Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 26m 6,509
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Should you Hire an SEO Company? Read this before you do!
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We are in the “market” for helping people learn about all things related to careers, jobs, the workplace, and that includes businesses of all types in any industry. We appreciate your support for this website and thank you for your commitment to feeling that this website needs work. We feel the same too — a website is always under construction, always needs work, and can always be improved. Thank you for taking the time to send in those emails letting us know. If you belong to an SEO company, feel free to defend yourself, but chances are, the majority of you will not even read this.
This is a topic that I have avoided writing on because, well, I firmly believe that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a real way to get your website discovered, to help your articles become indexed, and to rank better in search engines. The topic that I avoided was personally attacking SEO companies, but it has gotten to the point where I receive so many emails from “professional SEO companies” promising this and that — they are just too good to be true. It gave me the idea to write an article about it.
I am not writing this to personally attack any company because I have never hired an SEO company. I am sure there are plenty of legit SEO companies out there who do a wonderful job and work wonders for many websites, but if you must hire an SEO company, do your research, and hire well.
If I was not in the business as a Web Developer, I might argue that all these companies know what they are doing, and that it would be okay to hire any and every single one of them. The truth, however, is that the majority of them are looking to get hired and act like they did the work, but most are likely just after your money. In my personal opinion, save your money and write your own unique articles and get them out there yourself. That is the best way and the way you know things are being done right.
Why am I writing on this topic now? It seems that every week I get a half a dozen emails from SEO Marketing Companies that want to help Confessions of the Professions “rank well” and “become number one on Google” or they state, “We searched your keywords and you are not listed in the top search engine results for them.” I always ask, “what were the keywords you were searching for?” They usually send me a generic list that I have seen many times when running my own scans. These SEO Marketing companies are a dime a dozen — I have received hundreds of emails from SEO marketing companies since the existence of Confessions of the Professions and all of these emails promise the same exact thing:
- #1 Google Ranking
- Top Search
- Top Rank
- First Page Results
I must ask: Where were you years ago when I was trying to get this website discovered, when I was so happy to just get 10 visitors a day? That’s right, you were not able to find me because I was too new and not ranking in search engines and I was not the top website in Google search results!
Well holy, I wonder how you found Confessions of the Professions today, years later, a website receiving thousands of visitors per day. Now you want to help me get discovered despite the fact that you most likely discovered Confessions of the Professions in a Google search? And then take the credit, as if you did all the hard work? By the way — through your email, I can see how you entered the website, which page you were on when you sent it, how you discovered that page, and other information. Please do tell me what your company can do for me.
Surely, my hard work has paid off and you, SEO companies, should actually be paying me, since I never hired a single one of you, did all the SEO work myself, and of course — to the many contributors of this website, who wrote and contributed your own unique articles, who informed me of Ebooks and Infographics that you wanted to put on this website, and even provided unique articles for those, you have helped too! I appreciate all you have done for this website! It is your website as much as it is mine! Without you, this website would not be as nearly popular as it is today. So I cannot take all the credit, but no credit goes to any SEO companies except those that contributed their articles and infographics legitimately to this website; I think there have been two of you?
In good faith, I always reply to the emails asking just exactly how these companies can help me and what keywords they checked to see what I was ranking for. Not a single one of them has responded with anything that has made me jump at the opportunity to hire — or want to — hire them. They have never shown me any ounce of proof that I did not rank well for my keywords, or even shown that they knew which keywords I should or wanted to have ranked well for. If I want to rank for a specific keyword, I write an article focused on the topic, and sooner or later, I get some type of ranking. Even if not on the first page, the majority of articles get discovered through a search engine.
I received an email from an SEO company promising nothing and when I went to visit their website, it was filled with exactly that: nothing. So I have whited out the email sender because I am nice like that, but not his website.
The Email:
Hi,
Hope all is well.
I am Marketing Manager in one of the leading SEO Company.
I was surfing through your website and Saw your website is not on top rankings for most of your keywords pertaining to your domain so I was wondering if you would be interested in getting Search Engine Optimization done for your website.
