SEO is Bullshit

[Franki]

SEO is bullshit.
SEO is snake oil.
SEO is a waste of money.

This post pretty much sums up most people's reactions that I've met and talked to about SEO, and probably covers about 99% of the mentalities of this forum's participants.

SEO is Bullshit, snake oil and a waste of money

Disclaimer: I've been in SEO since 1999 and therefore could be smidgely biased, but what do I know

Enjoy and feel free to debate away

[heist]

Originally Posted by Franki

SEO is bullshit.
SEO is snake oil.
SEO is a waste of money.

This post pretty much sums up most people's reactions that I've met and talked to about SEO, and probably covers about 99% of the mentalities of this forum's participants.

SEO is Bullshit, snake oil and a waste of money

Disclaimer: I've been in SEO since 1999 and therefore could be smidgely biased, but what do I know

Enjoy and feel free to debate away

and when we've asked for insights into what you do we get cagey responses and "that's all you get from a free consult" ;p

[Franki]

And that's business, why is that so hard for you to understand? Why should I or any other SEO provide "free" advice (based on many years of experience) so that the web firms can better their CMS, which then, in a way, compete directly with our services.

If you want to tune your car, do you expect the mechanic to tune it for you for free?

[heist]

Originally Posted by Franki

And that's business, why is that so hard for you to understand? Why should I or any other SEO provide "free" advice (based on many years of experience) so that the web firms can better their CMS, which then, in a way, compete directly with our services.

If you want to tune your car, do you expect the mechanic to tune it for you for free?

no, but i expect them to tell me the items they'll address, before i pay for the service.

[Franki]

Well pay for the consult and get the report. Don't tell me you expect a report of what your system system lacks before paying for it - and bare in mind the report is basically a blueprint of your system's shortcomings, therefore what you can rectify.

I don't (and will never) expect a programmer/developer to audit my system (e.g security audit) without paying her for it, nor should you expect the same from an SEO.

No offense intended, but you sound like the "cheapskate" scenario (in the above article).

[Franki]

Originally Posted by heist

no, but i expect them to tell me the items they'll address, before i pay for the service.

How do you think they'll be able to tell you what's wrong with your car? You would think it's fair that they spend load of time plugging your car into the dyno tune, pour over the dyno report and figuring out what's wrong with it and how to address the problems, all for free yeah?

[Zen]

Originally Posted by Franki

How do you think they'll be able to tell you what's wrong with your car? You would think it's fair that they spend load of time plugging your car into the dyno tune, pour over the dyno report and figuring out what's wrong with it and how to address the problems, all for free yeah?

Very true. what i think a SEO should do, is have a look over what needs to be done, give a quote, and an expected outcome (meaning if what they are going to do is going to give much of an SEO improvement).


As for the article, quite an amusing read.

[heist]

Originally Posted by Franki

Well pay for the consult and get the report. Don't tell me you expect a report of what your system system lacks before paying for it - and bare in mind the report is basically a blueprint of your system's shortcomings, therefore what you can rectify.

I don't (and will never) expect a programmer/developer to audit my system (e.g security audit) without paying her for it, nor should you expect the same from an SEO.

No offense intended, but you sound like the "cheapskate" scenario (in the above article).

heh i love it when people say "no offense" and then proceed to insult you.

ok - I don't expect an audit, i expect a checklist of what you're going to do for my money - just like a mechanic would provide when they lay out what they do for a major service.


We offer a fully comprehensive service that drives traffic to your site like web designers to a shoe sale:

Technical
1. We make sure your pages are well formed and easily read by search engines
2. We make sure URLs are easily read and liked by search engines
3. ??
4. ??

Content
1. We identify the audience your site is targeting
2. We help to ensure your content is correctly written/targetted for the audience identified
3. We help to ensure your content is easily read and liked by search engines
4. We ensure the content shown on search results is the first thing you want your users to see
5. ??
6. ??

Networking
1. We help you raise your site's profile by promoting it in various industry, commercial and social networks
2. ??
3. ??

Marketing
1. We help you create an online marketing strategy that takes advantage of services like AdWords, and other programs, to help drive even
more traffic to your site.
2. ??
3. ??

.. or something like that.

being cagey and calling people cheapskates when they ask for more information about your services isn't going to help your image at all.

[Zen]

Originally Posted by heist

heh i love it when people say "no offense" and then proceed to insult you.

ok - I don't expect an audit, i expect a checklist of what you're going to do for my money - just like a mechanic would provide when they lay out what they do for a major service.


We offer a fully comprehensive service that drives traffic to your site like web designers to a shoe sale:

Technical
1. We make sure your pages are well formed and easily read by search engines
2. We make sure URLs are easily read and liked by search engines
3. ??
4. ??

Content
1. We identify the audience your site is targeting
2. We help to ensure your content is correctly written/targetted for the audience identified
3. We help to ensure your content is easily read and liked by search engines
4. We ensure the content shown on search results is the first thing you want your users to see
5. ??
6. ??

Networking
1. We help you raise your site's profile by promoting it in various industry, commercial and social networks
2. ??
3. ??

Marketing
1. We help you create an online marketing strategy that takes advantage of services like AdWords, and other programs, to help drive even
more traffic to your site.
2. ??
3. ??

.. or something like that.

being cagey and calling people cheapskates when they ask for more information about your services isn't going to help your image at all.

That seems a little more reasonable, but telling the client exactly what you are going to do is only going to kill your business.

[Franki]

Originally Posted by heist

being cagey and calling people cheapskates when they ask for more information about your services isn't going to help your image at all.

Get your act together Heist, you were specifically refering to this reply of mine, for this thread, now you want to turn it around and implying it as if it'sa quote to SEO a website. Sorry but the word LOSER comes to mind right about now, again no offense intended

FYI, how do you know an SEO quote for a website doesn't include what you've stated?