Search Engine Optimization Businesses

[ERR]

Anybody know of anybody in this industry? Any opionions, thoughts on this industry? Interested in more information about business experience, and if businesses are really utilizing this service more now.

[Cpais]

We use people in India to do all of this for us and, for the money, they do great work. They started a couple of months ago and we are on the first page of so many google searches.

[Cpais]

And we pay $500.00/month

[JUSTIN]

Thats part of my position. I work strictly with law firms though. Do you have aquestion about optimizing a site or are you interested in starting a buiness. People will pay big money for optimization services anywhere form 5K to 100,000 a year and up. My top client pays us over 100k

[JUSTIN]

And we pay $500.00/month

Whats your site?

[ERR]

Thats part of my position. I work strictly with law firms though. Do you have aquestion about optimizing a site or are you interested in starting a buiness. People will pay big money for optimization services anywhere form 5K to 100,000 a year and up. My top client pays us over 100k

friend just started a new biz and wants me in on the ground floor, but i'm super skeptical. are those real numbers? he's been throwing around some big numbers as well, i'm just really taken back. how have you recruited your clients primarily?

[radioboy407]

There are so many businesses out there that are trying to scam companies right now by saying they will get u in the first page of the organic search results. Its very sketchy and there are so many companies out there right now cold calling every website that does Google CPC advertising. I get calls all the time from different places offering the same thing at very low rates.

[inspectorDPnyc]

friend just started a new biz and wants me in on the ground floor, but i'm super skeptical. are those real numbers? he's been throwing around some big numbers as well, i'm just really taken back. how have you recruited your clients primarily?


Numbers are def real. I run an online marketing company doing SEO/SEM but my main focus is small/local businesses. The big $$$ are in very competitive industries - which also means heavy, long term work. A law firm example was used - a place in NYC where the industry is already cut throat will pay big time. Any legit firm will not guarantee rankings (and if they do you will sure see the exclusions in the fine print). Nobody is "beating" google or the other engines - you can temporarily using blackhat seo to make the quick buck but small firms that do this will def see the penalty sooner then later. That's why the industry has sometimes been labeled as "snake oil salesman". Firms that last are the ones doing ethical work along with best practices.

You gonna be doing the sales for your friends company? What questions do you have? Ask away I can most likely help you out. Depending on how your friend is running his biz, yes this is industry can be VERY lucrative and will only increase as time goes on. More and more businesses are moving their ad spend and marketing online.

[Dmitry]

There are so many businesses out there that are trying to scam companies right now by saying they will get u in the first page of the organic search results. Its very sketchy and there are so many companies out there right now cold calling every website that does Google CPC advertising. I get calls all the time from different places offering the same thing at very low rates.

I agree! If you have the time then you can do it all youself, it's not rocket science but you need to dedicate some time andk eep up with the latest techniques as they do change offen, plus each technique is different for each search engine. I wont discose what I use (Dont want my competition to use my sourses) but I'll pm you if you are interested.

[radioboy407]

bottom line is u will never compete with google, so its a waste cuz 80% of the population uses them.
I think Bing is suffering right now because although they are advertising like crazy, no one is switching their default browsers over

[MichelangeloWHO]

I use SEO Company | Best 90 Day SEO Trial Program Nationwide! (http://www.qualifiedimpressions.com) they are based on Long Island & I'm very happy w/ them.
I have first page and many times first placement for most of the keywords for my driving school.

[ERR]

Numbers are def real. I run an online marketing company doing SEO/SEM but my main focus is small/local businesses. The big $$$ are in very competitive industries - which also means heavy, long term work. A law firm example was used - a place in NYC where the industry is already cut throat will pay big time. Any legit firm will not guarantee rankings (and if they do you will sure see the exclusions in the fine print). Nobody is "beating" google or the other engines - you can temporarily using blackhat seo to make the quick buck but small firms that do this will def see the penalty sooner then later. That's why the industry has sometimes been labeled as "snake oil salesman". Firms that last are the ones doing ethical work along with best practices.

You gonna be doing the sales for your friends company? What questions do you have? Ask away I can most likely help you out. Depending on how your friend is running his biz, yes this is industry can be VERY lucrative and will only increase as time goes on. More and more businesses are moving their ad spend and marketing online.

No, we're going to be partners, so for me it's a little intimidating because this is my first business venture. My main question would be 'Is there really as big a market for SEO as I am reading about?' I mean I can't believe this industry is as big as it is, and I've really never heard about it. I mean I'm reading about serious businesses paying serious cash for this service. I mean it does make sense because it seems like the best for of advertising out there. Anytime anybody needs a new business, they google it. Would love to hear about some of your experiences and stories with other businesses.

[inspectorDPnyc]

No, we're going to be partners, so for me it's a little intimidating because this is my first business venture. My main question would be 'Is there really as big a market for SEO as I am reading about?' I mean I can't believe this industry is as big as it is, and I've really never heard about it. I mean I'm reading about serious businesses paying serious cash for this service. I mean it does make sense because it seems like the best for of advertising out there. Anytime anybody needs a new business, they google it. Would love to hear about some of your experiences and stories with other businesses.

