Are you Qualified to give SEO Advice?

[businessservicesuk]

I enjoy reading forums, when time permits, V7 is one of my favourite places, had to say that really…lol

Readers however should be aware forums have a downside, this is highlighted by the amount of poor SEO advice on offer. I am sure all advice is well intended, however when it is untrue or unsubstantiated it can be damaging for people looking to make changes to their site or are looking to embark on a link building campaign.

Personally I only take notice of advice/tips from trusted posters who themselves own established well positioned websites, so far my list contains 2...lol, these are Scott (obviously) and Cricket.

I am sure there are many others who I should be taking more notice of, however checking out posters credentials takes time and I am always busy doing something.

SEO, is a very complicated, fluid subject, one where we all learn, even the unqualified self appointed experts (I put myself in that bracket)

I think the global game of SEO Chinese Whispers is doing more harm than good to people who are looking for information or simply trying to learn more on the subject.

To that end I would request all posters who offer SEO advice here to prove they have some credibility on the subject. This can be easily done by listing your sites main keyword(s), your google.com positioning, alexa rating and PR. I fully understand ratings can be manipulated; however this information will be a guide to forum readers on who they should take more notice of.

My details

Main Keywords - Business Services
Google Positioning - Page 1
Alexa - 306,000
PR 4


This is not a pissing competition some sites will rank better than others this is only natural. If posters who offer general SEO advice do not list their own details, this tells its own story.

[Cricket]

Oh heck no! Don't even think about putting that kind of pressure on me!

I want people to be willing to doubt me, and challenge me to provide evidence (or results) for anything I say. That is how people learn. I am no different that anyone else in this community, in that I continue to learn every single day. And often times, I have learned by making mistakes.

When it comes to something as important as your business, you need to look at ALL the facts, and then reach a decision based on what you have learned.

[businessservicesuk]

Come on Crick, don't be shy...lol

The thread was put together not to point out who the experts are. I believe there are none, except for search engine employees.

Its a quiet thread....lol

[Cricket]

I'm not being shy. In here I am a student not a teacher.

[briggidere]

I agree with cricket here. Everyone keeps on learning on this subject no matter how much they already know.
I have a number of sites but one is no 1 on Google for free debt management with PR of 6 and Alexa of 369,016

[businessservicesuk]

You are right Brig, it is a continual learning process. It has to be, it's a fluid subject.

Nice stats and thank you for sharing them.

I am sure you appricate it must be difficult for people new to the world of SEO to work out who has a good grasp on the subject and who is simply posting anything, simply to add to their number of posts.

If I want advice on my golf swing, I do not ask a person who has never played the game. Each golf swing is unique, however the advice from a single figure golfer would generally be better than someone who simply watches golf on TV.

You are right to agree with Cricket even when she is wrong, her moderation skills are very sharp.

[briggidere]

It is very hard to know who is a reliable source of imformation, and i have seen many people judge others opinions based on the number of posts they have made, which is insane. Think quality, not quantity, just like a website.

I imagine the so called experts wouldn't even post on webmaster forums as they are just working on their own projects. If there are big secrets, why would you give them away and have more competition for your income. I know i wouldn't.

I don't mind giving advice, but when it comes to the few little gems, you want to keep them for yourself.

All the info is out there to learn, it just needs tested to see what the best combination of techniques are the best. Then get moving with it, as in 6-12 months, the goal posts will be moved again, and it's back to trying and testing more methods again.

Isn't search fun...

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by briggidere

. . . It is very hard to know who is a reliable source of imformation, and i have seen many people judge others opinions based on the number of posts they have made, which is insane. Think quality, not quantity, just like a website...

Hey now!


At least 2 or 3 of my more than 9,000 posts were quality post. Of course it took me nearly 4 years in here to come up with those.

[businessservicesuk]

Good post Brig,

The best general advice I could give would be.

If your website has been designed the only SEO tasks that should concern you are link building and adding unique content to your site. The other fundamentals should have been incorporated during the design phase.

I firmly believe a website designed in the right way, will see better results from a link building campaign.

This may sound too simple, however I wish I had £1 for each site I see that has not been built correctly.

[businessservicesuk]

Still waiting Miss Yankie...lol

[Cricket]

Dang! I know there is no way in heck you just called a southern girl a yankie.

[janhvizdak]

What if my "positions list" would be too long?

Here's a line from my G Analytics: "google sent 58,496 non-paid visits via 24,008 keywords". It's for my aqua-fish.net between August/26/2007 - September/25/2007.

Does it prove that I know a little about SEO?

[businessservicesuk]

Don't take it personally but all Americans are yanks to the British.

Anyhow get back OT or you may get a ban....lmao

[businessservicesuk]

It would Jan, thanks for sharing the information.

If you were to give some SEO advice to people what would it be?

