I have quite a few years experience myself with this end of the business but my problem is that I no longer have time to focus on this aspect of our site. I'm looking for a specialist who's willing to work on our site with me in regards to seo, and gaining new links (Direct and not our referral links). We're looking at expanding our SE traffic reach as well and specifically for terms like advertising etc. Please pm me if you feel you'd qualify and we can discuss further details! Thanks.
There is no such thing as a "specialist," because this is not rocket science. Besides, seo is highly overrated. Down below is everything that these people do when optimizing a site, with a few things I know about that many don't do. It takes only a few minutes to optimize a site. 1. For starters...do a search on keywords that pertain to your site. Then check out the source of the sites that are on page one. Copy what they are doing, and then tweak it to match your site. Example: <html> <head> <title> Unheard Of Dating Tips Sex Tips That Actually Works</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META NAME="description" content="Double Your Dating! Double Your Sex! Keep A Conversation Going! Conversational Openers Women Love! Over 500 Unheard Of Tips!"> <META NAME="keywords" content="Dating Advice."> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> </head> Another one: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="tip.css" /> <title>The Top 10 Tips To Seduce Her Men Gave Thumbs Up. TheList.FM</title> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="Seduce her this way, guys."> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="TheList.FM's Cutting Edge, REALISTIC, Tips On How To Seduce Her That Have Worked, Time After Time. For Guys Who Hate The Typical BS Seduction Manuals."> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> There are a couple of more variations, but you get the idea. But do not copy and paste their code! It may screw the formatting up in your site! "Experts" say to make sure that it is in order. Title, then the keywords, then the description.... Again, look at the other sites. Many have different variations. It doesn't matter. Some have: META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> while others don't. Pretty confusing, huh? This is one of many reasons why you shouldn't put much stock in SEO. Did you know that many high-ranking sites don't put keywords in their HTML? Instead they put it in the content on their page. Just goes to show you that sometimes it isn't necessary. 2. Do NOT overuse the keywords on your pages. Use just a few, and put them in the first quarter of your page. 3. Bold and italicize SOME keywords. It isn't known for a fact if it works or not, but nothing is lost by doing it. Rule of thumb: When questioning a method on whether it works or not, if it doesn't hurt a site, put it in anyway. Cover all your bases. 4. Put a keyword in your anchor of the text in the inbound link. 5. Put a keyword in your pages' URL. Example: TheSite.com/dating-advice. 6. Put a keyword in the incoming link text. For example: If you wrote an article for a site, have at the end of your article: "Click here now for more dating advice." When you hover your mouse over the link, it will show your URL, while at the same time it has a keyword. Now, this isn't full proof, but, again, cover all your bases. 7. Put keywords in text surrounding the incoming link text. Again, not full proof. 8. Keep the landing pages short, fast loading, and change the content every now and then. I call any page in your site a "landing page," since you will have visitors landing on your pages from a search. 9. Can you write short articles for websites to carry? If so, submit it to them. The more sites that have your link, the higher your ranking. Obviously. 10. Submit to the major directories. There are hundreds of them, but only a half a dozen or so carry any real weight. But I think that it is a waste of time. Maybe five or so years back it would have made a difference, but not much now. But there is no loss in trying anyway. 11. Make a site that visitors want to link to. 12. Copy your competition. Click on "view" in your toolbar, and then click on "source." Again, do NOT copy and paste their seo code, as this may screw up your site’s formatting! Don't bother with old sites, and content sites. Askmen.com and About.com are two such sites. Yahoo and Google loves these kinds of sites because they have been around for years, and they are loaded with fresh content every day. They can, basically, do no wrong. 13. If your site has less than, oh, say... 10 pages, for example, forget site maps. They are worthless. Search engine computers can go through your few pages at a blink of an eye. 14. Resubmit to the search engines. Be sure. It doesn't hurt. Do it only one time! 15. Find a good SEO firm that buys QUALITY backlinks that matches the same subject your site is on. If you have a site on web hosting, you don't want backlinks on automotive. 16. Make more info pages in your site. Articles, tips, "how to," directories... Have a goal of making at least two pages every week. They don't have to be long pages. It can be just a few short paragraphs. In a years time you will have over 100 keyword-enriched pages. Double it, or triple it if you have the time. And, remember, the older and more active your site is, the higher your odds goes up on being placed on page one...and staying there. Your luck improves. 17. Contact Google and Yahoo for this kind of SEO information. They will help you. It's part of their business to help you. 18. You may have heard that you should have a style sheet. That way the search engines can easily read your page. That's BS. As long as it is not a large site, their spiders can go through those tables just fine. Again, look at all the sites that do have tables. They even beat out the overrated sites that have style sheets. 19. Do NOT use frames in your site! 20. Don't use too much java script. 21. Make sure you have text in your picture. Hover over my picture on the top of this page of the guy looking at the laptop. See the text pop up? Also, hover over the woman's eyes down below. Some search engines put more weight in sites that tell visitors who can't see the picture what is in that space. Of course this too isn't full proof, but since you are building a page, why not do it anyway? Build the page, optimize it just like the overrated SEO experts do, and then move on. 22. If you have a lot of information, break it up in several pages. The more words there are on a page, the higher the odds are that they could, COULD drown out the keywords. It is not known for sure if this works, but why take that chance? Besides, I think it makes sense. I'm not sure, but I think that is the main reason why such content sites like Askmen.com and About.com don't have a whole lot of text on one particular page. 23. Exchanging links, and leaving your url link in high-ranking sites. Obviously. This is not full-proof, as many will attest to, and it can also take A LOT of your time. Sorry, but that is the reality of it. 24. Post your url, along with the right keywords in high-ranking message boards. Like this one. Read post #12 in this thread: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=8575110#post8575110 But do keep in mind that many times it does not stay on top. Yet another reason not to put much stock in seo. When putting in the title and the description in your html, make sure you make it appealing, a cut above all the others. For example: In the title, put in the price of your product, or put in the word “free.