Don’t Pay Monthly SEO Fee
I’ve been developing small business websites for 10 years now and still haven’t figure it out what exactly monthly SEO fee is for.
Most of Search Engine Optimization experts (SEOs) will try and convince you that SEO doesn’t have anything to do with Web Design, is a totally different issue and you need a monthly fee in order to rank high on Google and have qualified traffic to your website. They abuse one of the Google ranking factors: as the site ages, it will be more trustful and will rank better. They will not do much and you will pay them for that. They will even remind you each month that “your website is up on Google, we work so hard for you”. Is it really?
Let’s discuss our methodology. When someone designs a website with us, we take care of all the details like optimized CSS/XHTML code, website architecture, meta description tags, title pages, keywords targeted, etc. This means proper web design. META and TITLE tags, h1 and h2 tags, are HTML markup language not SEO tags. After going live, we place some links in our portfolio and maybe on some relative websites and web design/CSS galleries and that’s it.
In a couple of month the website will rank great, usually in the first page of Google search results. We do not charge anything for SEO. Ever. We just charge for web design services. We don’t even tell the client we have been taking care of SEO unless he asks.
Amazingly, a couple of weeks ago, someone contacted one of my clients and told him that he can rank much better for a couple of hundreds monthly fee. He is on the first position on Google Search Results. Here is the client: http://www.saberexterminating.com. Search on Google “Termite Inspection Raleigh”. Is he in front? So, what more would the SEO company do? Unless they were planning to develop same content for them or run a Google AdWords campaign, which I doubt, they were just trying to rip my client off.
Read and watch this recent interview with a well known Google engineer in USA Today. Try and find something that makes sense for a monthly fee. I couldn’t.
I am aware there are lots of SEO professionals out-there that do a good job for their clients, especially for medium businesses. All I’m saying is that someone who modifies title tags and meta descriptions, and builds some links, shouldn’t be paid a monthly fee unless he has a comprehensive SEO plan and is able to explain what exactly he will do and what results you might expect. Google AdWords plus search engine optimization plus a great looking optimized website definitely leads to success.
I would like to hear some comments about this issue. Maybe I don’t get it right, but then, how do my clients rank high on Google without any monthly fee? Read more about Search Engine Optimization in Raleigh-Durham.
The monthly retainer, or fee, is because seo work is done over time. X number of links built per month, selecting new keywords based on month to month search volume, etc
. Plus, Google’s algo changes, so strategies need to be reworked. Why do so many of your clients rank well in Google? I’m just guessing but maybe they are one of a very few pages that are actually targeting a specific keyphrase. 99% of sites built by 99% of all ‘web design’ firms have ZERO thought put into any SEO at all. True, just a smidge mixed with age is all it takes some times, but in the more competitive fields, it takes a lot more than ‘just good content’ (sorry, it’s true) or a few ‘good links’ to get REAL traffic. Usually, the monthly fee is month to month, with no commitment. So, if you don’t get the results, the traffic you’re looking for, I get fired.
I can see how you might have a lot of questions about seo, and by all means seo is full of shysters, but good seo people will always charge a monthly fee. A lot of people in the design side, HATE seo people and the industry, because they don’t understand, and quite simply, there’s a lot of money in it if you can provide results. Typically SEO people do NOT do design, because there is a lot less money in it, and it can be outsourced to India for pennies, which makes it harder and harder to make money at it. SEO, totally different.
PS. Thanks for raising these questions.
Steev,
Building links is a practice not approved by Google. In fact here what Google says: “It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links“.
Why don’t you explain what specifically you charge clients for a monthly fee. This way you can bring some light to the subject. From your comment I see you charge a monthly fee for building links and selecting new keywords. Is that all?
No, it’s to keep them at the top. I pride myself on honesty, and tell clients and prospects before they hire me, that after they get to the first page of Google and stay there. So we agree to a initial commitment of 2-6 months, and then it’s a month to month basis. Every month they get their reports showing their progress in the SE’s for their target keywords, as well as their stats showing what keywords delivered what traffic, as well as a report showing my link building efforts and anything else we did to make this happen.
But, some clients are on pay for performance model, meaning they get charged for the number of new visitors, leads, etc, or they pay when a certain ranking is accomplished. There are many ways of working with a client, and each is different. Different industries, different budgets, different goals.
SEO takes time in competitive markets, and that’s a fact. Some industries and their key phrases take 1000’s of links to be competitive. If you built these links in one month, you would shoot to the top of the search results, and be de-indexed within 60 days. Slow and steady while being prolific works.
Any 5 year old can put keywords in a title and on page. In fact, I actually let my five year old ‘help dad’ by putting keywords in page titles, headings, etc. Of course I double check, but you’re missing the point: my five year old can do it.
When it comes to link building, a different story. That’s why 99% of ‘web design’ companies do not offer SEO. It’s because link building takes time…and lots of effort.
This is why Google values incoming links as more important than the ‘words on a page’. Their algo is 80 percent based on incoming links and anchor text, that’s why they don’t want people doing it.
That’s why it works!
That’s why it’s important to take your time and do it right.
Bear in mind, I don’t care what Google says about anything, I only care about results. I openly admit that I manipulate Google’s results. I am very good at it. True, it is NOT ONLY the number of links, but ALSO the quality of the links. Both have importance. The bottom line is that a small business owner doesn’t have the time to learn and then do this, and since it is real work to find good links (especially the non reciprocal variety) it has a high value when it translates into traffic.