[marthrock]

This is a good topic. Bizserviceuk, you should preface your stats by saying thats its Google UK where you rank, since that is where you live and work. Although if the majority of your clients are in the US, then how can they find you in the US? since the US folks are using Google US. PPC? I'm not being critical at all, just making a distinction is all. and am curious. Id love to rank organically on both sides of the pond for a product...

To that end, I have a number of sites that do well from a geotargeting standpoint in that they rank in the top 3 organically in all of the SE's for their respective Keywords and phrases. which is more important on a localized level then it is on a national or global level. I have one client who is one of the largest retailers of music gifts and he ranks in the top 3 of all the SE's for the terms music gifts and music collectibles. He went from a PR of 0 to a 5. On a side note/question. I don't put put much stock or value in Alexa as I once did, should I? I had heard that the stats had become somewhat unreliable...

Ok enough of that. To take Bizsvcuk's point one step further, I have been for the last several weeks, become really annoyed with the people that shell out advice that is a) Misinformed b) Not sourced and thus they claim it as their own. c) Can't even put a proper sentence together and d) Are using the forum to pump up their sig links and thus post drivel.

Look, I love what this forum does. I love when people Like Peter_D and John and even BizzSvcUk throw out thought provoking posts or tidbits, tools, links and articles on things that sometimes we as SEO wannabe's-(notice I said wannebe's....) would often times miss. These are things that make this forum better than the others, because of the free exchange of knowledge that can only make us better. But I agree, we all just need to consider the source, and then come to our own conclusion as to the "worthiness" of the post.

Who doesn't do this. When I read a post, I find out who wrote it, how long they have been here, and how many posts they have. I think it's my way of adding "street cred" or value to the post or the response. I can also guarantee this, there are those that post and when I see their name, I know that generally the post is going to bring zero to the discussion.

Great topic everyone.

[businessservicesuk]

Its not google uk where I rank http://www.google.com/search?q=busin...e7&rlz=1I7GGLJ However ranking is only one issue, the main one is the conversion rate of visitor to customer.

Marth are your signature links new sites as they lack any ranking at all

[marthrock]

They are. But I'm not looking to drive traffic per se, with the sites, in fact one is a blog and I should probably remove it since it's featured on the left hand side. But remember it's not a pissing contest..

It's at this point that we should start receiving some quality inane posts from some of our esteemed posters...

[scorpionagency]

Not to be the Thorn in anyones side here, but if you are going to use reverse psychological tactics in an attempt to boost your own authority, at least post more accurate information about yourself...

You said your Keywords are: "Business Services" & rank #1 in Google for them. After a quick google search, I couldn't find your site for those Keywords (In the U.S.)..

If you used to rank in the #1 spot in google for the terms when you started this thread, you may want to recheck the stats & tweak in order to rise back up again.

My stats aren't that great for Index listings, but here you go (U.S. Stats)

Main Key word Placements: (G= Google / Y= Yahoo / M= MSN) # = Listing not Page.. Most are all Page#1

* Marketing Agency - 90,600,000 - G= 37
* Consulting Agency - 58,900,000 - G=11 / Y=7
* Popular Consulting websites - 18,500,000 - G=5
* Website consulting agency - 17,100,000 - G=1 / Y=1 / M=4
* Marketing consulting agency - 28,300,000 - G=6 / Y=1 / M=5
* Business Consulting Agency - 35,700,000 - G=2 / Y=2 / M=6
* Website Marketing Agency - 76,300,00 - Y=13 / M=9
* Business Consulting websites - 69,200,000 - G=11
* Advertisement Consulting - 2,870,000 - G=19

Doorways Placement:

* Dark Website Design - 16,300,000 - G=7
* Emergency Website Design - 8,890,000 - G=6
* USMC Template - 718,000 - G=1
* DJ Template - 3,510,000 - G=26
* Joomla Medical Template - 1,550,000 - G=8
* Joomla Medical - 2,0860 - G=10

All the pages that start with scorpionagency.com are mine of course. These are a few days old, so the positions may be off by a few, However they should be pretty much DEAD ON!.

No, Not a pissing contest... Just making sure all information is as close to accurate as possible.

[businessservicesuk]

lol Marth

Here they come

Scorp the 1 is related to page 1 not position 1, as the link I posted shows.

Good stats and as the purpose of the thread was to highlight to people in the forum who is qualified to give sound advice that should be taken seriously, you have established that, thanks.

I am sure you agree the amount of dis-information floating around is potentially damaging to people who act on it.

[scorpionagency]

I clicked your link & it shows CBiz.com in that spot here in the U.S. -- Before you say you ARE Cbiz.com you should know that they have over 40 locations "ALL U.S. BASED", you are in the U.K. I believe, so I'm sure thats not the case)

The point here is that you are NOT showing in the U.S. Serps on the link you yourself posted.. (Not even on page one) it may be due to the U.K & the U.S. using different Google Datacenters.

And yes, I agree there is a lot of dis-information throughout forums!