Can someone give me an unbiased opinion and recommendation of whether
or not hiring a professional web optimization company is necessary to
drive traffic to an on line company I'm in the process of creating
(and if so, can you recommend some companies). I understand that some
of these companies can charge anywhere from $5,000-$50,000 depending
on the size of the site and the industry the company's in.
As well, a friend of mine recommended I build the website using
Macromedia's new FLEX technology. I would like the site to be fairly
interactive with on line ordering capability and user friendly. Any
recommendation regarding FLEX?
Thanks. |
Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
08 Apr 2005 12:54 PDT
Hi supersst...
Making a business work and having it
operate as a profitable venture is
what every entrepreneur strives for.
So, allow me to answer in brief your
question as it relates to all businesses
and not just those online.
Any 'new' company will have associated
start-up costs. The first few years of
a company is typically the make or break
period. Money out will usually be much
more than money in. When seeking any
consultation or professional help to
make a company profitable, you have to
be aware of the bottom-line.
Essentially what this means is. If you
can project the earnings expected over
the short term, 1 year or so, and you
find that budgeting in $xx amount of
dollars for yy consultation will still
allow you to operate in a break even
or profitable manner, and that the
consultation has added to this bottom
line more than it has taken away, it
would seem prudent to seek the help.
But, if whatever company you seek to
help you is just increasing their
bottom line at your expense, you
really don't need their help.
Additionally, if you are taking on
a venture where you have considerable
competition and you don?t have a
niche product or service and don?t
have unlimited funds backed by a
Trumpster, you will probably fail.
The obvious structure to strive
for here, is then evident. A new
company with as little competition
as possible, with a key product
or service that is not readily
available from another source at
a better pricing point and the
funds to keep it going until it
becomes self-sufficient.
Following that structure, you
will not need any company to
take your money, just to help
your traffic.
The following would seem an obvious
plug considering where we are?
but there is no better method
of increasing/creating traffic
than having a world-wide known
search engine like Google rank
you high in their results. In
fact, search engine ranking can
be a make or break situation
for most online companies.
Two companies owned by two
of my friends see their biggest
potential realized from Google
searches. Two new companies, that
are barely a couple years old
are now making tens of thousands
in net profits a year, the
majority of the traffic from
the leading search engines.
They didn?t pay for any outside
help or consultations, they just
followed the very simple rules
for making a website visible and
rank well on search engines. You
don?t need to pay someone to do
that for you. Because if you do,
you will have to pay them every
time your website has a structure
change.
If you feel you must spend money
on some sort of online advertising,
you can also try Google Adwords.
[ https://adwords.google.com/select/ ]
A straight forward approach to
directing traffic thru keyword
selection. Done properly, the
results are great.
Someone else will have to comment
on the Macromedia software? my
ultimate thriftiness has me making
web pages, the old-fashioned way,
a simple text editor.
[ https://www.ultraedit.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=16137&cat=253&page=1
]
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
supersst-ga
on
08 Apr 2005 14:08 PDT
While I appreciate your response, I find it hard to believe that the
market for SEOs (Search Engine Optimization companies) was entirely
created by companies willing to waste money on something they could
have done on there own.
I guess I'm already convinced that the ROI I would receive from an SEO
would justify the initial expense. What I'm looking for is someone who
has gone through the experience of attempting to increase traffic to
its website on their own (with what kind of success) and then later
deciding to hire an SEO (with what kind of success).
With this first hand knowledge I figured a recommendation could be
given......"Yes after hiring an SEO my website received 5x the amount
of hits it did before I hired them, when I attempted to use key words
and google ads to increase the traffic."
"I used XYZ SEO and would highly recommend them......Or, I used XYZ
SEO but would not go with them again, I've learned of a much better
SEO that I would highly recommend."
I guess you're right AI, it's always about money out vs. money in for
an entrepreneur. I'm committed to sending this money out, I just want
to know, with a higher degree of success, with whom should I spend
this money.
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Request for Question Clarification by
alienintelligence-ga
on
08 Apr 2005 14:46 PDT
Well, just to be clear, you
DID ask for an unbiased opinion
whether SEOs were necessary to
make a successful online business.
In addition, I presume you wanted
an opinion from someone who's been
in the business for a while. For
which I qualify.
I have been working with websites
since the current internet has been
?around?. I have also owned my own
computer business for longer than the
(present) internet has been around.
Plus I currently own and have owned
several brick and mortar companies
that are profitable and that I have
sold at a profit. My qualifications
to answer with an opinion are clear.
Since this doesn?t seem to be acceptable
to you, I probably cannot help you further.
I can tell you at best, SEO?s will
take your money. At worst, they are
a scam, and will still take your money.
[ http://www.thebluesmokeband.com/seo.scam.php ]
[ ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html ]
[ http://forums.seochat.com/archive/t-12206/TrafficPowercom-CrapPower ]
[ http://www.stratecomm.com/seo_services/webopt_scscam.html ]
Excerpt:
?Search engine optimization is a discipline
that has evolved rapidly over the last
year. Many techniques that were once
considered advanced are now considered
search engine spam. The technology of
search engines has rapidly improved, and
any tricks that are out there which try to
fool the engines may work today, and get
your site banned tomorrow.?
[ http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/seo/seo-scam.html ]
Excerpt:
? As mentioned, submitting will not get
your page indexed, no matter how many
times it is submitted. Also there are
only 3 search engines that you need to
be listed in that will deliver you any
significant referrals -- Google (41%),
Yahoo (27%), MSN (19%) and the #4 ranked
search engine in terms of referrals is
Ask Jeeves (2%).?
I eagerly await a contradiction from
another researcher that will involve
a success story.
-AI
|
Clarification of Question by
supersst-ga
on
09 Apr 2005 09:59 PDT
The answer I was looking for was along the lines of lrulrick-ga and
wrx-ga rolled into one (I 100% agree with what they are saying) with a
few more SEO recommendations. I asked this question because I assumed
that there were some very good and trustworthy SEOs out there, I just
did not want to learn all about SEOs and website optimization in order
to make an informed decision. The web designers I've hired to build
the site do not have SEO expertise that is why I'm looking for someone
with such expertise that can give me a recommendation on how to avoid
the scam artist SEO versus the legitimate SEO.
Maybe my question wasn't clear enough because I did ask for an
opinion. However, it seems to me like anyone with experience in this
area would be able to tell me what to look for in an SEO and what
questions to ask. I worked for an on line company that spent aprox.
$15,000/year to better position its website. I left the company before
I got to see the results internally, however based on my google and
yahoo searches they seem to always appear in the top five search
results........I've got to think that the SEO had something to do with
this.
At this point I have a recommendation for Jill Whalen at
www.highrankings.com, but I'm still unsure of what I need to ask her
in order to know if she will position my site using legal techniques
and that the money she is charging me is getting used in a efficient
manner.
You can change your oil yourself (that's not my intention), you can
take your car to Wal Mart (I don't want my oil filter to fall off), or
I can go to this guy who has been changing oil for 10 years and has
never had a car come back to him (He came highly recommended by a
mechanic friend of mine).
Are there any researchers out there that have SEO expertise, and can
they appreciate what I'm getting at.
Maybe I'm way off base........
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