Starting a local web agency

[doctorhm007]

Hello guys, My friends and I are planning to start a local web agency, we are 5 members at the moment and we have good UX/UI skills. So when I analyzed my competitors, I found out that they have huge links from previous projects, something like 5k to 10k backlinks according to Ahrefs, the good news is that most of those links are only in the footer with the anchor text: "designed by X" and such... along with blog comments and bookmarking sites.

My question is: can we outrank them? Even though they have been in the field since 2011 and 2013 up till now. I mean, we have good products with good skills and we can design far better sites than them.

 

[Dr. Profit]

I seem to recall hearing this can be a bad things for SEO - makes Google think you've got some evil PBN stuff going on.

 

[doctorhm007]

I seem to recall hearing this can be a bad things for SEO - makes Google think you've got some evil PBN stuff going on.

So what do you think? Should I go for the keywords? Bcz they are very targeted.

 

[ThopHayt]

Selling web design is more of a hustle game than a rank and bank game. Especially if you're a boutique designer trying to sell something that's a little nicer than the average. Lots of cold calling, visiting businesses, attending chamber events, and social networking is what you'll find your self doing. If you can rank locally on top of that, that's good. But you'll need diverse and aggressive sales tactics in order to sign enough clients to eat well in web design today.

-ThopHayt

 

[Billy Batts]

Hello guys, My friends and I are planning to start a local web agency, we are 5 members at the moment and we have good UX/UI skills. So when I analyzed my competitors, I found out that they have huge links from previous projects, something like 5k to 10k backlinks according to Ahrefs, the good news is that most of those links are only in the footer with the anchor text: "designed by X" and such... along with blog comments and bookmarking sites.

My question is: can we outrank them? Even though they have been in the field since 2011 and 2013 up till now. I mean, we have good products with good skills and we can design far better sites than them.

You can outrank anyone if you got the capital but backlinks is only one part of ranking. Do all your competitors have that many on page 1? Im also working on an agency but most of my competitiors kinda have a sucky SEO profille but then again, I always prefer the SM/marketing route than SEO.

I seem to recall hearing this can be a bad things for SEO - makes Google think you've got some evil PBN stuff going on.

Not if you make em no-follow.

 

[Deleted member 657006]

the thing is your asking a question of the business your setting up.

dont that your self tell you this business outcome .

seo only easy if you no it inside out, and keep up , it a lifetime study .

sorry but i see failure need to study

maybe in 6 months time with solid hard work might be worth a shot .

website just themes alter them and done , but seo diffrent kettle of fish takes plenty pratice and skill and money and time .

plus clients like to see certification of proof and portfollio of work .

 

[SolidTactics]

I think you need to forget about your competitors and focus on your business. From what I understand you're starting a new business right? Stay 100% focused on your business and forget about your competitors. If I was in the market for your services and I looked you in the eye and asked why should I hire you over your competitors. You should focus on amplifying your Uniquie Selling Point as a vendor rather than worrying about a backlink. Focus on making money and forget about backlinks. Once you make the money you can pay me to handle your SEO and I'll get the Government and Universities to link to your website, $hit your competitors can't get! But I'm not cheap!

 

[doctorhm007]

You can outrank anyone if you got the capital but backlinks is only one part of ranking. Do all your competitors have that many on page 1? Im also working on an agency but most of my competitiors kinda have a sucky SEO profille but then again, I always prefer the SM/marketing route than SEO.


Not if you make em no-follow.

Yes almost all of them, and I checked and saw that the footer links are d0f0ll0w.

the thing is your asking a question of the business your setting up.

dont that your self tell you this business outcome .

seo only easy if you no it inside out, and keep up , it a lifetime study .

sorry but i see failure need to study

maybe in 6 months time with solid hard work might be worth a shot .

website just themes alter them and done , but seo diffrent kettle of fish takes plenty pratice and skill and money and time .

plus clients like to see certification of proof and portfollio of work .

Sorry didn't get you, but yes we are determined to working hard for this project as we believe that we can produce better designs and products.

I think you need to forget about your competitors and focus on your business. From what I understand you're starting a new business right? Stay 100% focused on your business and forget about your competitors. If I was in the market for your services and I looked you in the eye and asked why should I hire you over your competitors. You should focus on amplifying your Uniquie Selling Point as a vendor rather than worrying about a backlink. Focus on making money and forget about backlinks. Once you make the money you can pay me to handle your SEO and I'll get the Government and Universities to link to your website, $hit your competitors can't get! But I'm not cheap!

Yes you're right! But as we are only working locally we prefer to have a strong presence in search engines. Thank you.

Selling web design is more of a hustle game than a rank and bank game. Especially if you're a boutique designer trying to sell something that's a little nicer than the average. Lots of cold calling, visiting businesses, attending chamber events, and social networking is what you'll find your self doing. If you can rank locally on top of that, that's good. But you'll need diverse and aggressive sales tactics in order to sign enough clients to eat well in web design today.

-ThopHayt

We are more than ready to market ourselves in multiples platforms like LinkedIn using cold calling and that stuff.

 

[Billy Batts]

Ok in that guess your fucked.. just kidding but yeah everyone is doing their shit different.

And I know those links are d0Follow but the nofollow was answer to that guy talking about google update.

Im not even trying to outrank my top competitors and I still get clients because I'm bad ass in marketing and getting leads. You should make ads and make them fire when people are googling your top competitors gheghe

 

[doctorhm007]

Ok in that guess your fucked.. just kidding but yeah everyone is doing their shit different.

And I know those links are d0Follow but the nofollow was answer to that guy talking about google update.

Im not even trying to outrank my top competitors and I still get clients because I'm bad ass in marketing and getting leads. You should make ads and make them fire when people are googling your top competitors gheghe

And about those keywords? Just optimize the pages very well and build better links?

 

[Billy Batts]

Well, what are better links

But yeah, optimize pages, write good articles and just be a bad ass marketer

 

[Up^rising]

I think you need to forget about your competitors and focus on your business. From what I understand you're starting a new business right? Stay 100% focused on your business and forget about your competitors. If I was in the market for your services and I looked you in the eye and asked why should I hire you over your competitors. You should focus on amplifying your Uniquie Selling Point as a vendor rather than worrying about a backlink. Focus on making money and forget about backlinks. Once you make the money you can pay me to handle your SEO and I'll get the Government and Universities to link to your website, $hit your competitors can't get! But I'm not cheap!

Nice reply dude, like the motivation inbetween the lines