SEO for main income?

Steven1976a · #1 (**permalink**) 10-31-2006, 10:37 AM

All our customers have come from people finding us through organic searches over the past 16 months. I was just wondering how many are in the same boat as us?

Do other people in this forum rely solely on SEO for their income???

twanzell · #2 (**permalink**) 10-31-2006, 03:37 PM

SEO is awesome. It seems that the main thing
is to use the best of the best strategies to get indexed.

That's what I love about the course I use. It
teaches us this.

**incrediblehelp** · #3 (**permalink**) 10-31-2006, 04:56 PM

I work with clients and agencies, conducting SEO for them as my only income.

twanzell · #4 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 08:04 AM

Hmmm.... Thank you for this incrediblehelp.

I will check out your services.

greeneagle · #5 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 10:17 AM

There is a much broader market and more tools avaiable in SEM than SEO.

Anyone that is not producing well SEO'd sites are treading paleothenic waters these days!

What does it really take to design or redesign a well SEO'd Site these days? That is pretty much the extent of the SEO game.

After that it's all SEM!

Take them by the hand and walk them through the digital doors they need to be walked through.

Let's get a grip on the difference between SEO and SEM!

Ken

jgarner · #6 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 11:36 AM

I work for a website design and business promotion company as the "SEO Specialist." I use quotes as my hands are tied a lot of the time. I started to offer my services recently (within the last 6 months) and hope to gradually become completely self reliant. It's going good so far, but Mr. Eagle is right. SEO takes it so far, SEM takes it a bit farther. I'm just not as experienced in the field of SEM as I would like to be.

greeneagle · #7 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 11:41 AM

jgarner:

Quote:

"I'm just not as experienced in the field of SEM as I would like to be."

Don't feel alone. New tools (doors) come open in this business (SEM) at a furious rate.

Ken

Webnauts · #8 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 12:04 PM

SEO alone does not work.

Thatz is why we provide solutions for accessibility, usability & navigation, and quality assurance too.

But not only we do that. Check for example other famous SEO here too: http://www.seomoz.org/site-analysis-reports.php

Webnauts · #9 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 12:06 PM

SEO alone does not work.

That is why we provide solutions for accessibility, usability & navigation, and quality assurance too.

But not only we do that. Check for example other famous SEO here too: http://www.seomoz.org/site-analysis-reports.php[/quote]

And we just setup a forum for these meanings: http://forums.seoworkers.com/

amar · #10 (**permalink**) 11-01-2006, 03:11 PM

SEO alone wont bring business.

SEO is a part of SEM. SEO is one of source of getting online traffic. SEO is long term process, People expecting instant or short term results will participate in PPC and other Afffiliate programs.

Thanks,
Amar

kimber23 · #11 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greeneagle

Let's get a grip on the difference between SEO and SEM!

Ken

Ken, I know the basic differences between optimization and marketing. As a semi-newbie to the industry, I would love to see you expand on the differences that you seem so passionate about pointing out so frequently.

Thanks,
Kimber

greeneagle · #12 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 04:58 PM

Welcome to WPW from Dallas (my birthplace) kimber23.

There is quite a difference between SEO and SEM.

It's better to catch the basics in those links than try and run it out here.

As member webnauts would be quick to add, you should also consider usability and accessibility issues within the "SEO" garden, there.

These days SEO should be built into a site while SEM entails careful evaluation and fitting which digital doors to walk a client through. They all have an associated cost and disparate results.

The title of this thread: "SEO for main income?" is like asking: Do I want to do web development or marketing?

Ken

kimber23 · #13 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 05:33 PM

thanks ken,
so it is just what i thought, optimization entails the actual site itself (clean code, tags, content, etc.) and marketing is promoting that site externally (links, articles, blogs, etc.).
it's all aimed at getting traffic and conversions to a site.
it seems to me though that a lot people in the industry (myself included) do all these things. so is there a term that is all encompassing for what we do? or am i wrong and most either do seo or sem?

greeneagle · #14 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 06:26 PM

kimber,

Our business model includes becoming the marketing department for small businesses. That's where we shine.

