

Ask HN: Does anyone do SEO out there? - takrupp

We are looking for someone in SEO to work on our online retail site.  We got semi-burned by the last group we worked with (they over promised), so I want to get HN's thoughts on doing SEO before selecting someone.<p>Would appreciate thoughts on who has worked for you, how to best pick an SEO contractor or any SEO people out there: We have money, a good little niche, if you would take on another client.<p>Thanks!
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cdsanchez
I did SEO consulting for about a year and a half up until a few months ago. My
employer was pretty happy with the results -- though I haven't kept up with
the field recently as I've been trying to focus more on software & web
development (being a Computer Science major). If you're interested let me know
what your goals are and I'll write up a proposal. I could use the job but if I
see that you wouldn't benefit much from my services I will reject your
proposal. In the past I've told potential clients that they would be better
off going to SEOMoz (or whatever site is popular these days) to read some
articles and do it themselves.

As far as promises (or guarantees rather) and SEO goes, I don't make them. A
search engine is basically a "black box" as far as I see - making a guarantee
would seem a bit disingenuous. The only promise I can make is that I would do
my best using whatever knowledge I have.

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takrupp
Shoot me your details, my email is in my profile. Thanks!

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cdsanchez
Maybe I'm just blind but I can't seem to find it in your profile. I'll add my
AIM screenname to my profile just in case you would rather IM me your email
address.

I have class for few hours in a bit but I'll try to give you a proposal either
today or tomorrow.

EDIT: Found your gmail address by following one of the sites listed in your
profile. Thanks -- I'll email you later.

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dclaysmith
I think you'll find your experience with an SEO firm was fairly common (if not
universal). They over promise and can't possibly deliver without a longterm
(ie. prohibitively expensive) involvement with your company. The company I
work for hired some of the bigger companies (SEOInc.com, Bruce Clay) and they
provided some good advice. However, at the end of the day, it was up to me to
implement the technical side of things and our SEO/SEM manager to work on the
long term stuff. Plus, the knowledge they provided is either readily available
or some new trick which is prone to change over time. Both firms cost a
fortune (well, I consider it a fortune).

Save your money, hire someone junior but clever, give them 6 months to work on
it part time--tell them not to try anything blackhat/fishy. I think you'd get
way better bang for your buck. (They can start by adding METATAGS to the first
(most important?) category (Egyptian Hookah) in your menu--Google says that
keywords/description aren't that important anymore but every SEO consultant is
going to tell you to do them first)...

You are sitting on a goldmine having a copy writer. Most longterm SEO is
developing legitimately interesting content to encourage high-quality, inbound
links. Have your copy writer colleague spend an hour or two a week writing
Hookah Articles (I'll read them--always been a bit intriqued by them) and in a
year your site will be killing it....

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rjbell
I don't post much on here, so I'll just briefly say that I run a web marketing
consultancy in Denver that has worked with several start-ups and e-commerce
stores. Email in my profile if you want to talk further.

Since the discussion in this thread is turning toward whether SEO should be a
"buy or build" decision, I'll throw my two-cents in there, as well.

If your website is a hobby or just a side-project, I think SEO is something
you can pick up by reading some of the better guides out there (SEOMoz's
"Basics" guide comes to mind). This will ensure that your site doesn't have
things like <title>Home</title> or inaccessible navigation.

However, all of "what there is to learn yourself" is what our firm would take
care of on day 1. The real SEO (the kind that commands 6-figure salaries or
5-figure monthly retainers) is much, much more in depth than the average
internet user realizes. The reason you can't learn those strategies in a day
is because most successful SEO practitioners keep them private, for obvious
($$) reasons.

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jacquesm
phpnode here on HN is pretty good:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=phpnode>

Satisfied customer here. Not cheap but worth every penny.

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gforst
Takrupp - I recently started my own SEO/SEM firm and one of the reasons being
I have seen lots of businesses get burned with high fees and promises from SEO
guys.

Here is my companies site <http://www.digitalbaltoro.com/> (site is a work in
progress)

We are a small shop but we have great experience. Here is the link to my
Linkedin profile to give you the overview <http://www.linkedin.com/in/gforst>
as you will see lots of experience in e-commerce.

