Comments on: Google Ranking Needs a Spanking http://joeduck.com/2008/07/09/google-ranking-needs-a-spanking/ Have Blog. Will Travel. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:54:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: JoeDuck http://joeduck.com/2008/07/09/google-ranking-needs-a-spanking/#comment-77215 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:59:40 +0000 http://joeduck.wordpress.com/?p=1786#comment-77215 Hi Dana – using Webmaster tools is good advice, but they are not usually much help troubleshooting site ranking problems. The problem with SEO companies is that about 90% of them are either lousy “wannabes” (often folks working at home who have very little background and no connections in SEO), or large companies who work the conference circuit hard, luring unsuspecting businesses into long term, expensive contracts.

These high end SEO firms generally will have less ranking effect than a well written, well tagged blog that is cross linked to relevant site content. I’m reasonably considered “very advanced” in terms of SEO knowledge and therefore urge most folks to avoid hiring out their SEO. I did two really interesting SEO experiments a few years ago with two major firms and although they didn’t give me *bad* advice they gave me only *obvious* advice and poorly written pages. In one case I spent $1500 for ten poorly optimized pages, in the other I spent 10,000 for a site SEO overhaul (money was refunded due to zero results).

I know a handful of great SEO folks – many speak on the conference circuit and all have blogs. A few to name would be Danny Sullivan, Aaron Wall, Dave Naylor, Vanessa Fox, Barry Schwartz, Todd Malicoat….

I’d also suggest that any SEO firm or person without a blog that has run for at least a year or more is probably incompetent. That weeds out about 95% right there.

]]> By: dana_h79 http://joeduck.com/2008/07/09/google-ranking-needs-a-spanking/#comment-77211 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:30:01 +0000 http://joeduck.wordpress.com/?p=1786#comment-77211 Well, one very good way to see what might be wrong with your site in Google’s eyes is to use the free google webmaster tools.
Another way is to know what your webmaster is doing. Never blindly trust someone with your site.
Lastly, before starting to do SEO on the site make sure you know what you’re doing or hire a company that has a proven rate of sucess with other clients. Good SEO companies cost more but they deliver results.
Doing SEO badly can harm your site. A bad link exchange strategy can actually get you banned from Google. Good SEO may take some time but will eventually deliver results.

]]> By: Google Introduction to Google Ranking http://joeduck.com/2008/07/09/google-ranking-needs-a-spanking/#comment-77207 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:27:54 +0000 http://joeduck.wordpress.com/?p=1786#comment-77207 [...] Inquisitr, Search Engine Land, Joe Duck and Blogging [...]

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