SEO Tycoon

**imported_Cricket** · 07-18-2006, 04:56 PM

Here are a couple of questions...

1. Would you hire the services of an SEO company whose own web site has horrible search engine position and an Alexa ranking of say 4 to 500k?

2. Why would an SEO expert want to be hired? If he is truly an SEO expert, then shouldn't he be making a fortune pushing his own sites?

I'm not trying to be a smartass. These are legitimate questions that I have about so called SEO experts.

I'd love for somebody to tell me that I am being too skeptical and give me a URL to an SEO magician, but I'm not holding my breath.

Your thoughts?

**handsome rob** · 07-18-2006, 05:06 PM

1. No. And forget Alexa rankings.

2. Not all SEOs are great writers or web designers or entrepreneurs. I so SEO/SEM for a living, yet don't really have a flagship site of my own. My job is long hours and I'm very good at it, but frankly when I'm done for the day I don't always feel like going home to do more web stuff. Eventually I will, but right now I'm putting all my energy into my job and I'm happy to be doing so.

It's supply and demand. As long as people demand SEO services, there will be SEO professionals (and impostors) to answer the call. If every company out there were to just say "screw SEO", then those SEO pros with cold phones would probably do exactly what you suggested -- start their own sites.

Besides... SEO/SEM is a fast growing industry. If you can get a solid resume` together in its early years and make a name for yourself, then you can write your own ticket once everyone is ordering McMetatags at the drive through. I can start my own site any time, but I can't always get my foot in the door in this industry.

**skyblue** · 07-19-2006, 05:34 PM

handsome rob already said most of things...i would like to add that there is not so many SEO Gurus who could make a fortune of 1 site, so he would need to have many sites...Than he need to upload some new contents from time to time, and other things...and this way he only work on what he knows best...SEO...
But it's interesting qustion anyway

**Hoang** · 07-19-2006, 05:51 PM

1. No, probably not.

2. I'm not sure.

**Masters** · 07-19-2006, 05:56 PM

Rob got it down.

There's two SEO experts that I work with and they both share the first same names, Brad Callen and Brad Fallon. Great guys that knows their stuff very well.

**stefanjuhl** · 07-20-2006, 03:14 AM

1. Remember that if the SEO expert really is an expert he'd also know a lot about keywords... And you might not know as much as he does, so could it be that the terms you're using when "checking his rankings" are not as good terms (ROI wise) as those he actually has good rankings for. You'd want a guy who not only knows how to get good rankings but also knows which keywords will make you money. - I'm not saying that it's always like that actually I believe it's far from often it is so but sometimes it is...

E.g. being a one-man company I'd never begin optimizin for "search engine optimization" since there's way too much competition and if I got the rankings I wouldn't be able to serve all the requests I'd get. Instead I'd go for more specific markets and keywords like "search engine optimization scandinavia", "seo company denmark".

2. As it has already been said - by doing SEO services he'd focus on what he's best at!

Secondly, if he'd get some good steady clients he'd maybe be (or feel) more safe than depending on revenue generated by search engine rankings since they can change no matter how good a SEO expert you are.

Third, not everyone likes to spend the entire day behind the computer screen all alone - and by providing SEO services he'd get more contact with people.

**imported_mill** · 07-20-2006, 04:32 AM

Here are a couple of questions...

1. Would you hire the services of an SEO company whose own web site has horrible search engine position and an Alexa ranking of say 4 to 500k?

If they have terrible Serps then they dont know what they are doing, run away, and like already said ALexa Means NOTHING. Not everyone that visitis a site has the alexa toolbar installed.

2. Why would an SEO expert want to be hired? If he is truly an SEO expert, then shouldn't he be making a fortune pushing his own sites?

Why would a Airplane Pilot fly others around when he could do it for himself? Not to good of an example, but it takes people who know what they are doing to make money. They provide a service to put food on the table. Not really a valid question, thats like asking donald trump why he writes books about his wealth!

I'd love for somebody to tell me that I am being too skeptical and give me a URL to an SEO magician, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well there are many SEO experts but they do nothing that you couldnt buckle down and learn. SEO is not really a specialty per say , unless you dont know what the point of SEO is. You can pick up a lot in this forum for tips and tricks to get your pages to the top, but everyone in here will tell you it's trial and error, and takes time.

