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Search Engine Roundtable

• 

  The Sad State Of SEO Consultants Today

  Fetched: May 10th, 2012, 2:40pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  There is an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld documenting the sad state of SEO companies, sales people and consultants today.

  Now, most of the SEOs reading this site know their stuff. They obviously take the time to stay on top of the industry and know that keyword meta tags play zero to no roll in rankings. But not all get into the SEO business for getting businesses more leads and sales, some do it to make money.

  A WebmasterWorld member decided to ask third-party SEO companies for advice on how to improve his rankings after being hit by Penguin and here are some of the shocking responses he received:

  I found no keywords meta tag. The keyword meta tag is still used by some search engines. Consider to add a keyword meta tag.

  Only 5 of your 11 images have keywords in the alt tags. You need to maximize your alt tags.

  We are Experienced SEO and can help you find the cause why google Penalised. On the Comtempary it looks like the Panda Update was Responsible for your Fall.

  Our experts will take in to consideration Google Logic and target only 4 to 5 keywords each page. Our experts smartly integrate keywords in the content based on Google Rule of keyword, Proximity, Density and Frequency.

  I have investigated your website and found your site is still listed in Google but the cached copy of your website is removed. thats the reason it is not ranking in search result for your desire keywords. I will get cached page showing again.

  In summary, he asked 32 different SEO companies for advice and only 7 of them gave him proper advice on what to do to help his site. That is about a 20% score on a test. Clearly a very sad state for the SEO industry.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  Image credit to ShutterStock for Monkey Boss

  
  

• 

  Video: Search The AdWords Community

  Fetched: April 4th, 2012, 1:55pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Google AdWords representative, Zee, created a how to video for using the new AdWords Help forum. The video is less than two minutes and shows you how to search the AdWords Community site.

  Here it is:

  Personally, I love the AdWords forum, even more than the new forums the other properties are adopting. I do wish they all used those forums but they all decided to go with the Google Groups style. I am not sure how AdWords was able to break off and do their own thing here.

  Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

  
  

• 

  Google Panda Help Thread Mostly Gone

  Fetched: March 14th, 2012, 8:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Just over a year ago, Google started a help thread for Panda victims where they can go post their site's information and seek advice from other webmasters and maybe Googlers.

  The thread had reached almost 9,000 posts, probably a record for the forum, over the course of the year and saw no sign of slowing down.

  But when Google migrated to the new forum system this weekend, the thread was killed. Only about 20% of the posts are in the main thread now, Google lost the rest or they are split off into other threads, hard to find.

  You can see the what is left of the thread over here.

  I was a little upset for two reasons. The first is that I wanted to do a post for when it hit 10,000 posts, which would have been in the next few months. The second reason is because Googlers told me that every single time someone posts in that thread, it goes to their email account and they read each and every post. Now what?

  John from Google said in a Google Webmaster Help thread:

  It looks like the particularly long threads were split up for migration. The content is still there, you can find it in search :). It's great having your feedback, even (and especially) if it's critical. Please continue posting, feel free to start a new thread if you'd like.

  This went against what Google suggested a few months ago, saying to use that thread for Panda related help and not start a new thread. But I guess with the new forum upgrade, this is the new advice.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  Image credit to ShutterSock for Panda doctors.

  
  

• 

  Spammers Flock To Bing Webmaster Forums

  Fetched: March 14th, 2012, 8:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Sometimes some of my readers here complain that I do not cover Bing enough. The truth is, it really isn't my fault, it is Bing's fault. :)

  Why? Well, this site is very niche in that it only covers topics found in forums and social media areas. We figure, if the SEO/SEM community isn't discussing it, it likely is not worth being covered here. Things at the top of the mind of SEMs are often discussed in forums and social settings - the rest is all just "news."

  So why is it Bing's fault they aren't covered too much here? Well - they do a horrible job, recently, keeping their Bing Forums clean and on topic. Just check out the Webmaster section, it is filled with spam or check out the indexing section. It has been like this for at least a month or more. It is almost impossible for me to find good threads in forums filled with spam.

  So I check in on the forum every morning and see this stuff and I leave - hoping that the next day it will be cleaned up and never is.

  In fact, I felt that Duane's post on mobile SEO URL structure was important, so I made my own thread about it at the forums. No responses because the place is a spam fest.

  So much so, people at WebmasterWorld are complaining about the spam in the Bing forums.

  Bing, I want to cover you more - please help me.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  AdWords Forum Upgraded But To A Newer New Version

  Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Google forums have begun to slowly migrate to the new Google Groups format. I personally do not like that new format, but Google doesn't always listen to me about my likes and dislikes, even with forums, despite me being of the most active trolls in the forums.

