Top 3 Myths on Search Engine Optimization Companies

If you think about it, there is a reason that the SEO industry is somewhat secretive. Here are the top 3 myths when it comes to search engine optimization…

Written Mar 04, 2010, read 9148 times since then.

You can almost think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a somewhat secretive industry. You see a lot of people claiming to be SEO experts, and some charge a lot of money for their SEO services. Some people guarantee results and some don’t. At the same time, almost nobody will tell you the exact methods he or she uses to improve your web site’s rankings, so you are left wondering: am I paying too much? Am I being too cheap? Am I hiring the right person? What should I look for when hiring a SEO company? Is it worth the investment?

If you think about it, there is a reason that the SEO industry is somewhat secretive. For one thing, search engines like Google do not like people tampering with their search results. If you are a dentist in Chicago and you realize that thousands of people type “Chicago dentist” into Google every week, imagine how much more business you would get if your web site comes up first in the search results! When I say search results, I mean the organic search results, not the paid advertisements, since 70% to 80% of people click on the natural search results instead of the paid advertisements.

This brings me to the second reason why search engine optimization companies are somewhat secretive. They take away Google’s revenues from paid advertisements! The more people hire SEO companies to improve their rankings on the natural search results, the less likely they are to use paid advertising with the search engines such as Google AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. For these reasons, search engines such as Google do not like search engine optimization companies, and the SEO experts have to be somewhat hush hush with their methods. As a result, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to hiring SEO companies. However, this does not mean you need to be at a lost. You are likely to get better investment of your dollars with some SEO companies than others. With a little education and understanding of SEO companies, you will be better equipped to choose the right SEO company for you.

Here are the top 3 myths when it comes to search engine optimization…

1. The majority of the SEO work takes place on your web site. The logic behind this myth is that if you design a really search engine friendly web site, your web site would be ranked high by search engines such as Google. Yes, it may be true that having the right keywords and meta tags on your web site help your ranking, but if it were that easy, don’t you think everybody would be doing the same thing? The truth is – only a small percentage of the SEO work is done on your web site. The majority of the SEO work to improve your ranking should be done on other people’s web sites! Search engines tend to care a lot more about what other web sites think about yours rather than what you have on your own web site. This is the reason that a good web designer is not necessarily a good SEO expert, and vice versa. Web designers tend to focus almost all of their energy working on your web site. Good SEO experts, on the other hand, tend to focus their energy on other web sites in order to help improve your web site’s rankings.

2. Good SEO can be done cheaply. There is a saying that people tend to get what they pay for, and this saying applies to hiring SEO companies. However, you should not base your decision on price alone. What you should understand is why some SEO companies charge you so little (such as $49.95 per month). Some keywords are more competitive than others. For instance, let’s say you run a hair salon in Los Angeles called “BJ Hair Design”. Which keywords do you want to optimize? Do you want to optimize “BJ Hair Design”, or do you want to optimize “hair salon Los Angeles”? I can charge you very little to improve the ranking of the keyword “BJ Hair Design”, but potential customers searching for hair salons on the Internet don’t know your company name (which is why they are searching in the first place), so no one is going to type in “BJ Hair Design”. Chances are they will type in “hair salon Los Angeles”, and this is when you want your web site to come up first. It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords such as “hair salon Los Angeles”, which means it will cost you a little more to get high rankings on highly desirable keywords. So before you go with the cheapest SEO company, think about this… Which keywords are they helping you optimize?

3. SEO stops when your ranking is high. Another myth is that SEO is a one-time investment. If you have a very high ranking on Google, there are probably 9 other companies trying to compete with you. If everyone else is advancing but you, your ranking will eventually drop. That is why you should think of SEO as an ongoing investment for your business. By continuing to invest in your web site’s ranking, you will ensure a steady stream of new customers that will visit your web site and call you up.

Learn more about the author, Aaron Muller.

Posted by Oliver Wu, Bellevue, Washington | Jan 25, 2010

Good job Aaron. Keep up the great work!
Posted by Cindy Myiow, Bellingham, Washington | Feb 03, 2010

Aaron. I thought your article was great. Very informative for me.
Posted by Pat Milligan, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Interesting article. I disagree a little that companies like Google "do not like search engine optimization companies". First of all, they do publish guidelines for SEO. Second, they could very easily write an algorithim that would weed out optimized webpages.

I do think you are probably right that good SEO is focusing on other websites to get better rankings. This requires A LOT more work.

Finally I want to add that I'm amazed at how many people make no effort to optimize. A lot of calories are spent through social networking. Social networking is a great way to market yourself but compared to making yourself available to someone that is athentically searching for you, it's hunting with a shotgun when should be using a rifle. More Biznikers should be reading articles like these...
Posted by Laura Crest, Bellingham, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Enjoyed your article, Aaron, especially the point you make about links from other sites...that's absolutely right on!

I would add that quality content, as in truly well-written pages, should be the ultimate goal of companies. It's one think to rank high and get a lion's share of traffic, quite another to convert that traffic, and better yet, build that traffic via referrals! And good, solid writing isn't so costly, when you take the larger perspective and consider quality content as an investment that produces superlative returns!

Excellent article! Thanks!
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Hi Aaron, I like your article. However, I don't know that I would call them myths.

1) If a website already has a ton of links, or is in a less competitive industry, on-page optimization might be all they need. Also, as Laura pointed out, there is ton of stuff you can do to your website to draw in additional search traffic.

2) It can be done cheaply depending on the client's particular situation. If the site is brand-new, then they should expect to pay the appropriate amount to achieve the desired rankings quickly; however a small website in a less competitive market can be done for a lesser fee - depending on the clients overall needs and goals.

3) Again, in less-competitive markets a one time fee allows you to help your client achieve top rankings which they will likely maintain for a very long time, and in some case they will never need to go out of their way to do additional SEO work in order to maintain those rankings. That is, if ranking for a selected group keywords is all they are ever looking to achieve.

Really all of these points are dependent on several factors, i.e., client's needs, goals, and the competition.
Posted by Aaron Savage, London, Greater London United Kingdom | Feb 04, 2010

Hi Aaron, this is Aaron too.

Nice article, although I would say that I don’t think Google is overly concerned about the SEO industry turning them into paupers, as their results are holding up very well for Adwords. Also don't forget that a lot of SEO services are provided by full service online marketing agencies who also offer Adwords as well as SEO (and social media and email and online advertising etc).

I think the secrecy is partly due to Google’s own secrecy about their algorithm, and partly due to the fact that whilst there is quite a bit to think about in SEO it isn't actually rocket science. Don't get me wrong, we offer SEO as well and do very well at it but it’s a bit like juggling, when you know how to do it and practice it becomes second nature whereas if you just pick up some balls it goes wrong very quickly.

Your point about on page SEO being of significantly less value is well made but it still counts and it is still important, and sometimes it can also tip the balance. I think of it as more like a soup. You might not need a lot of a certain herb but if you use a little of it brings the whole thing alive.

The golden rule I tell clients is that if you try and buck Google, then Google will buck you and Google is capable of bucking you quite hard. Stick to ethical practices and be a good citizen of the internet and you will be ok.
Posted by Paul Sherland, Wharton, Texas | Feb 04, 2010

Hi Aaron,

An excellent article, but I concur with the comments of Aaron Savage and Pat Milligan above. I don't think Google has a problem with SEO that promotes content relevant to a set of search terms. The Company doesn't disclose its algorithms because it doesn't want SEO experts gaming the system to promote irrelevant content.

