SEO - Why Should I hire when I can do it Myself?

[morisswalker 10]

Doing SEO yourself is a very bad idea if you haven't proper knowledge about SEO. Because if Somewhere you miss in SEO processes then it can affect your website ranking in search engine serp.

[anywebsite 10]

Another option is just get a plan from a professional SEO, then do the work yourself or get a member of staff to do it. If an SEO wont tell you what they're doing & isn't willing to get you involved then they're probably a bad SEO using questionable tactics.

 

It's a bad idea to learn by trial & error on your own website, if you want that website to be successful, errors get punished (if not now then in a few months when Google does their next update). There is a lot of bad advice available for free on the internet so it's easy to waste your time or even hurt your own site rather than help it.

Edited September 6, 2012 by anywebsite

[First Aid 10]

It's a bad idea to learn by trial & error on your own website, if you want that website to be successful, errors get punished (if not now then in a few months when Google does their next update). There is a lot of bad advice available for free on the internet so it's easy to waste your time or even hurt your own site rather than help it.

 

 

I really do agree with you anywebsite: If the SEO Guy doesnt tell you what hes doing then hes got something to hide!

 

In this day and age there has been a number of 'SEO Specialists' who have been running in all directions panicking since the last Google Update!!

 

And there has been a number of SEO Specialists who have always kept their clients updated at all times and have over a period of time have built up the loyalty and trust.

 

Guess which SEO Consultants still have their clients?

 

So I do believe good ethics do pay off!

Edited September 7, 2012 by First Aid

[deadpixel 10]

A lot web developers would be able to advise on SEO matters and I do believe that there are plenty of folks out there selling snake oil when it comes to SEO.

 

Sites I have bothered to put some effort into I have brought to (near) the top for relevant search terms. However I am a web developer so should be able to do that.

 

A well built site with good content will rank reasonably, however a lot of folks who build it themselves simply aren't aware what is and isn't built properly, they have no idea if their free site will work well across browsers etc etc. Stuff that web developers/designers that are any good will do as routine.

 

To an extent the same applies to SEO. You can do it yourself, but getting someone that knows the business would almost certainly yield better results. To a point.

 

I am an SEO now and have been for nearly 2 years. Previously I worked as a front end web designer for 3 years. You'd be suprised to discover how little many web designers actaully know about SEO. When you say that you do SEO I can safely assume by "SEO" you mean on-site optimisation. But what about the off-site optimisation (link building). building links is equally as important as the on-site SEO. This is why it is important to hire an SEO to do an SEO's job

[kinetic 10]

Okay, I'll be the one who addresses the elephant in the room; SEO is largely a con.

 

There are literally tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions!) offering SEO services. Considering there's only really one search engine that matters (Google), how can a 100,000+ different people all promise to prioritise pages to reach the maximum ranking when they are all, in effect, in conflict with one-another? (not to mention the large businesses who own and produce content networked sites which boost each other's rankings, the DIY'ers, the lucky few who own the best domain in town, corporations, tech specialists, etc). It's like playing musical chairs with a million contestants and only 10 chairs!

 

There's maybe 1% (or probably even 0.1%) of the entire lot that advertise their services, who would be able to dramatically make any sort of difference to your page ranking through SEO. In fact, with so many SEO people using the same tricks and tactics you may do far better going your own way to distinguish yourself from the crowd!

 

If you wan't a good page rank, by all means read up (to a certain limit) on SEO techniques (particularly paying attention to good coding practice). But beyond on that... well, there's a lot of people making a lot of money from a lot of mugs!

 

Here's the truth: you'll get far higher page rankings by regularly updating content, perhaps above all writing good (relevant) content, getting inbound links (and also associating yourself with other websites by linking to their content! - preferably reciprocal, but not absolutely essential). Using social media to promote and link to your content (and keep it regularly updated). Submitting content to social news websites (reddit, stumbleupon, etc), build as many links as you can in the process - if you make to the first page on reddit (for instance), which I've managed to do on a couple of occasions, you're going to jump up the Google keyword ranks faster than any SEO expert in the world can do!.