  Google AdWords representative, Zee, announced the switch over in the Old Google AdWords Help Forum and the New Google AdWords Help Forum yesterday. The thing is, this is not the new Google Groups format, it is very very different and at first glance, I like it a lot better than the Google Groups version.

  Here is a picture (click to enlarge):

  I like this format mostly because I can see by profile who said what, Google Groups does not have that feature. Plus, overall, it seems snappier and faster than Google Groups. Google Groups has a pretty significant delay on clicking around the threads, even on my super fast machine.

  Congrats on the upgrade AdWords folks!

  Forum discussion at Old Google AdWords Help and New Google AdWords Help.

  
  

• 

  Googlers John Mueller & Matt Cutts Working On Christmas

  Fetched: December 27th, 2011, 1:03pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Googlers are known to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, they have been doing so for as long as I can remember.

  I like to give kudos to some (not all) of the Googlers who spend the time to respond to webmaster and SEO questions on and during Christmas because they could easily be spending time with family and no one would complain.

  John Mueller, aka JohnMu, replied to about a dozen threads between the 23rd and 26th of December. From wishing happy holidays to IP address questions and robots.txt issues. JohnMu is known to often be around helping webmasters on Christmas and New Years.

  Matt Cutts made a rare appearance in the forums, he spends most of his time in other areas but came out on Christmas day to help webmasters. He posted in three different threads all on Christmas day.

  Yes, there were other Googlers responding to questions in the other forums but I wanted to point out those answering SEO and webmaster questions.

  Like I said, Googlers are known for working on the Christmas and New Years break. They did in 2010, New Years 2009 New Years 2008. Also Christmas 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

  I won't be writing more stories here today - since it is a day off for most and the forums were pretty slow.

  Happy Holidays everyone!

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  Image credit to ShutterStock for working Santa.

  
  

• 

  Funniest SEO Threads Of 2011

  Fetched: December 17th, 2011, 8:03am CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  The Google Webmaster Forum Top Contributors started a thread at Google Webmaster Help trying to compile the "funniest" threads of 2011 in that forum.

  They came up with three, so I thought it would be fun to look back at the funniest SEO threads I found this year and share them with you. First, the three the Top Contributors came up with.

  Top Contributor's Selected Funniest Threads of 2011:

  • How am I supposed to deal with abusive "Webmaster Bionics"? - I believe the title is self explanatory. In short, someone ranting how the top contributors, also known as bionic posters are abusive.
  • A MILLION DOLLAR DOMAIN NAME!!! GOOGLEBRAND.COM - someone setting themselves up with a Google lawsuit and not even knowing it.
  • How come a site that made me 1.7 million loses 20% of traffic in panda update? - one of the many Panda stories.

  My Funniest 2011 Picks:

  • Scraper Site Software Site Complains Site Not Listed In Google, Seriously! - a site named scrappingexpert.com was actually upset they were not listed in Google.
  • Dad, Stop Spamming Google - It's Embarrassing! - a kid embarrassed by his dad's spamming tactics, calling him out in a Google forum thread.
  • Google Smacks Down Webmaster Over Panda Update - maybe more sad then funny - but it is funny/sad.
  • SEO Company Badmouthed In Google Forum But What Happens Next Is Strange - not a good way to get your site listed again.
  • Don't Force Google's Hand, Especially If You're Sketchy - lessons learned.

  Did I miss any? Let me know.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  Image credit to ShutterStock for funny horse.

  
  

• 

  Google's New Help Forum

  Fetched: December 5th, 2011, 7:04pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Google has slowly been migrating their help forums to a new platform.

  I believe the first Google product to use this new help forum platform was Google Plus Help. But since then, the Google Book Search Help platform migrated over. We are expecting both the Google Maps Help forum and the Google News Help forum to switch over soon.

  Personally, I am not looking forward to the change because it will make me rethink the way I track all the forum discussions. But I guess the best time to do it is over the holiday month, because I should have more time to do it than the rest of the year.

  New design looks like this:

  Old (current) design looks like this:

  It has been about 3 years since Google went with the existing Google help forum design and feature set. Now that Google + is out, they are switching it over to something new.

  Forum discussion at Google Maps Help and Google News Help.

  
  

• 

  Introducing Marketing Land As Sphinn's Successor

  Fetched: November 15th, 2011, 4:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Marketing Land at marketingland.com is opening on December 11th. It is a sister site to Search Engine Land. Full disclosure, I am the News Editor at both sites.

  Danny Sullivan explains the difference between the two:

  Search Engine Land will continue to provide all the great coverage about search marketing and search engines that you love. Marketing Land will go beyond into other areas, including social media, affiliate marketing, email marketing and other internet marketing topics.

  With that, Sphinn is going away - the content will be somewhere but the site will stop operating. Sphinn has changed directions a couple times since launching in 2007.

  And one of the last times I can say this....

