your company leads come from? If you don't mind saying what industry are you in?

    Maybe a good lead generation strategy will pay back far better than any amount of SEO.

    I can SEO you to get thousands of visitors per day from Google no problem. But wouldn't you rather have 1000 visitors that were referred to you or called your phone number directly?
    Unless you make a living from Adsense or ad impressions there are better ways to get customer and spend your money.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • SEO is best if you are very serious in your online business. And hiring an SEO Consultant is one of the best move to leverage your time and effort then concentrate on the things that you are good at. I found this guy named Felix of SEO Philippines | Affiliate Marketing Tips who is giving me quality and profitable result.
  • Pay if it is done better by someone else than you and cost less than your time is worth.
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    Paying for SEO?

    I stumbled across this forum while searching for something else business related a little while ago. Since then I have read so much, found out a out so many tools, and gotten many different ideas and angles to take my business that it's staggering and I'm finding it difficult to concertante and focus on any one thing. Right now I do everything myself related to my business. One thing I'd read long ago was to stay away from SEO companies that solicit me nonstop via spam emails. Now that I have been here I'm wondering about paying someone to do some seo work for me. How do I know if it's worth it? My biggest concern would be someone using techniques that would get me blacklisted in the interest of justifying further cost/work because of immediate favorable results not bothering to be concerned about the long term impact to me. How do I shop for an seo contractor? What things should I be looking for?