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Thread: Does SEO really work?

  1. #41
    Silver Member Greig Whitton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    Thanks for the offer, Greig. When it comes to my niche markets, my company actually identified and solved the issue years ago. I only mentioned it to endorse Gavin's observation on the subject.
    What was your solution?

    Founder of Growth Surge - Helping entrepreneurs create more wealth and enjoy more freedom.

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    Email problem workshop's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    Absolutely. Provided the price is right.
    It's more complicated than that. Advertisers will invariably get it all wrong. They get stuck in the present rather than over the course of time. They talk about site instead of page or post. They demand numbers and hits rather than targeted views. They don't understand cheap and they don't understand the need to grow what they start into a cost effective return. I even battle to get them to see the value of hard leads and enquiries.

    But I suppose that has a lot to with me and the way I present it.

  3. #43
    Email problem workshop's Avatar
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    Times were, when you used to set up a site and then go looking for other webmasters in your same niche, to exchange links. As you would greet and exchange pleasantries with another villager. Then came the directories and in particular the free directories. Google even recommended these listings as a means of getting your site to rank. It was a very simple concept. Directory owners would offer free listings in exchange for content. They would monetise their sites by offering premium listings as well as from Adsense adverts placed on the sites. And there was an unwritten rule whereby you would click on two or three of the adverts after placing your free link.

    This system worked extremely well for all. Your web site would start popping up on Googles first page with little or no effort at all, the directory owner would be generating an income from their sites, Google was raking in paid advertising and the advertisers were getting all the hits they wanted. That is, it all worked until the damned accountants got involved and started asking difficult questions. Questions no one understood, like sales and conversion ratios and this spoiled it for everyone.

    Google started getting silly and the bottom dropped out of a very lucrative industry, virtually overnight.
    Last edited by workshop; 03-Feb-16 at 12:10 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaynor View Post
    Hi guys.

    I have a couple of sites which include blogs. I've never really 'bothered' much with SEO. I just write, and usually my pieces are quite long and comprehensive - I like to think I know what I'm talking about. I don't post that often either, maybe once or twice a month. It's a time thing. So my hits are fairly low (although I've never compared them to anyone else's).

    Writing is a bit of a passion for me and I think if I had to research which words everyone else is using and include them it might be a bit of a killer. So, what I want to know is if anyone else has REALLY had a lot of success with targeted SEO or PPC and has seen a dramatic increase in numbers?
    Maybe this should read does Google work? Of course it works. It works despite everything. And that is in part because of what we do or what most people don't do. Google offers us the most cost effective means possible of reaching the audience looking for our product or service. The next question is how? And this is where it starts getting complicated. Not because Google is complicated. It is because people are complicated. They bumble about and get in the way of common sense and logic.

    There is an answer for every situation. And it is just a pity that all the experts out there will never admit that they don't know or that what they profess to know is all a question of trial and error.

    With Google there are no guarantees. Just a few very simple principles. And passion is most definitely one of them.
    Last edited by workshop; 06-Feb-16 at 04:32 AM.

  5. #45
    Full Member Gaynor's Avatar
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    Ha! And all of this to my befuddled brain... well ... my site ranks at no 3 for some of the related keywords, in Google.co.za. I'd like it better than that. I'm considering buying the Squirrly app as it seems user friendly and helped me when I was able to use the free version. Does anyone have any experience or comments on it?
    Warm Regards,
    Gaynor Paynter
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  6. #46
    Email problem workshop's Avatar
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    I use All in One SEO. Not because it is the best. But it is free and that is the plugin I started with. Be careful of trying to get too technical and too clever. This is not complicated stuff. It just takes time and as long as you have a clear strategy and understand that Google is looking for useful information you should be fine.

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    Full Member GertH's Avatar
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    If you're looking for something basic to get you off the ground, I would recommend Yoast SEO. It's a simple Wordpress plugin (if you're using Wordpress) that will help you optimize single pages on your website and help you target specific keywords.

    SEO is a long term thing and there's not much value in it if you're not willing to do proper research and do it properly, it's not a "simple" thing as some mention, it's hard work and acquiring relevant, trusted, contextual links is anything but simple.

