Is it possible to hire competent SEO work online?

[HypnPro]

This is a problem I have struggled with for several years. I'm sure I am not alone. That problem is having the need to improve SEO on a website.. either mine or a clients.. and yet not being able to find anyone who can do a competent and safe job of building relevant backlinks. This leaves me with no other choice but to do it myself and, if you're not doing it all the time, it is a very time consuming process.

Over time I have hired freelancers who have been highly rated only to find they are posting links to spam sites and directories or on sites where the link never appears or disappears within a few weeks.. writing crap content.. posting comments saying only "Nice article" or some such nonsense. Even registering with directories that state they will only publish if you pay. I could go on about all the problems associated with hiring a bad SEO contractor but you all know the all to common horror tale so I won't bore you.

Now that I am here on this site, I find yet another source.. SEOCLERKS.com and I find more resources.. all with wonderful ratings and lofty promises of competent work at a good price and once again I find myself asking... could there be someone here that I could hire that would do the job for me and let me get back to the work of building my business?

I don't mind being disappointed again but I hate taking the risk of having someone put my site at risk again so I thought I'd ask the combined brain trust here... is it possible to contract out SEO work and get the results you are paying for or is the only way to go to hire someone in house and then pay them while they hopefully get up to speed on the right way to do things? I've read more articles about what to do.. and I get it... but every hour I spend doing SEO is an hour I am not doing something more productive. SEO is not rocket science.. but it's labor intensive.

So.. what's your opinion on the subject? Is SEOClerks another fivrr or a place to find capable, honest and legitimate white hat SEO contractors? If no.. then is there a better way to find one?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[SIG]

The best way is to learn and do SEO yourself. This way you actually know:

• that your building links to your site
• what links are you building
• what you actually!!

Hiring someone from SEOClerks or fiverr will just ruin your backlink profile. Who will do SEO for 5 bucks or 100 bucks, and do it properly. Don't forget everybody in this world is going after the money, and some don't put quality in their work; they just blast your site with spammy links and so on.

I bought SEO services from Fiverr, not going to lie, ruined a couple of my sites, just to test the quality of their services. And not purchase only onces, many times. It's just not worth it.

If you don't want to do it yourself hire a freelancer from Freelancer.com or Upwork.com - do your due diligence 100% before hiring someone.

 

[HypnPro]

I agree that the best way to get the best work is to do it myself... the problem is that every hour I spend doing SEO is an hour that can't be spent doing something else.. and there is so much I would rather be doing. I have come to the same decision but was just hoping.. since this is a great site with what appears to be a lot of very knowledgeable people, I thought I'd just ask in case there is something I hadn't thought of.
The sad part is.. it doesn't seem to make any difference how much one charges. Those phone solicitors who call me almost daily telling me that a spot just opened up on the front page of Google and that for only (pick a price between $299 and $499 a month) they will get me there post haste yet.. they suck every bit as bad as the folks that shout "500,000 links for only $2.99) on fivrr.

If someone decided to actually do good work for a fair price.. I can't imagine how much they might rake in...

 

[SEOPub]

I would stay away from most of the common outsourcing sites like Freelancer, Fiverr, etc. The problem with them is that the people reviewing most of them have no idea what good SEO looks like either. They get a bunch of EDU links or "PR 9" which are really PR 0 profile links and they think the provider did great work. Most never come back to update the review after their site tanks. Also, sites like Fiverr ask for your review as soon as the order is delivered. There is no way you can honestly review an SEO service instantly.

On the other hand, a lot of people think that really good SEO work can be done for $500 and under, which is what leads them to many of these services in the first place.

 

[HypnPro]

So, it appears to me that the answer is still the same.. It is not possible to hire someone online who can and will do a good job month in and month out doing honest work building relevant backlinks. If I want it done, I either need to continue doing it myself as I now am... or I need to hire someone who is not in the business and train them how to do it and then monitor and oversee their work. Sigh... maybe I'll start my own SEO business since there seems to be demand for quality but no supply.

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

Can you give me an example of what type of service you are looking for?

