Getting a little tired of SEO firms/consultants

[Tedel]

On the other hand, I try to be honest and people don't want to pay...

"SEO takes at least six months of consistent work..."
"You want me to pay you six months without getting results?"
"I'm just telling you that results will be gradual. Don't expect to be 1st right away 'cuz that won't happen".
"I'd rather hire someone who really knows how to make it happen"
"OK, go..."

Result: He gets scammed.

Just my 0.02

 

[amateursurgeon]

I agree with what's said above. SEOs seem to be crawling out of the wordwork everywhere you look at the moment. A lot of them are like the techie equivalent of life coaches - people who couldn't hack it in whatever discipline they used to be in, and so moved across to something where results are harder to measure.

I had a recent exchange with one on a business social network which typifies the level of expertise of most of these people (as judged by me, who knows enough about SEO to realise that I know fuck all about SEO):

them - blah blah blah, I'm an Internet Marketing Specialist, if you know anyone who needs an SEO, please introduce them.

me - that's interesting - what would you say the top 3 mistakes people make when marketing their sites are?

them -

1. Not Optimising their sites.
2. Not registering with search engines.
3. Keeping too close an eye on the hits and not the conversion rates.

They get customers only on the basis of the "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king" principle. I've seen this happen in so many fields of IT an I think it's sickening.

 

[SniperRyan]

You just wrote my life story. Got into internet marketing because my interest in the web made me a shoe-in for everything from email marketing to MS Office troubleshooter when I worked in traditional marketing and PR.

I got into IM in a similar way: intern in a real estate office, the only one who understood Excel, the printer, the copier, the website, etc. Eventually the question gets asked "how can we get more people to see our website?"

I think SEO is such a complex game of influence that the only people who get it are people who can teach themselves to do things. I'd be willing to bet most people on this forum didn't take a computer class, didn't learn PHP in college, didn't sit and watch all the AdWords tutorials, etc. I know I didn't.

I recently trained a company on PPC setup. They were looking for a 10 point checklist or something for every division to perform. It took 3 days but I drilled into them that "it depends."

I *LEGALLY* burnt a $10M online company to the ground in a weekend because they overstepped their boundaries, and it's not even a line item on my resume. So don't tell me you're a fucking "online reputation management expert"

Right before I left my job as a corporate SEO I "de-optimized" a few key competitor pages that were in the way of my rankings. I remember the look on the President's face when he asked how I did it and I just smiled at him. That was the minute he realized I was a lot more valuable than some service that makes a few positive-tone blog posts and tries to get them ranked.

Not like he would've understood the explanation anyway.

I was actually under the impression that the services dogfighter was whining about was out of house labor .. subcontractors or whatever. Perhaps I missed that point.

You're right, he was, but you quoted me and I was talking about hiring a Digg-junkie (not contracting one). No matter if they're looking for a job or a contract though, any idiot that tells you he has "the answer" is a liar. There is no "the answer."

I feel sorry for small business owners who get taken advantage of. I got a call from a lady recently who "missed her quarterly payment to keep her website in the Google," and now her business was suffering. It's unbelievable what some people can sleep with at night.