We are authorized to provide Search Engine Optimization services at affordable rates. Our company has team of experts who works in aggressive timeframe to give you the satisfactory results at the end. So let me know if you would like me to mail you more details or schedule a call. We’ll be pleased to serve you.
I look forward to your Mail.
Thanks
Sam
thegoogleranking.com
The Website:
You are reading that correctly, it says: site is underconstrution.
UPDATE: It has been over year since I first wrote this article and the site no longer exists.
As you can see — sarcasm intended — I would totally hire this SEO company, whose email was complete nonsense and website is filled with [empty – literally] promises. I am sure once they actually get up and running, they are going to be a legit, authentic company, that might learn how to write an email using correct grammar.
On that note: If the SEO company writes worse than you do, or writes on a less than college university level — that is your queue to delete the email and end all business and communication with the company. I have many more emails from companies that look like this one above which finally prompted me to write on the topic. Most, however, did not include a website for me to even visit.
Here are just some other emails provided as was sent that did not include any website information and all came from a generic email address (meaning none of them had email addresses at the “SEO business” they were claiming to promote.
#1 Not quite sure if I have any clients or customers on this website, but I do have readers and visitors! Thank you readers and visitors for your support! Does this “SEO company” know anything about Confessions of the Professions? Have they even done any research regarding this website?
Want more clients and customers? We will help them find you by putting you on the 1st page of Google. Email us back to get a full proposal.
#2 If they contacted me using the Contact Us page, which they would have scrolled through this website to click on “Contact Us”, how do they not know the website address?
We can fairly quickly promote your website to the top of the search rankings with no long term contracts!We can place your website on top of the Natural Listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Our Search Engine Optimization team delivers more top rankings than anyone else and we can prove it. We do not use “link farms” or “black hat” methods that Google and the other search engines frown upon and can use to de-list or ban your site. The techniques are proprietary, involving some valuable closely held trade secrets. Our prices are less than half of what other companies charge.
We would be happy to send you a proposal using the top search phrases for your area of expertise. Please contact me at your convenience so we can start saving you some money.
In order for us to respond to your request for information, please include your company? s website address (mandatory) and /or phone number.
#3 This came from an email address labeled “mail786html”.
Greetings for the day!!!
Having a highly interactive, visually appealing and search engine friendly website is an important factor in drawing your potential customers as well as keeping and strengthening your relationship with the existing ones—-this will help you gain the competitive advantage and make quick money online.We are a leading Indian based IT company, specializing in web design and development services. Our highly qualified and skilled team of designers and software developers will work closely with you to ensure on-time and on-budget deliveries of custom-designed websites and applications, which will fit your specific business requirements, help you win more customers, improve corporate image, and boost up your business. With a rich industry experience, we have been able to design and customize solutions according to the styles and guidelines of our clients.
Our portfolio of web design and development services includes the followings:
- Website Development (Custom Website Development, PHP Development, Ajax Programming, etc.)
- Website Design & Redesign (HTML designing, corporate website design, PSD to XHTML/HTML, etc)
- Open Source Customization / CMS Integration (Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, etc)
- E-commerce Website Development (Magento, OS Commerce, Open Cart, Zen Cart integration etc)
- Web Programming (PHP MySQL Development, PHP Frameworks, JavaScript Frameworks etc)
- Web Application Development, Customization, Migration, Support and Maintenance)
- Mobile application development (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows, etc.)
Do let me know if you are willing to discuss your needs related to redesigning, redevelopment or designing a new website. I would be happy to send to you the details on the company, prior projects, testimonials, feedback and pricing.
Looking forward to your quick reply!!!
