Wow. Thanks a lot for the tip on what to do. If would recommend one to do analysis for competition backlinks, profile, serp tracking, keyword analysis and site audits all in one app which would you use. Don't want to spend so much current with the few clients we have right now. Was looking at SEO powersuite but still on the fence whether to buy it or not. Used the free edition and seems to be quite decent but want to hear from long time users.
I'm not sure all of that can be done in 1 app. Maybe Moz pro but I'm not super familiar with their service. When I first started off I didn't spend a cent. GA and GSC were all I used. You can share Ahref and Majestic accounts with other SEOs and split the cost 50/50 or 33/33/33.
MSM allows 10 free keywords to be tracked so just use 1 email per client to start.
Screaming Frog is free and you have access to most of the important stuff with the free version.
These guys also have some good apps.
http://www.seoreviewtools.com/seo-tools/
Since you consider yourself "Grey hat". When you're building links for a clients money site, would you build blackhat links directly to the money site or would you create a web2.0 / new domain in the same niche and point your blackhat links to those?
Clarification:
Client Site <- PBN <- PBN
or
Client Site <- Web2.0 / Buffer Site <- PBN <- PBN
I'm wonder since someone reached out to me and I'm seeing what's the best way. I would pick for the first way for my own sites, but this client wants to see the links first and I don't want to to show them my PBN network. I would rather keep that safe and avoid them doing anything to my domains in there.
Depends. A quality PBN can be tier 1 links. If you spam then spam a tier 1 link. Most of the work I do is white hat and the black hat stuff just helps give the white hat efforts the kick it needs. I always take caution with how much blackhat I use as there are quality business websites I'm working with.
MS <- Tier 1 (PBN)
MS <- Tier 1 (whatever) <- Tier 2 (spam)/ web 2.0's/parasites.
Always wondered what approach do people like you take while servicing clients. Clients always like to see results, definite results. When they ask you to promise them something, whether it's traffic or rankings, how do you tackle that?
That's one of the hardest aspects of client SEO is that clients often have unrealistic expectations and if you tell them the reality - some might look elsewhere.
An uneducated client see's me saying for $1,000/month you should see results after 6 months and fake SEO saying $50/month and you'll be page 1 in a month. There's a reason why most of my clients have hired (and fired) 2-3 SEOs before me.
To answer your question, I generally tell them that there are no guarantees with SEO and there are dozens of articles that back that (if chatting I'll link to a few). I also tell them that I have a 99% success rate for meeting the clients (realistic) expectations. There're a couple of things I show them:
- Do a Google search for a keyword and copy the number of results.
Their website is competition with (likely) millions of other websites. You have to prove to Google that there's is better than all of those websites (give or take 9 AKA page 1 results). You're also competing against the SEO or SEO company that those websites may employ. You're doing a hell of a job when you beat out 10,000,000 websites and dozens of other SEOs but there are other people trying to rank for those keywords and most clients just need to understand that you're literally battling other SEOs for rankings.
do you only do client SEO or anything on your own too?
Yes, some of my clients are people who have affiliate SEO sites and need consulting. I also have a list of MS ideas to try out and create threads about but my time is limited right now. Right now I handle:
- Client SEO
- SEO consulting
- Email marketing
- Marketing strategies
- Web development
First of all, this is a great thread OP. I expected BS and you reverted my expectations, thanks for doing this.
Yeah, that is exactly what the terrorism put out by search engines is supposed to achieve. Matt Cutts has said explicitly that people who do SEO are like criminals who subvert the legal system for profit. He actually went there. Gaming his search engine results is like a criminal gaming the system. That propaganda is efficient.
Social media and the Internet have in fact indoctrinated a whole generation to be passive, accept everything and obey. SEO customers are no different.
Tell a bunch of idiots to go hunting Pokemons and just the other day I was getting into my car at 7 PM when I saw a bunch of idiots walking around filming everything with their stupid phones and I asked WTF was going on, they said it was Pokemon Go. Idiots become voluntary surveillance cameras just to capture inexistent beings.
With a generation like that what do you expect? Tell them you bought a link and they freak out because they must obey a corporation. That's the world we live in.
From my understanding of the SEO world - Matt has a point. I don't think Larry Page thought that people would create careers out of ranking things on Google. What we're doing is manipulating their algorithms in order to put our websites / our client's websites ahead of the websites that Google thought should be there. In doing so, we're also lowering their profit. The point of a corporation is to generate the highest amount of profit as it can and we're shitting on their annual revenue because people spend on SEO what they could be putting towards PPC.
I can pretty much rank anything locally and that hurts Google. Some CPC for Adwords within the law and real estate biz is $100 and that money goes to me instead of Google. Not saying I'm anything special but I think most people who study and try hard enough can do what I do.
I think millennials (which I am one) have been Google's fucking nightmare. We were born into the internet, I've been online since I was 5 (mostly just computer games back then, but still). We know how to exploit the internet and turn the tide in our favor. Many of use resort to passive income methods which lead to SEO. I bet if you survey all the fast food workers in the US, a good portion of them are trying to make passive income online to supplement their shitty pay which leads to learning about SEO, which leads to more info, which leads to new tactics that are difficult for Google to shut down. That's mostly opinionated and not as well thought out as it sounded in my head but I think you get the point. Google changes based on our needs. We flock to social media, it becomes a decently-heavy ranking factor. New ranking factor that matters, new exploits. Google then adjusts to shut some of them down but...I think we'll win in the end.
Once clients work with me and gain trust they believe what I say once I prove that Google has no problem with lying and a lot of "Guru's" don't either. Consumer education within the SEO world is something I direly want to improve but it's difficult when I say "Everyone buys links" and Google says "Buy links and we'll murder your family" and there's even Guru's who say "Link building is dead, don't build links".
how can they guarantee web traffic?
http://www.DoroTraffic.Com
I saw this site the other day, don't remember how I found it. Probably on here. Just because it says "real human traffic" doesn't mean it is. I'm not saying it's not but if they use bots that come from the US (assuming the buyer is in the US) and those bots go through links, stay on the site for x time, and maybe even put an item into the cart - will most people know it's fake traffic?
Under what the service entails, it says FB ads which could be how they drive the traffic. I'm not too familiar with FB ads but if you assume no profit that's $0.02 per user (20/1000). It may be a mix of bots and $10 spent on FB or something. Can't really say too many specifics.
great thread ..... i have learnt so much. Congratulations. Most guys here dont share, they feel like if they share information its a "Sin". I appreciate guys who share, look at how Tommy and others share and grow big. Keep it up dude.
On the flip side i love seeing the Jnr VIPs & the Premium Members Desperate for info LOL....
I'll admit, there are certain things that I specifically won't share just because once it gets out to the masses - I could see a huge drop. If I have a client acquisition strategy that can earn me an extra $2,000/month, easily, and I tell the world, competition could make that drop significantly. Somethings you just have to figure out yourself. There's enough information on the internet that if you can piece together parts from various sources you'll see great success.
I don't see anything wrong with paying members thirsty for knowledge. We're not all experts at everything.
