Anyone else tired of SEO's!?

[Danscapes]

Here lately I've been getting phone call after phone call and emails out the wazoo about optimizing my SEO for my website. has anyone else experienced this and how do you deal with it..............make it stop?:cry:

[mdvaden]

Here lately I've been getting phone call after phone call and emails out the wazoo about optimizing my SEO for my website. has anyone else experienced this and how do you deal with it..............make it stop?:cry:

So much so, I was talking to our son about it.

He like the code end of websites. And was asking me about me doing SEO for others. Not in the sense of promoting it, but to handle the requests that are incoming at his end.

I said that if we do it, whatever we promise or how we build expectations would need to change from like 5 years ago.

At a certain point, the market gets flooded. And SEO can only get you so far.

Right now, I think what we are seeing is hundreds of SEO guys in the same position as the gold miners that all ran to California for the gold rush, but what they could mine out of the sitiuation began to deplete. Then you have all these thousands of people desperate to make a living. Its why I used the gold miners and gold rush fever as an example in the website article I included with my advice pages. The similarity is big.

If not SEO specifically, I get calls weekly on some angle of it from somebody. It's like swatting at flies.

[gasracer]

It's not just in this industry. We had a lot of damage a few days ago in our area from the storms. I went to help a friend cut some trees out of there pool and it looked like a pack of vultures with contractors and roofers running house to house looking for work.

[walker-talker]

I get a lot of emails on seo, along with somebody promising to make my "ding-a-ling" larger or selling percocets. I never get any phone calls though. That might tick me off.

[jonthepain]

The gold miner analogy is particularly apt.

If anybody promises you #1 spot on google, you know it's hype.

sure there are lots of things that you can do that help, but nobody can guarantee first page of google, much less #1.

Like M.D. said, the snake oil salesmen are coming out of the woodwork because people are desperate to make a living. It's too bad because it gives the real seo pros a bad name.

Back in the day, I did my own SEO, but now I trade lawn care for it. I'm always game to pick up some pointers from successful website owners like M.D., though.

Every little bit helps!

[JimLewis]

We get contacted for SEO stuff every day either via email or by phone. It's just part of the industry. It's nice to have an office manager who screens calls.

The funniest part is when they email and tell me, "You're website doesn't come up very high on search engines. You could get a lot more traffic to your site if you'd hire our SEO experts to optimize your site! We can get you on the first page of Google for 5 different terms! Call today!"

What's funny about that is we hold the #1 spot for over 80 different search terms. Terms like, "Landscaping Portland Oregon", "Landscape Contractor Portland", "Portland Oregon Landscaper", "Landscaping company Portland Oregon", "Landscape Service Portland", "Portland Lawn Care Company", "Sprinkler systems Portland Oregon", "Paver Patios Portland Oregon" and another 80 terms like that. And we are in the top 10 results for the other 40 terms that I track. So I'm pretty dang sure they're not going to get me any better results than that.

I used to write back and tell them that. Just to put it back in their face that I was better at SEO than they are. But it got old. Just a waste of my time. I just delete the emails now and my office just tells them we're not interested.

[ringahding]

Most times when these spammers are calling you it's because they found you on the front page. I don't guarantee how long it will take for them to get on the front page...just let them know my experiences for these times right now.
I'm surely no college educated or web-head individual, but one thing is for certain you can be self-taught...I bring business common sense...you be the judge...google "lawn care stillwater mn" ...not bragging or saying we're WELL off, just working hard, learning and living the common sense dream...

[PaperCutter]

I just tell them "If you're that good, when I'm ready to hire you I can just type 'SEO company' into Google, click the top result, and get you. Right?"

[JimLewis]

Well, that's a little unfair. Just because they can't get to the top of Google for an extremely broad search term like "SEO Company" doesn't mean they aren't great at getting your company to the top for "St. Paul, MN Lawn Care". It's 100x easier to do the latter. Next to impossible to do the former.

[mdvaden]

We get contacted for SEO stuff every day either via email or by phone. It's just part of the industry. It's nice to have an office manager who screens calls.