#4 This came from someone using the contact form on the website.
name: Angie
comments: I discovered your Alternatives to Using Google | Confessions of the Professions page and noticed you could have a lot more visitors. I have found that the key to running a popular website is making sure the visitors you are getting are interested in your niche. There is a company that you can get traffic from and they let you try the service for free. I managed to get over 300 targeted visitors to day to my site. Visit them here: [links removed]
“Angie” discovered Confessions of the Professions by stumbling across an article I wrote just a few months ago (at the time of this writing) called “Alternatives to Using Google“, and then proceeds to tell me I could have a lot more visitors. I do not disagree with her. Any and every website wants and could always use more visitors, even Facebook and Google themselves.
I would hope and expect that the majority of visitors and people stumbling across Confessions of the Professions are interested in reading what is on the website. If they were not interested, I probably would not expect them to stay. While I cannot say exactly the amount of visitors this website gets, it definitely is more than 300 per day, so I do not think this company has anything to offer me.
Personally, I do not just want “visitors”. I want readers, fans, opinions, comments, sharers, the curious, the interested, and people who want to be on Confessions of the Professions because they enjoy what they come across on the website. If a company promises to send me “hits” and “traffic” from bots and scripts, I will certainly pass on it and continue working hard to write articles and come up with interesting ideas that attract new visitors and continue to attract repeat visitors.
#5 There was another email from a company that seemed more legit, from an email address that belonged to the SEO website, complete with details in a PDF file about Confessions of the Professions. The PDF file came from the website Ahrefs (also known as Site Explorer), who offer the information for free. The SEO company may have thought that I do not know much and by giving me a PDF file covering basic details is going to convince me that I need to hire them. Anyone and everyone has limited access to a certain amount of information about your website on the Internet with a free trial from Ahrefs.
Here was their original email which they sent to me about a half a dozen times:
HI,
Thanks for the reply back. I am [name removed], Marketing Manager, and [company name removed]. Please find our portfolio, and more details about us and our services at link removed and we can get you on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing on desired keywords.
I have gone through your website and have attached an analysis report, Kindly find the attachment in the email.
You’ve taken the first step at starting an effective Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing campaign. [company name removed] has ranked all of its SEO clients within the top 10 results in Google, Yahoo and Bing for numerous requested keywords. Please see here some ranking example of our clients:- link removed
Please find the complete proposal below according these points:
1. What we do ?
2. Why Choose [company name removed]?
3. SEO Packages and Features
4. How we produce traffic on your website ?
5. Remove your bad/spam/non-relevant/low-quality links from Google
6. Why Google Panda and Penguin Updates hurt your website ?
7. What we will do to prevent your website to save your website by
Google Updates ?8. Example of some high competitive keywords top ranking achieved by
[company name removed].1. What do we do?
Our SEO program helps you identifying the compatibility issues and make sure that your website is SEO friendly. We can place your website on the top of all search engines and specially Google. Here are few steps that we follow to promote your website:
a) Keyword’s Analysis
b) Competitor’s Analysis
c) SEO Analysis report
d) Finding and Fixing all the technical error’s from the website
e) On page optimization
f) Adding landing pages (If Required)
g) Social Media optimization
h) Off page optimization
i) Content writing
We will promote your website in complete Geographical area (Local, National or Global) that you want to target and you will start getting the desired traffic automatically. We will place your website on the top page of Google on your desired keywords to bring you good traffic and great business. If you have a list of keywords ready then you can send them to us otherwise our experts at Google Tracker can help you selecting the keywords which are good for your business.
Google Local Listing: Now a days 90% to 95% consumers search for local business online. One of the most important advantages of Google Local Listing is that it drives a huge amount of local traffic to your site. Our job is to implement it right to make sure that you get new visitors and increase the traffic flow to your website and thus increase the visibility of your site.
2. Why choose [company name removed]?
1. We are USA LLC registered company. And we don’t have any contract and we work on monthly basis.
2. We will get your website in top 5 rankings on Google and other major search engines.
3. We will increase the number of visitors on your website, so you have better chance to sell your product.
4. We always work on latest Google guideline, and we always take care that your website rankings will not hurt by Google Penguin and Panda Updates.