What exactly do you want this SEO service to do?

Do you want them to build a specific number of links each month? If so, how many?

And what price do you consider to be a reasonable price for them to do this for you?

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

To be honest, if someone is looking for a specific number of links to be built each month, they are not looking for an SEO. They are just looking for a link builder.

There is a difference.

 

[SEOPub]

No that is not true at all. There are plenty of great SEOs out there. I just think looking at places like Fiverr, oDesk, etc. is not going to help you find what you are looking for.

I've trained a few that do excellent work. My team does great work. I talk to a lot of other great SEOs that I have made connections with.

They are out there. They just are not running gigs on Fiverr. You will not find them on Freelancer and oDesk. But you have to be willing to pay for quality work. You will not find a good SEO for $500/month.

 

[HypnPro]

So, can you give me some guidance on how to spot the good ones among all the bad ones? As a small businessman with a limited advertising budget, I don't know if I can afford someone to provide "good SEO" but I would like to think since I am not hiring someone full time, they can offer levels of service. Or perhaps the good SEO companies only want to deal with big businesses where spending a few thousand a month on SEO is no problem. Anyway, if you have any suggestions on where I might find these "good SEO" providers and what questions to ask that will help me separate the good from the bad and the ugly.. that would be most appreciated.
Thanks

 

[SEOPub]

Here are a few things I always recommend...

If they are offering packages, run away. Every project is different, and you cannot pigeonhole a client into a specific box of services. I have yet to meet what I would call a good SEO who offers packages. Packages are for the low quality link builders.

I know this will sound ignorant, but if the SEO company is from Pakistan or India, proceed with caution. I have yet to see a single decent SEO from either of those places, and I get pitched by tons of them trying to get me to outsource clients to them. It amazes me how everyone I have encountered from those two locations just seems no idea how to do quality work when it comes to SEO.

If they cannot show you examples of past or current clients they have worked for, skip them. Now, some might have some issues with having signed NDA's and might not be able to show you everything, but they should have a few examples. For example, a few of digital marketing companies outsource a lot of their SEO work to me, but they make me sign a non-disclosure agreement. I do all the work, they get all the credit. That is fairly common. Like I said though, they should have a few examples.

If they promise XXX number of links or directory submissions or anything like that per month, I would avoid them. Putting any artificial number that has to be met like that will just encourage them to seek low quality sources to hit their quota, and again it is just a sign of a low quality link builder, not an SEO.

Those are a few sure signs of bad SEOs.

 

[ericplotz1]

May I first ask what it is that you know about SEO? If you knew about SEO, you would know how difficult it is and how much work is involved. How could you value that at $500 or less per month?

I'm not going to lie, I've taken a few local businesses at $500 month and provided consultation and advisement on what to do (3 hours per month). But I wouldn't dare do the work for that price.

For instance, one of the things I do to rank a local client is contact local organizations and offer donations to get listed as a sponsor on the site with a link. This is incredibly powerful for local businesses.

You'd be surprised, but most organizations won't even contact you back. Do you realize how much work goes in to doing this? How much could I possibly do with $500 and actually get results. We aren't even talking about manually building citations.

I used to take clients at $750 a month for SEO and you know what? These turned out to be my worst clients. They expect the world for $750. They were more needy then the clients paying me $2000+ per month. I dropped doing that, and now if you don't have $1,500 for SEO alone, I won't even touch it. My favorite thing to say to prospects without a budget is, "I apologize but I just don't think you're a good fit for our company....."

Look, quality SEO has an average of 2000-3000% ROI!!! How companies with high end products think a measly budget is going to get them a first page result is beyond me.

Don't you think if SEO was as easy as throwing a company $500, everyone would be doing it?

There are some great SEOs online!!!! Where else would they be??? You just have to pay for it or do it yourself.

 

[popwin1]

Of course it's possible . It's just expensive and the effect comes trough time . You can't pay $5 and expect to be as big as facebook overnight .That's just insane .Instead you need track the effectiveness of SEO and see what can be done day by day ,until you are able to pay someone $1000 per month to do it for you .