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    Help Me find a Great Seo for my Budget!

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • chrisyak
      chrisyak last edited by

      I am looking for a Good SEO for my tech news site and would like your help in recommending a good SEO that will fit in my budget of 300-500 per month.I have contacted many firms in the Moz directory of recommended firms but found they are out of my monthly price range.Google search for a decent SEO can be scary with so many so called SEO companies.I would like to work with a experienced SEO individual who can come up with a great plan for our site and also implement them.We just had a SEO forensic audit done with Alan Blieweiss and implemented his suggestions and are now looking for someone to work with long term for the rest of our SEO needs.I understand that I cannot afford the top SEO firms or industry leaders but with your help and suggestions I am sure we can afford and find a great SEO.

      Please reply here or message me.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • joseph.chambers
        joseph.chambers last edited by

        I would ask for references. Ask what industries they worked with then get specific. If I were to suggest anyone it would be: http://signup.terrykyleseo.com and I would also reach out to josh bachynski: https://plus.google.com/103148597495865728968/posts

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • FedeEinhorn
          FedeEinhorn last edited by

          Moz has a specific section listing all recommended services, that means they are to trust.

          Don't expect low prices from them, but quality isn't cheap

          http://www.moz.com/article/recommended

          chrisyak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
          • chrisyak
            chrisyak @FedeEinhorn last edited by

            As I had said I have given them a try but they were out of my budget.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • FedeEinhorn
              FedeEinhorn last edited by

              Well, you can go for cheapest companies. But believe me, the less you spend on what really matters, the less results you will get. Unless you magically find someone cheap and delivering good results.

              I myself tested over 3 - 4 cheap ones, not ONE delivered results and even some delivered worse.

              But where you put your money is your decision, I wish you the best!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Nick_Ker
                Nick_Ker last edited by

                Low budget "good" SEO is rare, but it can be found. There are trade-offs that you will need to be willing to make, though.

                If you can find someone who is relatively new at SEO, but does know what they are doing, you may be able to to get an affordable rate while they are "hungry". But this is not a great long term plan because if they are indeed good, they will outgrow you and will be likely to put more of their time and energy into clients who are willing or able to pay.

                Another option would be to find a provider who can work with your monthly budget, but do less work than they would for their normal rates. For example, let's say an SEO would normally do an analysis of the site and keyword research in the first phase of your campaign, then move into content strategy, social and other link acquisition. If they would normally do this for say, 1500 per month, and you will be paying 500, you could expect the set up of analytics and whatever other tracking & dashboards that will be used and analysis of the site's current state during the first month. More fine tuning of that next month, and maybe get into setting up your social presence. Keyword and traffic/usage analysis to start off your new content strategy after that. Then after a few months they may really start getting into outreach for link building. These are just examples, but the point is that SEO is really no different from anything else - you can only do so much with limited resources. If you need good content developed, like video or maybe some decent infographics, there goes your budget for a couple of months. Need a really good press release distributed by an above average press release site - that's a month or two of the budget...
                This will take a heck of a lot of time to get anywhere, especially since there are thousands of tech news sites to compete with.

                One other thought - you could have a reputable SEO do a thorough analysis or audit, and strategy development. Then you handle all of your own social media and other link building efforts. That should run you the same as about 2-3 months of your budget and could end up being much more effective than trying to turn a full time job into part time.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • DavidKonigsberg
                  DavidKonigsberg last edited by

                  Your probably not going to find anyone good for that price range. You need to pay for quality work especially post penguin where quality work is in high demand. That being said i would recommend paying a good consultant $150 an hour to hold your hand and explain what you need to do then you can go do it yourself or higher someone cheap to do the work with the consultant driving the ship.

                  Good luck

                  FedeEinhorn 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • chrisyak
                    chrisyak last edited by

                    This post is deleted!
                    DavidKonigsberg PhilNottingham 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • DavidKonigsberg
                      DavidKonigsberg @chrisyak last edited by

                      You can find good onsite seo's for $500 montlhy but the link building and brand marketing is what costs alot these days.Take your money higher someone to do a onsite audit and changes.

                      After that is all done you need to get a name for yourself and have people talk about you and link to you in a natural way. You can do that in 2 ways

                      1- Offer something amazingly valuable on/off your site and let people in your niche know about it (easier said then done)

                      2- Higher someone to help you add value to your niche in a real marketing way (a seo's role and why it costs so much and why the good ones can charge alot)

                      The days of cheap seo's building links with no brains are over

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • FedeEinhorn
                        FedeEinhorn @DavidKonigsberg last edited by

                        Question: Who charges 150/hour for SEO consultation (without minimums)? I always saw a per hour pricing but with minimums of $5K or so. If you know a GOOD SEO consultant charging 150/hour, tell me his/her name now, I need him too 🙂

                        DavidKonigsberg 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • chrisyak
                          chrisyak last edited by

                          We have done a forensic audit with a great SEO already and implemented a lot of those changes.But he specialized in audits only so now we are looking for someone to take over the day to day and long term seo strategies.