5. We guarantee you that your website will never be penalized spam or banned by Google and/or any other search engine.
6. You will get the full support by email, chat and phone.
7. You will get your dedicate project manager who will answer and handle your all query.
3. SEO Packages and Features.
SEO Plan/ Packages
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Price Per Month
200$
300$
400$
500$
Keywords Optimized
30
40
50
65
Meta Tag Optimization Title, Description, Keywords
YES
YES
YES
YES
Google Webmaster Tools Optimization
YES
YES
YES
YES
Bing Webmaster Tool Optimization
YES
YES
YES
YES
Google Analytics
YES
YES
YES
YES
Robots. Txt Creation
YES
YES
YES
YES
Urlist.Txt Creation
YES
YES
YES
YES
XML Sitemap Optimization
YES
YES
YES
YES
Manual Directory Submission
100
150
240
300
Social Bookmarking
25
35
45
60
Press Release Submission
2
3
4
6
Article Submission
20
30
40
50
Document Sharing
10
20
30
45
Guest Post Links
NO
NO
5
10
Classifieds Posting
10
20
030
15
Local Listings Submission
5
10
15
20
Search Engine Submissions
NO
5
10
20
Google Local Listing
NO
YES
YES
YES
Blog Writing And Creation
YES
YES
YES
YES
Blog Commenting
10
15
20
30
Forum Posting
2
4
6
10
Facebook Fan Page Creation / Optimization
YES
YES
YES
YES
Twitter Profile Creation / Optimization
NO
YES
YES
YES
Google+ Profile Creation & Optimization
NO
NO
YES
YES
Pinterest Pins
NO
NO
NO
YES
Manual Q&A Websites Marketing
NO
NO
NO
YES
Manual Posting To Web 2.0 Sites
YES
YES
YES
YES
Facebook Likes
25
50
100
150
Price Per Month
$200
$300
$400
$500
You can check our complete Proposal on this link :
link removedYou can use your Credit Card as well and once you done the payment, you will get the follow up e-mail, from your account manager very soon. Please send me the confirmation e-mail, once you done it.
4. How we will produce traffic for your website ?
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks .
1 ) Facebook : – We will create a Facebook Page to build a closer relationship with your audience and customers.
2 ) Twitter : -We will create an account of your company and will make your clients follow all the new tweets about your company.
3) we will write the articles targeted your primary keywords, Service and products and will promote.
4) we will also target other popular social website like Digg, Deli.ci.ous etc.
5) we will promote your blogs. And will update by unique content on continue intervals.
5. Remove your bad/spam/non-relevant link from Google.
When Google’s Penguin 2.1 update rolled out a few weeks back, online forums and discussion boards were filled with webmasters sharing how the algorithm update has affected their websites. The update was much bigger than reported, with websites being either completely destroyed by Penguin 2.1 or boosted up the SERP.
This latest update just goes to show how serious Google is at zeroing in on spam and low-quality links. If you haven’t cleaned up your link profile yet, or if you’ve already been hit by Penguin 2.1, it’s time to look at those links and start removing bad ones that can hurt your rankings and traffic.
The Solution
We’ll help clean up your back links for you, so that your website can rank well in Google. Our Link Clean-Up solutions will dig deep into your campaigns’ link profiles and remove any low-quality links that are impacting your SERPs visibility. This is the only way to possibly recover from a back link penalty or manual penalty
6. Why Google Panda and Penguin Updates hurt your website ?
When Google launch updates now days , they are mainly targeting the UNNATURAL backlinks. Some of the main flags for unnatural links are:
· Link Schemes
· Keyword Stuffing
· Over Optimization
· Unnatural Links
· Links from de-indexed sites
· Site-wide links including blog-roll and footer links
· Paid links
· Advertorials or sponsored posts
· Links from less than favorable sources or sites classically used for SEO such as directories and article syndication