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Becoming A Google Top Contributor

  Fetched: November 9th, 2011, 7:18pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Google's support forums, from AdWords to Chrome, from Mobile to Webmaster have "top contributors" helping Googlers help Google users.

  These are not Googlers, but people nominated by Googlers and other top contributors, as helpful people to have slightly more 'power' in the forums to help the user out. They are not Google certified, they do not get paid but they do get the badge of honor and get to meet Googlers from time to time.

  So how does one become a Top Contributor?

  This week, one of Google's most active forums, the Google Webmaster Help forum, nominated a new Top Contributor. Archie Watt was nominated by Googlers and Top Contributors within the forum.

  Which lead to the question, how does one become a top contributor?

  John Mueller from Google explained:

  No, we don't want to do any automatic "promotions." It's important to us that a user is not only active, but also very knowledgable and friendly. Sometimes this can result in people becoming Bionic Posters / Top Contributors with a lower post count / level (for example, if they are extremely knowledgeable in specific areas). We know that we (Googlers) aren't able to keep an eye on everything and every poster all the time, so we'll generally also ask for input from the existing Bionics -- they're generally all over the forum and see many active posters and the (frequently) fantastic help they post. If we can't find someone we can all agree on, then we'll generally wait ... We don't need to fill a specific quota of Top Contributors, so maybe we'll check back in a month or so, and see how things have been developing. :-) Sometimes these decisions take a lot of time :-)

  It is kind of like being nominated to become a moderator at a forum but this one is at an official Google forum.

  So it is not about quantity, but I am sure that has a factor. It is also about how helpful and patient you are.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

• 

  Dress Up Your Profile Pic For Halloween Using Google Creative Kit

  Fetched: October 29th, 2011, 6:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  Halloween is coming up this Monday and a Google Webmaster Help thread has Googlers and frequent forum users dressing up their profile pics for the holiday.

  John Mueller from Google started off the thread by updating his profile picture, as displayed above, and posting this message:

  Halloween is just around the corner, time to dress you your user photo :-)

  Check out the fun & easy tweaks possible with the Google+ photos creative kit.

  Who can dress up best? What's your favorite effect?

  Enjoy

  Here is a video on how the Google + photos creative kit works:

  I am looking forward to the special Halloween logos this year. You can see the 2010 halloween logos and the previous years over here.

  Happy Halloween.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

• 

  SEO Link Building Job Interview Question

  Fetched: October 22nd, 2011, 4:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  A HighRankings Forum thread has a person going on a job interview set with the task to come up with ideas on how to get "natural links" for a site in a specific niche.

  The SEO job applicant said he is new to the space, only got the interview because of his/her "enthusiasm." Outside of that, the applicant needs to prepare for the task of a session of "brain storming" on "ideas about natural link building." The specific niche is a "motorcyclist company selling equipment, parts and clothes need to build natural links and i need to put suggestions forward."

  The question is, is the SEO company asking a trick question? How do you naturally build links? Isn't that, by definition, unnatural?

  In any event, the folks at HighRankings forums gave the applicant some advice.

  The job interview is probably over by the time this story goes live but it does make for an interesting topic.

  Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  Image from SockLite/Shutterstock.

  Note: This story was written earlier this week and scheduled to be published today.

  
  

• 

  Coping With Being Blamed For SEO Results

  Fetched: September 1st, 2011, 4:43pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  One of the main reasons why my company does not offer SEO services is not being able to 100% deliver on what the client hires you for.

  I'd say 99% of those seeking SEO services are looking to rank well for a handful of keywords. They want to see their web pages in the number one, two or three position of the organic listings for keywords like [diamond rings]. It can be done but in a second, after the result is released, Google can push out an update or hit the site with a penalty and the result is gone and what you delivered has also vanished.

  Personally, I do not understand how SEO companies deal with the blame game. I know, SEO companies don't sell rankings and many won't guarantee them. But when the customer comes with the initial intention of ranking for specific keywords and ultimately, one day, you can't deliver - how would that make you feel?

  A Google Webmaster Help thread has one SEO company seemingly upset that his client is blaming him for the site not ranking well anymore. The blame is specific to a client pointing out he is linking to his site with a banner ad and not using a nofollow. I honestly doubt a single link that is not nofollowed would lead to this issue. So it is something else that resulted in the downgrade of the site's ranking.

  That being said, the SEO company is clearly upset and I am sure the SEO client is also upset.

  Tell me, most of you who read this site are SEO companies or do SEO each day. How do you deal with the blame game and finger pointing?

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

• 

  SEO Pricing: Is The Price Is Right

  Fetched: August 28th, 2011, 5:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  There is an excellent topic at Sphinn asking how do you price your SEO projects.

  Overall, many charge flat rates based on how much they anticipate the project will cost them. But some charge hourly. Some charge by feature or service. Most charge monthly.