    Get your on-page SEO right and you'll see some improvement in the SERPS, but don't ever think that a plugin like Squirrly, All in One SEO or Yoast SEO will do all the work for you.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GertH View Post
    SEO is a long term thing and there's not much value in it if you're not willing to do proper research and do it properly, it's not a "simple" thing as some mention, it's hard work and acquiring relevant, trusted, contextual links is anything but simple.
    I am assuming that you are taking issue with my use of the word simple. Can't see any other simpletons around here. So it must be. Maybe I should have used the word common sense rather than simple. I don't disagree with you. But I don't see the need for all the hype and mumbo jumbo. And to put it into context you use the words relevant, trusted, contextual links. What precisely do you mean? And in particular I have an issue with the use of that word trusted. It has an evangelical ring to it.

  10. #49
    Full Member GertH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by workshop View Post
    I am assuming that you are taking issue with my use of the word simple. Can't see any other simpletons around here. So it must be. Maybe I should have used the word common sense rather than simple. I don't disagree with you. But I don't see the need for all the hype and mumbo jumbo. And to put it into context you use the words relevant, trusted, contextual links. What precisely do you mean? And in particular I have an issue with the use of that word trusted. It has an evangelical ring to it.
    In my opinion, saying something is "simple" implies that it's easy and/or fast. SEO is anything but easy OR fast and people get the idea that SEO is "simple" from all the snake-oil "SEO gurus" who sells SEO packages for $10. Inexperienced people invest the bare minimum in SEO and don't get an ROI and as a result of this, they ask questions like the title of this thread - "Does SEO really work?".

    The words relevant, trusted & contextual is anything but mumbo jumbo, in fact, it's the exact opposite, it's laymans terms. If I said: "you need to build links that has a high topical trust flow on Majestic SEO", who would understand this? Definitely not people who debate that SEO might or might not work...

    Trusted links are links on trusted websites. The new tax law that's being implemented in March; if you read about this on a website called HackTheInternetWithKittenJuice.com and read another article stating a different definition of the law on Capetown.gov.za, which article would you believe? The government website of course (if it's not obvious...) Well, Google works in a similar way, it puts trust in certain websites based on a number of factors, thus the layman term "trusted" links.

    Relevant links are links from relevant websites. If your dentist recommends Colgate toothpaste and the guy selling avocados on the street corner recommends you buy his homemade avocado flavor toothpaste, who will you trust? The dentist of course... Toothpaste is relevant to what he does. Getting a link to your construction company website from a hair salon website is not a relevant link, thus the layman term "relevant" links.

    Contextual links are links that come up naturally within a piece of content on the web. Pretty straight forward. Don't go placing an image all over the web that links to your website. I cannot explain this any more simpler.

  11. #50
    Email problem
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    Yeah as Gert says, those plugins are only for on-page SEO. There are many other factors which influence your rankings. Links (from trusted sites) to your site are still a large part of ranking highly, as well as things like mobile friendliness and fast page load speeds.

    Here are some (free) tools I've been using which I find really useful. There are also many other paid tools which can do a whole lot more, but I'm guessing anyone who is not a professional SEO wouldn't want to pay for those.

    Moz Bar - https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar - Chrome Add-On. See metrics (Authority, Trust, Spam rating etc) for the site you are visiting, and even inserts these metrics into SERP results. Can also use it to highlight Follow / Nofollow links and more.

    Adwords Keyword Planner - https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner - (Need to have an Adwords Account) Allows you to see search volume for keywords and recommends new keywords similar to the ones you provide.

    Keyword Tool - http://keywordtool.io/ - Suggests other well-used keywords based on your own, by using Google autocomplete.

    Open Site Explorer - https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ - Can check the links, anchor text etc leading to your site, can also be used for competitor backlink research. Really doesn't pick up all of them though.

    Google Analytics - https://www.google.co.za/analytics/ - Tracks all kinds of stats for visitors to your site. Essential.

    Google Search Console - https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home - Many interesting things here, can see the search terms used by visitors to your site, and what your average rankings are for those terms. Can recommend techniques for speeding up page loads. Also tells you which sites are linking to yours.

    GTMetrix - https://gtmetrix.com/ - Great tool for analyzing page load speeds with lots of suggestions for how to speed this up.

    That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Anyone else got any useful tools? (Especially free ones..)

    Gavin

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