7. What we will do to prevent your website to save your website byGoogle Updates ?
· We will build Out the home page with more Content with less keyword density
· We will Create more Landing Pages, if Needed
· we will do high quality links from reputable sites
· We will avoid exact match domains for linking which hurt the website ranking
· We will be active in social media not limited on facebook, twitter. We will Spread your business on social sites
· We will add high-quality, relevant and engaging content to the website
· We will write informative and interesting articles and share on high PR and dofollow blogs and articles and guest posting
8. Example of some high competitive keywords top ranking achieved by [company name removed].
Search Engine : google.com
Keywords : Insurance , insurance companies
Traffic Volume : 500000 Search Per Month
<http://www.allstate.com> www.allstate.com
Search Engine : google.co.uk
Keyword : hyperbaric chambers manufacturer
Traffic Volume : 300000 Search Per Month
Please let me know when we can schedule our meeting regarding your website promotion, so we can discuss all this in better way.
Looking forward your positive response ASAP. And if you need , so we can show you more examples and also provide you references who are currently using our services.
Thanks & Regards
[name removed]
When I visited their website, they offered a “Bronze” ($200), “Silver” ($300), “Gold” ($400), and “Platinum” ($500) package. It almost seems like a great website that could do so much for me, except for the fact that their website has a PageRank of 2, which is a lesser PageRank than this website has. I am not sure what they could really do for me that I could not do on my own except offer me empty promises to do what I have probably already done or could do on my own.
When I asked them about their PageRank, they responded:
I hope you are doing well.Thanks for your reply.
I would like to share that PageRank is not stable for any website at any given point of time, It may vary basis the Google Updation for SEO algorithms. Recently, Google made updations in SEO parameters frequently, Due to this ranking not stable at all times.
We always follow the guidelines provided by google under White Hat Seo techniques. You will get all the working reports by end of the every month. We will assign you one project manager who will dedicatedly work for you.
I request you to give us one chance to work for you. Kindly choose the package you would like to proceed for.
I will be waiting for your valuable reply.
As I said, this last company seemed promising, but I believe they just ended up talking their way out of convincing me they were legit by using words such as “updation”, “dedicatedly”, “white hat seo techniques”, and “valuable reply.” That would mean I would have to give them access to all my hard work and trust this company who cannot even use real words in their emails. Also, I sense desperation in the email when they write “I request you to give us one chance to work for you.” Do they need my business that bad? Are they that desperate for work because they probably have no clients?
They sent me a follow-up email responding to what they could do for me. If these findings were legit and related to my website, I might be convinced to hire them. I am only left wondering my thoughts about each of their findings (my thoughts are in bold).
- Your on-page optimization is incomplete. There is no keyword meta tag and your website has not been optimized on page for keywords. Same goes for your description tag. Proper meta tags help search engines crawl and index your website better. Looking at View Source for Confessions of the Professions, meta keywords are no longer necessary, but there are keywords listed at the end of each article, which are tags that are related specifically to the article.
- Your website needs optimization for commonly searched keywords and phrases that online users look for. I conducted mock searches using some common phrases like luxury homes in Orlando and luxury homes in Florida, and found that your website does not feature in the first few pages of results. What are those commonly searched keywords and phrases that online users are looking for and what does this website have to do with luxury homes in Orlando or luxury homes in Florida? Are we talking about Confessions of the Professions?
- Your website has several no-follow links that are considered to be spam linking by search engines. We can help you here by locating and removing such links so that your rankings do not suffer due to such bad links. There are links on on Confessions of the Professions that are no-follow for a reason. No-follow links are just that: search engines supposedly ignore them, so they would not be considered spam. I thought I had the freedom on the Internet to link to any website I pleased? Maybe I have those no-follow links there for a reason? Why would I want to hire some company to come in and remove those links for me? If I wanted to remove them, would I not just do that myself?
- We would generate more relevant back links that are valued by search engines which help boost your rankings on Google and other search engines. Would you be willing to do that for me? Aw, shucks *face_bashful* It has taken me over year to build natural back links myself, but with your magic touch and expertise, I am sure you can do that overnight for me.