  Let me quote some of the well known SEOs who describe how they charge:

  Jill Whalen:

  I have been keeping track of my time for all client work for many years, so I have a good idea of how long it takes me to do things for most projects. Since I'm a solo consultant, it's fairly easy to price things out based on that knowledge and the kind of profit I want to make on each project.

  A few projects will take longer than I expect, but most go the other way so it balances out in the end.

  For the most part, I don't price based on an hourly rate though, but more in what I think it is worth for the client.

  Julie Joyce:

  We actually calculated our labor costs for 6 months in order to determine what we should be charging for labor for one link IF we buy that link. We have another range of costs for guest posts depending upon the niche, if we go that route. With anything else we do, it's usually a custom cost that depends upon how tough the niche is and how tough the method will be.

  Nick LeRoy:

  I'll admit, my pricing can at times be sporadic for monthly clients. I do keep in consideration my hourly rate and how many hours I estimate I would spend per month on the project. Sometimes you make an extra couple bucks if you overbid but then others you lose a couple bucks if you underbid. I also think its important to keep in consideration your level of interest in the project too.

  How do you price your SEO pricing?

  For me, if someone wants my SEO advice, I just bill them hourly. Although I rarely give SEO advice outside of this site.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Fire Your SEO Firm? Be Careful They Don't Take Revenge

  Fetched: July 19th, 2011, 11:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  I spotted an upsetting thread at the Google Webmaster Help forums where one website owner claims the same day after he fired his SEO firm, his site went missing from Google - completely missing.

  He said:

  I gave 2 months notice to a SEO company that I was moving my services to another provider. They were obviously not very happy and I was sent an email today saying they have stopped all work and have cancelled the contract immediately. Two hours later I can't find my site in Google, when it was there this morning. This isn't fair as I was indexed before working with them. Can they do this? Could they have de-indexed my site? How can I cancel that request? My business relies on the internet for clients... I am desperate!

  Can you imagine?

  What did the SEO firm do to get this guy's site out of the index so quickly? Well, it depends on what access they have. They could have blocked spiders and issues a removal request via Google Webmaster Tools.

  If you are firing your SEO firm, you need to make sure they do not have access to your site, your webmaster tools login or anything that can harm you. The SEO firm that the website owner switched to, should have warned the client that this can technically happen - although, not everyone thinks how evil people can be.

  We've seen some SEO firms threaten to ban your site if you leave them or don't hire them. And we've seen SEOs take revenge when their clients scam them.

  Let this be a lesson for both website owners and SEOs, be careful and tell your new clients to be careful.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  Update: The support from the SEO community to help this person has been tremendous and I hope the site becomes relisted shortly.

  
  

• 

  WebmasterWorld Tries Out Heavier Home Page

  Fetched: January 3rd, 2011, 6:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

  Tags:  SEO SEM Forum News  

  WebmasterWorld, a popular forum we cover here a lot, is testing out a new home page look.

  The new look incorporates more banner ads, brand new image spots to highlight featured threads and additional content from the featured thread. Here is a picture with notes on what exactly has changed.

  In a WebmasterWorld Brett Tabke, the owner and founder of WebmasterWorld said:

  Just trying out some stuff. Dunno if spaghetti is going to stick unless you throw it.

  Yea, it can use a bit of clean up, but I have a feeling this is the direction WebmasterWorld might be going in the future.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Can You Lose Your Job If Your SEO Doesn't Translate To Conversions?

  Posted: October 13th, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Many of you work as SEOs in-house, many as independent contractors and many for yourselves on your own web sites. Those who have to answer to a boss, does your SEO work get judged on ranking of pages or based on if those rankings ultimately lead to a conversion?

  Kim Krause Berg posted a thread at the Cre8asite Forums asking this question. She asked, "Does Your Job Depend On Conversions?"

  She asks specific questions based on her experience working for management:

  1. Is your dependent on ROI? In other words, if your SEO work does not translate into a certain set of criteria, do you lose the job?
  2. What are the criteria for ROI as managers see it? Is it higher revenue, rank, traffic, what?
  3. Anyone: What are the typical expectations for meeting ROI? For ex., if an organic plan doesn't seem to be working, how long does it take to decide this?
  4. Anyone: Are conversions just something SEO's make happen or does user experience web design play a part in the overall marketing plan?

  Let me make it simple. If you rank your client/boss in the first position for all the keywords he wants to rank well for, but ultimately the conversions are not there, do you think you'll still have a job in a year for now?

  Here is my more basic poll:

  Does Your SEO Job Depend On Conversions?online survey

  Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

  
  

• 

  Billable SEO Time Survey Results

  Posted: September 10th, 2010, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Many SEOs bill by the hour or offer monthly pricing plans. I asked the SEO industry months ago how much of your time is billable.