The funniest part is when they email and tell me, "You're website doesn't come up very high on search engines. You could get a lot more traffic to your site if you'd hire our SEO experts to optimize your site! We can get you on the first page of Google for 5 different terms! Call today!"

What's funny about that is we hold the #1 spot for over 80 different search terms. Terms like, "Landscaping Portland Oregon", "Landscape Contractor Portland", "Portland Oregon Landscaper", "Landscaping company Portland Oregon", "Landscape Service Portland", "Portland Lawn Care Company", "Sprinkler systems Portland Oregon", "Paver Patios Portland Oregon" and another 80 terms like that. And we are in the top 10 results for the other 40 terms that I track. So I'm pretty dang sure they're not going to get me any better results than that.

I used to write back and tell them that. Just to put it back in their face that I was better at SEO than they are. But it got old. Just a waste of my time. I just delete the emails now and my office just tells them we're not interested.

Same here on emails - DELETE

Also, I don't even take reciprocal link requests anymore unless its a related site with a Pagerank 3 minimum. Otherwise its DELETE. Actually, that means deletion of about 99.8% of the requests, because they just don't pay attention to the webmaster's note on our site.

Hey Jim ...

Know what you mean when they say you are not ranking, when you really are ranking. Your post just inspired a thought for next contact I get like that if it's by phone.

Caller: "Ya, know, you just are not ranking high for relevant keywords, and we can fix that for you"

MD Vaden: "Wait a sec, I see you have the top ranking for the Keywords "Wrong Message at the Wrong Time".

[JFGauvreau]

I just tell them "If you're that good, when I'm ready to hire you I can just type 'SEO company' into Google, click the top result, and get you. Right?"

I will make sure to tell him something like that next time they call me lol. I will have a good laugh

[JFGauvreau]

Actually I just type "SEO" on google to find out wikipedia was #1 (after the ads) so funny lol

[JimLewis]

True. But that guy in the #3 spot is making some SERIOUS money!

www.SEO.com - tell me there aren't a million SEO guys out there who are pissed they didn't grab that URL early. Check out the companies this outfit has worked for. It's like a who's who list of Fortune 500 companies.

Goes to prove; you don't really even have to be #1. You just have the be the first relevant search result. Someone looking to hire an SEO expert isn't probably going to click on the first two results. So that guy still basically has the #1 position.

Also, Google threw themselves into the #2 spot. Tell me there wasn't a little inside "manipulation" there.

p.s. Mario, I love your idea! SEO for keywords "Wrong message at the wrong time." LOL. That's hilarious.

[kcyarddrainage]

We hired one for a year or so, absolutely no results. We hired a new one this year, and we are dominating for all of our services...first page results for our metro area, as well as by major cities. We are already top ranked for many searches. You can get burned, but it can also work VERY well. For every real SEO firm, there are probably ten times as many quacks.

[PaperCutter]

Well, that's a little unfair. Just because they can't get to the top of Google for an extremely broad search term like "SEO Company" doesn't mean they aren't great at getting your company to the top for "St. Paul, MN Lawn Care". It's 100x easier to do the latter. Next to impossible to do the former.

Jim. Obviously I'm not entirely serious, it's just my way of having a little more fun with them than just hanging up. My point is more that when I decide to hire an SEO firm I will do research and get recommendations and approach it cautiously. I'm not some rube who's going to say "wow, ruling the Google sounds neat! Do you take Visa?" For what these firms charge, I want a demonstrated track record of results. And not just eyeballs, but conversions. I don't need my ego stroked with inflated traffic numbers.

SEO is one of those things that is either done wrong and quickly, with possible very bad consequences, or it's done right as part of a campaign of long-haul tactics and site management. I would expect the latter to market in trade publications and via word of mouth; I expect that those hiring a boiler room full of telemarketers are doing a crap job.

[kcyarddrainage]

SEO is one of those things that is either done wrong and quickly, with possible very bad consequences, or it's done right as part of a campaign of long-haul tactics and site management.

Well said. Exactly how we feel.