SEO Addiction

[dvduval]

Do you feel like too many people get addicted to SEO, so much so that they don't even bother building a worthwhile site? I see it all the time, and then they wonder why they aren't making any money. When are people going to learn and actually make sites that are worthwhile?

[gmswan99]

Great point! You can have your site optimized to the max, but if don't provide useful information that visitors are searching for, what's the point? Find your niche, create your site that caters to your niche, insert content, optimize and market it. You need the complete package to be effective.;)

[Julie11]

I have to admit that a year or so I was guilty of that. I spent my spare time trying to optimise and get links and then suddenly took a good hard look at the site after seeing a similar thread to this in a different forum. I totally redesigned the site and had far better results.

[morestar]

I've been the same way quite a few times...I'm not only an SEO but a web developer as well and I need to dedicate much more time to creating beautiful sites than worrying about SEO.

In the end if we create brilliantly glowing and popular sites we'll attract visitors and won't even need SEO ;)

Good post, good point...

[cg0404]

Building the site so they will come and SEO go hand in hand, it is all part of the grand plan to have an effective site. I think my clients tend to forget about the SEO and then wonder why their site is not performing the way they would like. Really though, content should always be the first priority.

[aleksandarr]

That can explain why sites with team working on it, become big. There, one man or team work on SEO and others work on content.

[claybutler]

I don't see a lot of SEO addiction but I do see a lot of misguided SEO emphasis. Whenever I see a post about some obscure SEO issue, something that won't make a lick of difference either way, I know I'm seeing misplaced energy in action. The web/SEO/online marketing field is a major attraction to "get rich quick" types who believe that those who succeed have a secret formula and if they can just learn this secret they too can succeed. The idea that it requires lots of hard work is just dismissed outright. Just show me the secret! Now! I don't have time do all this hard work!

This mentally drives these types to spend their days searching for "tricks" while completely ignoring the "meat and potatoes" issues that have to do with branding and old school marketing. You know, the hard stuff that takes time, intelligence and thought.

Made for AdWords sites are a great example of this. Just fill a page full of crap and trickery and watch the money flow in. Trouble is, it doesn't flow in because it's junk.

WP Robot (look it up...don't want to give them a link) is a particularly depressing manifestation of this mentality.

[danlefree]

What're you doing????!!!1

You just revealed the secret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_%282006_film%29#Criticism) ... (and it was so well-hidden)

What are we going to do now that everyone knows that you have to apply common sense and hard work to succeed?

[claybutler]

What're you doing????!!!1

You just revealed the secret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_%282006_film%29#Criticism) ... (and it was so well-hidden)

What are we going to do now that everyone knows that you have to apply common sense and hard work to succeed?

Damn! I'm sorry. Now everyone's going to start working hard to succeed! I'm such a fool!

[Registernuke]

Do you feel like too many people get addicted to SEO, so much so that they don't even bother building a worthwhile site? When are people going to learn and actually make sites that are worthwhile?
I think that many people have really good sincere intentions and strive to get more traffic to their site weather it's an ecommerce site or if it's a site that they are building for someone else. As a designer with just a few years of experience I enjoy putting a site together for one of my clients but then I and many others get carried away with regards to just optimizing the site way too much and get carried away with worrying about things such as ,page rank and links and checking every day or every hour to see if my rankings have changed on the search engines. So yes I sadly would have to agree that it can be an addiction and one could easily lose focus on the beauty and the look of the site. One of my web partners mentioned once that seo is like "digital meth" that once your hooked it is nearly impossible to overcome.

[CReed]

I don't see a lot of SEO addiction but I do see a lot of misguided SEO emphasis. Whenever I see a post about some obscure SEO issue, something that won't make a lick of difference either way, I know I'm seeing misplaced energy in action. The web/SEO/online marketing field is a major attraction to "get rich quick" types who believe that those who succeed have a secret formula and if they can just learn this secret they too can succeed. The idea that it requires lots of hard work is just dismissed outright. Just show me the secret! Now! I don't have time do all this hard work!

