Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi All,

I just wanted to get  your opinions on whether or not you feel it is worth it to hire an SEO expert...for those of you who have, what was your experience?  I would also like to hear from those of you who went at the SEO process yourselves. 

Thanks,

Elizabeth

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www.globalluxegroup.com

I like to write, have always been writing lots of stuff, and tend to be a fast typist. I have an imagination, and also think a bit strangely. But I also have an analytic mind, and people worry that I over-analyze (a whole other discussion about a poorly-defined phrase).

As such, it`s very easy for me to wite a lot of text, and to understand the constraints, form, and rules of SEO writing. I don`t need to hire an SEO writer because I can write plenty of stuff about anything. I`m reminded of the Seinfeld show, all about nothing, which is in some respects, what SEO is about.

If you`re the type who can find key phrases, write a lot about nothing, make it sound as if it`s all about something, then you can probably avoid the expense. Otherwise, there`s little doubt that for the moment, in today`s struggling evolution of the Web, SEO writing will very much increase your rankings.

Unfortunately, just because you have high visibility on a search engine, that doesn`t mean you have a product lots of people want to buy. Consider a new restaurant that opens to huge fanfare, and brings in people from the local area. If the food or service is bad, all they`ve accomplished is to advertise that they aren`t a very good restaurant. From that point, they may as well go out of business. It`s hard to regain their credibility.

A Web site is different from the restaurant because your audience is potentially anyone with a computer access to the Web. That`s hundred of millions of people. If you have a problematic product, you can at least change the look of the site, the name of the company, and the logo, and try again.

Anybody can make a website, I made our site so that I knew or at least had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in it. Once it was done a professional took over and did it all over again like it’s supposed to be done. I used html he used css, I did no SEO he’s analyze every word 100 times and intends to do it yet again (he has it on the to-do list, once it’s done it goes right back on there), he’s created a test site were every little comma and period is tested, the list goes on and on. Although I know my way around the net, IMO the key to success is to know what you don’t know then hire somebody you trust and knows that area to handle it. Good management is about delegation.

Hi Elizabeth,

If you hire a "SEO expert", you should ensure that they use legitimate, "white hat" optimization techniques.  If they are continually trying to trick the search engine algorithms by using black hat techniques, it can get your site banned from the search engines.   

It can also get very expensive to hire someone to do SEO for you! 

So we prefer to do the SEO process ourselves - it`s not difficult because the website hosting and marketing system we use has built-in tools for keyword brainstorming, search engine optimization and submissions, to guide us through the process. 

I hope this helps.

 

How about trying to do it yourself first, then have an SEO company take a look? I`d assume any one of these would be willing to take a look-see, then offer you a report and estimate of what they could do to improve your site? If not, try a different company.

Any reputable service company is going to sell you on why you should use their company. To me, that would mean a fast, basic, simple assessment of what you created, then their ideas or "outline" of what they intend to do for you.

That way you could get a general sense of how well you could do it yourself.

There are any number of SEO providers who will conduct a site audit for a fee.  Those will expose deficiencies in your current strategy, holes you can plug, and give you an accuracte assessment of how your efforts have paid off to date.  To Craig`s point, you can then assess whether or not your own efforts are sufficient, or if it`s going to make economic sense to outsource the work to a focused professional.

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chuck fuller

      It might be good to read-up some more on the SEO process while also considering how competitive your industry is - some of the more cut-throat areas would definitely benefit from a professional touch.

    Another factor to consider is time as SEO does take a commitment that many business owners just can`t make. You should at least know some things so, if you do look into the Pro route, you can avoid an SEO who might get you banned by using techniques the search engines consider spamming and/or against their terms.

I have a free ebook, "What You Must Know Before Hiring An SEO Company" about this very subject. It can be downloaded here:

http://www.PananaDesign.com/ebook.html

Hope it helps -


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Jon Cook | Panana | Search Engine Optimization & Online Marketing

SEO has been really popular with our clients. I`ve tried to do SEO for my own personal pet projects (I`m not the SEO expert in our company, so my attempts are just tidbits that I`ve picked up) and I`ve had varying degrees of success. For some phrases, I hit it right on, and other phrases I`m still trying to figure out how to get listed higher. I completely agree with localbiz - if you do SEO, be sure they use techniques that won`t get you blacklisted from the search engines. It`s bad news bears.

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Thank you all for your advice.  I definitely don`t want to get blacklisted, so I`ll be careful about who I choose. :)

 

 

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www.globalluxegroup.com

Whoever you go with get references, production world works cited, and have them show you real proof of ranking.  Don`t go with "top 10" guaranteed.

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Steve
Computer Repair in St Louis and Saint Charles