  I wanted to share the breakdown of the 140 results we collected.

  How Much Of Your SEO Time Is Billable?

  Forum discussion continued at HighRankings Forums.

  Note: This post was scheduled to be automatically posted today.

  
  

• 

  SEOs Tell Newspapers To Stay Out of SEO Business

  Posted: September 9th, 2010, 2:35pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Remember how the starving newspapers began to try to revitalize their dying businesses by offering SEO services?

  Well, we ran a poll asking our readers if newspapers should sell SEO services. The results are not that surprising.

  Most SEOs don't want the newspapers to get involved in SEO. Some for competitive reasons, some for professional integrity reasons and some for other reasons. But some surprisingly don't care, they find more competition useful.

  64% said they do not want newspapers in the SEO business, whereas the rest said sure, let them in.

  The one "other answer" was:

  is there still such a thing as print newspapers?

  Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

  Note: This post was scheduled to be automatically posted today.

  
  

• 

  How Much Of Your SEO Consulting Is Billable?

  Posted: July 20th, 2010, 2:55pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  A thread at HighRankings Forum asks members, how much of their time is billable. Some may work 10 hours per day and some may work 2 hours per day, of the time you work, how much of it is billable?

  The person asked:

  If you spend 50 hours/week doing SEO consulting, how much of that time do you get paid for @ your regular fee?

  just head this question in my mind again after someone told me over a year ago that up to 50% of their time wasn't even billed..wondering if it's the same for SEO consultants.

  A good questions. Personally, close to none of my time is billable. I run a web development company and my employee's time is billable, not mine. I run stats on how much of their time is billable and, for them at least, most of my guys are over 6 hours per 8 hours of billable work, which is good.

  Here is a poll, of the time you are "working" (i.e. at work, doing seo, reading educational material, etc), how much of that time is billable?

  How Much Of Your SEO Time Is Billable?Market Research

  Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  
  

• 

  Should Newspapers Sell SEO Services?

  Posted: May 25th, 2010, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Matt McGee at Search Engine Land reported that U.S. newspapers are now selling SEO services. Honestly, I am not surprised for a few reasons:

  (1) They are in the content business and most content businesses should know how valuable SEO is.
  (2) Newspapers sell ads, and many of them have sold text ads or been asked to. So they know something about SEO.
  (3) I would hope newspapers have in-house SEO teams they can put on client projects.

  I deal every now and then with newspapers for my clients and I often have my clients forward me SEO details (both good and bad) from their newspaper contacts. So again, this does not surprise me.

  Should newspapers sell SEO services? A Sphinn thread's comments seem very against it. Jill Whalen said in a joking maner, "Since they can't make any money in the publishing biz, I guess they figured they'd jump onto the SEO bandwagon. After all, anyone can do SEO, right?"

  But honestly, if they know SEO, why not sell it? What do you think?

  Should Newspapers Get Into Selling SEO?customer surveys

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Will My SEO Company End Up Competing With Me?

  Posted: March 22nd, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  A WebmasterWorld thread has an individual that almost hired an SEO company asking himself if it is asking for trouble when hiring such an SEO company. This person's understanding or thought process is that if he hires an SEO company that sees the success his site is achieving in the search results, that ultimately, that SEO company might decide to get into the business themselves.

  It is an interesting question and I have had clients and prospects ask me this exact question on the web development front. For me, the answer is, we hope that your success would lead to more work for us and we would both be successful for a profitable web venture. SEO companies, web development companies and so on - they like to specialize in what they do best - make better web sites. They don't always deal best with specific niches and dealing with customers and customer service, but they do a great job at helping those who do a great job at that build a web site that can handle it.

  This member posted at WebmasterWorld saying:

  I've reached a point where I am wondering if the hiring of an SEO company could easily wind up being a competitor in disguise. It took a while before the SEO company was ultimately determined to be in direct competition.

  Some clients make contractors sign non-compete agreements - that is always a solution. But ultimately you need to be comfortable sharing your business's most intimate details with your contractors and if you cannot do that, then it might be hard to ask for outside help.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Selling SEO: Pitching Page Rank As a Metric Over Conversions?

  Posted: January 18th, 2010, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  An interesting Cre8asite Forums thread has discussion started by someone looking to hire an SEO company. The person is responsible to find an SEO company that can achieve his CEO's requirements. The issue this person has is that no-reputable SEO company would guarantee rankings (that is his qualifier). So if you cannot use rankings as a metric when trying to measure one SEO proposal to another, what do you use?

  Clearly, in my mind, SEO is often (not always) about fixing sites that were built in an not search engine friendly manner. But SEO has adapted to conversions and increasing sales not just by building new leads, but building targeted leads that will convert.

