Bullshit SEO Experts

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Davros

Davros

You Gonna Get Raped
Feb 19, 2008
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This has been mentioned before but I really, REALLY feel the need to rant a bit.

What the fuck is it with bloody SEO "experts"?

I'm not entirely sure what it's like in the US, but in the UK these so-called experts seem to be charging people through the arse for very average stuff.

Case in point is some seriously big bullshit I was reading a few minutes ago about linkbait and how much it could cost for an article plus promotion.

The breakdown is research taking a day, the execution taking another day and promotion taking 3 days, for a total of 5 days work.

The real kicker is the price though - allegedly SEO companies in the UK are charging $1000-$2000 a day just to build links, so a linkbait article would end up costing between $5000 and $10,000.

I really don't know who these pile of crap "companies", "consultants" and "experts" think they are by very obviously ripping off unsuspecting
fools.

Jon said t'other day how he was starting to hate the affiliate industry more and more - he may as well have been talking about the bullshit SEO industry as well.

Rant over.
 


I agree with your sentiments.

It's not just the UK either, I have seen plenty of SEO Agencies charging out of their ass figures for mediocre shit a 12 year old sister of UberGay could do.

One of the most rediculous faxes I have had in my office was a company offering 24 hour listing in Google for £2,000 flat rate fee.

I had to ring them and ask them what the hell was going on - people are actually falling for this shit and it's only making the internet marketing industry more fallable to criticism from the media.

If anything there need's to be some kind of marketing standards agency for the internet like they have in TV advertising etc. its a fucking joke. Rant over.
 
In a free market, anyone who can sell can do what they please.

If a guy convinces a company that he can index them within 24 hours, the company pays him, and he does it, then what's the problem?

It's no different than my cuntface dealership mechanic quoting me $800 for a repair job that ultimately the longtime independent down the road ended up doing for $250.

I'm not saying the SEO 'gurus' out there are good, but in every industry, there will always be some snake preying on some sucker. It's the nature of commerce.

"Look, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker at the table in the first 30 minutes of play, then you ARE the sucker." - Old poker saying. (not original to Rounders...)
 
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"Big" companies don't want to deal with "small" companies. Therefore they pay out the ass.

When I started my current job we didn't have any access to the web server - all web work was done by a local design agency. I created a robots.txt file and the charge to get it on the server (FTP) was $350. Register a domain and redirect via httpd - $250. Modify the CMS so that the title tags on pages could be changed (basic fucking SEO) - $12,000. Annual upgrades to our piece of shit proprietary CMS just to keep it running - ~$50K.

We did 2 redesign quotes that came in between 250K and 400K. The criteria was that any web company we would consider needed to have at least 20 employees. There's a belief that smaller companies just won't produce the same results as a larger company that charges 10-50x as much. There were meetings to decide which quote to go with but luckily I've convinced them to do everything in house now - I took over the web server and we hired a kickass graphic designer and we'll have the whole redesign done on a new CMS (drupal!!!!!) in about 3 more months.

It's just the way "big" business works.
 
So if a "small company" comes with the "appearance" that they have a room full of designers and programmers (read sweatshop full of Indians), the perceived credibility will increase chances for a big contract?

Did your people actually visit the design company to see what they had going?
 
BradleyT2p2 said:
"Big" companies don't want to deal with "small" companies. Therefore they pay out the ass.

When I started my current job we didn't have any access to the web server - all web work was done by a local design agency. I created a robots.txt file and the charge to get it on the server (FTP) was $350. Register a domain and redirect via httpd - $250. Modify the CMS so that the title tags on pages could be changed (basic fucking SEO) - $12,000. Annual upgrades to our piece of shit proprietary CMS just to keep it running - ~$50K.

We did 2 redesign quotes that came in between 250K and 400K. The criteria was that any web company we would consider needed to have at least 20 employees. There's a belief that smaller companies just won't produce the same results as a larger company that charges 10-50x as much. There were meetings to decide which quote to go with but luckily I've convinced them to do everything in house now - I took over the web server and we hired a kickass graphic designer and we'll have the whole redesign done on a new CMS (drupal!!!!!) in about 3 more months.

It's just the way "big" business works.
Click to expand...

Wow, I bet you have an awesome cubicle. I just imagine you have 3 dozen little trinkets, most with your company logo and some bullshit "rally the worker bees" slogans on them. Perhaps you even have a "recognition" consisting of some laser printed "certificate" indicating you sucked someones cock enough to make them happy.