I very much agree with your distinction between a good web designer and a good SEO expert. I've seen lots of attractive, user-friendly websites that operated like "signs in the desert." They were only discoverable by people determined to trek through lots of SERPs to find them.

It's also worthwhile remembering for the hair salon in LA, that claiming and optimizing your local business listings is probably as important as building an SEO-optimized website. Those local listings will appear above the websites in organic results if they're working well. An excellent resource for building business listings is the local search book by fellow-Biznikians, Shannon Evans and Rich Geasey.
Posted by John Ferrughelli, belleville, New Jersey | Feb 04, 2010

Hey Aaron,

Your article is on point. Although, I have to respectfully disagree with you on just one point where you say that the majority of SEO work is not done on the specified websites, but other websites. Our research has shown that google cares more about the content on your website than what's on other websites due to the influx of people "buying links" and buying spots on other pages. Our research has shown that it is not weighed as heavily as the content on your own site. But work being done on other websites sure is a good supplement to other SEO tactics.
Posted by Larry Sykes, Jefferson, Oregon | Feb 04, 2010

Aaron,

Coming from a website owner who knows very little about the SEO process. When you say that an SEO company you hire should spend most of their time on other peoples websites are you talking about linking? Thanks for the great information.
Posted by Sebastian Rusk, Miami, Florida | Feb 04, 2010

great article. the goal of an SEO company or Search Engine marketing company in my opinion is not to take money out Google's pocket, but rather provide online businesses and websites with an alternate, yet effective approach to gaining the exposure they desire and need online.

our firm www.KayneConsulting.com provides local businesses with an effective, guaranteed solution that lists their business on the 1st page of Google every time for a flat fee. All of our efforts are 100% compliant pertaining to Google's regulations and our clients love our results.
Posted by Shibley Rahman, London, Greater London United Kingdom | Feb 04, 2010

This article was extremely helpful and clear. I found useful in particular the last bit warning against SEO as a one-off process. However, you do tend to think that success begets success. In other words, if your company's site does happen to climb to number 1 of Google, then the number of hits will exponentially rise. However, against this hypothesis, must be the idea that this is also the case for your competitors.
Posted by Soheyla Shakerine, MA, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Aaron, I am one of the people who bought a SEO service and got zero results. So, thank you for the article.

I have to admit, prior to buying it I was too intimidated by the technology and didn't do any research...but I'm trying to learn now. If you don't mind, what do you mean by "It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords..." If they are top keywords, arent' they supposed to rank up automatically? thanks again,
Posted by Audeliz Angie Perez, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey | Feb 04, 2010
Good Morning Arron! I am coming to you from New Jersey. I am a full time Realtor, but I've learned a lot about SEO through my future hubby's company. I get the weekly updates of articles from Biznik via email and when I clicked on the title, I thought the article would have read differently. I disagree or simply see the top 3 myths differently or maybe I have issues with the way you phrased it.

My top three SEO Myths would have been these:
1. SEO is expensive! Not so in my book. SEO is takes time and a business should hire an expert who understands their business model and the type of traffic the business wants to attract. A business should hire someone with a proven track record. It's only expensive if the business hires the "wrong" person or if the business targets the wrong keywords.
In your example, please note, I do get my hair done on occasion, I don't shop for a salon online. I get a referral from a friend. I might look up the salon's address in case I have to get there using my GPS. Even if I was new to an area, which might have a name or section associated with it, I might search a combination of keywords like "Hair Salons Ironbound Newark."

Again, I am no SEO Expert, but there is a considerable difference between broad keywords versus specific, even if the number of searches on that specifics keywords are less. Maybe this is called the long tail search. When you don’t have a “big” budget, your goal might be to focus on the long tail i.e. these lesser keywords terms that people search for, which would require a business to have constant content development to truly target X number of keywords.
1. Most of your SEO efforts will be offsite. SEO starts within your website (this is more or less your number 1). But, it's somewhat true that a good SEO strategy starts with good Meta tags, keywords/page title matching the content on the page. And, I wholeheartedly agree: Lots of SEO takes place off site with word of mouth (the infamous SHARE buttons/links within social networks and blogs or just inbound links in general).
2. Adwords are a waste of time when it comes to SEO. Not So! When a search is entered, every result is competing for a click and even though people have a tendency to look at the organic search results, a compelling adword title, offer or link might get the click. A compelling ad has different meaning to different people. I find myself clicking on ads on Facebook that offer a free ipad. That’s compelling for me. But click from adwords only last as long as your budget.
Posted by Terry Maxwell, Saint Constant, Quebec Canada | Feb 04, 2010

As a neophyte in SEO, I greatly appreciate the article and all other comments. I the last several months I have learned alot about web searching and visibility and, now a little about SEO. Thanks to all.
Posted by Sebastian Rusk, Miami, Florida | Feb 04, 2010

.
Posted by Tony Sova, Bellingham, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Great overall view of the idea of SEO and some of the strategies involved. I would disagree a little like some with the concept of the content of your own website being less important.

We develop content management websites with Joomla! We found that a lot of our clients didn't know how to write good content that help search engines find their websites. After much research it was determined that search bots rely more heavy on relevant content more than backlinks as they did previously. What this means to us is that clients and people in general need to know how to do that if they are updating their own website.

That is why we are starting seminars at the end of February for general optimization using relevant content and proper markup for SEO. We think this is the way of the future for clients who don't really just need immediate and temporary results.
Posted by Aaron Savage, London, Greater London United Kingdom | Feb 04, 2010

This is turning into a quite fascinating conversation and I am learning things here too.

I think we are all agreed that for any keyword or phrase the best recipe would be

Keyword in Url + Keyword in filename + Keyword in meta data (keywords, title, description tags) + Keyword in <title> tag + Keyword in body copy + Keyword in backlinks * as many backlinks as possible

At what point do people think that the weighting shifted from being off page (ie backlinks) to on page and where do you think the emphasis on page now is?
Posted by Robert Hodes, New York, New York | Feb 04, 2010

Nice article!

I think it is important to remeber that even great and expensive SEO on your own website is not going to help you get organic search results unless your website is designed properly and is being indexed by the search engines. At Vested Business Brokers, http://www.vestedbb.com, we have learned the hard way!

It is very important to use the tools available to you (DIRECTLY FROM GOOGLE!) to ensure that your website and SEO are effective. Free Google Webmaster Tools provide a tremendous amount of answers concerning what you may be doing wrong at the website design and SEO level, as well as suggestions to correct problems.

Google's analytics tools combined with their Webmaster tools has really helped us improve our site performance dramatically!
Posted by Joseph Shivell, Plano, Texas | Feb 04, 2010

Aaron :

You make some very good points, although it should be pointed out that when you are use the term "SEO" , what you really mean is "Organic Marketing". This would make your first "myth" a little easier to understand. When marketing a website to get a high organic ranking, SEO, or optimization a website, is only part of the process. I do agree with your second "myth". When marketing a website, making sure that the company you hire goes after the right keywords is a very important step. You also have to make sure that your budget can handle the phrases you want to target. To use your example, a hair salon that only does women's hair would not want to target "hair salon" because it would include all hair salons and would be more competitive, and therefore more expensive. The phrase "women's hair salon" would be more appropriate, less competitive, and less expensive. I also agree with your third "myth", although I would not use the word "probably". There are definitely at least 9 other companies that would like to be where you are - in fact, 9 is way too low! Organic Marketing never ends. Once you get to page one of Google or the other major search engines, you have to work to stay there, because there are plenty of others that would like to be where you are.
Posted by Michael Stern, Pasadena, California | Feb 04, 2010

I have been spending more time lately boning up on SEO for my site and gathering information from trusted sources.