†If you are lucky enough to land high, they should see something like this: Frontline Plus – Wholesale Price $30 Frontline Plus is monthly flea preventative that kills 100% of adult fleas on your pet within 18 hours and 100% of all ticks within 48 hours. Frontline Plus contains an insect growth regulator, S-methoprene, which kills flea eggs and larvae. See where I underlined one of the most important lines when selling? Do the same. The keyword in this section was repeated 3 times. Repeat it a couple of more times down your page, and that’s it! Don’t over do it! Don’t forget to create duplicate pages on such products, in case they type in “dog†or “cat.†Have 3 pages, one for dog, cat and pets. But rearrange the title, description and the actual page a little bit, for the obvious reason. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be a lot. There are, literally thousands upon thousands of sites, pages that look very similar. Google, Yahoo, and all the other engines know this already. Doorway Pages You can create a doorway page that could, COULD increase your chances in getting ranked higher, because there are fewer words on that page. Fewer the words, while having the keywords there, increases the chances because, of course, your keywords are not as drowned out as what a regular homepage may do. But, just know that many users don't like them. For me, as an example, if I go to a site, and I have to click again just to see the actual homepage, I may not do it. Hey, we are a click happy society, and you will get many who are clicking over to your site, JUST to click. They are also bored. You want to immediately grab your visitors' attention! So keep that in mind. I'm not a fan of SEO, because it is, well, overrated. Then you have posters on boards flat out lying when they say they get thousands of daily visitors. But if you do want to increase your chances, do a lot of short, keyword-enriched subpages (subdomains) instead, and update them a few times a month.
I believe they stated that they no longer have the time to do it themselves. They also noted that they have lots of experience so while any suggestions are useful for others this person is looking to hire talent or that's how I read it.
Copper, that was a lengthy post. Some of what you said is right on, and some is way out there in left field. And as stated above, the OP is looking for someone to HIRE, meaning he/she simply doesn't the time to do it anymore. Most businesses hire SEO because they don't have the time to perform it; they need to work on THEIR business and they want to hire someone to market them. Pretty much everyone can mow their own lawn or even build a fence if they take the time to learn. Have you ever heard "work smarter, not harder"? Hire people to do what they're good at so you can focus on what you're good at. If you try to do everything yourself, you're not going to be very successful.
It takes less than 10 minutes to optimize each page in a site. If someone is THAT busy, well, I wonder if he or she has the time to go to the bathroom. Listed above is what many charge several hundred dollars for. ... Believe it or not. Check their rates. It's outrageous! And it's not even guaranteed that a site will be ranked high, either. It just doesn't work that way. Maybe the site will land on the first few pages, and maybe it won't.
copper, you're right about the on-page factors being easy and even quick if you know what you're doing, but the most important thing - link building, is what takes up the time and effort. You can never have too many good quality links into your site. Google is becoming increasingly intolerant of spammy paid-for text links and so good, ethical links are needed to boost your site ranking. If I could find someone who would help me with ethical link building for my sites (writing quality articles, etc.) I'd definitely pay them to do it in order to free up some of my time!
Agreed, Mr. Backpack. Although it can take time, when it comes to doing it on a daily or weekly basis it doesn't take as long as one thinks, and it isn't that hard, either. It's all in how you do it. For example, do a search for sites that may have a links page. Do a search on the site's name, followed by such keywords as: cool links, link exchange, friends.... Then contact the webmasters who have their urls there. Here's a sample page to look at: http://www.davesdaily.com/coollinks.htm. There's a whole slew of webmasters right there to contact. That is, if you have that kind of a site. Although it took him over three years to do, with a few hours a week, he readily admitted that he didn't need even half of them. But he still did it anyway. I would not hire anybody to do this. It is very hard to trust them not only on doing it the right way but also ethically. You don't need hundreds of links, anyway. Look at all of the sites out there that are ranked high, but they don't have that many links. You ain't gonna like me saying this, but, it is just luck landing high. But that's not to say to not do the seo.
Seo is a combination of factors and each one of these replies contain only a portion of good SEO practice. The Meta Tags or the Meta Description is a viable component to good SEO, but the Meta keywords have almost no bearring on the ranking of a website. Good original content is the most important aspect to white hat SEO strategies. In fact 1 original and unique page of content on a website is worth 200 pages of copied content. Increasing the ranking of a site beyond original content involves Internal and external anchor links, Making sure your keyword densities are not viewed by the SE's as word stuffing, A few backlinks from some authoritative websites of your industry, and ensuring the the site does not remain constant month after month. The backlinks are important, however, we have websites with very little backlinks generating over one million SE directed hits per month producing revenues in excess of one $300,000 per month. You can view some of our projects at pagetrends.com.