SEOMoz is ripping everyone off.
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I'm a very small fish in the SEO world, but managing to achieve rankings, traffic and conversions on a number of sites by following the basic principles, so don't believe that SEO is dead.
With so much work and effort, if you don't even have a single keyword in the Top 50, then my first thought is that you have chosen to pursue keywords that are way too competitive. Since you refer to "keywords of value", this seems likely. Maybe a review of your keyword strategy is a possible place to start.
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Dude, you really got me riled up. I hope that doesn't show too badly. Thanks for that, actually, I needed it this morning. I hope my response here helps you find the truth, and profit.
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"I can't tell you how many directory submissions we have made (myself and my employees)."
Perhaps these low value links were the reason your site performed so poorly. This activity may have diluted your link juice, and damaged your site's trust. Too much directory submission looks spammy (especially when you hit up all of them, add yourself to their bad neighborhoods).
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Did you try performing any LDA analysis on the content of your site?
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Did you try seeking links from domains in similar themes to yours?
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Have you done any link profile analysis of the competitors that outrank you?
I am sure you have other things to try besides buying links (which you essentially did try when you hired staff to link build...)
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"All of these articles and blogs on here are worthless because it is so difficult to rank in the first place who gives a damn about those small nuances of title this, backlink that."
Successful SEOs give that damn. SEO is considerably more complex nowadays than it once was. It's not a matter of building a few links here, a few links there, and stuffing keywords in your meta tags and page footer. To be successful at SEO nowadays, you need to understand the nuances of title this, backlink that.
Why is that a surprise? Cultures and technologies develop, evolve, and change. Pre-Meiji Japanese was particularly nuanced, and if you didn't get it right back then, you could have your head cut off, totally legally. Same goes for the Antebellum South -- if you didn't understand the nuances, you and your family could be murdered or enslaved. Even today, nuances rule behavior -- for instance, I can't discuss anything related to Wikileaks with my friends and family in the military; yet can with the world at large, right now. Nuanced, huh?
The world is nuanced. Nuances count. Details matter.
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Dear Johnson
If you can't be patient then SEO if not the right profession for you. Stop acting like a loser and revamp your strategy. Success does not comes overnight. It takes years of hard work and planning.
At the end of the day people who rank higher are "Ordinary guys just like you and me - Only Human". If they can do it then why the hell you can't ?
Chin Up And Get Back To Work!
Rishi
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To one "Big Johnson",
First of all, nice name. Very professional. I showed your post to my team this morning and we had a great laugh! Your claim about SEO being dead absolutely made my day. Obviously, you have no idea what you're doing as far as SEO is concerned, so if I were you, I'd go back to school and get a grasp on the basics.
SEOMoz Pro is an excellent tool and many, many SEOs utilize these tools and have phenomenal results. Don't complain about a companies software...chances are it's not the software that is failing, but the idiots who are trying to use it and have no idea what they're doing.
Again, thanks for giving us a great laugh this morning. I think I might include your claim of SEO is dead in this month's newsletter. I'm sure my client's who have gone from not being ranked at all to number 2 and 3 spots will be thrilled. Thank God for people like you that like to complain when you really have nothing to complain about. Go get schooled son.
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This is great!!! I only wish I hadn't missed the main post before it got deleted!
SEO is dead because you have spent 1000's of man hours submitting to directories. Thats awesome.
I've read tons of books on baseball and watched hundreds of games!!!! I just dont understand why the Yankees refuse to pick me up? I'm a pro!
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Hi BigJohnson,
There are numerous explanations for failure and none for success. Chill out and start doing the things right. Stop submitting in useless directories.
If your team is running towards dead end it is not fault of SEOmoz.
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The fact that you feel like you "know" SEO like the back of your hand, etc.... is a big give-away to your problems, it results in complacency.
I did my final project at uni on SEO, have worked in-house for a large multinational corporation as an SEO, have worked now in an agency for three years doing nothing but SEO, subscribe to every blog that's any good, read every book that's any good, and have done every SEO course in existence that's worth doing, yet I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in terms of what their is to know, and I know nothing in comparison to many of the people on these boards. Maybe Mr. BigJohnson, you should consider how much you actually know, rather than how much you think you know before apportioning blame for your own lack of knowledge.
Also, If SEO is dead then why are all of my agency's clients so happy with the results we get them, which increases their revenue... maybe look inwards for the answers to your problems instead of outwards!
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SEO works when done right it will drive traffic to your site, when you pick the right keywords you will have targeted traffic, now on the other hand you must have a website that converts. Conversions are important, just think nice looking site, good content, good calls to action.
A site with visitors and no conversions plus seo = no conversions
A site with 100 visitors and 4% conversion rate = 4 conversions
now you add seo and the site now has 2,000 visitors at 4% = 100 conversions
Getting SEO to to Work
its all simple MATH
but then again
if i sell broken records online doesnt mean anyone will ever search online to buy them even if they rank #1 for buy broken records, and broken records
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Dude, let me run OSE and I'll tell you EXACTLY why you're not ranking. lol!