Meh
 
Just like BS eBook authors (as an example) They make money off people with out any (or much) knowledge in the services/products they are wanting/needing/thinking-of-needing/etc..... Basically scammers, con artists, theives, etc.
 
If people are stupid enough to spend $5,000+ without doing a little research, it is their problem.

If they used a little common sense and did a couple of Google searches, they would have found out that they could have done the SEO stuff themselves for a tenth of the price.

The fact that people turn around and title themselves SEO Experts is called marketing, and then offering SEO services is called doing business. Don't be angry because you didn't think of it sooner.
 
I also have an alternative: hire me. :rolleyes:
I already do some SEO for an online dating site (a very competitive niche, if you don't mind my saying so), so I can't be that bad: I write, design, correct code, look for links and others... so, keep me in mind for next time.
 
In business, this is also called "outsourcing your weaknesses".

Case in point:
I just did a SEO analysis (no actual coding, just show the guys what can be improved and how) for someone involved in the printing business.

Now, a lot of this was REAAALLY easy for me, but then, I know this stuff.

Could the guy have found out how to work this himself?
Yes, probably, given enough time and patience and a huge pile of learning.

So he did the smart thing (yes, the SMART thing) and hired someone to do this better in less time than he would waste trying to find out about all this SEO stuff.
(and consequently, he can use the time making money with the things HE is good at)

Was the rate reasonable?

Looking at it with a naive attitude expressed in terms of "maaan, that is so easy and they are paying for it. What dorks!" ... No.

Looking at it in terms of business... Yes, definitely.

::emp::
 
alexa7 said:
So if a "small company" comes with the "appearance" that they have a room full of designers and programmers (read sweatshop full of Indians), the perceived credibility will increase chances for a big contract?

Did your people actually visit the design company to see what they had going?
Click to expand...

One company was at the time the existing web design company and the other was in Chicago so yes we visited both.

Wow, I bet you have an awesome cubicle. I just imagine you have 3 dozen little trinkets, most with your company logo and some bullshit "rally the worker bees" slogans on them. Perhaps you even have a "recognition" consisting of some laser printed "certificate" indicating you sucked someones cock enough to make them happy.

Meh
Click to expand...

WTF is that reply about? I'm just showing how companies that don't know any better (no in-house staff) are willing to spend money on whatever the latest buzzword/technology/internet fad is and how other companies get away with charging such bullshit rates as the OP put it.
 
BradleyT2p2 said:
I'm just showing how companies that don't know any better (no in-house staff) are willing to spend money on whatever the latest buzzword/technology/internet fad is and how other companies get away with charging such bullshit rates
Click to expand...

Do you realize how stupid that sounds?

Just because Company A charges $10 for X service when it is worth only $2, doesn't mean they are forcing Company B to buy it. Company B is the one who willingly bought the service.

It's not a matter of companies or people 'getting away' with anything. If the rates are so unreasonable, then DON'T PAY FOR THE SERVICE.
 
Threadstarter:

You've never seen a corporate/company budget before, have you?

It would probably make your ass bleed and your brain hemorrhage.
 
It's amazing what prices can be gotten away with when people are not aware of the costs, which is why I always ask for total breakdowns and inventories on a quote... and if it's a long term project, I'll even ask for a gantt chart.
I know how anal that sounds, but even if I don't know what I'm talking about, it makes it seem like maybe I'm not the 100% noob and can readily look around for other things.


WE know how to SEO, so these costs seem unreasonable to us.
But then again, you're not just paying for the SEO n what have you... you're supposedly paying for time (desk jockies = $600-$1000 pay per week), the education of said desk jockies if they had to be trained, their benefits, the rent of the office, the equipment and shit they do it on.
Sure, you can do it all in house much cheaper... That's usually the case for anything that doesn't require manual labour & tooling.
But most people don't know it.
 
its just like what lawyers do. I had i lawyer set up a s-corp for me for $750, which he said was cheap.
My brothers friend is a lawyer and said he would have done it for $150.
Its just easy paperwork, but every other lawyer just charges $750-$1000.
They charge that much because they can get away with it.
 
I will say there's a lot of issues in the SEO world. Off the top of my head, use no one who can't say what they'll do, no one that doesn't need access to your server to work, and no one from india(sorry to the legit guys from india, but it's just terrible right now)

I know SEOs that ARE with 20k per month. They do exist. But I know far more that charge 20k and aren't worth it.
 
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