Give me a buzz if you are interested in chatting some more. 312-566-8944 ext
102

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mcyger
Free SEO advice. Guaranteed replies within 24 hours.
<http://www.page2sucks.com>

It's like a StackOverflow, but for SEO and SEM.

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sjs382
I'm an SEO & SEM consultant with <http://piconsulting.com> (excuse the page
rust, we're launching something new in the near future). You can contact us
via the website or you can email me directly (steve@)

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davidw
Why not just learn what there is to learn yourself. It's not exactly rocket
science.

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jacquesm
One of the first major lessons of being an entrepreneur for me was that even
though I probably _could_ do everything myself it was not economical and not
feasible to actually _do_ everything myself.

That probably was the first lesson, but I still spent another two decades
before it fully sank in.

There are many things that, even though not rocket science, are quite
specialist in nature and it takes time and experience to get to the level
where you can do just as good a job as a specialist.

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davidw
I worked for a guy who set up a _very_ successful online business here in
Padova, and, yeah, he certainly didn't try and do it all. "SEO" was something
he very much had a handle on though, because the site lived or died by its web
presence. He brought in a couple of potential consultants to interview, but
they all seemed to not really have any knowledge that we didn't already posses
internally.

So - yeah, delegate, but some things you can't delegate. No idea about _their_
business in particular, but for a lot of online businesses, keeping track of
the basics is probably something you ought to have a feel for yourself.

It's similar to the idea that tech startups are most likely better off not
outsourcing their development work.

~~~
jacquesm
The golden rule seems to be 'trust but verify', and a little bit of knowledge
goes a long way during the 'verify' stage.

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seanMeverett
SEO is a business based on fear and confusion. The only thing that matters is
high authority backlinks pointing into your site. All the on-page stuff
matters, just not as much. And we throw the on-page stuff in for free. We
build backlinks to your site using our proprietary algorithm developed by
studying the google patent filing and extensive trial and error. All sites
hosting your link are PageRank 4+. Give me a shout and I'll send you our two-
pager on who we are, what we do, how we do it, and expected results (we've
ranked for the keyword "diet" before). Holla! :)

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Concours
maybe you could share your site url?

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takrupp
<http://HoboHookah.com>

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Concours
well, is there any reason why you keep asking for emails on a site you sell
products? Users don't even have time to find out what you sell and they
already have a popup on their faces, not a great UX , drop me a mail if you
wish ( see profile ), I will review your SEO for free and send you a report,
if you feel comfortable with my report, we could go further, if not you can
pick someone else, you may also try Patio , but he's most probably overbooked.

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takrupp
We do a lot of web marketing ourselves (just not SEO): This is a pretty proven
method in building an email list. We have double opt in and our conversion
rate is through the roof. We make a lot of money off of that pop up.

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lachyg
Paras, I know a great SEO guy, hit me up on Skype.

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pinksoda
Send me a message (AIM sn in profile) I'll help you out, no charge. I'm the
technical founder of a top 100 and top 500 site and picked up some SEO along
the way.

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paraschopra
Wanted to reach you, but frankly AOL won't let me create a new AIM account.
Captcha here is broken
[https://new.aol.com/productsweb/?promocode=825960&ncid=t...](https://new.aol.com/productsweb/?promocode=825960&ncid=txtlnkuswebr00000040)
(I'm baffled how can they afford to have their signup form broken for the past
half an hour I have been trying)

Any chance you could contact me instead? I'm paras {at} wingify {dot} com

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ddemchuk
I specifically do link building services for aggressive internet marketers and
most recently local small businesses. I built a full web app to handle all
orders and tasks and have a full staff of workers that can pump out orders
quickly and efficiently.

Register an account for free here and you can check out what I offer. We can
discuss things privately if you need a strategy put together.

<http://members.layeredlinks.com>

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ryankelly
Try www.pearanalytics.com. We scan your website in 30 seconds - no signup or
email required. (We optimized that process by running through HN before :)