Thanks for adding to my body of knowledge, I signed up for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, made changes to my keywords, etc. and added a local listing for my business.

All good!
Posted by Susan Yerebeck, Everett, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Great article my company Vision Quest Design Group is going through this exact problem right now. Matter of fact 4 hour conference call yesterday to try to figure out what to do and how to do it. What I would like to know is how do we simple people create "back links" is there a resource out there to give me advice on how to use other people's websites for this purpose!

First of the year I started doing the social networking but now I need to expand.

Another question is how do we know who the right company is for us what type of questions should we ask when we hire someone to re-build a website or talk to a "SEO" specialist.
Posted by Susan Yerebeck, Everett, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Great article my company Vision Quest Design Group is going through this exact problem right now. Matter of fact 4 hour conference call yesterday to try to figure out what to do and how to do it. What I would like to know is how do we simple people create "back links" is there a resource out there to give me advice on how to use other people's websites for this purpose!

First of the year I started doing the social networking but now I need to expand.

Another question is how do we know who the right company is for us what type of questions should we ask when we hire someone to re-build a website or talk to a "SEO" specialist.
Posted by Paul Sherland, Wharton, Texas | Feb 04, 2010

Howdy Fellow Texan Susan!

One way to create links back to your site is to comment on other people's blogs and provide your URL when you do. Some blogs "no follow" those URL links, but most allow them.

A simple way to start your search for a web developer or seo expert would be to Google those terms for your location or perhaps for McKinney, Plano, or Denton. If a web developer/seo does not do well in search results for his or her own website, it's sure bet that your website won't do well either.
Posted by Pat Milligan, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Wow, the discussion has gotten interesting here since I first posted my comment.

I also wanted to add that small business owners should learn SEO basics themselves. Being certain to keep your keywords in your name, title tag, meta tags (not as tricky as it sounds to the uninitiated), headlines and links may or may not get the Chicago dentist page one results, but it will probably get the Chicago urologist page one results.
Posted by Sharon Miller, Longmont, Colorado | Feb 04, 2010

Awesome article.

As a web designer, I only try to make sure I use best practices while building a website. I always tell my clients to hire an expert SEO company if they want to get top results for organic placement in search engines.
Posted by Arlene de Waal, Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa | Feb 04, 2010

This article was an eye-opener. Thank you for sharing. Good to know this before I went and spent a lot of money. It makes a lot of good sense
Posted by Carlos del Rio, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

This article is misleading. I understand what you are trying to say, but your execution is poor.

Different companies have different goals and needs from marketing through the Internet.

I think that you should take this article down and write something more professional.
Posted by Robert Hodes, New York, New York | Feb 04, 2010

We use Hubspot--an inexpensive soup to nuts provider with everything you could possibly need from getting your webiste right, SEO, blogging, Social Networking, lead tracking, product test landing pages, etc. They also combine the data from many different search engines and reporting sources, and put it on one page--everything's at your fingertips! One of my favorite features is their Competitor View--you can list as many websites as you want and it shows you how you stack up--keywords, indexed pages, traffic, inbound links, etc.--all with drilldown to very impressive amounts of valuable data.

My main contacts at Hubspot are Mark Greco-617-401-2449 and David Donlan-617.401.2453.
Posted by Maria Ross, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Great discussion! As someone who used SEO when I had a nice big corporate budget, I can attest firsthand that a strong monthly budget towards SEO can increase your results. When I got on board at my last corporate gig as Director of Marketing, we actually scaled down paid search and scaled up SEO spend. The result was going from 8000 visitors a month to 51,000 a month.

One thing you ddn't mention was the fact that Google and Bing also rank you higher in their algorithms if you have refreshed content. They don't like to rank things high that have been stale and static for years, as they may no longer be relevant. So integrating your blog on your site helps with that immensely, as does maybe updating content on the other pages every once in a while.

I 100% agree SEO is an ongoing job. The algorithms and search behaviors change and its very competitive. If you expect to get a site up, get all your keywords in place and then "leave it alone" you are going down the wrong path.

And lastly, small business owners on a limited budget would be better off if they invest more in SEO work before ever start spending money on paid search ads. I see that mistake time and time again and it's like throwing money down the drain. If your SEO efforts are ranking you very high and you have additional marketing funds to augment that, or if you have a specific product or service you want to advertise in addition to just your general Search results, then yes, paid search is a great addition. But don't put your money into that if your organic (Natural) Search rankings are not yet doing all they can do for you.
Posted by Barbara Rogers, Golden, Colorado | Feb 04, 2010

I enjoyed this article.

As a Graphic & Web Designer, I have spent the better part of the last year really studying to get a better understanding of SEO... and I have found it to be very helpful to both myself and my clients. I do believe Web Designers should have some of this knowledge under their belt - yet I continue to see so many sites that ignore SEO completely. I believe Optimizing really does help.

While I offer SEO services, I am also careful not to make crazy promises. But I do see how implementing certain fundamentals has made a huge difference in Organic Rankings and one of my clients is truly reaping the benefits of my efforts.

And SEO takes time - in my experience it does not happen overnight.
Posted by Kyle Keever, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Great article Aaron. The article itself and the discussion it spurred is really informative. I've been getting some coaching for my own SEO efforts and felt your article summ's it up very clearly.

Kyle Keever
Posted by Linda Moore Kurth, Vancouver, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

To Tony in Bellingham, an SEO seminar sounds like a great idea. I'd love a hands-on opportunity, using my own computers, to walk through the steps needed to get good organic results. That's how I learned HTML. I learn best by doing, not reading!
Posted by Aaron Muller, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Wow! Thank you everyone for your responses and opinions.
Posted by Susan Yerebeck, Everett, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

This whole discussion has been awesome. I've learnt so much! I would like to add that I agree with Tony if there was an opportunity in my area for a hands on SEO seminar I would love that I'm like Tony I learn best when I do.

If there is anyone who would consider doing some kind of workshop for a small group maybe we could do pull it together zip code: 75024 my website is vqdesigngroup.com to see what I'm trying to do.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 04, 2010

Aaron, I have never read such a crock in my 15 years of doing SEO.

Search engines tend to care a lot more about what other web sites think about yours rather than what you have on your own web site.

While off site work (link building) is important, it is ON-PAGE work that will get you top listings.

If you dispute this, show us examples of sites that have poor onpage SEO and top rankings.

The final proof is you can get a new page, (with only one inbound link) , to rank at the top of the SERPs, often beating out other aged, well linked, sites.

Your SEO "myth" #2 "Good SEO can be done cheaply." is not a myth.

SEO is done to a formula that is applied equally to all sites.

SEO is making certain that people understand what is written and search engines understand the same. This is done by presenting your keywords in the proper semantic structure in regards to display and code structure. Doing this properly takes little more time than doing it poorly.

SEO is not the repetition of keyword phrases; it is the positioning, formatting, and use of the keyword phrases in the visual display.

Setting up a page usually only takes the time needed to re-write the content, given a viable navigation system.

The time setting up all the pages in a site depends on the software.

The logic behind the following is totally askew. You state “I can charge you very little to improve the ranking of the keyword “BJ Hair Design”, but potential customers searching for hair salons on the Internet don’t know your company name (which is why they are searching in the first place), so no one is going to type in “BJ Hair Design”. Chances are they will type in “hair salon Los Angeles”, and this is when you want your web site to come up first. It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords such as “hair salon Los Angeles”, which means it will cost you a little more to get high rankings on highly desirable keywords. “

Does this mean that you have different levels of SEO work?

