oeb wrote:To keep this thread even more off topic, as a web developer myself I will agree with smarvell.
I will do all I can to send out a website optimised for search engines, but if they want regular submissions and dedicated campains for specific terms, damn right they can pay me for it.
At work we are tried and tested too, we are quite good at getting #1 with very broad search terms.
Time to go off topic then...
Regular submissions?
Once a page is tickled in the right places, submitted and content is changed/added frequently, you literally make a few submissions and let it settle. After a few initial changes over a couple of months, you're set.
This strategy WORKS and HAS worked for the past 5 years.
CAMPAIGNS are totally different to SEO. SEO can only be done IN CODE and ON PAGES.
These shysters who CHARGE for campaigns, such as Google Adwords or traffic harvesting are NOT OPTIMISING your site for search engines, they're simply offering traffic—at a cost.
OPTIMISING your site involves being rather more intelligent about things—strategically—and is NOT 100% reliant on totally compliant HTML. In fact, far from it. There's several tricks of the trade which let you jump the queue which are NOT compliant HTML.
I have NEVER paid out money for SEO. And I will NEVER charge a client for it. Yes, I have charged out for an Adwords campaign for clients—which give rapid and targetted traffic instantly—but GOOD WEB DESIGN and page design with search engines in mind is STANDARD.
Over the past 5 years, we've taken NUMEROUS sites way up the ranks in Google, MSN and the likes WITHOUT monthly re-submissions etc.
In fact—we only ever submit a site ONCE to Dmoz, and then use XML sitemap profiles to let Google crawl sites better.
Seriously guys, if you're having to re-submit regularly etc, you're really going about this the hard way.
And NEVER let people confuse between OPTIMISATION and TRAFFIC CAMPAIGNS.
Our biggest pet hate is companies who CLAIM search engine optimisation, when all they are really doing is adding your site to link directories and/or giving you a CAMPAIGN of being submitted to other sites.
OPTIMISATION and CAMPAIGNS are totally different things.
PAY for a campaign, but EXPECT optimisation.
We've repaired numerous client's sites who have 'dropped from the rankings' after taking out so-called 'SEO' schemes. Why? Because a lot of the quick-fix schemes are actually potentially damaging to your site's ranking.
If you can afford to be patient, get your website done by a company who knows what they are doing. Let the design company make your initial submissions to directories and indexers, and then LEAVE IT ALONE. If after 6 months you're not being spidered and ranked well, then ask for some on-page rewording etc. And try again.
If you want traffic... join Google Adwords and pay-per-click your way to getting traffic to your site. If you're a NEW website needing visitors—such as an online Xmas shop—you can use Google Adwords to get more visitors. Yes, it costs money. But you can monitor your spend etc. from a control panel, without EVER touching your website or having any knowledge of HTML, programming or such like.
Some advice...
1. If someone offers to optimise your site, but says they can do it without changing your pages or they don't even ask for access to your site files, be VERY cautious.
2. Ask them if they're going to be forcing traffic via redirects or 'shadow' sites they own
3. Ask them if they are using Google Adwords or another proprietary pay-as-you-go service. If they ARE, then tell them to go swivel—as you can actually do this yourself without the UP TO 50% mark up we've seen companies ripping out of clients
4. Be wary of cash-up-front SEO. Ask to see results, THEN pay. Remember, NOBODY can guarantee rankings changes.
5. LOOK AT THE WORDS—SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION... if your SEO company does NOT offer higher legitimate ranks in search engines, then they're not giving you the full service. For instance—taking out a Google Adwords account on your behalf isn't going to help you on MSN searches at all. Be very wary.
6. Check if you're going to be added to hundreds of directory listings... this is potentially harmful to any current search engine ranking you've got.
Basically...
If you have a website you've designed and you're struggling to get in the search engines for given search phrases, drop me a line.
I can give you FREE search engine optimisation advice which will get you noticed quickly, and once it's done, you just leave it in place and watch your ranking grow. Simple. All you need is a bit of knowledge of the software used to create your website, and a web browser.
There's nothing more than algorithms to any form of SEO... so long as you're on top of what's happening, there's no need for any specific software or expensive bits of kit. It's free, and always has been.
Since the advent of Google (around 1998) and the other well-know search engines (Alta Vista used to be about the best on the net, in my opinion) people's sites have been crawled and indexed for FREE.
No reason why it shouldn't always be that way. However, with the advent of 'SEO companies' charging unsuspecting businesses £££ss to 'get them more hits', we've seen more an more ugly directories, link farms and the likes littering and diluting the searches.
What I mean is, try typing 'Epson R340 printer' into Google.
5 years ago, the top links would have quite rightly been to Epson's own site. However, now we're seeing blogs, directories and link farms—not to mention ANYTHING which is retailable showing up on UMPTEEN 'price hunter' sites, such as Ciao, Nextag, Kelkoo etc.
To work WITH the search engines, you have to THINK like the search engines. In my opinion, any good web design company giving you a marketing driven, indexable site should do this for you as part of the service they offer.
If they're not, it's either going to be an extortionate extra charge, or they will offer it as a standalone. In which case, move on to the next one... there's plenty of web design companies around... basically anyone with a copy of Dreamweaver/Frontpage/Flash/Photoshop can be a web design company these days it seems.
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So to clarify...
SEO should be free, in my opinion.
whereas...
Fast-track CAMPAIGNS to get you loads of traffic are paid for.
Further clarification...
On-page SEO is very effective long term, is free, but takes a while for it to happen. If your site doesn't generate revenue and you are patient, this is the best overall method.
Fast-track CAMPAIGNS are expensive, potentially volatile, but they are instant, and if your site GENERATES revenue, then this is an investment, not an expense.
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Footnote: YES, we have charge bigger blue-chip companies money for FAST TRACKING their sites to search engines. But that's not to say we condone it, or believe that search engine rankings should ever be paid for.
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