Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Since that time 5 years ago there has been no SEO done to the site. No link development, no onpage stuff, nothing. And guess how it's rankings are doing?
Well, 5 years later, it's still front page on Google for the competitive terms we targetted originally. Through all the ups and downs, all the algo tweaks, that site has parked on the front page and sat there, year after year, generating traffic...and sales, with not a further penny spent on SEO. The site is owned by an individual practitioner who earns a very good living completely off of his site. We speak once or twice a year, and yes, he's happy. It beats sites that do directory links and press releases. It beats sites that sponsor wordpress themes. It beats sites that do paid blogging. It beats a lot of sites that do SEO.
I'm still considering what I should charge to let out the techniques I used that have managed to keep this site on the front page for 5 years, or even if I should discuss it publicly at all.
wheel, I've tried this before and it's very slow going for me, sometimes it takes more than an hour to find just one relevant and authoritative site that looks like it would link to me...is that what you have found or are you faster?
It's hard work.
You know, just last month I got a clients site to rank top 10 for a phrase with 220 million competitive pages, and the site is less than two months old
You hire people to help you do that.
Ask yourself, what are you going to do if I move in to your niche of SEO services, call your clients and show them my results - and offer them a 3 month contract and the hope that that'll be all they need for the next 5 years. How are you going to compete against that? Perhaps you should be prepared for that now.
Now tell me this - is YOUR business model a robust one? You can only work on xx client sites at a given time. As a result you are stuck with a $$$$$ income for your life. As an individual SEOer it may be fine with you, but as a business owner it does not sit well with me.
Being in business 5 years and the revenue graph going north all the time, there must be something in the business model that i work with.
My only purpose of posting the query was, i am looking for - scalability. I want to provide more value to my clients as well as maintain the growth rate.
BTW, it will take more than one single report and sales pitch to make clients switch providers, however glorious the prospects look. Yes, a very few fickle minded clients may grab your offer, but then i would like to gladly let go such clients! I tend to attract clients that understand long term commitment, collaboration and trust. Hows that for a business model ;)
The difference you're looking at is that you're trying to sell ongoing SEO services, probably on a monthly basis. Basically a subscription service.
If you can provide long term rankings based on a single short term contract, then that's simply a different business model. You're not working with 100 clients every month, in a given 3 month period maybe you're working on 10 clients. Next three months those clients are done and you're working on 10 new clients. That's actually MY business model - we have to sell new clients every day because we take one income hit for our product then we're done with the client.
That's the question that's being raised here - if I can work on a site for three months and have rankings for 5 years with no further work, then why can't an SEO firm? Why the need for a subscription model? I know why - people are being sold on the idea that there's a magic sauce of SEO being done each month and the SEO firm has to stay on top of all these secret things and the latest ranking techniques.Heck - the SEO firms probably believe that themselves. But quality rankings don't need that level of ongoing work.
And if you think another SEO firm can't pry your clients away in droves using that as a model, you're deluding yourself. Your clients don't love you that much.
A predictable response.
It doesn't concern me at all that you, and many others, believe this beats most other options. I'm glad your model works for you, it's not a option that I would ever consider.
If a business can get top rankings for 5 years based on a short term contract, then exactly what is supposed to be overwhelming benefit of a subscription based model? Oh wait - I think I know! it's not better rankings, it's more money for the SEO firm.
You'll just have to read Wheel's posts going back over the years and decide for yourself if he's credible.
Personally, I believe what he says about this.
Wrong! Quality SEO does require ongoing work. I offer suggestions on valuable content creation and also provide ongoing exposure for my clients through social network outlets, on an ongoing basis. Can you replace that with 3 - 5 months of one time work?
Can you replace that with 3 - 5 months of one time work?
Didn't I indicate in the first post that I'm able to do exactly that? More specifically, I'm talking about solid, top rankings.
My point behind this thread was that using solid link building techniques worked 5 years ago and still works today. However we're tangenting off to another point. All the SEO's for hire are having a cow but maybe it's not me that should be answering questions here. The question is - if someone can get top rankings that last 5+ years with only 3 months of work, what the heck exactly are these SEO clients being sold? If clients want top rankings -and most of them do, then they're either being sold poor quality efforts initially, or stuff they don't actually want on an ongoing basis.