I don’t want to have any type of adversarial relationship with anyone, so please don’t misunderstand my tone, by the way. I enjoy your blog, even if your comment links are no follows.
I hope this helps to shed some light.
Steev,
I enjoy this discussion. My point is that in the long run, link building doesn’t work. You know this is true. You can get fair amounts of traffic by building links but all that traffic will disappear the moment you stop the campaign.
We have different perspectives about SEO, that’s all. I focus more on the long run… in having a steady amount of qualified traffic from search engines without building links.
And what about potential clients, the visitors you should value most? This is how I measure the results, asking my client how many new clients did he get form his website. Traffic… doesn’t matter. I used to lose precious time on details just to be sure the website will be accepted in a design gallery and the client will get hundreds of visitors per day for free. No one contacted the client. All that traffic didn’t helped at all.
It is my strong opinion that SEO and Web Design should go hand in hand if you want a successful website that will generate some business.
I have to admit I disagree with you here Chip.
I’m not sure where the animosity comes from between web designers and SEO’s. I have had many discussions with the owner of a local web design firm here in Central Florida. And before we started having drinks / lunch from time to time, he felt the same way. Not we frequently refer clients and work to eachother. Perhaps it’s the fact that some in the SEO field place blame for poor rankings (oftne unfairly) with web designers.
And let’s also face the reality that there are many people out there who read an ebook and a few forums and believe they are a SEO Guru. (The same can be said of someone who reads a basic html book and downloads a pirated copy of dreamweaver)
So in reality both of our fields have bad apples, I think we can agree on that. But after reading this blog post and some of your previous ones, I get a feeling that you are taking the bad for the whole.
A SEO service conducted on a 30 day pay basis has many benefits.
Traditional SEO services can charge thousands and usually provide 3-6 months of service and link building packaged in. Going month to month spreads that out, and as you know it’s difficult for many small businesses to afford a huge outlay of cash especially today.
So there is the price point, so long as there is no long term commitment I think it’s a positive over the “one time charge”.
Another benefit is accountability. If a large seo firm charges a business $3000 for services, once they’ve completed it, they are typically done and move on.
Having payment spread out, keeps the company active and ensures services are delivered.. otherwise the client will cancel and probably chargeback. A problem I have never had with in my firm.
My company provides a slew of services.
We do content management, adding additional (original content) to client sites. There original web designer built the foundation and made the site beautiful, we help flesh it out with great content for people (and search engines)
We offer monitoring of stats (this applies more in specialized fields such as with Car Dealers, who use third party hosts and often don’t have acceess to server logs or a cpanel.
We offer continuous link building services. Local and regional directories help send real traffic. We also use social media, bookmarking, offsite blogs, microblogs, etc. to spread the word and put their name everywhere we can.
This helps more with search engines then actual traffic. But of course having higher search rankings is the goal because that is where real traffic comes from, not directories or galleries.
Generally speaking building links does not generate real direct traffic. If I create a link from a custom national targeted blog about a car driving tips and point to a car dealer in orlando, the odds of it generate a lot of real direct traffic are low (even less that that person would be local and convert to buy a car) As I said Chip - link building is just about pushing up the rankings, and it’s links from content rich sites and pages that take real work to create.
We help them control their name (many companies I come across don’t even rank for their name!) then we focus on their business type and city, then their neighboring cities, county, and metro areas nearby, before turning towards their competition directly with microsites.
Our campaigns are run like a war room, we do not sit idly by.
We also do reputation management, especially with car dealers, helping them to push negative reviews off the front pages of the search engines.
Our service is just as much an on-going offsite marketing campaign as it is a technical adjustment to their website.
It’s true that basic SEO can be done by anyone. Just like basic web design can be done by anyone with dreamweaver.
The truth is though, that truly effective service in both cases requires a professional.
I’m disappointed you’ve run across optimizers that have given you a bad taste. Is our service a form of manipulation? Sure. It’s a form of advertising.. what advertising isin’t a form of manipulation?
One last thing.. jumping back to link building, you had said you rank fairly well without any link building.
I would interject that you have 908 incoming links to your website, the vast vast majority of which from your client websites saying
Web Design: Better Image
In this case your harvesting links just by doing business. Your business is the exception because of it’s field. A typical business doesn’t get this naturally Chip.
I know on my website I don’t give put Stationary by: Office Depot
Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m just saying that maybe you are under estimating some of the inadvertant seo that apply you you and don’t to your clients. (Not saying your clients don’t rank well either, just making a point.)
Look forward to this convo.. even though it’s on track to kill one of my keywords with this rich content and activity. Ahh well.
Anthony,
Thanks for your great reply. You definitely bring some light to the subject. Actually, you are able to explain visitors what a good SEO campaign is about.
Please don’t get me wrong. I used to do link building but in the last three years I realized that once a website is established, link building will not make any difference. Everything is about on page optimization… Google knows you are good, now you just have to show him what your website is about.
My blog post was mostly intended for my clients who keep receiving emails that tells them they can rank much better and have hundreds of visitors per day if they will pay a “small” monthly fee.
I just don’t want my clients to fall for this. In fact, I will point them to your comment to read what good SEO strategy is about.
Chip,
I appreciate the kind words. It’s a shame there are those out there that make it difficult for both of us.
Feel free to e-mail me if you ever wish to continue the discussion.
I’m always open to working with established web designers that I can have confidence in recommending to my clients. As stated, when it comes to beautiful, awe-inspring websites, I leave it to experts such as yourself.
Anthony