View Poll Results: Do we really need SEO services?

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6. This poll is closed
  • No, SEO is a waste of time and money.

    0 0%
  • SEO might help, but I'm not interrested.

    2 33.33%
  • SEO has helped me get a bit more business.

    3 50.00%
  • SEO turned my business into the success it is today.

    1 16.67%
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Thread: Do we really need SEO services?

  1. #1
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    Do we really need SEO services?

    Do we really need SEO services?

  2. #2
    Platinum Member Marq's Avatar
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    Maybe a quick definition and what it consists is needed here. (Well for me anyway) What does it include for this survey? For example I have only played with keywords and content with some success. But I have not done any links stuff, submissions, paid clicks, diggs and myspaces and the social pages and whatever else is available to me - so cannot comment on how this would make my site (soon to be sites) better seen out there. The reason I ask is that the poll questions did not somehow cover what I was thinking.

  3. #3
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kernel32 View Post
    Do we really need SEO services?
    Do you mean paid for SEO services? i.e. I pay a company to optimise and help publicise my website.
    [SIGPIC]Engineer Simplicity[/SIGPIC]
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by duncan drennan View Post
    Do you mean paid for SEO services? i.e. I pay a company to optimise and help publicise my website.
    Yes, I mean paid for services. Who do you currently use...if you don't mind me asking.

  5. #5
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    This is a value proposition and is actually fairly complex.

    You have to ask yourself a few questions before you can get close to an answer:
    • How much do I know about SEO?
    • How much time is it going to take me?
    • What is my time worth?
    • What would it cost to outsource the activity?
    • What is the difference between outsource cost and the value of what I could do with my time elsewhere?
    • What is my expected return on investment?

    I would not be surprised to find that outsourcing SEO activity wins nearly every time as the best value proposition if it is done correctly. What worries me about oursourcing is that there are clearly operators out there who can do far more damage than good over the medium term with an "overly aggressive" strategy (particularly automated and paid bulk link building).

    In the online world, opening and closing an e-commerce website is no big deal. For "real world" businesses with serious overheads that become too dependant on search engine generated leads for sales, the kind of volume fluctuations that can go with the territory could sink you as easily as make you money. So having a cowboy do your SEO could be a recipe for your imminent liquidation rather than your next fortune.

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    Chatmaster (08-Jul-08)

  7. #6
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kernel32 View Post
    Yes, I mean paid for services. Who do you currently use...if you don't mind me asking.
    I don't personally use anyone, and just keep making small adjustments to improve my site's ranking (my blog that is, my website is currently being overhauled - slowly getting there). A friend of mine runs http://www.webexposure.co.za/, but I have not used them.

    My big issue is that I haven't seen a lot of value (for myself) in paying for SEO services. I could be totally wrong, and just a small amount of investment could get things really rolling, but that seems pointless until I have my content sorted out. Once the content is in a decent state I will probably look at what value I can get via AdWords and possibly paying for SEO.
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    webexposure has come up in conversation before, so I would assume they are pretty good. Someone mentioned to me in passing I should give them a try. I'm not quite ready yet to pay somebody. I'm still trying to figure some things out myself. I will do it in future though.

  9. #8
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    Before embarking on paying a company for SEO services you need to look at your own business, service and products. You need to estimate the possible ROI and determine if it will be financially worthwhile if your traffic increases considerably. The next important point to look at is the competitiveness of the industry you are in, SEO wise. I many cases you should be able to do the SEO yourself after paying a professional SEO to assist you in standardising your site's on-page factors. I know it sounds cheezy but not all business profiles are suitable for a full scale SEO campaign.

    The clients I have all pay a very hefty some each month and they already saw a good ROI after their first 3 months with us. There are several benefits with SEO and one of the biggest is that an experienced SEO company certainly knows how to obtain targeted traffic that will convert during the three stages of an SEO campaign.

    The most important point in terms of SEO outsourcing is not to be perception managed. There are several SEO companies that are misleading their clients to believe they are doing their part, with a clever answer everytime they report back. Ensure that you know at least the basics and that the monthly report are on standard and not just a ranking report. Ranking reports means absolutely nothing. Also ensure that there is a track record of all website updates and SEO activities that takes place during SEO campaigns. This is to ensure that the SEO company doesn't resort to dodgy methods to artificially increase your traffic just to get it booted of the SE's at a later stage. These chancer SEO's are plenty and they simply ride their luck until such time when the bubble burst and you are stuck with fried banana.

    Just as a final note. Professional outsourced SEO if suitable are certainly worthwhile for most websites. It gives good quality traffic that converts well and retention is the highest of all acquisition methods. Also note that with certain businesses SEO should rather be done inhouse than outsourced due to red tape restrictions on outsourced companies preventing them from performing.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

  10. #9
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chatmaster View Post
    There are several benefits with SEO and one of the biggest is that an experienced SEO company certainly knows how to obtain targeted traffic that will convert during the three stages of an SEO campaign.
    What are the three stages of an SEO campaign?
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  11. #10
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    The three stages of an SEO campaign is fairly complex, but I will make it simple by just saying the beginning, mid faze and maintaining. The three stages are simply designed around some of the Google patents we have good reason to believe are very much in use by them. One of those are the History Rank patent. Once an SEO takes over the SEO of a specific site he is in fact starting a new history on which Google will evaluate the site's quality in the future and thus influence the future rankings of the specific site. A good SEO will present you with a proper SEO strategy plan, that will mainly consist out of these 3 stages.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

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