Courtesy of: http://blog.promodo.com/keyword-research-process-infographics
Month: September 2012
Cheap SEO and $5 Chinese food
I have a friend who moved to NYC in pursuit of his dream to become a writer. He was always good with words so I knew he’d be hell with a pen. His talents led him to the position of writer and, eventually, senior editor for publications such as Blaze, Vibe, and Vue. When he first moved to the city, he fit the mold of a typical twenty-something struggling to survive the concrete jungle. Due to the high cost of living in NYC, he often found himself eating what his sister referred to as “$5 chinese food” on a regular basis. Constant stomach aches would accompany these cheap, greasy meals laden with MSG. (That’s monosodium glutamate, not Madison Square Garden)
$5 Chinese food was a good fit at the time for 3 reasons. It was cheap, you received large portions, and it provided sustenance. 15 years have since passed. He’s moved on to enjoying all the culinary treats the city has to offer. $5 chinese food had its time and place in his life… those days are gone.
In the same way, cheap SEO may have had a time and place in our lives. Back in the day, SEO could be offered with the same 3 benefits of low end chinese food: cheap, with large portions, and it provided sustenance. If you do a simple Google search you’ll find countless SEO firms still selling this outdated SEO strategy. Google’s implementation of the Panda and Penguin algorithm tweaks have rendered “cheap” SEO as a thing of the past. Like my friend in NYC, Google eventually matured to the point where “cheap” was no longer wanted or needed. More notably, the stomach aches that accompanied “cheap” were made obselete. Here’s why:
Penguin can broadly be thought of as Google’s penalty for building too many irrelevant, low quality links and overstuffing your content with keywords. Large portions of low quality food was good for a while, but they have no place in our lives anymore.
Panda can be thought of as Google’s way of rewarding quality. No msg in my chow mein, please. No lard in my kung pao, thanks. Those days are gone. Google wants quality content and low bounce rates to deliver better results.
Ok, enough with the food analogy. Back to business. We’ve spoken to a number of clients who have been using low-cost SEO agencies for years. These clients were able to spend a few hundred bucks a month to achieve decent rankings in the SERPs. What they got was a ton of irrelevant or weak links and poor or thin content. After the Penguin and Panda shifts, these clients saw their rankings drop from page one to page 5 and beyond. They felt helpless and confused. You may be feeling the same way.
Nett Solutions has forged a team of experts who stay on top of their game and understand what Google wants. They don’t just want a ton of links to your site. They don’t want a lot of thin content. They want natural links and steady, organic growth. They want insightful content that is useful for your site visitors. They don’t want gimmicky weight loss programs. They want a steady, natural, constant fitness routine. Our entire SEO team is based here in the U.S. We believe the best way to align with Google’s shift towards quality is to use quality content writers, strategists, and campaign builders. The best quality SEO knowledge still comes from America. We’ve become efficient enough to be competitively priced without being “cheap” (low quality). If you’re struggling with your organic rankings, reach out to us. We’d love to help. 949-330-7060.
– Michael
Extreme Makeover
We launched our new website today! Based on customer input we cleaned things up and created a simple, straight forward and user friendly site. We added a couple of advertising programs that weren’t on the original site.
More importantly, I’ll be returning to my blogging duties. I apologize for being MIA and have taken heat from clients and prospects alike for not maintaining an updated blog. Stay tuned for new posts, witty banter, and relevant content for your online ad campaigns.
In the meantime, enjoy meeting our Marketing Consultants by visiting our team page here.
— Michael