T
top-click
- Original Poster
- #1
Just posted this as a response to another thread, but thought it worth sharing;
Well, my 2pence worth is that the price you pay is what the SEO's reckon they can get away with - the truth, in my opinion, is that SEO is just a load of smoke and mirrors, there are some basic truths that can be gleaned from 'SEO for Dummies' the rest is, shall we say, supposition?!
Nobody except Google knows how to achieve great rankings quickly, so, again, in my opinion, if any SEO says they KNOW the answer, they are being a bit naive. Over the last few years, Google has used loads of algorythm and filter changes that have led to unpredictable search engine results altering the positions of many sites seemingly with no rhyme or reason.
The following is an excerpt from an email I got from Perry Marshall (PPC Guru)
One of the funniest movies I ever saw was "Tin Men"
with Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito. It's about
guys who sell aluminum siding.
Tin Man = Con Man. Gotta love a movie about
con men, eh?
There's a scene where two salesmen are in front of this
lady's house with a camera on a tripod. She comes
out and asks them what they're doing.
"Oh, hello Ma'am. We're taking a picture your home."
"For what?"
"A magazine article. It's a before / after feature. We're
illustrating the benefits of brand new aluminum siding."
"What are you using my home for?"
"Ma'am, your home is the 'before' picture." And he
continues taking photographs.
She begins to show concern. "Oh, OK... well... would it be
possible for my home to be the AFTER picture instead?"
He furrows his brow. "Well, uh, yes, I suppose...." and
eventually he levitates 5 Grand out of her wallet and
she's the proud owner of brand new aluminum siding.
So I'm thinking, maybe somebody could shoot a movie
called "SEO Men" - guys who charge you not 5 Grand
but more like 5 Grand a MONTH to, well.... fiddle with
your website and [hopefully] get you some kind of #1
ranking six or twelve months from now.
Oh, the list of cons people get away with in SEO is long
indeed:
-Your site gets banned. "Sorry, you're banned from
Google's Index." Oooops.... Hey, how much is it gonna
cost you to start all over with a new website and new
domain name? I bet those same guys ain't gonna help
you do that, are they?
-They tell you which 6 keywords they're going to rank you
for. BUT ---- do they know whether those keywords bring
BUYERS rather than just tire kickers? If they're not
benchmarking their work with real conversion data, don't
believe 'em.
-"Pay us and we'll submit your site to the Search Engines."
(Dude, if search engines search, and if your site is find-able,
the engines should find your site on their own.)
-Submission to meaningless directories - Placement on
most directories with a link to your site is like my 3 year
old boy saying 'look at him, he's the man.' Yeah, the 3
year old is cute and all but he's got no street cred. Only
a handful of directories really matter.
-On Site SEO vs. Off Site SEO: You can optimize the
pages inside your site but 80% of the difference comes
from what OTHER sites do and say about you. That's
the hard work. Most SEO companies don't do the hard
stuff.
-Google actually uses different criteria to evaluate
different market segments and keywords. What works
for SEO in a health topic is different from what works
when you're selling computer parts - Google treats
those segments differently. This element must be
evaluated before work is begun.
-"You have to show up on the first page of your
generic keyword" - but if that keyword doesn't
convert visitors to buyers, you're up a creek
without a paddle.
-Designing websites and doing SEO for the bots,
not the people: Big Mistake. Big. Huge. Because
bots don't buy anything, people do.
-Business Strategy; Strategic Copywriting; Testing,
Tracking and Traffic Generation - 5 different disciplines,
ALL are necessary for truly effective SEO. They must
be done in tandem.
-The Search Continuum: Glenn Livingston's discovery
that people who type in different keywords are at
dramatically different stages of the buying process.
The pages they land on need to reflect where they are
right now.
-Failure to apply the 80/20 principle in SEO. Most
people do SEO on the "Long Tail" stuff which generates
meager results. It's the 20% of effort ("Short Spike")
that produces 80% of the results that matters.
-Knowing what words need to show up on the page in
what order, with proper internal text linking methods
-Most guys think in terms of words and phrases. But
people have conversations. Real SEO is about real
conversations.
70-80% of SEO guys are incompetent and 5-10% are
Con Men. The few that remain are hard to hire because
they have a backlog of work from successful clients who
want more.
