

Ask HN: Do you pay for SEO - pdenya

My site knottablenecklaces.com currently has fairly low traffic (700 uniques a month including the 500 from adwords).  
I was approached by an SEO firm: auroin.com.  Paying $200/month for this service will take a large portion of the monthly profit from this site but if the results are anywhere near as good as those posted in the few case studies they sent it'll pay for itself.<p>Is it worth it?
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soho33
doing SEO is not as complicated as you think. read a few books and you can do
it yourself

-target main keywords \- have proper titles \- validated html files \- BACKLINKS to your site from valid sites (pr4+). this will help increase your page rank and boost you in google pages. Single handedly this is the most important aspect of SEO.

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pdenya
Thanks for your input. I believe my site is built in a fairly SEO friendly
manner, with keywords taken into account in copy, titles for pages, etc. I've
been reading about SEO for a while and i've done pretty well with a few sites
but I'm sure folks who spend their days doing SEO will still be better at it
than me.

Back links are the main issue because I don't have many (any) and i'm not sure
where to get them for this particular site. Normally I'd build up content
myself but this is more of a side project and i'd rather not commit that level
of time to it.

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soho33
a word of advice, NEVER go with SEO companies that approach YOU. it should
always be the other way around.

usually the ones approaching you end up taking your money and because of the
nature of SEO it may take several months before you realize they haven't done
anything and you've already lost $1000

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pdenya
Any recommendations for reputable companies?

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aymeric
Upfront disclaimer: I run the taskarmy.com website.

Marius is one of the freelancers on the website and guarantees to put your
website on the first page of Google for $199. (If the keyword is too
competitive, he will quote a new price).

I have been following his assignments with clients and he has always delivered
what he promised to do, this is why I feature his service on the front page of
taskarmy.com.

~~~
pdenya
Thanks for the info, really nice site btw.

I'll contact Marius now, $200 as a 1 time fee and $30/month is a massive
savings over what I thought I had to pay.

~~~
oziumjinx
Don't ever give money to an SEO firm that "guarantees" first page placement.
It is impossible to guarantee such a thing and it is written over and over to
never go with a firm that promises such: [http://www.seroundtable.com/sketchy-
seo-company-google-12786...](http://www.seroundtable.com/sketchy-seo-company-
google-12786.html)

[http://www.websightdesign.com/services/search-engine-
optimiz...](http://www.websightdesign.com/services/search-engine-optimization)

~~~
aymeric
I used his services three months ago to rank my website for "outsourcing pros
and cons". It still ranks high.

The reason why he guarantees the result is because he knows how to analyze the
competition on the keyword you give him. He won't accept a keyword that is too
competitive.

And in the unlikely situation where he wouldn't deliver, my website protects
because he won't receive your payment unless he delivers.

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johnnytee
<http://seomoz.org> is an awesome research tool for seo. They do have a pro
account, it's a bit pricy but well worth it for organic keyword research.

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mrwangkai
I used to do SEO for a Samsung mobile support site. We rarely use anything
monetary in an effort to up our traffic. After a few months, we went from 30
unique per day to a few hundred per day. And by the time I left the company in
a year, we are about 3000 unique visitor per day.

It definitely takes some effort to build good content alongside some SEO
attributes. Just need patience (& Googling good ways to help things along).

I won't recommend going with a SEO firm, let alone $200/month.

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petervandijck
No.