  The issue is, when a CEO hires someone to improve their search engine listings - they want to see improved search engine listings. If no-reputable SEO company can guarantee rankings, then what is one to do? How can you convince your CEO to hire an SEO company based on no guarantees? How can you hire an SEO company that will guarantee SEO rankings?

  This dilemma is nothing new to the SEO space - but I thought I cover it again, in light of this thread.

  Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums?

  
  

• 

  GoogleGuy Retire From WebmasterWorld Again?

  Posted: July 23rd, 2009, 4:12pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  The infamous and legendary GoogleGuy at WebmasterWorld has gone almost a full year without posting at WebmasterWorld. GoogleGuy's last post was in a WebmasterWorld thread on July 24, 2008 at about 6:30pm (EST). He replied to confirm a PageRank toolbar update.

  GoogleGuy use to be extremely active in the WebmasterWorld forums, ranking up 2,882 posts over the year. But for the past few years, he/she has been very quiet. Why? Well, now GoogleGuy is not the only Google Guy in the forums, there are plenty of Google representatives that go under aliases, i.e. AdSenseAdvisor or their own names, i.e. MattCutts, in both WebmasterWorld, other forums and the official Google forums.

  But we would hate to see GoogleGuy expire. So please, GoogleGuy, just say hello, like you did in the past, to let us know you are still out there. If you do want to unmask yourself, that would be fine, but personally, I like the mask. ;-)

  Sadly, no forum discussion here to link to.

  
  

• 

  SEO Company Caught By Client Using Google Support Forums

  Posted: July 9th, 2009, 4:16pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  It is not uncommon to find SEOs asking other SEOs questions in the SEO discussion forums. But it is not everyday where you find the clients of an SEO coming in an asking questions about their own site, only to find out that his SEO previously asked the same question in the same discussion forum, to the same people. That is exactly what happened, as pointed out by Autocrat in a Google Webmaster Help thread. The real shocker is what the client discovered his SEO said about his own abilities.

  Yesterday, Gary from Manchester, posted a thread at Google Webmaster Help asking for advice about a client's site. The client noticed a major drop in rankings and hired Gary to fix the issue. Gary then offered his findings in a thread and asked other SEOs for advice and other tips. Again, this is common and often done, either in a public forum or offline, with SEO's who are friends.

  Later on in the day, Mike, the webmaster from the company that Gary is proposing SEO to, posted his own thread at Google Webmaster Help asking the same question. What is kind of funny is that one member who replied to Mike said that he should stop posting duplicate threads. Mike replied that he "had no idea Gary had come to a forum for answers."

  The issue is, Gary, the SEO, said in the thread, "I personally don't think this will get them their rankings back." Now, Mike saw this and was very upset that Gary would offer an SEO proposal "between £2,500 & £5000 to produce a report on the problems YOU have outlined." A report that, Gary himself thinks would not solve the site's problem. Mike added, "I will look forward to talking to him tomorrow!"

  A tip to you SEOs out there. If you are asking for advice in a public forum, please be more discrete. Use URL shortening services, to mask the URL and be upfront with those helping you that you don't want the client to know you are asking for advice. But more importantly, do not say you think the site is doomed. But even more importantly, above that, if you think the site is doomed and you can't fix it, don't charge the client money when you think you can't help - that just seems ethically wrong.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

• 

  Big List of Interview Questions for SEO Candidates

  Posted: May 20th, 2009, 3:37pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  We covered this topic twice in the past, including January 2008 and December 2007. A post by Ben McKay has 80+ SEO Job Interview Questions, which may be the biggest list of questions I have seen to date.

  I am not sure asking 80 questions to an interviewee is good. But clearly, have 80 questions you can ask and fine tune based on how the interview is going, is nice to have. Since we figure there is roughly 7% unemployment in the SEO industry, there are clearly talented SEOs out there looking for work. There are also many companies still hiring SEO talent, so getting the best talent should be key. Interviewing is just on step of that process.

  There are many blog posts on the SEO interview, just see Google.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  SEO Companies Springing Up "Like Dandelions"

  Posted: May 19th, 2009, 9:53pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Jill Whalen, in her High Ranking Advisor wrote a piece named Setting Up an SEO Shop Overnight! Jill goes on a well-deserved rant about how SEO companies are popping up left and right, even thought the people running these SEO companies know very little about SEO and have no real experience offering SEO services.

  Here is a blurb:

  What I don't understand is why people think that SEO is something they can perform as a business without knowing anything about it!

  Certainly I give this person props for wanting to know about SEO *before* they set up shop. But what is it about SEO that attracts people with no knowledge or skills? While it's definitely not rocket science, if SEO were so easy that any hack could successfully start an SEO biz overnight, then every webmaster and company owner could easily learn it and do it themselves.

  Regardless, new SEO companies keep popping up like dandelions in Spring.

  I love that last line there, too funny. SEO is a great business these days. Organic search is surpassing paid search according to Hitwise and advertisers and marketers know this.

