The problems with SEO companies & digital agencies

[Hospitality_king]

Many "SEOs" can't move forward anymore without SEO "tools" like Xrumer, Scrapebox etc...

Well then its clearly spam, and they take money for this

 

[Richard Fisher]

To do SEO correctly it can be very labour intensive and involve a lot of man hours so anyone charging small amounts of money you should be wary of. A lot of business owners dont understand the amount of work involved, they only want a deal. Spend £50-£100 and get nothing back or pay a fair amount and actually see some results. I know which I would prefer.

 

[Hospitality_king]

Ofcourse what doesn't help are the defenders of the spam, misinforming customers that they can get these incredible links for free, and it only going to cost them $2000, if you use their services.

To do SEO correctly it can be very labour intensive and involve a lot of man hours

For a small sole trader website, probably - but theres ways to accelerate this if you are smart - unfortunately and gladly, no seo on earth knows how to do this. We embarked on this, with no seo knowledge whatsoever and got 60'000 links for free. so know not just how it can be done, but how to do it every time.

 

[David G Rees]

Links are just a small part of SEO, there are many other factors which can take a lot of time to do.
Having thousands of links means nothing unless they are relevant links and all other aspects of the websites SEO are catered for.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

but in my opinion backlinking plays a major role

Links are just a small part of SEO

which version is correct?

 

[UKSBD]

The thing is every SEO's links are better than the pervious SEO's links

I see it all the time, especially with agencies.

One month they want a bad link removed because it was set up by a previous SEO, a couple of months later they then want a link added.

 

[David G Rees]

The point i was trying to make was many businesses think SEO is all about backlinks and nothing else, which obviously is not true.

 

[Cococarb]

eesltd - Panda and Penguin was just for public don't you think? Google needs no negative press on sudden loss of revenue, job losses because they decided to change rules.
Point is, they release updates almost every week.
Search is getting clearer and cleaner because of the personalisation.
The bots involved read everything in your Gmail, Search history (both Google search hostory and Cookie based local/temp files) to deliver better targetted search results.
See for yourself,
example 1 - search for pregancy related things and next searches will be prioritised for pregancy when you search for "what to expect ..." or "recomended dose" "is it ok to" etc.
example 2 - location based results - yes you can block browser accessing your location. Although each ISP allocate an IP to your home using their local DHCP pool. Which means your approximate location (town/village) is given to them already to decide on local businesses to show up on search.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

example 1 - search for pregancy related things and next searches will be prioritised for pregancy when you search for "what to expect ..." or "recomended dose" "is it ok to" etc.
example 2 - location based results - yes you can block browser accessing your location. Although each ISP allocate an IP to your home using their local DHCP pool. Which means your approximate location (town/village) is given to them already to decide on local businesses to show up on search.

1. Google suggestions are just the part of Google personalisation, and have nothing to do with SEO. Google is trying to suggest you most relevant and interesting topic - even those you not expecting to search.

2. Google use the same SEO rules for local keywords as for global ones. It obvious that the localization algorithm will sift unnecessary result for you, and left adequate to your town etc.

BTW you have mentioned that all this things happened 2 and half years ago.

As far as I remember they start to personalise Adwords and SERPS few month after they bought Double Click in 2007, and geolocalization is also 11 years old (launched 2005).

 

[Hospitality_king]

Having thousands of links means nothing unless they are relevant links and all other aspects of the websites SEO are catered for.

That's fine then, well stick to our 30000 yearly free one ways, cos it got us a million visitors and 100's of clients.

Forget this 10 keyworded cobblers that so many assume will bring in the sales, SEO is no longer where its at - website content, real content that users will come back for, and that brings in new traffic.

The only ones selling this are the SEo agencies, none else is having an orgasm over it. Well, apart from the sole trader who got a few new clients from it, and now thinks this will be the norm forever - it wont. Been there, done it, lived it.

Last time we hired an Seo - it made no difference to our profits whatsoever, giant waste of money and masses of time trying to cherry pick. Our advice is get of backsides, do some research and get content building fast - this will bring in major traffic and eager buyers.

Why waste time and money on a war of keywords against perhaps 20000 others - on a per keyword basis, when you can set up a site that kills everyone else for far less than most actually know. Content isn't a new idea, but theres site out there with 50k visitors a month kicking ass.

 

[David G Rees]

Sounds like your business is kicking ass, and congratulations but there are many small businesses who either have not got the time or know-how to improve the website rankings or create good content for that matter. Sadly many SEO companies just take the money and do a very poor job and it has given the industry a bad reputation which is totally understandable.
But there are agencies who do a great job and do make a big difference to a companies profile and profits.

 

[Hospitality_king]

but there are many small businesses who either have not got the time or know-how to improve the website rankings or create good content for that matter.

You make the time or how do you think websites get the links or content - they build up their sites stage by stage ofcourse. Its takes effort sure - but theres no other way unless you want to be stuck with hefty fees.

Amazing know-how, ofcourse this know-how is lies trying to make the masses believe it cant be done by them, on their tod. Sorry, don't believe in snake oil salemen.

You seriously telling the forum that it cant be done, without these agencies?

 

[Cococarb]

I only mentioned the personalisation to say, SEO means very little these days compared to good old days. That's all! You and I will never agree on anything here because you are still offering your services to public.

 

[Cococarb]

1. Google suggestions are just the part of Google personalisation, and have nothing to do with SEO. Google is trying to suggest you most relevant and interesting topic - even those you not expecting to search.

2. Google use the same SEO rules for local keywords as for global ones. It obvious that the localization algorithm will sift unnecessary result for you, and left adequate to your town etc.

BTW you have mentioned that all this things happened 2 and half years ago.

As far as I remember they start to personalise Adwords and SERPS few month after they bought Double Click in 2007, and geolocalization is also 11 years old (launched 2005).

Also personalisation actually kicked off in 2011-12. Not sure about 2007! They may have had inferior version no one cared about.

Let me give you very simple example why SEO is not there anymore.

I worked for a reputation management and we served exclusively for sports & celebrity agencies. They still in business but no longer offer anything relates to SERP manipulation. - We used to bury Dailymail articles with thousands of external shares and comments from first page 1 to 2,3 by bringing in positive publications on our client. We fought against content related scandals, sex-cheats, embezzlement and porn. Those were top money making dirt and the company would and could hire talented SEOs if the result can be guaranteed This is a perspective of a company which made multi millions from SEO. - PM me if you have a method to guarantee results and I will glady pass your details to my old boss.