Well, my 2pence worth is that the price you pay is what the SEO's reckon they can get away with - the truth, in my opinion, is that SEO is just a load of smoke and mirrors, there are some basic truths that can be gleaned from 'SEO for Dummies' the rest is, shall we say, supposition?!
Nobody except Google knows how to achieve great rankings quickly, so, again, in my opinion, if any SEO says they KNOW the answer, they are being a bit naive. Over the last few years, Google has used loads of algorythm and filter changes that have led to unpredictable search engine results altering the positions of many sites seemingly with no rhyme or reason.
The following is an excerpt from an email I got from Perry Marshall (PPC Guru)
One of the funniest movies I ever saw was "Tin Men"
with Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito. It's about
guys who sell aluminum siding.
Tin Man = Con Man. Gotta love a movie about
con men, eh?
There's a scene where two salesmen are in front of this
lady's house with a camera on a tripod. She comes
out and asks them what they're doing.
"Oh, hello Ma'am. We're taking a picture your home."
"For what?"
"A magazine article. It's a before / after feature. We're
illustrating the benefits of brand new aluminum siding."
"What are you using my home for?"
"Ma'am, your home is the 'before' picture." And he
continues taking photographs.
She begins to show concern. "Oh, OK... well... would it be
possible for my home to be the AFTER picture instead?"
He furrows his brow. "Well, uh, yes, I suppose...." and
eventually he levitates 5 Grand out of her wallet and
she's the proud owner of brand new aluminum siding.
So I'm thinking, maybe somebody could shoot a movie
called "SEO Men" - guys who charge you not 5 Grand
but more like 5 Grand a MONTH to, well.... fiddle with
your website and [hopefully] get you some kind of #1
ranking six or twelve months from now.
Oh, the list of cons people get away with in SEO is long
indeed:
-Your site gets banned. "Sorry, you're banned from
Google's Index." Oooops.... Hey, how much is it gonna
cost you to start all over with a new website and new
domain name? I bet those same guys ain't gonna help
you do that, are they?
-They tell you which 6 keywords they're going to rank you
for. BUT ---- do they know whether those keywords bring
BUYERS rather than just tire kickers? If they're not
benchmarking their work with real conversion data, don't
believe 'em.
-"Pay us and we'll submit your site to the Search Engines."
(Dude, if search engines search, and if your site is find-able,
the engines should find your site on their own.)
-Submission to meaningless directories - Placement on
most directories with a link to your site is like my 3 year
old boy saying 'look at him, he's the man.' Yeah, the 3
year old is cute and all but he's got no street cred. Only
a handful of directories really matter.
-On Site SEO vs. Off Site SEO: You can optimize the
pages inside your site but 80% of the difference comes
from what OTHER sites do and say about you. That's
the hard work. Most SEO companies don't do the hard
stuff.
-Google actually uses different criteria to evaluate
different market segments and keywords. What works
for SEO in a health topic is different from what works
when you're selling computer parts - Google treats
those segments differently. This element must be
evaluated before work is begun.
-"You have to show up on the first page of your
generic keyword" - but if that keyword doesn't
convert visitors to buyers, you're up a creek
without a paddle.
-Designing websites and doing SEO for the bots,
not the people: Big Mistake. Big. Huge. Because
bots don't buy anything, people do.
-Business Strategy; Strategic Copywriting; Testing,
Tracking and Traffic Generation - 5 different disciplines,
ALL are necessary for truly effective SEO. They must
be done in tandem.
-The Search Continuum: Glenn Livingston's discovery
that people who type in different keywords are at
dramatically different stages of the buying process.
The pages they land on need to reflect where they are
right now.
-Failure to apply the 80/20 principle in SEO. Most
people do SEO on the "Long Tail" stuff which generates
meager results. It's the 20% of effort ("Short Spike")
that produces 80% of the results that matters.
-Knowing what words need to show up on the page in
what order, with proper internal text linking methods
-Most guys think in terms of words and phrases. But
people have conversations. Real SEO is about real
conversations.
70-80% of SEO guys are incompetent and 5-10% are
Con Men. The few that remain are hard to hire because
they have a backlog of work from successful clients who
want more.
