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Help me understand SEO
Hi All
I am reaching out for some help and advice on SEO. I really want to understand the absolute basics and work my way up from there. We are constantly getting contacted by companies trying to sell us optimisation and nearly every time its a lock in 12 month contract. The company I work for has been stung twice already by signing contracts and seeing absolutely no change in web traffic or real world conversion to sales.
I am hoping some of you have resources and information for the common business folk to understand this sphere and how to best navigate it. Its unfortunate but it seems like this industry is very shady in the way it works, granted it may be this way as the formulas needed are special and best kept hidden – fair enough if so – but whenever I ask more in depth questions with these guys they dance in circles and in a round about way end up saying “that is how it is”. On top of this they are wanting $900 aud per month locked in for 12 months, *and* they have told me that we won’t see any significant change for the first two months anyway, so $1800 already down the toilet before we even see any changes. It feels like a giant money sap.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this.
EDIT: Hey guys I just want to clarify, my basic understanding so far tells me it is certainly not something I can undertake myself, so I am happy to hire a company to do this work for me, I just want to understand the basics so when I have these meetings and discussions I am not being clouded with circular answers that aren’t really answers.
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1 Reply
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I think SEO is not a job suitable to be left to an outsourcing team. If you want to know more about SEO, you can search for Neil Patel and Brian Dean. These two are masters in the SEO field and they have taught a lot about SEO knowledge.
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Look up Google’s “SEO starter guide”.
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Depends on what your game-plan is. Do you really have time to learn SEO? Because I’ve been in this space for over 7 years and I, as well as everyone else in the space, are still learning. Maybe it’d be helpful for you to learn very basic stuff, but don’t expect to become an expert in a few years. Keep yourself from wearing too many hats.
If anything, learn very basic stuff so you can better vet who you’re outsourcing it to.
Also, no results are ever guaranteed in SEO. Not seeing results in the first two months is obviously normal.
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As with any technology business you need to know about what it is you’re doing. You don’t have to do the coding yourself, but you have to know how to code or at the very least how logic works. You don’t have to be an ‘seo expert’, but you definitely have to know what to/not to do when you build pages.
I’d start with seo forums (like you’re already doing!), following Barry Schwartz and reading Search Engine Land.
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Australia might not have a customer centric seo industry. I hav come across rants earlier too.
However, your understanding is flawed too.
No visible results for a few months isn’t money down the drain. It takes time to actually get results. Just like you can have a baby all grown up in a month. You need to keep feeding and raising, and you see gradual growth.
Look for an SEO agency that offer flexible terms and willing to answer you queries. Maybe, even outsource to an agency outside Australia to reduce costs.
PS: A forum is best suited for specific queries. For learning ABC, find tutorials online. Start with Google’s guide.
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Don’t ever sign a contract. The real pros don’t need contracts because our results are what keep you.
I can’t teach you to do SEO as it would take more time than we have and even then you may not have the right type of mind, but I can tell you how to screen for good consultants .From an old post I made. It’s long but full of gold :
Freelance vs agency: IF you can find a good one, freelancers/consultants are usually better to hire than agencies for your market. I find that usually a decent agency will get you to the first page of Google, but not much more.
A good freelance on the other hand can usually get you to the top 3 positions AND drive more qualified leads. So I recommend trying to find a freelance/consultant. However I DO NOT mean a guy on Fiverr or some such. Stay away from that mess.
Things to look for when hiring SEO freelance:
1.Make sure they have experience and results in your market or something similar that applies. Like if you need local seo, then many parts of local seo transfer across verticals.
2. Make sure the SEO lives in the country for which you want to rank , and that they are a native speaker of that country’s language. In other words, never hire an Indian freelancer to try to rank in the US and don’t hire an American to try and rank in India. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but only someone living in the country and raised in the culture will have a good enough grasp on the nuances of the language to fulfil intent, target the right users.
3. Expect to pay 100 to 150 an hour minimum. If they charge less, don’t waste your time. Plan to buy at least 3 months of servives. I don’t mean the consultant will make you buy 3 months, I mean you will need to do at least 3 to see anything. However only pay a month at a time.
4. When meeting for your initial consultation, you and the SEO should both be trying to figure out if partnership is a good fit. A talented freelancer cares about protecting his reputation and will be almost as careful about taking a new client as you are about hiring him. After all, as a consultant our business is other people’s business. Your success is our success.
5. During this initial consultation, ask for an example of a client that he has recently gotten into the top 3 for a keyword that drives qualified leads. Ask him to show you the SERP and to explain the strategy used to achieve this. ( you just want an overview, you don’t need a detailed account ) Then ask how he would get you similar results.
If any of these criteria aren’t met, walk away.
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Learningseo.io
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I can’t really add much more but one thing I will say don’t ever hire anyone for seo that contacts you via email, they send out millions of emails in the hope of suckering someone in to rinse them, I even get them when my site is ranking well, they just send them to everyone, they have not even looked at your site 99% of the time
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SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a set of techniques and strategies used to improve a website’s visibility on search engines like Google. It involves optimizing content, keywords, and technical aspects of a website to rank higher in search results, ultimately driving more organic (non-paid) traffic to the site.
SEO offers several benefits for businesses and websites:
**Improved Search Visibility:** SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results, increasing its visibility to potential customers.
**Enhanced User Experience:** Optimizing your site for SEO not only attracts traffic but also improves user experience, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
**Cost-Effective Marketing:** Compared to paid advertising, SEO offers a cost-effective way to generate long-term organic traffic, making it a valuable investment for businesses.
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