You are right about getting the BJ Hair Design phrase easily ranked, but this should be covered in your keyword discovery report to your client. If they are set on using a brand, get a separate domain name for it and forward to the primary.

In my world, the amount of work to promote “BJ Hair Design” or “Hair Salon Los Angeles” requires equal effort.

“Hair Salon Los Angeles” only has 1.6 million competitors so it should be fairly easy to get on or near the top.

A great part of doing SEO is understanding which keywords to target.

For the Hair Salon, their target market is in LA, but LA is a huge place. It would make more sense to target the neighborhood rather than the whole city.

Would convert better too. Look at the competing sites stats.
Hair Salon has 27,600,000 hair salon Los Angeles has 1,660,000 hair salon Beverly Hills = 908,000 And if you go deeper, 141,000 for hair salon Melrose Blvd and 5,570 for hair salon Melrose Shopping District.

Getting people to come to your site by searching for "Hair Salon" is not going to do you much good if you only service a specific locale.

If you are selling product, target the product name and any numbers along with the description of the market segment. Including price in the keywords helps.

And finally, about #3. “SEO stops when your ranking is high.”

Ya it does. Pretty much it does. I have had sites in the top 10 for over a decade and never tweaked. Sure some move but if you have done your work well, they can be amazingly stable. I have a site that has remained in the #1 position for a one word search for over a decade, without touching the site since it was put online. (20-Apr-1999).

It all depends on the stability of (your) content. If you are changing (it) all the time you will need to do constant SEO on your site.

Most of these “monthly” charges are un-necessary. Monthly checking for stats and monitoring of sales should give ample warning of problems.

Link building campaigns are a separate issue. Once they are started with the owner’s social networking efforts, back links will build automagically if the content warrants it.

This is not to say that link building campaigns are not warranted, but I would not consider them necessary beyond the immediate needs of the company.

This would be marketing on portals (E.G. Pet friendly and recreation directory sites for tourism), industrial supplier listings like kellysearch, and local bulletin boards.

If anyone cares to contact me in IM, my details are available on my site.

Reg SEO - Over 16,960,114,840 pages beaten in '09 and still counting
Posted by nick dunse, Taunton, Massachusetts | Feb 04, 2010

One thing is for sure, many small business people are getting screwed because they know nothing about seo....

My company does get leads from website but no where near what they should be..
Posted by Pat Stimac, Seattle, Washington | Feb 04, 2010

Love this topic! It is so important ... and there is much to learn.

Thanks, Aaron, for starting it off and to all who have contributed.
Posted by Carolina Dursina, Spring Green, Wisconsin | Feb 05, 2010

Good article, it a job in its own to just sort out the myth from the truth!

Thank you for this detailed article!
Posted by Dan Arzhanov, Vancouver, Washington | Feb 05, 2010

Aaron, thank you for starting this awesome conversation. Although, I would totally agree with Reg Charie on everything he said in his reply. I only will emphasize one more thing again - as he said "In my world, the amount of work to promote “BJ Hair Design” or “Hair Salon Los Angeles” requires equal effort.", meaning "hair salon LA" keyfraze IS NOT(or at least should not) going to cost customer more then "BJ Hair Design". After all, its SEO, not PPC.
Posted by Sean Everett, Chicago, Illinois | Feb 05, 2010

Good, simple write-up. I think one area most people forget about is the power of social media and youtube in getting page 1 rankings. Just being active on sites like twitter and biznik can catapult your rankings, not to mention that video is still is a "dirty word" and perceived as "difficult" by much of the internet marketing community. It's the easiest way to stand out from the crowd and compete against a handful of companies instead of thousands...
Posted by Howard Howell, Seattle, Washington | Feb 05, 2010

Aaron... Great Article. Controversial on a subject that there are more experts than practitioners. I love the discussion that you have sparked.

As soon as someone discovers how it works, the rules change. I imagine that SEO will become the next "holy grail" in generations to come.

Isn't it great that everyone has an opinion and some of them actually work? It's my opinion that whenever you are evaluating the hire of an SEO specialist, you first look at the search results of the specialist's key word list. Find those that walk the talk.

IMHO. ...Howard
Posted by Joseph Shivell, Plano, Texas | Feb 05, 2010

Good points, Howard, although having seen what some companies get away with, I would reverse you first line - there are more practitioners then experts. In other words, most don't know what they're doing. On your second point, Google is changing their algorithms all the time - over 400 in 2009! Know why page rank is not as important anymore? Because people learned how to "work the system", so Google changed the rules. Your last point is the most important. When looking for a company to get you ranked for phrases that actually bring you buyers, take a look at where they are ranked. If they can't get themselves ranked for the right phrases in their own business, how can they do it for yours?
Posted by Aaron Muller, Seattle, Washington | Feb 06, 2010

Howard,

Thank you for your post. I would completely agree that the only true test if someone knows what they are talking about in SEO is where all of there clients consistantly rank. Non of us have the key to Google and there system we all just have our own ways at being successful in ranking our clients high.
Posted by Dawn Renee Mallory, Seattle, Washington | Feb 06, 2010

WHEW! So much to think about... I am excited about going for it again ... Heaven knows I need it ...Dawn

www.autograf.com... send me your flaky friends!
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 06, 2010
Joseph, How do you arrive at the number 400 in reference to the Google algos?

Last year Matt Cutts said there were 200.

Webmaster world has identified about 85, (http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4030020.htm), David Douek lists 130 of his guesses, (http://daviddouek.com/google-seo-secret-algorithm-revealed) and in my "Uncovering the Google Algorithm" I list 63. (http://dotcom-productions.com/08/article_info.php?articles_id=33)

Unless there is a defined shakeup, (A Google "Dance"), changes to their ranking algos are subtle and do not usually impact on intelligently* SEO'd pages.
- They might affect your work if you are pushing their limitations. E.G. Too many KW repetitions, color of text VS backgrounds, or what they consider "Over SEOing".
"None of us have the key"? Don't you think if you are going to sell your services you BETTER have the key?

SEO is a system. ANY system can be reduced to it's components with enough inspection. I have been doing SEO since '96. I have evaluated thousands of pages. Many thousands. I have top results streching back for over a decade. "PhotoShop plugin graphic filters" has been mine for eons. (FantasticMachines)

My SEO stats show over 50% of my client's keyword phrases make it into the #1 spot. An average of 65% make it into the top 3 and 91% are on page 1. My highest single campaign score has been 94% page 1. (http://dotcom-productions.com/nbs-seo-results.htm)

I think I have the "key".

In the days before SEO hats were colored, I wore a black one. I offered clients 100% guaranteed positioning, even going as far as offering payment only for position, the work was free.

75 bucks if I got your search term in #1 position, $50 if it was in 2 through 10, $35 if in the 11 to 20 spots, $25 for 21 - 30
NC for anything from 31 onwards.

(And just so you don't think this is BS, see my May 16, 2001 page on the "WayBack" machine. http://web.archive.org/web/20010715234040/www.dotcom-productions.com/Search-Engine-Marketing.htm)

I am actually thinking of going back to the "pay for results" payment option.

What would you guys think about going to this kind of system? How would you determine the phrases? When we write a page there can be all kinds of possible #1 phrases. How would you charge? What value would you put on a relevant #1 position. How about a sliding scale?