                          We have a great name already and near 200k social media following and great traffic during our busy season.Content wise we have a tons of great content.

                          Where we are lacking is rankings as we are in a competitive market.

                          DavidKonigsberg Nick_Ker 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DavidKonigsberg
                            DavidKonigsberg @chrisyak last edited by

                            Pm me your site and ill let you know what i think - But $500 will not be enough to compete in a competitive market ever.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • DavidKonigsberg
                              DavidKonigsberg @FedeEinhorn last edited by

                              You can find good freelance people not agency's but you need to seek out specialties.

                              FedeEinhorn 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Nick_Ker
                                Nick_Ker last edited by

                                Agreed, and that is where a lot of small businesses end up in trouble with Google - by hiring the SEO provider they can afford, and that often means one that doesn't know or care what they are doing wrong.

                                $300-$500 is not unheard of for small business SEO, particularly a local business. The problem, I think, is how "small business" is defined when it comes to online marketing. If a company has only a few people or lower revenues, it is "small" by real world standards - but that doesn't matter if the site is competing online with huge companies that are in the same niche, marketing-wise. For example, a hardware store may only be competing with other "mom & pop" stores locally, but they still have to compete with Walmart, HomeDepot, TruValue, Lowes, etc online. Those all have been around a long time, have strong reputations & branding, and as a result have tons of links. It isn't impossible to rank among them or even above, but it is going to take a great deal of time and the best possible SEO & promotion.

                                This is why a lot of SEOs don't quote a flat rate. Getting a site about "bamboo handled solar powered grass trimmers" to rank well for all possible search terms is much easier than for a site about "lawn tools". SEO should be priced according to the level of competition.

                                If you think about all that is involved with doing SEO right, and then try to apply an hourly dollar value to it, $500 gets used up pretty quickly. Even if a site only has 5 or 6 pages and is not a total mess, there is at least an hour or two of analyzing and improving the site itself, just on the first go around. Those adjustments will usually have to be tweaked throughout a campaign. Even if you can get someone to do that at super-cheap hourly developer rates, it runs out quickly. A larger or more complicated site will require more, obviously.
                                If the SEO is going to be doing any content work and link building, you have the cost of the creative work which is not going to be cheap for good stuff, and the time to track down possible link sources and do whatever is needed to get those links. Even if the link builder is going the easier, riskier route of things like directory submissions, they still need to know what they are doing well enough to not do more harm than good.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                • Nick_Ker
                                  Nick_Ker @chrisyak last edited by

                                  I hate to spin this off in another direction, but if you have great traffic and a huge following (assuming most of the 200k are real, not paid/fake profiles), where is that traffic coming from?

                                  What I am getting at is maybe you are focusing too much on keywords, or looking at the wrong ones. Like, if you are hoping to rank for the generic "tech news", but your individual articles are all ranking well for whatever they are about, then maybe you are doing better than you think?

                                  And the auditor recommendations - you say you followed a lot of the recommendations but not all. The ones you didn't follow may have been more important than you think, or the whole plan the auditor mapped out may be at its best when everything is done as per recommendations.  You might want to revisit the audit recommendations and do them all and see what happens before shopping around.

                                  chrisyak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • chrisyak
                                    chrisyak last edited by

                                    I certainly understand and see your point of view and totally agree with what you said. Unfortunately that is all the budget I have right now and trying to make it work, but basically from what i am hearing that is that kinda money wont hire a decent seo.

                                    On site wise i think we are pretty close with a little more work.Here is our site

                                    Search engine rankings and link building is where i feel we fall short.

                                    DavidKonigsberg joseph.chambers 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • DavidKonigsberg
                                      DavidKonigsberg @chrisyak last edited by

                                      Try not to build links try to attract them - This is the better long term goal. Think can your break news , Curate news better, use a better medium like video and infographics etc

                                      joseph.chambers chrisyak 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • chrisyak
                                        chrisyak @Nick_Ker last edited by

                                        We are always looking to improve our traffic and rankings, so is not a lack of, it is about getting more.Our traffic comes from direct and social media/never fake and search.We ranked well for our main keyword page one and had great traffic with no SEO.We dropped to page 3 though and it affected our traffic obviously and trying to get back to page one is our goal.I am focused on our main keyword as it does drive a lot of traffic for us.

                                        In regards to our auditors recommendations we have followed all of it exactly and are just finishing up now.A lot of it was on site fixes.However the next stage is link building which we will need help for and hope for someone else to come in and give us some other suggestions and help with off site stuff as well.

                                        DavidKonigsberg Nick_Ker 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • joseph.chambers
                                          joseph.chambers @chrisyak last edited by

                                          Just do it yourself. http://www.link-assistant.com/buzzbundle/

                                          Buzz Bundle is awesome. When you set up a new article and publish that - add in your keywords and then promote it. Do it for a hour a day and you will save money and get results.. just from using buzz bundle.

                                          chrisyak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • DavidKonigsberg
                                            DavidKonigsberg @chrisyak last edited by

                                            If you got hit you may need to fix some bad links or onsite issues before you can build links to recover.

                                            chrisyak 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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