I hear you when you say it can be intimidating. It all really depends how much experience you have. If you're new to the whole industry take the time to learn. Read up on anything and everything to get familiar.

Google themselves put out a pretty decent guide regarding SEO:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Webmasters/Site owners Help (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291&cbid=18shckds4k9w7&src=cb&lev=topic)

Thats pretty much from the horses mouth. It's basic but it's a start, won't give you any "secrets" or advanced knowledge but again its a start.

Follow up by subscribing to all the industry blogs and read daily to keep up with all the changes (something that may have been effective yesterday, may be irrelevant today). Here's a good list to subscribe to:
Top 25 SEO Blogs (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/top-25-seo-blogs/)


IMO, just like with any business you own, its good to know it inside out since you guys probably won't be doing all the work yourselves. I only speak for myself, I have no physical employees, I use contractors from here and other countries from sites like odesk.com, elance, guru, etc.. I can't even begin to describe how cheap the labor is vs. the quality and output from these people. My margins are ridiculous. But with these type of arrangements, these people can fall off the face of the earth so you need to have backups. But once you get a system in place things just start flowing. I use basecamphq.com and assign whatever tasks out as needed.

Besides SEO which would be natural/organic/free traffic you have SEM (paid search, paid advertising, etc..). This is a whole other topic which is massive and takes a while to learn about. Anybody themselves can buy a keyword but it takes someone with experience to do the entire process correctly. There are so many variables to consider such as the quality of the keyword you are bidding on, the landing pages where you are sending it to, your on page sales conversion process, etc.. Just have to test and test again. Analytics software such as googles will help out tremendously on both natural and paid search.

I've dealt with so many website owners who have pretty sites (flash and all that other garabage) that they paid "designers" tens of thousands of $$$ and don't get shit in return. Site is structured improperly - it just sucks, not effective as a selling tool for your business. Have had to redesign sites to be SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE. Call to actions above the fold on every page, setting up autoresponders (email marketing), social media, etc.. Way too many variables to list.

A big area to focus on in the future is reputation management. Businesses are getting killed cause of this. More and more people are going online to check out places of business and base their decisions off that. Simple word of mouth doesn't work anymore and those that don't realize this will be squashed in the future. Here's a good link that has some stats on it:
Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most | Nielsen Wire (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most/)

It don't matter if your the largest law firm in NYC or a small local pizza shop - bad talk and reviews can kill your business. Thats why its important for a business to be online - everywhere. Social media sites, participating and responding to reviews, pretty much being proactive. There have been instances of businesses that were too late and now need to do damage control and do it correctly. Pretty much anything with a high client transaction value (think a law firm - how much $$$ do they make from each client, or an example I was involved with - a well known diamond dealer - big $$$ per customer - got screwed from bad reviews and shady SEO practices). They got murdered everyway possible from their business name showing up negatively on all the big review and ratings sites to having their own site penalized and parts of it dropped from the search engine. Lost a ton of business. Big competition like this will pay into the six figures for services like this alone.

Again this is a very lucrative business to be in, as long as you are ethical about it. You probably haven't heard about it that much considering this isn't something you can just go to college, get a degree, then go get a job in it. I've seen places offering courses on it but they were so BASIC. Nothing is better then real world experience, learning and applying it on your own. It's a big business, only going to get bigger and bigger in the future. For a local business they are seeing that spending 10-20k a year just for an ad in the phone book/newspaper/print just isn't giving them the return they want anymore. Ad spend and marketing is going online more and more each year. For online only businesses and websites, if they are smart, they know competition is fierce and they will be crushed by the next guy who is doing things the right way.

[ERR]

I hear you when you say it can be intimidating. It all really depends how much experience you have. If you're new to the whole industry take the time to learn. Read up on anything and everything to get familiar.

Google themselves put out a pretty decent guide regarding SEO:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Webmasters/Site owners Help (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291&cbid=18shckds4k9w7&src=cb&lev=topic)

Thats pretty much from the horses mouth. It's basic but it's a start, won't give you any "secrets" or advanced knowledge but again its a start.

Follow up by subscribing to all the industry blogs and read daily to keep up with all the changes (something that may have been effective yesterday, may be irrelevant today). Here's a good list to subscribe to:
Top 25 SEO Blogs (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/top-25-seo-blogs/)


IMO, just like with any business you own, its good to know it inside out since you guys probably won't be doing all the work yourselves. I only speak for myself, I have no physical employees, I use contractors from here and other countries from sites like odesk.com, elance, guru, etc.. I can't even begin to describe how cheap the labor is vs. the quality and output from these people. My margins are ridiculous. But with these type of arrangements, these people can fall off the face of the earth so you need to have backups. But once you get a system in place things just start flowing. I use basecamphq.com and assign whatever tasks out as needed.