I am not sure why so many are hung up on what they call "SEO".

In my my mind that's the first step.

Ken

AjiNIMC · #15 (**permalink**) 11-04-2006, 09:44 AM

SEM and SEO together,

I have spent many hours understanding the 15 seconds of the visitor who comes from SERPs using the exit rates, average time spent, click paths. This is one major section of SEM which can be termed as SEO (explanation will dilute the power of the statement :)).

twanzell · #16 (**permalink**) 11-09-2006, 01:16 PM

This is such a valuable thread because
sincere marketers definitely need to understand
the difference between these two terms.

It is very important to get educated on this
so a marketer can have a good understanding.

kimber23 · #17 (**permalink**) 11-09-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greeneagle

kimber,

I am not sure why so many are hung up on what they call "SEO".

In my my mind that's the first step.

Ken

but isn't seo ongoing? i mean, after we check our analytics and ppc accounts to see what terms are being searched, driving traffic and where we are ranking, we are constantly tweaking sites. Adding more keyword rich content, fresh content, ppc landing pages with forms, maybe changing some title and alt tags here and there...

are you saying you optimize the site only at the beginning and then from there on out it's just marketing the site without ever making a single change to the site itself?

Peter (IMC) · #18 (**permalink**) 11-09-2006, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven1976a

All our customers have come from people finding us through organic searches over the past 16 months. I was just wondering how many are in the same boat as us?

Do other people in this forum rely solely on SEO for their income???

I do,.. I started on my own doing SEO for clients. Then , together with 2 business partners I set up an SEO company and we´re growing every month. 9 employees now (Including SEO specialists, Sales people, programmers, and a copywriter) working both on client websites, and our own websites. We also help companies with PPC campaigns.

SEO is fun and very rewarding!

[Added] And I forgot to mention on-site marketing which we still mainly do on our own websites. It is amazing how you can increase your conversions by making relatively small changes to your website.

meinking22 · #19 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 03:32 PM

> After that it's all SEM!

I agree. More than ever these days, it's really about SEM. SEO is really accomplished in the initial stages of the site build and partly in ongoing link building campaigns. Beyond that, the SEM campaign really takes over with link baiting strategies, especially now with RSS feeds and the focus on articles and press releases.

Steve

CreditFN · #20 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 08:09 PM

Very interesting thread, I have been doing SEO work for clients for a few years now for income and must say the SEO world is rapidly changing. It is marketing anyway you look it as SEO or SEM. We have worked on extending our clients presence to many of the top 10 sites which include Myspace, YouTube and Craigslist which many overlook as a valuable source for traffic. We also use all three major search engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN but must say these aren't always going to be your most valuable resources to getting traffic. The traffic we attract from other sources are ussually very highly targetted based off demographics. Blogs are also a major source of marketing traffic. There are many avenues to drive traffic to clients sites, so just step out the box ;) Your world will change...

CanuckSEO · #21 (**permalink**) 11-14-2006, 05:05 PM

One thing which seems to get glossed over is link building.

This is an increasingly important SEO factor. After all the engine's algos are all based on links (granted there are tons of other factors but essentially he who has the most links, wins).

It used to be that link building was something which was done at the end of the month if you had time after reoptimizing your site. Now, optimization is the initial stage but link building is a much more important factor.

For most of my own SEO clients (I too earn a living performing SEO) the majority of my work now is link building.

So whether you call it SEO or SEM, don't forget that all important factor - link building.

**incrediblehelp** · #22 (**permalink**) 11-14-2006, 05:19 PM

I would have to say this is not always true. Many of the companies I deal with need no help with IBLs. They already have hundreds of thousands of them. They need help in organizing their internal links, navigation, shopping cart abandonment, overall website accessibility, etc. SEO is not always about links.

I agree the current algo does deal heavily in IBL's, but think about the future of SEO. Since IBLs can be manipulated and easily spammed I am sure the future of SEO will not be in links.