How would you measure the results?
Posted by Joseph Shivell, Plano, Texas | Feb 07, 2010

Howard:

I may have gotten the year wrong, it may have been 2008, not 2009. The point is, Google is making changes to their algorithms all the time, and if you are not on top of those changes, you could get left behind. The company I work for actually meets with a PPC team from Google on a regular basis, and we recently had a conference call with one of the team members, so we keep our finger on the pulse of what they are doing. Nice of you to admit that you once wore a "black hat". People definitely want to stay away from those. I would definitely stay away from a "pay for results" system. Because you know that a page one, #1 position cannot be guaranteed, what happens if you get a client to page one, #3, and they're not satisfied. Someone who knows the impact of getting to page 1 in the top three position may claim they are not satisfied because they didn't get to #1, so they don't have to pay you. I'm a little concerned about your last paragraph. You wrote, "How would you determine the phrases? When we write a page there can be al kinds of #1 phrases." An expert SEO company should be able to analyze the possible phrases to find out which would be the best for a client to pursue - how the company gets paid should not make any difference.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 08, 2010

Back in the day when I used cloaking it was not considered "wrong" and was a method of tailoring the page for the varied algorithms of multiple search engines.

Since those days Google has become dominant and algos used by them are pretty much followed by the rest of the search industry.

In this day and age top rankings are achieved by clear and concise presentation of relevant information to both the human visitor and the robotic ones.

Yes Google is making changes to their algos constantly, but as I said previously, the changes are not enough to cause a website grief unless the site is pushing one of the upper limits between good SEO and manipulation of the search bot.

The last shake-ups or Google dances were when they announced that they were restructuring PR. (Page Rank), and that paid links would not be allowed to influence the ranking process. (BL) The last major shake up was Jagger in Nov '05. http://blog.xseo.com/newsGoogleDanceupdates.htm

Regarding your meetings with the PPC team and organic SEO, which is our topic, and given the high level of corporate secrecy in regards to their (organic) ranking processes, I would not expect to be able to bring much out of a PPC meeting in regards to how they are adjusting their algos.

You will gain more understanding about conversion processes and how to construct your landing pages for maximum effect, their PPC teams will NOT cover how to structure your organic results.

Pay per result would be the fairest but could cost a client dearly when you consider the variations on a simple 3 word search term.

Let us look at the search terms that made it into the #1 position for my NBS Miniature Endmills Client. This will clarify my concern regarding the choosing of phrases.

The client's products are different flavors of miniature endmills and are searched for in a variety of "flavors" (configurations). In the 3 months from the site's inception a total of 176 search terms relating to endmills (end mills) were used to find the site.

12 were placed outside the 3 page limit which made the total good listings 164. If I use the $75 - $50 - $35 - $25 metric this would equal $8,800. This is broken up to 45 #1 listings, ($75 ea) 89 page 1 (2 - 10)@ $50 19 page 2 (11 - 20) @ $35 and 9 page 3 (21-30) @ $25

Given the size of the client I would suspect this would be too much. Just the #1 listings would generate $3,375.

As for being satisfied or not, they might be disappointed that the term did not make it to #1 but they would only be charged according to position.

The agreement would spell out the payment plan.
Posted by Reid Peterson, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 08, 2010

After skimming through the comments, I'm surprised that someone from Adzoo hasn't pitched their guarantee.

There's a lot of disagreement about the key points of this article- which makes sense. Why? Because in the first place, the author stated how SEO companies are secretive in their methods.

It's a reflection of the search engines themselves.

It's great that now small business owners are wanting to learn SEO for themselves.

If you are an SEO expert and want to make good money, try teaching others for local optimized SERPS results.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 08, 2010

If you are an SEO expert and want to make good money, try teaching others for local optimized SERPS results.

I do that now. Mostly for small companies, internet start ups, home biz types. A couple of hours instruction usually does it. I have a bunch of articles at http://dotcom-productions.com/08/articles.php?tPath=6 that will give the interested parties a good grounding in several aspects of SEO.

I wanted to say that the original author may be getting top results for his clients, but if he is, he is misinterpreting the reasons for the good listings.
Posted by Aaron Muller, Seattle, Washington | Feb 08, 2010

Thank you Reg for all your insight and opinions!
Posted by Joseph Shivell, Plano, Texas | Feb 09, 2010

Reg:

You are right in that a PPC meeting would not help with SEO. I mention it only to show how highly we are regarded by Google, so we can keep informed about what they are doing, and adjust our methods accordingly.

Regarding your pay for result model, the best place for an SEO client to be would be "above the fold" on page 1, with top three being the best. Of course the best phrases to do that with would be phrases that actually bring them clients or customers. With that in mind, why would someone want to pay for a position on page 2 or 3? I do agree that $8800 would be way too much to pay for that level of service.

No one can guarantee #1 on page 1, but we have been able to get 92% of our clients on page 1, for phrases people actually search, in 90 days or less. As a residual effect of what we do, many of our clients get ranked in the top twenty for anywhere from 100-300 additional phrases by Google itself.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 09, 2010

Joesph, it sounds like you could indeed guarantee a top position.

I realize fully well that the top "above the fold" page 1 positions are most important, especially for relevant (converting) phrases, but I am often amazed at how far down people will search for a specific product.

I run a small (free) tracker for SEO purposes. http://extremetracking.com I like this particular tracker because it gives me a list of up to the last 5000 searches done to find the site.

In their list each search term is clickable and brings you to the exact search page that the user saw when he clicked on your listing. As the example link below shows, a visitor to my NBS-Miniature-Endmills.com website searched for "free nbs password". This search is of absolutely no value to my client being A) From someone looking for a free"password" to something. B) From a user in the UK (The link shows it is Google's UK datacenter), and a buyer is not going to have something shipped from overseas and deal with customs when the product could be ordered in their own country.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DKUK_en___GB291&q=free+nbs+password

A quick click on the search term link brings me to the page where it is another fast process to find the client's domain name. In the case above the visitor went all the way to #9 before clicking on the listing which shows *Miniature Endmill "FREE" Sample Packs - "NBS" Miniature Endmills" - Apparently Google thinks that 2 out of 3 terms ranks a #9. " But the thing is that the user went all the way down to the end of the first page before something attracted his attention, probably the NBS as it would be specific to something in his mind.

Of what value is a listing all the way down on page 5 or page 8? Minimum value = one visitor. In my NBS SEO report I have a visitor coming from the end of page 5 (position #57) for "metric ball end mills" which has a good possibility of a sale, and someone looking for free stuff searching for "free sample packs" and finding us at #85. The thing is that they both went way past the "normal" in scrolling and/or advancing pages in their quest.

"As a residual effect of what we do, many of our clients get ranked in the top twenty for anywhere from 100-300 additional phrases by Google itself."

I do not consider this a "residual effect" but the structuring of the content to appeal to as many "non exact matches".

Search Results are more often a bastardization of the the search term than an exact match. Getting ranked for these is just as important as it is for the exact search term. If I look at the first 50 NBS searches 42 are variations of end mill specified as 2 words with descriptors, (EG metric end mills and many longer tail types like "micro end mill 2 flute 0.031" or "1.7 mm end mill ")
It is also good to know that when people search for a specifically sized product they usually enter the dimensions first so it is imperative that the sizes be shown prominently in the SERP display. It (along with the price), can be the deciding factor.