  So what gives people the right to start a company offering a service that they have no skill in? Well, it is a free world. Trust me, I see plenty of companies selling things from SEO to postal stamps, and they nothing about it. It is how come so many companies fail and how come people have a distaste for certain professions.

  Ultimately, it is not about people getting into businesses they have no business being in. It is more about people hiring these businesses to save a buck and ultimately getting burned by them.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  SEO Consultants: Do You Have SEO Liability Strategy?

  Posted: May 18th, 2009, 8:20pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  In any business field, making sure to protect your business from being taken advantage of through the legal arena is something that every company must be prepared for. The larger you are, the more chances you are to be hit up with a lawsuit.

  John Andrews started a Sphinn thread discussing the topic of SEO liability. He sums it up as follows:

  I bet you never saw this kind of lawsuit coming! As a professional service provider you obviously know you can be held liable for your performance, for negligence, and for making mistakes. You probably include something in your consulting agreements that addresses that. Your clients want assurances that you are responsible for your actions, and you want to be free to act in good faith on behalf of your clients, working to gain a competitive advantage in the search engine results pages. But the very nature of SEO is competition. For every winner in the SERPs, there are going to be losers. Are you ready to be sued by the losers?

  Whenever I think of SEO liability, I always think of Jill Whalen. Why? Well, I am pretty sure her husband is a lawyer and she has been in the SEO space for longer than some of us owned computers. In addition, Ian McAnerin is very active in the forum and he has a degree in law. In any event, if you are looking for some legal advice, I might recommend High Rankings Forum for that reason.

  The discussion at Sphinn is just getting started. I suggest anyone with both experience and knowledge to get involved in the thread because for many people, being sued is a scary thing that can have a serious impact on one's business and family.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  80% Say SEOs Need Some Coding Abilities

  Posted: April 16th, 2009, 2:15pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Last week we asked if SEOs need coding capabilities based on a controversial Sphinn thread. The results are now in and I am surprised to see just about 80% of the responses said that to be considered an SEO, you need some coding abilities.

  Here is the break down of results for the question, Do You Need Coding Skills to be an SEO?

  :: Yes, Some Coding Abilities To Be Called An SEO said 100 respondents or 65%
  :: No, No Coding Abilities To Be Called An SEO said 33 respondents or 21%
  :: Yes, Expert Coding Abilities To Be Called An SEO said 21 respondents or 14%

  I would have thought more would say that SEOs need no coding experience to be labelled an "SEO." Of course, having coding skills helps, but a requirement?

  Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

  This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 16th.

• 

  What To Do When Clients Mess Up Your Portfolio?

  Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:11pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  A HighRankings Forum thread asks a question that likely applies to most professions on the web, what does one do when a client messes up your portfolio. For example, you provide SEO copywriting services and that content is used on client X's web site. Then a few months later, the client updates the content here and there and forgets to consult you for those changes. Now, when you want to show your work to future prospects, they are reviewing work that has been mangled by your client.

  The same issue applies to when clients make design changes to web sites or when they make SEO changes in terms of title tags, content, and even link building. This can apply to other industries, including even building homes.

  The big question is, how do you keep your portfolio in order?

  The simple answer is to screen capture the work you have done. A local Wayback Machine, if you will. There is nothing wrong in taking a local copy down of the web site and using that to demo to prospects. In addition, it is always good to have a local copy, that you can use for staging the changes you made to the site, before uploading those changes to production.

  Personally, I typically demo sites we built to prospects on our test servers. Why? (1) The content is sometimes cleaner. (2) I can safely make changes to the site without impacting the live site. (3) I don't run the risk of sharing real information and intellectual property with potential competitors.

  Do you run into this issue?

  Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

• 

  55% Of SEO Companies Won't Offer Pay For Performance Deals

  Posted: March 10th, 2009, 4:38pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  A week ago, we polled our audience asking Are You Still Offering SEO Services Paid By Performance? For example, are you willing to exchange direct payment in exchange for payment on the basis of rankings, or traffic or on revenue earned.

  The majority of respondents said they never will or have taken this type of payment in exchange for SEO services.

  Here is a breakdown of the seventy-five or so responses to the question "Do You Offer Pay For Performance SEO Packages?"
  :: Never said 41 respondents or 55%
  :: Very Rarely said 13 respondents or 18%
  :: Sometimes, Only Great Ideas said 10 respondents or 14%
  :: Very Often, But Depends said 5 respondents or 7%
  :: Only Do Pay For Performance said 3 respondents or 4%
  :: Other answer said 2 respondents or 3%

  I wish we would of had more responses, I guess I should have pushed this poll more. But I do think these numbers make sense and likely represent the industry as a whole.

  Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

• 

  Business Improving Recently? Poll: How Are You Weathering The Recession

  Posted: March 6th, 2009, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  I was hoping to reach out to our audience and find out, via an anonymous poll, how your companies are weathering the recession.

  Why now? Well, I noticed a HighRankings Forum thread that discusses some SEO companies noticing a recent "jump" in business. In fact, the new thread has three people saying they noticed a recent spike in leads and sales over the past two weeks. One explained:

  I work by referral only and in the past 5 months or so, it was dead, very little came in, but in the past two weeks, wow. Is it a trend here? I'm trying to figure out why all of a sudden I'm getting all this new work? I love it, don't get me wrong, but why now? Anyone else notice the phone ringing a bit more these past few weeks?

  It is funny, because I said the same thing about my business just the other day. We don't do SEO, but we do provide extensive web development services and in the past week or two, I have been going into more and more prospects, including closing some. The previous month, was pretty dead.

  Heck, I listen to the financial news every day and it is very sad. Yesterday was incredibly depressing. But maybe we are starting to see the first signs, via the grassroots, that things may be turning around? Not spending money is important during a recession, but you cannot close your business down and stop innovating and improving.

  Please share with us how your business is doing. Check all that apply:

  How Is Business Doing For You Now?
  ( surveys)

  Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum .

• 

  Are You Still Offering SEO Services Paid By Performance?

  Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  There are many ways to price your services. In the SEO world, you can charge a monthly fee, you can charge by hour, you can charge for results, you can take a piece of the action and so on. The Pay for Performance model is popular amongst some SEO firms, while others prefer the steady and secure income of other pricing models.

  Search Engine Guide has a very nice write up on this model named Is the Pay-for-Performance SEO Model Still Viable? The article goes into the various forms of Pay for Performance, including (1) Pay Per Ranking (2) Pay for Traffic and (3) Pay Based on Revenue. Stoney deGeyter shares his personal experience with these models and concludes "while some SEOs have figured out how to make the pay-for-performance pricing model work for them, I remain skeptical."

  There are over twenty comments on that article and it went hot on Sphinn. I thought we run a poll, asking you guys, do you still offer Pay for Performance payment models in this new economy? Take the poll:

  Do You Offer Pay For Performance SEO Packages?
  ( surveys)

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

• 

  Many SEOs Get Their Hands Dirty By Coding Web Sites

  Posted: February 26th, 2009, 2:58pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  Two days ago, I ran a poll asking if SEO companies implement SEO changes or just recommend changes to be implemented. Meaning, does your SEO company normally start with coding changes and upload files to the web server.

  I now have the poll results, which shows the majority of SEO companies do both. They will make coding changes and/or offer recommendations, based on what their client wants them to do.

  Here is the break down of 170+ responses to the question, Do You Implement SEO Recommendations or Just Make Recommendations?

  :: Both, Implement When Asked & Offer Recommendations When Asked said 121 respondents or 70%
  :: Offer Recommendations Only said 41 respondents or 24%
  :: Implement Changes on Site Only said 10 respondents or 6%

  The numbers seem logical to me. I wonder why 6% would only conduct SEO services if they can make the changes themselves on the site. I assume it gives them more control and thus makes them more secure in getting the changes they need done, so they can see results?

  Forum discussion continued at HighRankings Forum.

• 

  How Many of You Meet with SEO Clients?

  Posted: August 6th, 2008, 5:07pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  In a High Rankings Forums thread, forum members discuss whether they meet with their SEO clients or not. It must depend on how the business is structured (and if the client is local), but in the latter case, if the client is local and you're charging hourly, most people don't see why this would be a problem.

  The frequency of meetings is also discussed. Again, the geographic location plays a role here, but it also depends on how deep you are on the project. One forum member says that if they're in the middle of working on changes, their meetings are more frequent than if they are in maintenance mode.

  Some others don't take local clients at all because such meetings are too time consuming. Can you relate to that?

  How many of you meet with your clients in person?

  Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

• 

  Questions You Should Ask When Hiring an SEO Guru

  Posted: April 8th, 2008, 4:33pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

  Tags:  SEM SEO Companies  

  When you're in the hiring phase for an SEO expert, you should get to know a little about the potential candidate you're considering by asking the right questions. The SEOpranos blog has 10 questions that should be asked at every interview. One of them in particular resounds well for webmasters:

  Can you tear this website apart?

  Chance are, if they don't find anything wrong with the site, they're not ready for "SEO expert" work. That's not to say they can't be trained, but they're beginners, not experts.

  Other questions include asking what types of blogs they read, how would they go about building links, how they track results to prove success, and others.

  While some folks have trouble believing that the list is accurate at Sphinn, a good number of Sphinners believe it to be very useful. And if you're not an SEO expert, it definitely provides advice on how to hone your craft. You can't really go wrong with having some knowledge of these questions and their answers.

  Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.