- Another very important point is that your website does not have any social media optimizations done at present. I would like you to know this is very important as social media plays a very important role in directing greater traffic to your website. We would manage your end to end social media needs. You can find the details in the complete proposal below. Confessions of the Professions does have an active Twitter account and a less active Facebook and LinkedIn account, but does offer the option for every visitor to share every article they read on over a handful of the most popular Social Media Networks.
- Your website has no Google local listings. Local listings help you tap all business queries focused on your local area. We are not quite a local business and certainly wish we were making the kind of revenue that would allow us to quit our day jobs, but unfortunately, we still have to go to work too. This website still serves much as an informative website with creative, unique, and thought-provoking [at least we think we do!] articles. Also, we focus on delivering to an Internet audience nationwide and globally — currently, our top visitors are from: United States, United Kingdom, India, Australia, and Canada. But you already knew that, right?
I would like you to know that your website has little or almost negligible SEO right now. We can get your business listed on the first pages of search results for numerous keywords. You will receive a baseline report before we start our campaign so that you can track the improvements on a monthly basis. Do any of the 1600+ pages of unique content on this website count or did you just look at the homepage and make your decision that we needed your business?
Thank you for taking the time to research Confessions of the Professions for 5 minutes and deciding that you know more about this website than we do.
I emailed them back again asking a simple question: While researching Confessions of the Professions, which confession or article did you come across that you would consider your favorite or most appealing to you? She responded that Blood Type in Business was a good article that she enjoyed. I have no complaints about the article she chose, though I only published it about two days before asking her. I thought she would have explored the website more. After her response, she urges me to choose a package in order to proceed. Before I hypothetically proceed with the company though, I did just have one more question for her: What is this website (Confessions of the Professions) about?
The answer was not very satisfactory as they did not answer the question. How can I expect them to understand me if they cannot read correctly what I write to them through email?
http://confessionsoftheprofessions.com/This is the website we are proposing for SEO. Give us one chance to work for you.Kindly choose the package and proceed to sign up. Once you make the payment you will get one transaction email from paypal. Kindly send me that transaction email.Waiting for your valuable reply.
Pushing and urging to get my money, it does not look like they even bothered to read my initial question. It took several more emails to get an actual answer from them and upon the threat of no interest in their services and declining any business from them because they did not know what Confessions of the Professions was about, they finally did give me an official reply:
Your website is about confessions, Where people can update their confessions. And its not related to any one specific industry or topic. Any person can came up at your website and can update her / his confessions and others can give their feedback on this.
While this is somewhat correct, it is a very generic answer. If any company is submitting a proposal to your business in order to be hired for a specific job, function, or task, and gives this type of response, would you accept this answer? Would you hire and trust this company with your personal information?
Another email from them checking to see if I would hire them for their “valuable services” also showed there may be a fake name present or two people who do not know how to sign their email properly, along with some major spelling mistakes:
Hello Matt,I hope you are doing well.I have been waiting for your valuable reply. Kindly confirm which package you would like to proceed for. Waiting for your valuable reply.Regards
Rinki KaurThanks & Regards*Jennifer *
*Manager :- Bussiness Devlopment , [company name removed]*
So who am I dealing with here, Jennifer or Rinki Kaur? I am convinced enough through all the emails they sent that they are not a legit company, or if they are, they a very small company based in India that wants to collect their money and run. The way they write in English alone is enough to tell me that I am better off “working on the SEO” for my own website. At least I am a 100% native English speaker and not sure why I would hire non-native speakers to work on my English for me.
Maybe these are legit companies trying to get a new prospective client. Maybe it is just one company with multiple email addresses targeting this specific website. Maybe I am being too critical in having 50 SEO companies to choose from all promising me wonderful things. I am not here to knock these or any companies out of business or prevent them from making money.
I, myself, would gladly step up to the plate and do some SEO work for money. Gladly! But these emails and proposals are coming from generic domain names, do not give me any website or portfolio to look at immediately – even the last email requires me to respond in order to “see” anything. They remain words to me in an electronic email on an electronic page.
Would you hire any of these SEO companies to do SEO work for your business or personal website?