 

Search out website that offer similar content and see if they are interested in doing reciprocal links (and even better try and keep in personal contact with them, don't just e-mail asking for a link. Introduce yourself, explain your vision/passion/etc). By building your own little network of similar sites offering similar content to your own, you get not only get help when needed (without paying for it!) but you can also help each other out with your own separate sets of knowledge (it's not like you need to get married - just hook up on linkedin/facebook/twitter or e-mail each other), and you get fresh ideas from each other. Not to mention you're far more likely to get your twitter posts retweeted and facebook posts commented on/shared.

 

There are loads of ways you can DIY. Save your money. None of the SEO outfits are going to do any of the above for you.

[deadpixel 10]

Kinetic, Yes you are right but everything you listed amounts to a lot of work! if you want to focus on your what you love doing (your own business) you could simply pay an SEO to do all that you mentioned on your behalf. So yes, you can do your own but it suits many people to just pay someone else to do it. Also not everyone has the level of knowledge that you have - some people are totally clueless. At the SEO company where I work (M4 design) we do most of what you mentioned for our clients more and we improve their rankings and they get more business. It is as simple as that.

[kinetic 10]

At the SEO company where I work

 

Having looked at the website, you seem to do things like social media marketing for fairly large companies (swimming in cash). And I'd kind of agree that in such a situation, where a non-IT based company, who aren't smart enough to somewhat integrate their marketing and IT departments together, can save themselves the hassle and just hire you guys. I'd imagine you charge a fairly large amount of money for the services you provide (not saying that you're not worth it, but purely from the amount of resources and time, it goes without saying that you're going to want paying for those hours and your skill-set). Most people who hire SEO "experts" aren't in that position.

 

I'm not knocking what you do, but many people are fooled into paying people for SEO when they just want to promote a blog, or a forum, or a small on-line retail outlet or a small website promoting services. And the chances are they will totally waste their money, it would have been more effective to buy a book!

 

As I'm sure you know, the ways people go about providing "SEO" varies widely, from link spamming (often on comments sections on blogs), to people who specialist in meta-tagging, then there are people who specialise in building proper links on indexing sites (which often makes little to no difference), people who run or join link exchange groups, etc. There's thousands upon thousands of people who use a myriad of ways to "improve" your ranking.

 

With the exception of meta-taggers (tbh, you can spend 10 minutes on the net and gain some knowledge on how to do this yourself!), many of the people who do this stuff can actually end up damaging your rank and your brand/trust too! In the long run it could ruin your entire ranking, with Google either removing you completely, or pushing you to the bottom of the list for trying to "cheat the system".

 

You only have to look at any one of the hundreds of freelancer sites, let's say peopleperhour - type SEO and 13,049 people claim to be experts at it. How do you pick one? You may get an expert who can cleverly analyse keywords related to your business and through some clever meta-tagging and by purchasing a few cheap relevant adwords can massively increase your traffic (that probably won't come cheap either, especially in the long term), or you may get some 14 year old Chinese kid with access to a botnet who spams your domain on every available space on the internet and gets you kicked off Google permanently!

 

OK, I accept those are the two extremes, but the people inbetween those extremes will probably have minimal effect (certainly nothing you couldn't have done yourself, without needing to be an expert - tweet a bit, open a facebook page, join some relevant forums and add your website to your signature, search for the keywords you're interested in and politely ask if you could get a mention or a link exchange, etc). None of that takes any technical knowledge, just a bit of spare time, although there's obviously a limit on how much you can do yourself. But I'd advise anyone looking to promote a small website to do (at least some) of those things rather than pick some random freelance "expert" or some guy who advertises his services on a local forum! (and I say that without any malice intended towards those who do that on here, you may indeed be one of the good guys - you may be the best in the world! Unfortunately that doesn't change the fact that it's a lottery!).

Edited September 10, 2012 by kinetic

[kinetic 10]

Errr, that was kind of freaky. 5 minutes after posting that last post I got an e-mail from Google offering me £30 free adwords!

 

Yeah, I know, it was a purely coinidental, but still.... ... the all seeing eye's of Google

[kinetic 10]

How not to do SEO: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19542938

 

Talk about Barbra Streisand effect! She's now on every news site across the world linked to the words "prostitute" and "escort", as well as wikipedia, etc.