Toronto SEO Firm
Search Engine Optimization Marketing Services

I have been wondering how SEO’s that don’t speak or write English are able to do a proper job optimizing for it?  I know you can pretty much learn most SEO skills in any language but since much of SEO is reading, writing and optimizing for the English language I just don’t see it being worthwhile regardless of how cheap the service is.  Here is an example of an obvious non-native English speaking SEO advertising on DigitalPoint:

Im offer offsite optimization service for only $120

What includes on the package?
-Article writing + submission
-press release writing + submission
-directory submission
-rss submission
-forum post backlinks
-blog commenting

I have posted a reply asking who will be writing all this content, and I seriously doubt he has a native English speaker/writer on staff.  This same service might be two or three times as expensive from an English speaking/writing SEO but the value your website recieves from it will be tenfold or more.  I just don’t see the value in hiring an SEO that does not speak/write the langauge your site is developed in.

I will briefly touch on one of the most important things to look for when hiring an SEO company.  Look for a company that includes a portfolio or case study section on their site.  It is important to have at least a glimpse into the type of work the firm has done in the past.

Here is a perfect example of a company that is probably a complete waste of money.  Besides their obviously poor English skills and the fact that they offer search engine submission as part of their service.   The portfolio page, http://www.bluedelightconsultant.com/portfolio.html is just a collection of barely recognizable images with no live links and no mention of what terms they achieved ranking for.

This fad started a few years back and it seems there is no end in sight.  As long as ‘pretend’ SEO’s and newbie webmaster chase the ole might ‘green bar’ I guess the business of buying dropped domains with page rank will continue.  Here is one of my favorites that I just found on DP with links for sale, it is a health site btw…..http://ColumbiaWomensLacrosse.org/

This question has been floating around the web for years and the myth still looms quite large.  Does a high page rank help me get a high search engine ranking?

The simple answer is a big, fat NO!  But it gets much more complicated.  A high page rank could be representative of many other high quality backlinks or it could just be one not-so-good high page rank backlink.

Here was a post on DigitalPoint which hammers home this point.

Tried everything to improve google ranking but didn’t work

Around a year and a half ago Google unleashed its’ wrath on general web directories.  With bolts of lightning (not quite but just as painful to the directory owners) it struck down the page rank of some of the best know directories for buying links.  Let’s see how they have faired 18 months later.

http://www.ewebpages.org/ still sitting at page rank 0

http://cdhnow.com/ stuck on page rank 0

http://www.dirspace.com/ zero it is

http://www.linkforever.net/ zero page rank bar love

and it goes on and on….it seems that almost all of these directories have remained in Google’s ‘bad’ list and in addition to having their page rank stipped they also don’t rank for their domain names.

One in the list that stands out and seems to have found a way to get back into Googles graces is http://www.avivadirectory.com/ they have a page rank four and also rank for their domain name, with site links no-less.  I know from reading the webmaster boards that the owner of avivadirectory put in a ton of time trying to rectify the problems that landed them in hot water with Google and it looks like they found the magic formula (perhaps an ebook is in the works).

This myth has been around for as long as I have been involved with SEO, so about 8 years.  I recently replied to a thread on DigitalPoint forums concerning this myth.  The original poster mentioned that they recently bought a domain name and a hosting package and the hosting company was offering them a fantastic deal of 50% off search engine submission.  The offer read something like this:

For a limited time receive 50% off the regular price of search engine submission for SEO, we submit to 13 of the top search engines to get  your website indexed quickly.  Regular price is $99.99 - sale price is only $49.99.

My response was that not only is search engine submission unnecessary but I think it is a ‘red flag’ for a company that does not have a clue what SEO actually is.  It seems Rand over at SEOmoz agree because he is redoing Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization over there and he states:

Since 2001-2, search engine submission has not only not been required, but is actually virtually useless. The engines have all publicly noted that they rarely use the “submission” URL lists, and that the best practice is to earn links from other sites, as this will expose the engines to your content naturally.

So be careful and don’t waste you money on useless services.

In Canada we are still hurting for decent pay when it comes to SEO jobs.  I just saw an ad on Monster.ca where a company was offering 28k-30k for advance SEO, online marketing and analytical skills.  In my opinion even if a canidate had half the required skills they were asking for the minimum salary expectation would be $50k+ - I guess it is just a matter of time until business learn that they will not be able to fill their SEO/SEM positions on-the-cheap.

At the same time it looks like the US is well ahead of us in recognizing the value SEO can have on a business.  Here are some US job details:

well, really bad…

Here is some content I found that was written exclusively for the search engines - it uses the keyword multiple times but sounds absolutely terrible.

The photographs can be something useful in making us able to get the certain memories stay in our mind. Without using the photographs we might not be able to recognize some moments in our life. And this is something that works on people too. It means that through the photographs, we can have someone stays in our memory forever.

There is a very amusing (toungue-in-cheek) article over at SEOMOZ that talks about the different types of clients that SEO’s get.  The one that sticks out for me and actually makes me wince is this one:

The BTJ Client (or Bigger Than Jesus) is someone who is obsessed with getting a PR9 or PR10 site, no matter what you tell them or how hard you try to convince them that Page Rank isn’t something they should obsess over.

Client: “I really want us to get a PR10 ranking.”
You: “Um, for your wool socks site?”
Client: “Yes. It can’t be that hard, right? Lots of sites have PR10s, yeah?”
You: “Well, there’s Google.com…”
Client: “Okay, maybe a PR10 is a bit of a lofty goal. How about a PR9? I think we’re PR9 material. Which sites have a PR9?”
You: “Uh, Yahoo.com…”

Been there, heard that!

The amount of misinformation floating around the web as it relates to search engine optimization is staggering.  It seems that 9 out of every 10 posts I read contains blatantly wrong advice.  I am begininning to think that some very sneaky SEO pro’s are spreading incorrect info on purpose.

Here is a thread I came across today over at DevShed Forums - the poster is asking the following question:

Hi all,

I’m based in Australia, and looking around for a VPS host. It’s down to 2 options, local or US hosting. I’m told that if my host is in Australia, that will help my Australian search ranking, but that if my host is in the US, it will help my US ranking. Is this really true? Why would it be so? Is it some kind of algorithm that assumes added relevance if the host is local?

Some of the responses (as quoted below) were quite interesting and only added to the confusion.

“yes it is true, but it is not necessary that you need to host in particular country.”

“Server location affects the ranking in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) but not always”

“It depends on what and where you are targeting rather than the server location”

“this is one of the factor among 1000 which affect your ranking”

“Constant work on the website will improve the website ranking on Google dot com too”

It seems like the object of the above replies was to keep the original poster as confused as possible!!