If you dont want to go through the trial and error, you pay someone who has.

My tip would build 2 sites. Pay an SEO guru ( or someone familiar with it) and you read the forums here, and once you got an idea of what your doing, pay the SEO person you found and start doing both sites the same day. See how much better his site does better than yours.

You may be surprised that both of your sites have done about the same, in some cases the one you do will fair better than the seo, if he is good you will learn from him. Just ask him for weekly updates of where your site was submitted and now you have a list of all the SE's and directories he may have submitted you to.

I use a software to submit to my SE's ( not cheap) and submit to directories by hand. Do link exchanges by hand also. Backlinks and Keywords is the Key to SEO/

**Dactyl** · 07-20-2006, 06:24 AM

@mill, what you said is great, just a quick note though, forget link exchanges, they wont do you any good ranking wise, Google can easily pick link exchanges up and rule them out of your link popularity.

**aaron_nimocks** · 07-20-2006, 06:44 AM

Sorry just have to play the other role.

I dont see what his alexa rank has to do with anything or his search engine positioning.

How did you find the site? Did you search for it and then go to page 10? What keyword did you search for? Is it competitive? Did he find a great keyword to rank very well on that other people havent found? How old is the domain? Did he just start the site and is gaining traffic from the search engines for a competitve term already?

Also many people have a site for their SEO company and dont care to optimize it because they dont care to get traffic from the search engines. The way quite a few people rely on getting hired is through freelance sites and having a website does help but who really cares on where you rank. It is just there to show your services and portfolio.

There are many ways to go with this so I am saying it doesnt mean anything and you shouldnt judge on ranking.

**imported_seocontest** · 07-20-2006, 12:51 PM

1 NO way

2 I am great at SEO but not a great developer or marketer so I look to sell services or partner with someone that can convert traffic and listings to cash
3 when hiring a SEO look for proven results like my 8 days to #5 with a new domain for SEO books

**freetraff** · 07-20-2006, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cricket

Here are a couple of questions...

1. Would you hire the services of an SEO company whose own web site has horrible search engine position and an Alexa ranking of say 4 to 500k?

Maybe they just got started. So, at least I would look on what kind of optimization they made for their site. But again, if they just got started and made zero success - this looks fishy.

Quote:

2. Why would an SEO expert want to be hired? If he is truly an SEO expert, then shouldn't he be making a fortune pushing his own sites?

Expert will not, but he/she usually makes the hardest part of the work (like the best creative idea). And the rest is done by the team. Why should SEO guru work like this? Because it gives more publicity and good proofs of nice work. This brings more capital and SEO guru can hire enough people to build not 100 web sites but 100,000 web sites.

And no need to apologize for being too suspicious. You ask normal questions.

**Bookworm-SEO** · 07-22-2006, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masters

Rob got it down.

There's two SEO experts that I work with and they both share the first same names, Brad Callen and Brad Fallon. Great guys that knows their stuff very well.

I keep getting them confused. One of them got my email as an opt-in for a course then got kinda spammy/annoying. Good thing it always went to my junk mail.

I feel that they`re trying to sell lots of software, n it`s kinda annoying. s that just meÉ By contrast, i really respect seomoz for sharing advice free...

**Masters** · 07-23-2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bookworm-SEO

I keep getting them confused. One of them got my email as an opt-in for a course then got kinda spammy/annoying. Good thing it always went to my junk mail.

I feel that they`re trying to sell lots of software, n it`s kinda annoying. s that just meÉ By contrast, i really respect seomoz for sharing advice free...

Brad Callen is the seo course guy and if you ever read any of his emails then you know that Brad really knows his stuff. And its because of his course that my website is bringing in traffic.

Brad Fallon is the 'Wedding Favors' guy and he also knows his stuff. His website can be seen at #1 on Google and others. He even lets you link to him.

**freetraff** · 07-23-2006, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SohaibT

@mill, what you said is great, just a quick note though, forget link exchanges, they wont do you any good ranking wise, Google can easily pick link exchanges up and rule them out of your link popularity.

If you do linking properly - choosing relevant and reputable partners - how can Google penalize you for it? Then Google should penalize the whole Internet.