How to Find A SEO Guru?
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If you actually find someone marketing themselves as an "SEO Guru", I'd advise to stay well, well away.
It's a horrible term, generally used by egotistical con-artists.
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The SEOmoz recommended company list is a good starting point. Have you read Google's advice on hiring an SEO?
I guess you may have already read these:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-recruit-an-seo-the-seo-industry-leaders-reveal-their-secrets-14183 http://searchengineland.com/attributes-to-look-for-when-hiring-an-in-house-seo-41852 (may be a bit outdated by now)Make sure it's someone who keeps up to date with this ever changing industry and ask them how they keep up-to-date.
And perhaps the best, most established SEO will pay multiple times over for your unborn children
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I agree with everything that's been said before, and will just add this. You're in the LA area, right? There are a lot of good SEOs there. My recommendation would be to contact either Ross Hudgens of Siege Media or Adam Piotrowski of Livestrong.com. Ross runs his own agency, and even if he's not a fit, he could probably point you in the right direction. Adam is an in-house SEO, but can probably connect you with a potential SEO.
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Well I think I have run into a wall in my search, most of you gave some great device advice on where to look. The list of SEO on seomoz is great if I could afford any of them.I have learned a valuable lesson this week about the cost of SEO's.When i see prices of 5-10K for site audits and $200 per hour I know I am barking up the wrong tree.
Now I think I would just like a good seo that knows his stuff well and won't charge me a small fortune.
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Best of luck. I'm sure you can find someone if you post your budget here honestly. Also, the definition of a site audit is pretty broad because it depends so much on the client's site, what they need, etc. For example, I not long ago did a site audit for one client for $10k, but just did another one for a different client for $3k, so depending on what you need, you might be able to find someone that fits your budget if they don't just give you a boilerplate response.
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Thank for the reply, would it best to start a new thread or is their a category where I should post it?
I would like a extensive site audit and have around a 2K budget for it and would like to work with a company monthly as well, also would like to work with the company on a monthly basis with a $250-400 monthly budget. Is SEOmoz the best place to post for this type of requirements? I would be scared to place it on odesk...lol...
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Assuming that there aren't any Q&A restrictions around posting a question like that, I think it's best to create a new thread.
Fwiw, I don't think you'll have a hard time getting a site audit for that budget... It might not have too much competitive research and whatnot, but I think you can probably get enough to give you and the SEO action items. I mean, if a potential client asked me to do an audit at or around $2k, it'd be lighter than I'm used to, but I could do it.
With regard to the monthly budget, that might be a bit tougher just because you'll be such a small client for most SEOs that they might not feel it's worth it. Either way though, I'd start a new thread and see what you get. Depending on how you site is staffed though, you might get more bang for your buck if you had the SEO train and/or consult someone on staff to do everything that needs done. For me, things like that tend to be most common when the client doesn't have a big budget.
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Honestly, not trying to be a smart ass here, but I would just Google "SEO guru." Then, pick someone from page 1 who has a decent website and lives in the same country as you.
Clearly, if you need an SEO guru to help you do well in Google, I would start by asking the Googlebot who it determines would rank for such a term.
Make sure the person you pick has a very high AuthorRank and regularly publishes content, either on his own blog or other important websites. Someone who offers "white hat" SEO or is a "white hat SEO guru" would be ideal. Like you said, you don't want your credentials turned over to just anyone.
If you need help with local SEO, why not search for a local search guru? Or even a Google local search guru?
I also happen to know that one of those SEO gurus (that ranks in the first few results in Google) is just now currently taking clients.
The interesting thing is that when people are looking for an SEO guru, or expert, or consultant, or what have you-- they often place a classified ad or perhaps post in a forum such as this. But all you need to do is "Google it."
The first thing you should ask an SEO person is: What do you rank for? What longtail keywords do you rank for?
Next: What did you study in school? (If it's not computer-related, you can probably move on.) Personally, I think a strong understanding of systems analysis and database development is the most useful.
Google is a system. A good SEO analyzes that system, so an SEO is really just a systems analyst.
**Edited: And I agree with Alex below. Marketing helps too, when it comes to search engine marketing (such as PPC and landing pages), R&D, maybe copywriting. But for organic SEO, my opinion is to hire an experienced systems (DB) analyst. **
And be sure to ask what kind of link building they engage in. You don't want to get nailed by a penguin.
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It may be used by egotistical people Tom; or it may be used by a legitimate SEO who knows that potential new clients (such as the poster of this question) search for an SEO guru.
I optimize for the term myself, and while other SEO people might bristle (I have no idea why), people still search for SEO gurus regardless of bristling.
I'll keep optimizing for that keyword and all the rest of the SEO guys and girls can just smugly think how cool they are for not using that term...that potential clients use all of the time. I'll stick with the general public, since SEO experts generally don't want to hire me anyway.
Finally, if not earning clients is enough to convince you: Google uses the term "expert" as a synonym for "guru".
In other words, the Googlebot associates "guru" with expert and the words are interchangeable in the SERPS, for the most part.
Google thinks guru = expert.
Clients think guru = expert.
SEO people think guru = egotistical con-artists.
Broad-sweeping generalization, but I can live with it. I still deliver the goods.
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I'd say what an SEO studied at school is often irrelevant, and marketing would be more appropriate than many computer-related studies.
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Irrelevant? Alex, Google is a database. Each search is a database query. If you don't have an education in systems analysis, you might be a decent SEO, but you aren't going to have original thought or do any ground-breaking stuff. You're just doing what you've learned on the internet.
It's like knowing how to use a calculator really well, but not understanding why 2 + 2 = 4.
And if one has never written an algorithm, how could one propose to be an expert on algorithms? In order to best understand the algorithm, an SEO should be able to write an algorithm. Otherwise, it's just a guy in his basement testing correlation and causation...which Google goes out of it's way to foil.
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Excellent reply. Too often as SEOs, as we get deeper into the community we care more about what other SEOs think and how to create content for other SEOs than for our actual clients.
I'm just as guilty as anyone, as my posts tend to get a bit technical.
But the first principle of SEO is keyword research. And if the keyword research shows that SEO guru is a searched term with opportunity, go for it!
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I optimize for the time period myself, and whilst different SEO humans would possibly bristle-like DLL Files Download, humans nonetheless look for search engine marketing authorities irrespective of bristling.
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Well, I suppose I actually have run into a wall in my seek, most of you gave a few fantastic tool recommendations on which to appear. The list of search engine marketing on seomoz is super if I may want to manage to pay for any of them. I actually have discovered a valuable lesson this week about the price of search engine optimizations. like here you can see on the espresso machine website.
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