There is more to SEO than just getting top positions. It is like the Zen of motorcycle maintenance.
Posted by Jody Bossert, Bothell, Washington | Feb 09, 2010

Thanks for the article, Aaron. It can be somewhat intimidating to publish any article, let alone an article to a sea of professionals with varying opinions about a subject that we're all so passionate about, yet one that is so hard to nail down. So kudos to you for putting it out there.

And additional thank you's to everyone else who offered their opinions, especially those who were able and willing to provide actual statistics and real world examples. Those definitely help us all.

I can relate with a lot of the discussion here as I actually own a hair salon and have worked hard to make it to #1 for each of our cities: "bothell hair salon" and "mill creek hair salon" (we have one location that sits on the border of both cities). There are surely keywords, but those are the most important to me. FYI, according to WhoDoesYourHair.com, 89% of people search for a hair salon online. Now there definitely are a number of other issues to address with regards to those particular keywords. People may be looking for a particular service for instance which , for the first time ever, just motivated me to Google "Bothell Hair Extensions" where I'm somewhat disappointed to see that we're down at #7, BUT thrilled to see that all 6 before it are either our listing on Yelp.com, for example, or one of our previously distributed press releases.

So, before I right a novel (a bad habit of mine), I guess I'll just leave you by adding my own two cents to the discussion by recommending the importance of online press release distribution (local business listings was already mentioned).

Actually, one last thing...does anyone know of a group in the northend that meets to discuss SEO strategies? Since it's an evolving industry, it's obviously a topic that requires regular discussion with other like-minded individuals. Feel free to e-mail me offline. Thanks!

Jody Bossert - Owner, Elle Marie Hair Studio
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 10, 2010

Is that it Arron?

I would have expected more in the way of proof to back up your claims, especially when they are 180 degrees out of phase with current SEO philosophy.

They even ignore Google's own webmaster guidelines which has 10 items in their "to do on the page" section, and for offsite all they say is, "# Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online."

Google has publicly denounced using Page Rank which manages the amount of "Juice" your page receives when you "focus your energy on other sites.". Correct me if I am wrong but your "Focusing your energy on other sites", means writing articles, press releases, releasing/re-branding video/audio, participating in social networking, contributing to forums, and putting the site on listings using relative anchor text?

While those that pursue this method are not going to go wrong, it is not going to get a top position by itself. It is the on-page work that is going to determine position. I can qualify that by the performance, specifically of one of my sites that has several thousand backlinks from articles and tutorials describing using the software. Last year this site reported some 4297 sites linking to it and is PR5. Despite the high authority, (10 year), Topical Relevance (Graphic Filters | Plugins | Photoshop) of the site and the off page work, my positions change if I change the content.

Changing my content from a site that only sold Graphic Filters to one that features the filters, a racing GPS lap timer, and helmet cam (all of which could be considered "Fantastic Machines"), caused a 1 position drop in my rankings. From #1 to #2 for "graphic filters for Photoshop" and a similar drop for "Plugin graphic filters". (No quotes).

If it were the off page work that counted my standings would not have moved from just adding content. (Note that I did not remove any of the content that got me top listings before, but that I just added content.)

Your whole article seems to be slanted at telling people that SEO is done off site, that SEO is not cheap and it needs to continue to be applied on an ongoing basis.

3 falsehoods.
Posted by Andrew Lippert, Seattle, Washington | Feb 12, 2010

Reg,

How about getting a broader readership for your excellent articles. Post them to Biznik. They would definitely forward this conversation and help to educate the greater Biznik community that may not find the link embedded in a comment to an article.

Andrew

CTO - Biznik
Posted by Aaron Muller, Seattle, Washington | Feb 12, 2010

Thanks Andrew.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 13, 2010

Andrew, I have already started. http://biznik.com/members/reg-charie/articles/the-logic-of-submitting-or-not-submitting-to-google
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 16, 2010

I don't agree with your first myth...in fact, I would say your first myth is a myth! While on-page SEO is only part of what SEO is, I would say you were way off with this statement: "The majority of the SEO work to improve your ranking should be done on other people’s web sites!" I know, you're talking about links right? Links are not the be all end all! Take a look at my own site...type in SEO Expert and see where it comes up...the majority of my optimization is done on my site.

This bit: "Yes, it may be true that having the right keywords and meta tags on your web site help your ranking, but if it were that easy, don’t you think everybody would be doing the same thing?" The real truth about that is, it's not easy, having the right combinations of keywords and the right densities, yes I said densities, it's back, is all part of it as well as many other little factors that are usually overlooked.

Second myth - Personally I've never charged by keyword competitiveness...that's bit ridiculous and sounds like scam to me...it's not paid search we're talking about. You're right, some keywords are harder to achieve rank for, but if you optimize properly and do all the "little things" that most so called SEO Experts "forget" to do (most likeley because they have no idea what they're doing), and also some of the bigger things, like restructuring the entire website when necessary because it wasn't built with SEO in mind to begin with, then those keywords will come...it can take up to a year, but they're always doable. Going after tougher keywords will also most likely require getting good links...but you're right, you do get what you pay for! If you're looking for an SEO company and they want to charge you according to the keywords you're going after, I would keep looking. Any good SEO company should be thinking of your website as a whole rather than breaking it up into keywords...create a solid structure and any keywords are obtainable.

Your third myth is the only one that I fully agree with and I would say is accurate.

Just because I don't agree, doesn't mean I'm right...I just happen to have tremendous success with my methods...you MUST ask questions when choosing your SEO company!!
Posted by Aaron Muller, Seattle, Washington | Feb 16, 2010

Oliver Bodnar:

We all have our ways at getting our clients to the front page of Google. Our clients want success within four to six months. If we don't deliver we haven't done our job properly. Our experience shows us that Link Building is the most effective process not the only process in getting "VERY" difficult keywords such as "web design" 2,740,000 local searches per month, where our company that has built over 1000 web sites is ranked in the #3 position on google. Unlike "seo expert" that only has 90,500 Global searches per month. Still difficult, but obviously we know how to perform as well.

We have found that many of our clients have been promised high rankings on Google for very low prices to find out that there SEO company could not deliver or it took years to achieve the same success that we are able to accomplish in 6 months.

Perhaps I should write an article on "Why do people feel compelled to self promote on others articles"
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 16, 2010

HAHAHA, yeah, self promoting...not really...your company is Ciplex or Wordape? I hope it's not Wordape, because you're not in the first 10 pages for web design...or for search engine optimization for that matter...but that's beside the point...I chimed in because I'm an SEO Crusader and feel the need to point out misinformation...you're leading people down the wrong path with your article..."Our experience shows us that Link Building is the most effective process...", maybe the only process that has worked for you, but it's not the most effective...if anything an equal balance is the best thing, but to pedal misinformation like that is wrong...maybe you should write an article on "Why do people feel compelled to self promote on others articles", it'd be an interesting read. If your site is Ciplex (#3 for web design in Google), I apologize, and maybe you do know something about Web Design that I don't...but I think the topic at hand was SEO right?
Posted by Audeliz Angie Perez, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey | Feb 16, 2010

Lol, @Oliver, Not that I championing Arron's cause here, but he did say his myths were based it was based on his experience.

A balanced SEO approach may be equally as effective, but for short term results i.e.4-6 months, maybe link building may be the way to go.

I don't think that linking building alone is the Messiah, but certainly it hold more weight than on page SEO. I've clicked many sites from Google that were ranked high, but had poor page content, which is what causes me to go back to other search results.

In any case, most people feel compelled to self-promote because we are all sales people here looking to earn business. I suspect that there are few people here looking for share all of not a portion their expertise for simply, . . shall we say giggles.