Anyway, I'll do a site audit for free. Email me your site. By the way, I'm not joking.
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hi magento I am moving towards using magento on a full time basis for ecommerce so I may well need you to improve a printer ink site we are having developed. please PM me.
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You should get a award for most funny awnser hahahahahaha
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What's OSE? I need a site audit...how do you do that?
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Open Site Explorer
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Mr Johnson
as already stated by many of the responses above SEO has changed and is no longer as easy as it once used to be. SEO MOZ is not Google , opensite explorer is only a indication of what the google bot sees. However it is still very possible to rank and to rank on very competitive terms, 3 things needed , TIME + Money + understanding= results the first variable is something a lot of people cant do, Money is dependent on a number of factors ie if you are working for a business , personal project and the overall outcome you are expecting to get , example you may rank top but only in a market thats worth 50p a year , in which case spending £2000 to get top is pointless.
The 3rd is understanding I can teach a monkey the basics of seo , but what that person does with that knowledge is upto them, I have shared my knowledge with several people the ones that embraced it and run with the basic fundamentals of work hard , follow the rules avoid the " rank fast link build program" ( Ive tired them all ) have in most cases surpassed me and now it is I who learns off them .
I know nothing about SEO as it evolves almost daily I think it is almost impossible to keep up , but with having a wider community I am able to access the collective mind and so learn faster. ( knowing nothing has still aloowed me to dominate several very large competitive terms for the last tree to four years. When my web design clients started to ask about seo 5 years ago i was scarred to death if I saw over 100,000 results. But i decided to learn 9 I had to , on the arrival of my first child in order to provide the life I wanted to provide her, My day was the same as your , full time job then home 8pm till 4 am back up at 7 30 am to do the day job.
I failed many many times :)))))))) But that is part of succeeding
Someone has already covered that crap directories will harm your sites trust , I would love to know the domain you are / having been having no luck with.
Success is usual that one step away after most people quit. KEEP GOING (But take on advice that seems to be for coming from several on this thread)
May the force be with YOU
Winners never QUIT , they just understand failing is part of success.
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LOL
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Oh Mr.Big Johnson...
You are so wrong.
Lets do this... give me $3000/month - for 5hours of SEO/day for you. (and this priceis VERY LOW my friend) and I will get ur keywords to top positions (everyone knows that the no.1 spot cannot be guaranteed... especially you who claims to knows SEO like the back of his hand).
Articles and directories... huh??
what about social media optimization, optimizing your website's users' metrics, guest blogging, building a unique content strategy and actually implementing it.500articles on repeated topics can be beaten by 5 articles on truly unique topis.
Remember that content is not just articles and directories brother...its everything fromvideo andpodcast and infographic to articles and press release andblogcomments.
In fact... do this.... FB is Google's competitor right? Design and execute a powerful FB campaign to get hundreds of visits to a particular page and ensure that the Bounce rate for these visits is low, time on site and page high and ensure u place social sharing buttons there so somepeople LIKE and TWEET and Share urpage on linked in.You will be amazed at the SERPs for the keywords in the title tag of that page.
Finally AND MOSTIMPORTANTLY... don't say anything to Rand. He is a wizard... a genius and what many new and aspiring SEOs want to becomeone day. Including me
- $800/month - that is some price. But the fact is that people pay that and continue to do so every day and every month... why?Bu Bye!
BTW Rand...do you really charge $800/hour for your consulting??? is that really true?
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SEO is not dead.... but as well as SEO you need to understand marketing and Brand management....
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I am honestly surprised that anyone would say that about SEOmoz 1st off SEO is marketing "a technique used to acquire more customers" 2nd you had 30 days to try it for free I honestly hope you don't feel duped over paying nothing. However it sounds like things just didn't go your way and I feel for you happens to all of us however please don't take it out on a company that has actually benefited my life quite a bit. I think SEOmoz is a family like environment and if you were expecting something else you get all the 30 days you ever need to say it's not for me. However people saying SEO is dead what do you hope to replace this with? Another word for SEO Roger has been pro-and marketing his entire career (he told me on twitter so I know) inbound marketing is SEO Internet marketing is SEO and SEOmoz + HubSpot are to companies I think of as much more than faceless corporations their helpful and will do their best to help you succeed. I agree with the gentleman below it is a shame the Yankees did not call however when you quit during tryouts you have a chance.
All the best of luck,
Thomas
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You've made a good point here, and I agree SEO will only work if its done correctly.
I've only recently joined SEOMoz and started to get involved within the community here, but I can say that you do need a basic grasp of SEO concepts if you're to get the best possible results from the tools available online (by SEOMoz or otherwise).
If you use tools incorrectly or don't understand the data that is being shown to you then its easy to chuck hundreds of pounds into Google advertising and in three months time you might be no better off.
I wasn't able to see your original comment, but I agree with Jennifer Sable Lopez; using the Q+A section to rant about things probably isn't the best use of anybody's time but at least a (mainly) positive discussion has started as a result.
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If only your directory submissions and article marketing got this many natural responses!
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