Several times a week, I receive similar types of emails like the ones above, all stating to me that I need to work on my website, SEO, keywords, or claiming that I am not ranking well in search engines, but I bring up these points: This website is registered for over 10 years, has existed as a physical information entity for almost 5 years, and continues to pull in thousands of visitors each day, with increasing thousands of new visitors each month.
I never hired an SEO company in my life, but I have always done the research myself on SEO, and while it is ever-changing, I always write with a human audience and people looking for information in mind. Covering a variety of topics, there is no way that Confessions of the Professions will not be ranked in some search results, even if it means to be listed on the second or third page, it is still better than not being listed at all.
SEO is a fairly simple process that takes time and focuses mostly on diverse unique topics written for a human audience who are interested in reading your opinions, thoughts, ideas, or facts. SEO is not something that can be done overnight, in a day, or even a week. Sure, there are things that can be done to improve the writing and articles on any website, but a company that knows nothing about your website, about your business, and is using scare tactics and “free privileged information” is not a company you want to trust or ever hire.
The truth is that I am not in the market or the business to hire any SEO company. Confessions of the Professions is registered for the next 10 years and is not going anywhere anytime soon. Being registered for that amount of time is a solid investment that all search engines would be smart to capitalize on. I am sure, in its own time, it will be indexed, re-indexed, lost, discovered, and re-discovered by search engines and people who are looking for specific articles, infographics, ebooks, and other topics on it.
The SEO work comes in the form of the unique content it provides. Pages on the Internet take time to mature and get discovered. Some pages are more popular than others and some are on the first or second page of Google while others may hardly ever be seen. I have performed many Google searches and have come across articles listed on the first page from the year 2005. These websites stand the test of time and regardless of whether they have SEO or not, they are still listed in the top searches of Google, yet these websites most likely had no company do any work for them.
As I said earlier in this article: Do your research. SEO companies are a dime a dozen – some legit, most just want your money. Most of these SEO companies are filled with empty promises and know nothing about your website or the keywords you want to rank for.
SEO takes time. Work hard and establish your website. There is no rush — professional and personal websites take time to develop and become established — anywhere from 6 months to over a year. Avoid SEO scams that claim to do things overnight. If you ask them how long it will take and they promise you a month, the methods are “quick and dirty” and will not last. They are lying. It may just be worth it to do SEO yourself. SEO is not rocket science and anyone can do it. Considering the majority of the emails I receive from SEO companies are exactly like this, it is hard for me to take any of them seriously.
As far as getting new content for SEO purposes, there are hundreds of emails a year sent to Confessions of the Professions with contributing articles for free, and we appreciate every one of those emails, and I also personally write just as many articles myself, which all help with SEO. Our queue is usually at least two or three weeks of pending articles waiting to be published. So exactly why should we pay your company to do what I and the contributors of this website do for free?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking all SEO companies. Some actually do the job they claim to do. I had spoken to a woman, who actually turned out to be a man, but this one Indian SEO company preferred to use female-gendered names, as it was more likely to increase the chance of sales. I began talking with him, and we became good friends and talk every so often about the wonders of the world, how the elections of the United States do, in fact, effect everything on a global scale, including the economy and operations in India, and he gave me some insight into what his company actually does, which did not sound too good to be true, but actually sounded like a legit company doing a job for businesses.
His company writes articles for businesses and posts them on legit websites with links back to the originating website. Wonderful! Sounds like a company your business might want to pay if you do not have the in-house help to do it. Worried about Indians knowing English? The most successful Indians actually learn English and learn it well enough to have an economic advantage in their country. However, there are literally hundreds of thousands of “SEO companies” across the globe and to try and stand out and win business is not easy.
In befriending the person that works for this company, although I did not need the services of his company, I learned that he lives in India and they are actually humans too, just trying to make their paychecks and get through the runt of paying bills, affording rent, and making enough money to eat, hopefully meeting the girl (or guy) of their dreams, having families, affording a house, etc. However, when it comes to SEO companies, I implore you to do your research before hiring just ANY SEO company.
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