Ask the SEO Guru

A few months back I had a lapse of almost a month between posts. I was chastised severely by thousands of avid Guru readers, (ok, ok 4 avid guru readers), and knew that I was not accepting that launching a blog and expecting to build a following comes with a responsibility beyond just posting whenever you feel like it.

Ok I accept. I've taken up valuable time from busy people by insinuating there would be fresh content to learn from or at least engage with, on some kind of regular basis and now I have a responsibility to deliver.

When I had that month long lapse and finally returned, I made some lame excuse about being busy and not having time and the blog not being a source of income and my dog ate my homework and my grandmother got sick and I had a flat and -----------

Nothing more than excuses. Later after some reflection and with the taste of foot still lingering in my mouth, I realized that we're all busy. It's a busy world and if I expect people to give me some of their time I better be willing to give them some of mine as well.

So I started thinking about how to arrange my schedule so I could devote more time to blogging while still providing some unique, informational, educational and entertaining,(or at least a way to kill time while looking busy), value to the reader.

Of course desire holds no sway over time and time is the enemy in this instance because while I accept my responsibility to my readers there is no denying that still my first duty lies with paying clients. I have taken their time AND money so what’s s stressed SEO to do?

I have resources. 11 years of promoting websites for profit has afforded me some value assets that I can bring to bear when the need arises. In fact I have one of those assets that most SEO’s would cut off another’s’ right arm for. A very smart, well educated, holding a degree in journalism content developer. A good friend, a long term employee and a man who can put out 1000 words of optimized, well researched, quality content in an hour. His name is Jake Lowery.

Meet Jake Lowery

Jake is a news hound. He has more rss feeds than Google has zeros. He is a man of wide and varied interests and knowledgeable in a LOT of areas including online marketing and SEO. So it dawned on me he would be very useful to me if I asked him to browse through the plethora of SEO/Marketing articles produced every day and send me the ones that he felt would be of the most interest to the seo community at large in the form of a question. He’ll feed me the meat of an  article and formulate it into a question asking my opinion.

I will still write my weekly articles as I always have but now I will have an additional offering to my blog with a more direct editorial flair as well. If you have a question you are still free to send them to me massa@techndu.com and if I choose yours I will post it, (complete with links to you), along with my "editorial" answer.

Questions for the week of 4-11-08

1. Jim Boykin says he has been asked to speak at a conference on Buying Websites for SEO. http://www.jimboykin.com/buying-websites-seo/

He says he’s not sure if he wants to talk about the subject in public, although he has posted on it before.http://www.jimboykin.com/screw-the-sandbox-buy-and-old-site/ 

Guru, you have never been shy about sharing your secrets, so I’d like to know if you think it is wiser, and faster, to buy an old site with lots of back links, or to work on a new site and build you own links.

Guru: Jim has been doing this stuff a long time and  knows more about search engines and the tools that help dominate the results of those engines than just about anybody. Jim is also a world class SEO and knows how to take a site with existing links pointing to existing content and still convert the traffic that would generate to a new topic, service or product that may or may not be totally, closely or not at all related to the old content.

In my opinion, if you are not confident of your own skills to do relatively the same thing, then I believe you are wasting your time and a valuable resource to someone who does know. I believe that placement without conversion it the epitome of futility. To get a top placement just for the sake of generating non-converting traffic is a complete waste of time and money. To do it with old domains that you purchase for the placement benefit without knowing how to convert, you just made less than no money. Now you also wasted the money you spent on the domain. If you are one of those people, ---- call me. I’ve got some great old domains I’d let go pretty cheap.

Jim hesitates to discuss it publicly because he knows that when he does, far too many people who don’t know what they are doing and are simply looking for a quick buck, (which this is not by the way), will be competing with him for the domains that he could have monetized. He is not actually referring to those who do know what they are doing because most of them are his friends and peers and he knows that they will feel much like he does and pretty much keep their mouth shut and make their money.

He also knows that when a technique is found that does offer an advantage to the technically capable, it does not pose a great threat to Google as long as it appears relevant and they have little motivation to be overly concerned. Meaning that there is a technique that may be available for a long time. He also knows that as long as the ignoratti doesn’t start posting on every SEO forum and blog, (making it appear that Google is not in control of their results), there would be plenty of resources out there for him and all the SEO’s that understand how to use it to go around. He also knows that when it becomes a public relations thorn in the side of Google, you can bet that technique is not long for this world. 

Next  Question

3. I received an email advertising a service offering a talking avatar as a way to increase sales from your site. Do gimmicks like this really work? http://www.sitepal.com/

Those things seem soo real don’t they? So warm, so caring. NOT!

Would you buy something from a cartoon?

The only benefit they have in my opinion is if they can add some entertainment value to the site. But even then I think a handy widget would still produce more sales. If anything, they distract from your message.

If you do feel they add some intrinsic value to your site and you want to use them, I recommend at least staying focused on a benefit and NOT a feature.

Have the little cartoon say things THEY want to hear.

It’ll make you skinny

It’ll make your hair grow

It’ll make your momma love you

It’ll make your friends jealous

No one will be able to tell how small your --------

Well, you get the idea.

A perfect illustration of my point is a success story I found at the sitepal site itself. It took me to a carpet cleaning site in New York. When you click the scarry little womans head she starts telling you how long they been in business, what tools they use, how cute they are and how they enjoy long walks on the beach, (I don't know what she said actually. It didn't interest me enough to keep listening.)

I think it would be more effective if the little head said things like

We'll make your house quit stinking

Don't get crap on your fingers, let us pick up the poop

See for yourself if you think they increase sales http://carpet-cleaning-ny-nj.com/ Then come back and tell me if you stayed awake through the entire cartoon.

Peace Y’all

G

How the hell did you get a bean stuck up your nose in the first place dammit!