Take a challenge. Quote your price for 3 months and get me to top in Google for 'mortgage calculator'. The result must sustain for at least 6 months without further SEO efforts.
Right here in this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
All that was in 2005. Since then I have done nothing, and relied on good content to get further links.
Quality inbound links work. And their ranking power lasts - a long time. In that respect at least Google's doing a good job.
I bow down to you wheel your amazing, oh wait no I don't. Your just doing what everyone else here does?
Don't get so caught up in worrying that I might be bragging that you miss the point.
Cheers
Sid
The best method is quality content that brings customers in
What about stuff that sucks to read about, but are common everyday essential items?
Everyone needs toilet paper, but not many of us can write an encyclopedia about it, and not many people are interested in researching it, bookmarking it or linking to it.
There are thousands of people and billions of $ invested in the paper industry.
Encyclopediaa? Are you kidding? There are whole libraries dedicated to paper. Trust me I've been on one and it is no picnic.
Your TP example is a perfect one. TP? I bet you could get a PR7 out of that subject - just about every link development post in this forum could apply to that subject.
History of TP? What did TP look like in the 50's? 20's? 1800's?
Humor? Juvenile, but lots of material.
Making of TP. Paper factories are hardcore industrial places, gotta be able to get some interesting info.
Eco Friendly? I think TP may be bleached? I dunno - but there's an angle there.
You're probably correct that not many people write about this - that just means there's opportunity. And if you're in the TP industry then you should be able to write about it (if you're not able to do this, you may be in the wrong industry).
You're probably correct that not many people are interested in researching it - but that just means there's a small search market out there. Doesn't mean there's no market or that it's unprofitable.
You are incorrect that not many people would be interested in linking to it. In my examples above, a well done ecofriendly perspective I bet would get links from an avalanche of eco and environmental websites - those grassroots and research type websites are huge authorities to get links from. The subject is a goldmine of backlink potential.
Humor sites abound. Easy backlinks there.
History sites abound. You talk about TP in the 50's - there's lots of 50;s sites out there that would find that cool enough to do a link drop. TP in the 1800's and earlier? Lots of history profs would do a link drop to a history of TP article - it would make their .edu pages better, and help bring history to life.
Geeesh, I'm tempted to set up a site on the subject myself now. :)
And it's good to hear Google's algo recognises it.
But what if three or four folks in your client's sector watch and become as smart as you , or learn to do things better than you ? ..... or does the age of those links mature with gold and hold off newbies ?
Do you search for more links using your great techniques [ i know you've moved on from this client ] ... but just thought I'd ask in principle.
1) httpwebwitch's tutorial on IP banning. IP banning is something a lot of us either do, or want to do. The idea has been around for as long as the web - yet check out the tutorial:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Actually, that's also great content for an SEO company, another extremely competitive field.
Anything new there? Probably not. But very succinct, details on 'why' followed by code you can cut and paste. A complete end to end example that a business owner can understand, and enough details to pass to their admin.
Follow that up with some link requests (and some blog postings where ever you see a blog post about someone having these problems).
2) [webmasterworld.com...]
That's my request for info on a server upgrade. It's a complex subject, but goodness - it's something that happens all the time. A good guide would net lots of computer/webhosting/tech backlinks.
Better yet, a two part guide, one for linux, one for MS. Steps that a server admin can use to step through the process. Maybe it's been done - but there's room for another authoritative article.
Just want to say that I'm not a massive poster on WebmasterWorld, but I've read a lot and every post of yours that I've read makes sense (all right, bit of shameless flattery there), so I don't really get where the detractors are coming from.
I totally get the personalised approach to link building and it's paying dividends for me - our site is ranking well, I'm getting us good quality links from quality sites (although I am anchoring those with some 'crappier' looking links from forums / blogs etc to make the link profile look more natural).
There's one thing I'm getting stuck on though and would really appreciate some advice - how do you actually find your authority sites? (I am finding this bit really difficult, and am fast running out of sources)
