Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The most common that I've heard is SEO companies using their own website and/or their clients websites to leverage each other up in the serps. This is a strategy that works and works well for a lot of companies.
What are your thoughts on this? I see 2 sides the story:
1. Why should you receive benefit from their work if you are no longer a paying customer.
2. The company is holding the links hostage to keep you as a client instead of continually improving your website and content.
Personaly I don't really like the idea of ending my contract with a SEO firm and all of my links disappearing though. I'd rather that the company builds quality content and builds my links more naturaly. These links would tend to more permanent.
What do you think? I'd really like to hear peoples opinion on this one.
What if the SEO companie gets in trouble with a search engine at
some point and that has a negative effect for those customers involved in the linking scheme?
If you want more inbound links and don't have the time/resources to do this in-house, hire someone/company to get you clean links from sites with which they have no relationship.
Personally, I became disenchanted with the "boom and bust" cycles these techniques create, long ago. My business model targets clients seeking a long term web presence, exclusively.
For a long term presence, build your own site and links. Perhaps cultivate relationships with sites that have justifiably earned a high PR (not from "artifical linking" tricks!), negotiate the best deal you can for ads if necessary, and enjoy your traffic.
Same deal as with Google really - eggs and baskets n all that! :)
Could work well for a bit - maybe even for good.
But like you said - it could all fall down.
And what if the SEO firm decide to charge more?
At the end of the day, they aren't doing "what's best for their clients" are they?
What they are doing is keeping them up and running and when the client ditches the SEO company, they will get a noticable drop in traffic (lost numerous keyword links).
Then the numpty management-guy (or *cough* marketing-guy) will put 2 and 2 together and get 5.
"Oh so the SEO company must have been doing lots of work every month for us after all".
If you are looking for a lifetime committment to the SEO company and pay them for it, then by all means go for it.
But people expecting a one off service from these folks (ie a months "SEO" work) are just gonna be burned for more "maintainence" money.
Fair move from the SEO point of view - shrewd, but legitimate.
Not really in the best interests of the client though.
As a SEO, it depends on your personal ethics and morals - they dont need to be a factor, but can be a great marketing tool in the long term.
More difficult for clients. There isn't many places you can go to find out what to look for in a "good" SEO.
I know of one web design company who has their clients believing that it is only possible to get site stats at the end of each month. And then sent them fabricated stats.
Funnily enough all these clients publish articles on their sites and really liked my article on "The benefit of websites: Instant statistics".
/shrug Karma and all that. No doubt Ill get mine some day! ;)
Scott
As a SEO gains more clients it just becomes too easy to link the sites together or to a central hub(owned by the SEO). Although I don't think this strategy is that bad, its just not a great long term plan.
Some one mentioned what if the SEO gets penalized? I don't see this as too much of a concern if the linking strategy is well thought out(no heavy cross linking).
But a bigger concern is what if the SEO simply closes up shop - these links will evaporate and the investment is gone.
The big question is where do you find the true "white hat" SEO's? I consider myself pretty informed when it comes to SEO in general, but I can only think of a couple really good seo's I would hand my money over too. How is the average business owner ever supposed to find a good SEO?
There are definitely people who will work on developing a long-term, "strong and consistent" strategy for e-marketing of your website. However, you will have to search for somebody who's familiar with a wide array of internet marketing (not easy, because most webdesigners/webmasters/SEO's will not fall under this category) and not just SEO (because SEO doesn't sell!). Last but not least, they will also charge a "strong and consistent" fee (which they deserve because of their knowledge). :)
The big question is ...
Many/some of us know how to SEO - most of clients don't know how to, not even how to find somebody who really knows - what's wrong with them paying for it?
And even if it doesn't last ... learn by yourself or pay. As in every business.
learn by yourself or pay. As in every business.
I don't know if I agree - because a potential client is not knowledgeable about the techniques doesn't mean this is a green light to charge high fees for sub par techniques.
I know a lot of guys do this - its dead easy and it works well - It just doesn't seem to be in the clients best interest.
If the SEO isn't continually adding benefit to my site why should I be paying $1000-$3000 / month some of these guys are charging. I can buy a lot of links for that much cash.
I'd gladly pay double for a SEO that will build content and acquire quality long lasting links within my industry. Ya it takes a lot more work and they don't have control over the links(or the client), but if they continue to improve my site and ultimately my sales - you bet I'll keep paying every month.
maybe I'm living in a dream world?
There is linking that is not artificial? :)
Ahhh the Successful SEOs dirty little secret. Better yet, the successful SEOs spin off a few web design company "designed by" sites, free web counter sites, shell content sites, and now Blogs so they can build a large network that can feed links to each other and their high paying customers. Then when these customers say, "I don't need you anymore", their links get pulled and all that "SEO" turns to dust.
But if you try to do it on your own and decide to buy a strong text link advertisement for your struggling ham radio hobby site, these same SEOs will tell you that doing this is bad, very bad.