Plus, forum posting or blog posting in general is an acceptable form of building backlinks, right?
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 16, 2010

Audeliz, again, I wasn't self promoting, If I was I would have given you my website and told you exactly what number in the Google SERPS my site was listed. I used SEO Expert as an example because I got my site ranked in a relatively short amount of time considering, it was only built in October of 2008 and I got to page one in under a year for that phrase, and it was most definitely not done by getting links or off-page optimization...or I should say, that wasn't nearly the major factor.

According to Google I have under 100 links and they're nothing spectacular...my entire point was that his Myth one and Myth two were inaccurate...Myth one more so than Myth two. In fact I've proven that to myself over and over again, where I would go the link route and then when that didn't work concentrated more on on-page optimization.

But I think there may have been a misunderstanding in this whole thread after reading the last part of myth one: "Web designers tend to focus almost all of their energy working on your web site. Good SEO experts, on the other hand, tend to focus their energy on other web sites in order to help improve your web site’s rankings."

I think web design and seo are being confused here. Most web designers and web design companies don't take SEO into account when building a site as they should, simply because they know nothing about SEO. As far your comment about link building holding more weight than on-page SEO, you couldn't be more wrong...this just shows your inexperience, again, I'll refer you to my original example...obviously on-page was the factor in getting ranked. I could have a ton of links with the right anchor text but if my site wasn't optimized, it's not likely that it would rank for much except for maybe keywords without any search volume.

The last company I worked for has over 2 million inbound links...they had hired 2 well known "seo consultants" before they hired their own in-house SEO team, I was their first hire...these two "seo consultants" did minimal on-page and they did it incorrectly almost in a black hat manner to boot. The company's primary keyword wasn't on page one 100% of the time it was constantly fluctuating from the 10 spot to page two, I came in and cleaned up the mess the 2 seo consultants had made and now their primary keyword is at #1 in Google and has been for over a year and a half since I left the company and started my own! This is what proper on-page optimization will do. Now, this company was very trusted by Google so obviously that was a big factor, but you get the point, I hope. According to Yahoo's site explorer they have 2,776,698 inlinks and they weren't at the number 1 spot with all that link building. Working for that company also taught me that Google most definitely treats "bigger" sites differently than the mom and pop business sites.

And you're absolutely wrong about not wanting to share knowledge...transference of knowledge is key. I'm not greedy, and I'm very good at what I do, I've been in the SEO field for 12 years and I feel strongly about pointing out misinformation, I am an SEO Crusader and I never take on more business than I can handle because again, I'm not greedy and it's not fair to the people who are paying me for my expertise...that may be ok with you, but is not and never will be with me...'nuf ced!
Posted by Audeliz Angie Perez, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey | Feb 16, 2010

I think you misunderstood me. I wholeheartedly believe that you should not hoard information. There are lots of brands that built up their business by sharing: Hubspot anyone?

I merely was stating that some people participate in blogs like these for backlinks, which is a form of self-promoting. That's what some SEO experts teach as a way to get backlinks.

We're going around in circles. Just to be clear: I agree. You need on page SEO and backlinks among other things for good SEO.
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 16, 2010

Thanks for clarifying! Sometimes blogs like these are good, but for the most part they have rel="nofollow" on any external links, which renders them almost useless. I do believe some "juice" still gets passed, but that's just a theory...if anything they'll hopefully drive a bit of traffic.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 16, 2010

We all come here for self promotion. Why else would you make a Biznik account?

Oliver, I > applaud your "Crusader" attitude. There is so much bullsh*t around that it just prompted me to open http://NBS-SEO.com

Aaron, what do you expect when you start presenting such cockeyed information? You sound like Jill Whalen. (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=425&hl=jill+whalen)

Your statements prompted me to do some investigation so I took a look around your wordape.

In your "Case Studies" you do not give links to your actual work, but your efforts were not hard to trace.

If we go look at one of your clients we can see the page is SEO'd out the wazoo. If it can be done it pretty much is done. 20 repetitions of "promotional" Opening with it, using it in body text, in links and closing the page with it. For your secondary phrase "Imprinted Promotional Gifts" you don't do so well coming in at #11 but you could better that by increasing the frequency / importance of the word "Imprinted" which is only used once in the page and not in any definitive way.

For your medical client I could not find any correlation between online medical prescriptions and Online Doctor in the first 25 results.

Your car rental client page is totally seo'd as well.

However if we look at your Car Repair site, it is evident that you have done a lot of work getting the site into Google's local search, and this could be the reason you think SEO is done off page.

SEO is a system and anyone optimizing must follow a specific path.

You cannot do one thing to get top results while I do another. It doesn't work that way.

A website must meet a number of criteria before it can get listed in a top position, and most of these are on page. (Or in the source code, which I consider "onpage".)

Since you have been around for long enough to get it right, I have to conclude you have an ulterior motive in presenting your theory.
Posted by Serena Carcasole, Brampton, Ontario Canada | Feb 18, 2010

Great Article! So many people thing that SEO is a one time deal and don't realize that SEO must be done ongoing or it is a waste of time. There are also many things the site owner can do themselves to work on SEO. That is why I recommend my clients to go with a Wordpress website so that they can manage their own site and work on SEO to help boost there ranking if they dont have the budget to pay to have it done.

Glad to see such a great article on SEO! :)
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 18, 2010

Serena, You're right Wordpress is a great content management system...it can be a bit buggy at times, but it's fairly easy to maintain...however, SEO with Wordpress is another story, I remember a few years back you used to be able add custom fields to Wordpress that would give you control over the titles and meta tags, but for some reason, you can no longer do that...booo Wordpress...unless they changed how you do it...there are some plugins out there that allow you to customize all that stuff...there's one that is widely used called All In One SEO pack or something like that...I didn't really like that because it places the titles below a bunch of code and the meta tags out of order. The title should be right below the opening head tag. I found one that you can either recommend to your clients or buy the premium license for, that allows you to add to as many sites as you like...then you can charge your clients and make your money back because they do charge for this particular plugin...it's a minimal price though and well worth it...it's the best one I've seen out there and it's call WPSEO...do a search online and you'll find the site.
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 18, 2010

Reg, going for the jugular!
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 18, 2010

Well Oliver, In my mind "Aaron" is raising a lot of red flags. Presenting contrary information as gospel is one.

Only presenting part of the facts to bolster an opinion.
Posted by David Blumenfeld, Boston, Massachusetts | Feb 22, 2010

Wow, I have learned quite a bit from this discussion and boy have I got alot more to learn. Is there any advice on how to determine who to hire? It seems to me that finding someone to trust is almost impossible unless you know someone who has already hired the company and experienced great results.
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 22, 2010

Hi David, When you're looking for an SEO company or individual, you have to ask the right questions! I think the first question would be to ask them to show you results they've achieved. Ask them to show you some sites they've got ranked on page one of Google for terms that have good search volume. A monkey could get a keyword ranked that has no search volume...you just have to ask them basically to prove to you that they know what they're doing!
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 22, 2010

P.S. Go SOX!
Posted by Jesicca Thompson, Manassas, Virginia | Feb 23, 2010

Really Nice article. How effective your SEO results turn out depends on a lot of factors. You need to establish the right path on which you intend to work. Web design itself has a major role to play in it.

I have so far witnessed mixed results so it all depends. People send too much time but yet don't do it effectively hence their time and efforts are wasted while on the other hand have seen even 1 man doing a great job.

