What can we expect by working with you?
When working with me, you can rest assured that I’ll actually be the one doing the work.
The primary advantage in working with an individual over an agency is that you know who’s doing the work.
Usually when you work with an agency the team of strategists or executives that pitched you the services are not the folks working on your account.
Basically they pitch you the ‘A’ team and you get the ‘C’ team actually doing the work.
When working with me, I’ll do the following:
1) I’ll take a look at your situation and see what makes the most sense for your business. SEO isn’t a good fit for all businesses, and I’ll tell you straight up if it’s not.
2) If it is a good fit I’ll start doing competitive intelligence, figuring out things like:
- What sites rank for your targeted keywords in your vertical?
- Where are those sites strong and weak? What can we learn from their strengths and how do we exploit their weaknesses
- What pages are attracting the most traffic and why?
- What pages are attracting the most links and why?
The competitive research will act as a map to guide strategy.
It’s really hard to do internet marketing without first knowing what’s going on in the industry you’ll be competing in, although it is possible, and there are lots of internet marketing service providers that work like that and leave lots on the table.
How much will this cost?
There is unfortunately no easy answer to this question without knowing the amount of time and effort I believe is necessary to do a good job. As more small/medium businesses realize the value of internet marketing, the cost rises. I’m comfortable working with:
- Hourly Rates (My rate is $125 per hour) based on work that needs to be done.
- Retainer
- Cost per lead generated
I will say that anything under $1,000 is probably not going to be able to move the needle in most competitive markets considering many of the initial link recommendations will be for directories, which themselves could cost around $300-$500. But again, it all depends on the market, and that definitely doesn’t mean that small business owners who have less than $1,000 should shy away.
If you can only spend about $1,000 on internet marketing it’s probably better to spend a few hundred on learning/training yourself and the to other $700-800 on links.
If that describes you then I still want to hear from you cause I can tell you which training materials are best so you can get up to speed real quick.
What’s your take on paid links?
Ah, the good ol’ paid link questions. It always seems to come up at the beginning of every engagement so I figure we’ll just address the 800 lb gorilla in the room: My stance on paid links is ….. (drum roll please) …. it depends!
I’m sure that’s not the answer you’re looking for but it’s the best I can do without knowing where your site is, what the competitive landscape looks like, and your tolerance for risk.
The link building strategy is much different for a brand new site relative to an older, more established site/brand. It’s also dependent on what your competitors are doing. If the top 5 in Google are all using paid links, then you’ll likely have to do the same.
Paid links still work, and until they don’t they will continue to be in the arsenal if necessary.
By the way, if you’re looking for link building services I can definitely help you (click the link).
Dave … you still didn’t answer my question!
I’ve tried to cover all of the major questions I’ve received over the years consulting. If you still have questions, please fill out the form below.