Besides SEO which would be natural/organic/free traffic you have SEM (paid search, paid advertising, etc..). This is a whole other topic which is massive and takes a while to learn about. Anybody themselves can buy a keyword but it takes someone with experience to do the entire process correctly. There are so many variables to consider such as the quality of the keyword you are bidding on, the landing pages where you are sending it to, your on page sales conversion process, etc.. Just have to test and test again. Analytics software such as googles will help out tremendously on both natural and paid search.

I've dealt with so many website owners who have pretty sites (flash and all that other garabage) that they paid "designers" tens of thousands of $$$ and don't get shit in return. Site is structured improperly - it just sucks, not effective as a selling tool for your business. Have had to redesign sites to be SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE. Call to actions above the fold on every page, setting up autoresponders (email marketing), social media, etc.. Way too many variables to list.

A big area to focus on in the future is reputation management. Businesses are getting killed cause of this. More and more people are going online to check out places of business and base their decisions off that. Simple word of mouth doesn't work anymore and those that don't realize this will be squashed in the future. Here's a good link that has some stats on it:
Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most | Nielsen Wire (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most/)

It don't matter if your the largest law firm in NYC or a small local pizza shop - bad talk and reviews can kill your business. Thats why its important for a business to be online - everywhere. Social media sites, participating and responding to reviews, pretty much being proactive. There have been instances of businesses that were too late and now need to do damage control and do it correctly. Pretty much anything with a high client transaction value (think a law firm - how much $$$ do they make from each client, or an example I was involved with - a well known diamond dealer - big $$$ per customer - got screwed from bad reviews and shady SEO practices). They got murdered everyway possible from their business name showing up negatively on all the big review and ratings sites to having their own site penalized and parts of it dropped from the search engine. Lost a ton of business. Big competition like this will pay into the six figures for services like this alone.

Again this is a very lucrative business to be in, as long as you are ethical about it. You probably haven't heard about it that much considering this isn't something you can just go to college, get a degree, then go get a job in it. I've seen places offering courses on it but they were so BASIC. Nothing is better then real world experience, learning and applying it on your own. It's a big business, only going to get bigger and bigger in the future. For a local business they are seeing that spending 10-20k a year just for an ad in the phone book/newspaper/print just isn't giving them the return they want anymore. Ad spend and marketing is going online more and more each year. For online only businesses and websites, if they are smart, they know competition is fierce and they will be crushed by the next guy who is doing things the right way.

one big thank you in in order.

[DJ DICK]

You need to educate yourself on what it is and how it works before you jump in. I might suggest that PPC is a better approach. You get instant traffic, and once you find out what keywords are bringing you $$ then you SEO those keywords.

PPC is where you test tweak and refine. Once that is done you expand into SEO.

I teach people adwords and am very good at it. I teach people in one of the top 5 most compeitive niches which is home based business/network marketing. Google is not even too crazy about the whole industry, so you have to provide value.

I would seriously recommend PPC first, then SEO. PM me if you have questions.

SEO is not worthwhile until you have a finely tuned sales funnel. Why spend the money and time on SEO if your site converts poorly. With PPC you get instant traffic and insights into your sites performance.

[radioboy407]

dont waste your time with BING ppc. it def is not converting very well for my company

[JUSTIN]

You need to educate yourself on what it is and how it works before you jump in. I might suggest that PPC is a better approach. You get instant traffic, and once you find out what keywords are bringing you $$ then you SEO those keywords.

PPC is where you test tweak and refine. Once that is done you expand into SEO.

I teach people adwords and am very good at it. I teach people in one of the top 5 most compeitive niches which is home based business/network marketing. Google is not even too crazy about the whole industry, so you have to provide value.

I would seriously recommend PPC first, then SEO. PM me if you have questions.

SEO is not worthwhile until you have a finely tuned sales funnel. Why spend the money and time on SEO if your site converts poorly. With PPC you get instant traffic and insights into your sites performance.

I disagree. Without a good organic foundation you are only concentrating on short term business. A truly successful campaign will combine both PPC and organic. The campaigns i see that are the most successful are the ones that have great organic placement and supplement with PPC (we work with over 2,000 clients in NY alone). Organic traffic will usually outnumber PPC in terms of new visitors (with some of my clients getting 80% of thier overall traffic from Organic) I guess it totally depends on the situation and the needs of the client and on the industry they are in. I also work with Law Firms and the ones who spend all their budget on PPC are th eones that usually say the internet doesnt work and it was a waste.

If you really want to learn about the industry I suggest signing up for as many newsletters and monitor as many SEO sites as possible. Doing that and having hands on experience will help you develop skills very quickly. Like Dimitry said it isnt rocket science but most people do not have the time or patience to learn it when they are running a business and will pay big bucks to have someone do it for them.


Here are af ew sites to get you started

Search Engine Marketing Tips & Search Engine News - Search Engine Watch (SEW) (http://searchenginewatch.com/)
Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/)
SEO - Search Engine Optimization | Read SEOmoz, Rank Better (http://www.seomoz.org)
Weekly search engine optimization and website promotion news (http://www.free-seo-news.com/index.php)