Along with Phil's reply, if you come across an "SEO" who seems to be guarenteeing top position, keep looking because no one can guarentee that. In fact, if they make any guarentees at all, other than making your site as search friendly as possible, keep looking.
If you are really asking if companies of any size require an in-house SEO or to outsource the service I would say YES, as long as the person in charge understands the true meaning of the word SEO which may not ultimately be conquering top positions but help in maintaining a strong presence in all search engines as well as keeping as good relationships with them as possible. I think these days the goals have changed from getting the #1 spot to how to sustain a level of traffic that leads to profitability. And you can always become an SEO *practitioner* yourself.
> "if they make any guarentees at all, other than making your site as search friendly as possible, keep looking. "
It depends what you mean by "Guarantee".
If you mean "certainty" then I agree that it is nonsense and should not be trusted.
If you mean guarantee as in "This TV is guaranteed for 1 year and if it breaks down we will repair it free of charge" then that's reasonable.
Part of an SEO's job, besides making the site "search engine friendly", is to be able to advise on the LIKELIHOOD of achieving a good ranking position and the PROBABILITY of that happening within a given TIMESCALE.
I have a page that ranks No.1 for the search term [sugier sitges] because it's about the ONLY page on the web that contains those two words prominently (Sugier is a tiny village in France where I went on vacation and Sitges is a resort near Barcelona, Spain). It takes no effort at all to achive high placing for such rare terms.
But it would be very different if the chosen term were [new york appartments] or [florida vacation] or [football clubs].
There's an awful lot in between those two extremes and clients need a realistic assessment - and if you get it wrong they deserve something more than a shrug of the shoulders.
But your basic point that no reputable SEO would offer "certainty" about page one ranking is well made and I agree with you really!
(I just felt like arguing :-) but I feel OK now !!!)
A great deal depends on how competitive the market that you are in is.
If you fill a specialized niche with well-recognized specific keywords, especially if they are geographically limited, it is often relatively easy to do well for those specific terms. eg [flyfishing river severn] or [rock climbing patagonia] or [leeds gozmo hiphop allnight refrenz].
On the other hand if you are in a highly competitive global market, you would probably benefit from professional expertise not only to be the best you can be for your preferred seach terms, but also for advice about alternative/complementary strategies such as Adwords cpc, email marketing, client-loyalty marketing, other channels, PR and trade press.
Perhaps you could be more specific about your situation?
I have to agree and disagree. I do seo work and I will not gaurantee anything until I do an analysis and look at the competition. Even then I will never gaurantee a TOP position. I will do all the work and if they reach the first page I will charge extra. I think that is fair for my effort because they stand to make more money.
The more I see and the more I learn about all of this, the less I really know how to choose a SEO other than through "gut-feeling" based on who I've read about or heard from. There's no way to prove that you can do what you claim. There's no way to prove that you were responsible for the results of anything. If you can't prove it afterwards, how can you guarantee it beforehand?
The only thing you can guarantee is that you will spend some time thinking and doing "stuff". Crazy business :-).
It doesn't hurt. But why do you think a #1 spot for "widgets" brings more money than thousands of fair "shiny green widgets" or "smooth pink widget" positions? Sebastian
I don't think you must hire a SEO to do it... you can do it yourself...
But...
+ it will take you LOTS of time, research and intelligence (after reading 2500 pages of SEO, I can consider just a newcomer) + you require to analyse, read, write, program and design... not only knowledge of. You need to dominate these topics. + you need to have a good marketing strategy. SEO does not make a business, it just helps a business (even if it is based on Internet) + etcetera.
If you are ready to go for that, do it by yourself. Else, think about hiring a SEO consultant. in any of those cases, do not obsess. SEO does not make a business.
> I have to agree and disagree. I do seo work and I will not gaurantee > anything until I do an analysis and look at the competition. Even then > I will never gaurantee a TOP position. I will do all the work and if > they reach the first page I will charge extra. I think that is fair > for my effort because they stand to make more money.
> On Feb 21, 9:31 am, Red Cardinal wrote:
> > Anyone can get the top position with the right knowledge and the right > > bank account.
> > And if you are looking for the best SEO company, the last thing I > > would trust is the SERP ranking (*goes off to lose all his #1 > > rankings*).
> > Rgds > > Richard
> > On Feb 21, 12:15 pm,chantiwrote:
> > > Is there any neccessary of SEO's for the organizations...to get the > > > top in SERP's??- Hide quoted text -
> A great deal depends on how competitive the market that you are in is.
> If you fill a specialized niche with well-recognized specific > keywords, especially if they are geographically limited, it is often > relatively easy to do well for those specific terms. eg > [flyfishing river severn] or [rock climbing patagonia] or [leeds > gozmo hiphop allnight refrenz].
> On the other hand if you are in a highly competitive global market, > you would probably benefit from professional expertise not only to be > the best you can be for your preferred seach terms, but also for > advice about alternative/complementary strategies such as Adwords cpc, > email marketing, client-loyalty marketing, other channels, PR and > trade press.
> Perhaps you could be more specific about your situation?
> If you are really asking if companies of any size require an in-house > SEO or to outsource the service I would say YES, as long as the person > in charge understands the true meaning of the word SEO which may not > ultimately be conquering top positions but help in maintaining a > strong presence in all search engines as well as keeping as good > relationships with them as possible. I think these days the goals have > changed from getting the #1 spot to how to sustain a level of traffic > that leads to profitability. And you can always become an SEO > *practitioner* yourself.
> Along with Phil's reply, if you come across an "SEO" who seems to be > guarenteeing top position, keep looking because no one can guarentee > that. In fact, if they make any guarentees at all, other than making > your site as search friendly as possible, keep looking.
> For what it's worth,
> Craig
> On Feb 21, 9:20 pm, Phil Payne wrote:
> > > Is there any neccessary of SEO's for the organizations...to get the > > > top in SERP's??
> > Most SEO comapnies aren't in top positions themselves.
> > About a third of the people asking here why they're not indexed claim > > on their sites to be "SEO specialists".
Geez, Chanti! It took you 7 more or less identical posts to say this! LOL
It's all common sense, like dealing with any any other business issue, big or small, day to day.
Unfortunately the web world is not regulated by any supreme professional body, the way doctors or lawyers or engineers are. Thus you will run more likely into incompetent individuals and often also into outright dihonest ones. The worst would be both incompetent and dishonest and they seem to be very common.
It's possibly harder to find a real SEO person (meaning competent and honest) than to find an honest car garage. but you knew all that, didn't you?
