Hi
Just throwing another spanner in the works (constructively, I hope). I suppose I'm one of those so called 'seo specialists' you know, the ones that charge a lot of money for what some people here clearly imply is easy to do.
First, a little about myself.
I've been doing 'professional' seo for just under 9 years, all my work is by way of recommendation, I never give ranking guarantees to anyone but don't charge clients if I don't get the positions 'they want'!
I design all site graphics myself, I like my work and so do all my clients (nope, I'm not what you could call a "proper" graphic designer) but this isn't an issue as good design to a large degree lies in the eyes of the beholder (the client) and if he says it's good, fine.
I prefer to have the flexibility of coding a site from the outset for top placements, design comes second although I also do consultations on existing sites and whilst not ideal from my position, clients are always happy with such advice. I don't do databases, I sub that work to other professionals.
My fees vary wildly but are directly related to the amount of work involved in achieving client aims. If they want a simple seo job (few and easy serps) then the price reflects this but others want much more, page 1 for 6 client keywords costs less than page 1 for 160 client keywords. I don't use software or automated programs to do my work, it's all done manually.
Ok, that me! My personal views are...
Yes, seo can be done by most people, it's not madly technical but does involve masses of time, it does take a lot of knowledge (but a lot of this becomes habit over time so less intensive on the gray matter), and believe it or not it's very often the little subtleties (like going from position 3 on page 1 to position 1) that make all the difference. It isn't just down to title's, descriptions and keywords, those days are far behind.
It's like anything else, everyone can hit a golf ball but it takes skill to get the hole in one!
Darrens remark "Rubbish! Sorry, but its not difficult to rank a website" is way to sweeping a comment in my mind. It might be his personal experience regarding his personal site but it doesn't appear to take into account the different levels of difficulty across a wide range of heavily competing keyword markets unless I'm missing something
If the keywords being targeted have little or no competition then I agree, it can be quite straightforward to get to page 1. How often have we all typed a search phrase into an engine and found what clearly are 'homegrown websites' or 'personal / hobby sites' where the owner has no design / seo skills but gets a page 1 listing? There's lots of reasons this happens and luck is one of them.
However, getting a site / page to page 1 of major engines for difficult words is a bit harder and takes more time but again, there are examples where this has happened by fluke and not by intellect but well done to anyone getting there by whatever means.
There's a 'massive' difference between page 1 for a handful of easy keywords and page 1 for a hundred heavyweight keywords and without doubt the 'power end' of seo to me is a skill. If it isn't... why isn't everyone doing it. Oops, opened a can of worms there.
Yes, it does appear everyone and their 'aunt' are doing it. I personally know of very few companies in the UK who can do seo properly but there's thousands more that 'say' they do it, we've all seen them haven't we... they're everywhere you look, every web designer (ok, most then) now seems to offer seo services with all the tempting sales pitches and there's plenty of unsuspecting clients too.
Client:
My competitor is doing great out of the search engines, I want to "be on them", can you do this?
Designer:
Yes, I can submit your site to 1,000's of search engines including all the biggies.
Client:
How much do you charge?
Designer:
Fifty quid mate... just gimme arf an hour.
Client:
I'm in heaven!
Results never come in, client is unhappy, designer says nothing wrong with his work, it must be the engines. Client designer relationship breaks down.
Client is disillusioned and has no faith in the seo industry and it's perfectly understandable.
What isn't acceptable is the number of companies stating they do it when the reality is they've a couple of sites with page 1's on Yahoo, Msn & Google for some 'vaguely' related keywords that they've somehow managed to make the client think they're the best keywords to target.
Maybe there's an understandable reason how some 'none seo' designers actually 'get to believe they can do seo!
Is it likely that some of them accidentally notice one of the sites they've designed is doing rather well on the engines, then they do another site and in time that too does rather well, could this lead the designer to make incorrect conclusions about their degree of skill and more importantly, the ability for them to analyse the precise reasons those sites got those positions. If a designer has no means / ability to know how he got those positions then how can he offer qualified advice? I do accept that we are learning all the time and that at some point in the future we make a decision which through our own successes allows us to feel we have gained a new skill and the time is right to offer that to clients. Maybe the problem is that some folk decide to offer it to clients a bit early. :?
SEO is all about getting the result the client expects, getting it every time and getting it whatever the competition. Luck has no part in this scenario!
Mattk makes the point to never believe the hype from some seo's... trouble is that it's the old needle in haystack thing again, knowing where to go is hard but as I said in another related seo post a few days back, whoever you stick the pin into, ASK for clients contact details, RING those clients, and ask the seo guy for a selection of ranking results you can verify yourself PRIOR to engaging into a contract.
Accurate advice, good reliable skills and realistic client expectations given the budget seems the best way to avoid dissapointment.
Apologies for the long post but felt a bit sorry for the good guys out there that do work their seo socks off on their clients behalf.
Ray
