SEO outsourcing.

Digital Pointers:

Call me an SEO advanced amateur.

I have been doing SEO work for a web site where I get paid on commission. My client is getting more serious about SEO now that he sees what my work so far has accomplished. He wants me to get us in the top 10 in google for his choice words, and is willing to pay. I have been paid on a commissions basis for the stuff we sell, but the site owner is now interested in paying me for SEO directly and I would give up commissions. This would be a one month trial.

I now have to decide whether to do this myself, given what I have learned so far, or hire someone, freeing me up for other duties.

I am hoping to get some ballpark quotes from digital pointers, to help me with my decision, and perhaps to outsource the work.

The details are as follows.

We want to target google for the words "gebraucht notebook", "gebraucht laptop", and spelling variations. This is german for "used laptop".

Currently we are on page two or three for a couple of terms. We want to be on page 1 for all the terms (8 with spelling variations). First 3 results would be even better.

The words we want are competitive, and we want results quickly. It would be great to write great content and wait for people to link to us, but I believe to achieve this goal we probably need SEO of the "black hat" variety, which most of our competitors do shamelessly. Doorway pages, font with same background color as page, whatever works. I realize this has to be balanced against angering google and getting us kicked out of the index, so this also needs to be taken into account if we outsource the work. Black hat yet, but perhaps not completely outrageous -- anyway, there would be ground rules on what is ok and what is not.

Overture says this should be generating ~1000 searches a month, so I figure the google numbers around 5-6000. Maybe more. This is in line with the traffic we have been seeing after my modest optimization efforts so far.

Right now we are on page 2 or 3 on only a couple of terms, I would get paid for getting us up to page 1, more if in the top 3. And I would be targetting more terms, spelling variations, etc.

How much would this cost to outsource?

Outsourcer performance would be monitored using the digital point ranking tool. (As would my performance if I do this inhouse.)

Appreciate any insights, thoughts, or bids.

Best regards,

Thomas.

 

I was under the impression that If anyone did this, then the google algo would wipe them out...

 

There is no need for doorways, fonts, etc. Do it fair- get links, add content.

 

Looks like you have some good competition.

I personally wouldn't go the "black hat" route, but rather do good "white hat" (for lack of better terms).

Sure make doorway pages, but make them actually useful. Who's to say a doorway page can't actually benifit the customer/visitor. Deditcate an entire page to the keyword "gebraucht notebook" and write about the notebook, used "related terms" (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=707) and link to the appropriate pages with good anchor text. Plus all the other good SEO techniques.

Then maybe link to that page here in the forums with your signature and see how quickly that page rises in the ranks. In fact get good links from friends/related sites.

Overall the customer has to understand that it doesn't happen over night if you do it right. You can do things to speed things up a bit, but making a page rank number one in a couple days isn't highly probable. Otherwise a lot of other people would do it and make their millions right away and quit. plus Google wouldn't be serving the "best" content if everything jumped around so quickly. There is a better way to explain this, but I can't seem to find the words for it right now.

Good Luck on getting bids, I'd bid, but I am rather busy right now, plus there are probably others that could do much better than me anyhow.

 

One Hundred Billion Dollars.

But seriously, I doubt you'll find many people in an SEO Forum that will say they are willing to do "black hat" SEO. I certainly am not one of them. Do it the right way - it will take time. The client must understand this. Any black hat tricks are just as quick to be penalized as they are to be successful.

 

Why the fixation with google in Germany? Google does not have the lions share of the market there.

T-Online 34.2%

Google 34.1%

MSN 29.5%

Web.de 19.7%

Yahoo! 15.0%

freenet.de 13.8%

AOL 13.4%

Lycos Europe 11.3%

Arcor 6.3%

Tiscali 5.1%

This is penetration NOT search share, so they will add up to more than 100%

That aside, whilst there may be a bit of competition, and whilst some of those are using some dodgy tactics. There is absolutely no need to go down that route. As for wanting to get it done within a month Ha! there is a saying, marry in haste, repent at leisure. If you need instand results then PPC while you build your SEo to a level that will negate the need for PPC.

If your going to go black hat then go the whole hog & cloak your butt to the top. But, it is then no good crying if or when your competition report you, and you get pulled from directories, and banned from Se's.

 

You won't have a problem moving up in the serps with quality linking and codes.

 

You're clearly more interested in the quick dollars than the longer term. If true, then DO go the dodgy route. Remember - it's your clients site, not Google's.

If you want sustainability, and a fast result, then perhaps you should keep in mind that Google uses rolling updates. Create 2 NEW pages, and optimize them for ("gebraucht notebook" & "gebraucht laptop") using SEO-Guys tutorial -stick to the guidelines mentioned.

Get yourself 2 authoritative links on top of anything you currently have. If it means buying them then do so. Point them at these pages respectively. Get yourself 4 pr 5 links. Buy them if necessary. Point them 2 apiece at each page. Ensure each page has 4 outbound links to sites that feature pos 1 or 2 in the serps for related keywords.

Ensure you're doing this under a .de domain, and that auth sites used cater to relevant German audiences. Remember to follow up with a linkage campaign targetting these pages afterwards, else they'll drop in 3 to 4 weeks. You could try any variety of bulk linkage ops out there.

If you don't see a decent result within 14 days, then you should search Google for an SEO firm and make a phone call or 2.

 

Google Germany only indexes about 110,000 sites for "gebraucht laptop" so in that respect it may not take as long as you think to get to the top.. Good SEO and some good related backlinks should do the trick... SEO alone may go a long way..

GOOD LUCK!!!

 

it shouldn't be very hard to rank for that at all, actually.

the number #1 result has about 60 inbounds, the next highest has 12.

just internal links and anchor text could get you a long way. getting 60 externals, though, wouldn't be hard at all.

 

I forgot to say, thank you!

Actually, I didn't realize there were so many replies, because I forgot to set email on response, but that's fixed now. Thanks people.

By the way, in case it interests anyone, I was quote $5000 in a private message. I didn't bite, but given my experience I think it was a fair quote, or at least in the right ballpark.

Thomas.

 

Doorway Pages are a thing of past

 

Moreover These days Google look for content more than anything