Should you hire an SEO consultant or not depends only upon you but is SEO for cheap? I really don't think so.
Posted by Reg Charie, Courtenay, British Columbia Canada | Feb 23, 2010

Jessica, (aside from the really great graphics). If I look at your logo design website the first thing that strikes me is the amount of times the words logo and design (both singular and plural) are used in the page.

You have one paragraph that starts, "We are a professional custom online graphic design company ...." where you have a total of 316 words and 48 of these are your keywords repeated over and over.

If one searches for "logo design" you show up around the #60 position. The top dog in the #1 position uses the phrase twice in the body and once in the navigation.

Give your readers some credit please. they go to your site and the title says "Custom Logo Design | Professional Logo Design Company"

Your logo says "Logo Design Consultant" and you feel that you need to repeat the words logo design another 70 or so times in your page? I am also not talking about how many times you use logo design in your alt tags and code.

If you want to improve your standings, reduce the amount of content on your main page. Cut back on the repetitions. "Speak" to your visitors as people who understand that they are on a site devoted to logo design. You do not need to say "Basic package logo design". You can say "Basic Package $59.00 and I assure you that the readers will understand that the basic package is for logo design.

Your site offers so many choices I do not know where to click. This is part of the problem with your ranking being buried in Google's nether regions. I find the site has a lot of choices and so would the search engine. First it would see the portion of the page where you 'shout' at me (USING ALL CAPS IS SHOUTING), as the primary keyword phrase as this is in <h1> tags. Your actual keywords are buried in a paragraph with nothing to distinguish them form the rest of the "fluff".

Semantically speaking, code wise, you are correct using a h1 tag as it does lead into the page after all the images. However from a SEO semantics viewpoint, your paragraph fails to isolate your keywords. You go on to thoroughly confuse the poor Google bot by having similar keywords in h2. After the h2 line the most important text is "Follow Us On" which is a h3 tag.

The h1 tag appears in the code in the wrong position. It appears around line 188 when it should be close to the opening of the page.

Your logo also portrays you as being a "consultant", but I can find no consulting package, nor can I find an hourly rate. You also do not use the word "consultant" on your mainpage. The search term "Design Consultant(s)" is a frequently used phrase.

There is a lot more that could be done to your site to improve your standings and increase your marketing's penetration.
Posted by Gabriel Blau, New York, New York | Feb 25, 2010

Great GREAT article. We work exclusively with small businesses, (we is VisibleU http://visibleu.com ) and one of the biggest hurdles is explaining how SEO really works, and what its place is in a client's marketing strategy. Your article hits the three top issues on the head. I will definitely send prospects this article to help explain.

We find ourselves up against competition that wants clients not to understand SEO, wants them to think it can be done quickly and cheaply, and wants them to think that it is a matter of behind the scenes work and poof!

We prefer to have our clients understand search engine optimization as part of an internet marketing optimization strategy.
Posted by Oliver Bodnar, Los Angeles, California | Feb 25, 2010

Gabriel, which article did you read? I don't think it was this one...Aaron, this is a good example of what you accused me of...Gabriel's post is totally a spam post and was done just to get the link.

In my example, I used an extremely competitive keyword that I got ranked, I didn't say which spot or mention my site...but Gabriel's post is blatant.
Posted by Sue Manning, St Paul, Minnesota | Mar 11, 2010

Nice article Aaron! I am a graphic designer not an SEO specialist and I tell my clients this. But I have partnered with a couple outstanding marketing specialists who are experts in SEO. Really good information, thanks for sharing!
Posted by David Kuhns, Springville, Utah | Mar 11, 2010

Aaron: Great article! I'd like to add another myth: "Improving my website's SEO will increase sales and people contacting me".
In teaching Biznik workshops on SEO, local search, using videos, and web content, it amazes me how many people focus on "Getting our website on the first page of Google", yet they forget the main purpose of the website -- or any marketing communications -- is to get people to DO something.
I visit sites and see them SEO'd to the hilt ... yet they are sometimes so poorly written that (1) potential customers can't tell what they are selling/offering, and (2) there is no way to contact the company, even if the potential client DID "get" what was being marketed.
As I remind my clients and workshop attendees:
It don't mean a thing
If it don't make your phone ring!
(Or your email notification ding!)
Dave Kuhns, web content writer, ghost blogger, and SEO, Social Media and Local Search consultant and trainer
http://www.cyranowriter.com
Posted by Joe Leonard, Woodinville, Washington | Mar 15, 2010

I have to disagree. The majority of SEO work does take place on your website. If your title, web page name, heading tags, and content all contain good keywords and relevant content, your site will get good placement on Google and other search engines - even if you have absolutely no external links at all. On the other hand, you can all the external links in the world but it will not make up for poor keywords and content. These links will drive traffic but not high search engine ranking.

There is only one way to get a link from another site. You have to give the other site something of value. This could be a paid ad. Or you could give them a valuable article. You could supply information that their users need to know. You could create a news-worthy event. You can become a member and get in their directory. Or you can simply make personal contact to exchange links for mutual benefit. Aaron is right that getting good links cannot be automated. It takes personal time and effort.

Be aware that there are some SEO firms that promise to get other sites to link to yours by employing methods that will get your website banned from the search engines. These methods can be things like link exchanges; setting up other websites that have nothing but links on them; email spamming; comment spamming of blogs, forums, and guest books; link renting; page hijacking; and other tactics.

I also disagree that Google dislikes SEO organizations. (This is like saying dentist don’t really want you to brush your teeth as you will have few cavities.) Google is not interested in giving poor organic results so that people are forced to click on the ads instead. They publish a lot of guidelines and information on how to obtain best rankings. See this one on how they value external links.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356

The only “secretive” SEO organizations are those who don’t know what they are doing or that do know what they are doing but hope their customers won’t find out that they are using “black hat” tactics to get temporary high placement by fooling search engines into thinking that the website is other than it is.

Legitimate SEO organizations tell their clients exactly how they will go about improving their ranking.

If an SEO organization can legitimately “prove” to Google that your website is the most relevant site, then Google is glad to have it at the top of the list. Search engines want to give their searchers links to the most relevant and useful web sites that they can.

Tip: Before hiring any SEO organization check out if their own web page has a high ranking.
Posted by Bonnie Sanchez, Manila, Metro Manila Philippines | Aug 10, 2010

SEO is a never ending process. People should have realized that by now. With Google regularly updating their search algo, one cannot sit still and expect one's search rankings to remain no matter what happens.
Posted by Michael Vreuls, Arnhem, Gelderland Netherlands | Aug 11, 2010

Aaron,

I have to agree with Joe. Your web site is your nr 1 SEO attribute. And if you want to do this right, it's a hell of a job. So, yes, the majority of the SEO work can take place on your web site.

Michael http://www.orios.nl
Posted by Brett Lawrence, Newport Beach, California | Dec 30, 2010

I agree with Aaron and disagree somewhat with the folks comments. Off-site SEO is more important then on your site in my opinion, but on site seo is important. Look at Amazon and other huge authority sites. They have top positions because of links, not on page seo. If your keywords are even somewhat competitive, on site SEO won't do much for you in terms of ranking but should be there to help. I am not in the profession but have learned and experimented to promote my tax services business. I do enjoy it.
Posted by Nikolas Josh, Chicago, Illinois | Feb 02, 2011

SEO is certainly an effective way to achieve good search engine rankings. The fact that is a bit secretive doesn't make it less efficient. I've used SEO and affiliate network services for my site with great results, achieving top rankings on four keywords. Ongoing SEO work is needed to maintain these rankings as my competitors are coming strong from behind.