Aren't you glad that all of these the Search Engine Optimists aren't getting in the way? ;)

I agree; MFA sites coupled with social bookmarking, splog commenting and forum spamming is not the formula for success.

[confettiguru]

Damn! I'm sorry. Now everyone's going to start working hard to succeed! I'm such a fool!

I got a call from a woman I know who has a very large site, ecommerce.
Her cart is so old there is no support for it. She told me that she used to get
"tons of orders" ....10 years ago. The only thing she's done since the original site went up is add new product. Anyway she wanted my advice, as a friend, of course meaning
no offer of payment. I took a look and the first thing that popped off the screen is the fact that she has the same meta title on every single page...simply her URL
I called her back told her that step one is to create unique page titles for each page.
Her response, "That sounds like to much work, can you do it for me"
I quoted a price and got, "but couldn't you just do it because you know me?"
AAARGH
I politely declined
Comments?

[morestar]

Oh ya...the snivelers are out there no doubt about it. Plumbers don't even get treated like this - most times - Swiper No Swiping!!

That was a difficult aspect of SEO for me but I've changed my tune after reading a lot of the posts here at WebProWorld.com regarding how to deal with clients and proposals etc. Now I simply be as brief but as urgent sounding as possible and let them get back to me. Nothing is free anymore - not even my can of cat food for chip-dip...

[confettiguru]

Oh ya...the snivelers are out there no doubt about it. Plumbers don't even get treated like this - most times - Swiper No Swiping!!

That was a difficult aspect of SEO for me but I've changed my tune after reading a lot of the posts here at WebProWorld.com regarding how to deal with clients and proposals etc. Now I simply be as brief but as urgent sounding as possible and let them get back to me. Nothing is free anymore - not even my can of cat food for chip-dip...

So True. My first mistake was even looking at her site without charging
a consultation fee.
What she really needs is an new site, ground up. She could work her SEO in
on the build. Any site 10 years old truly needs to be redone.
How do you guys handle people you know who want you to just "take a quick look" at
their site and tell them what needs to be done?
Oops, should this be a new thread?

[claybutler]

So True. My first mistake was even looking at her site without charging
a consultation fee.
What she really needs is an new site, ground up. She could work her SEO in
on the build. Any site 10 years old truly needs to be redone.
How do you guys handle people you know who want you to just "take a quick look" at
their site and tell them what needs to be done?
Oops, should this be a new thread?

I do what you just did. Make a quick assessment and explain what needs to be done and what the cost is. If they are serious they'll get right back to you. If not, oh well. Consider it practice. Every time I check out someone's site a learn a bit more. I've seen some seriously messed up sites and everyone of them has taught me something.

[confettiguru]

I do what you just did. Make a quick assessment and explain what needs to be done and what the cost is. If they are serious they'll get right back to you. If not, oh well. Consider it practice. Every time I check out someone's site a learn a bit more. I've seen some seriously messed up sites and everyone of them has taught me something.
Clay, what a great way to look at it. It's really true and I suppose that goes back to the
original post about SEO addiction. Looking at other sites feeds our addiction and
for sure teaches us. It's why I go to SES. I love listening to people, learning from my
peers and feeling recharged. (Not a sales pitch, I have nothing to do with SES)

Interestingly, I just agreed to look at another site. This one is for a really good friend.
The look is free, the work is not. I think our SEO addiction becomes apparent to most of
the people we meet. I gravitate to the subject at parties. It's why so many friends and
associates ask for help

[claybutler]

I think our SEO addiction becomes apparent to most of
the people we meet. I gravitate to the subject at parties. It's why so many friends and
associates ask for help

Yeah, it's pretty exciting to talk about. I get all worked up. It's hard not to. For someone who has a really crippled sites (same title on every page for example) what you can do for that site is magical to the average person. We wave our wand and 4 weeks later they see results that have been eluding them for years. Sometime the results can only take a few days.

That's what makes it hard not to just help everyone that comes along. It just pains me to watch someone spin their wheels when I know than in maybe 3 hours work I could dramatically improve their situation because their SEO mistakes are obvious and easy to fix. Many times we're just talking a few unique titles to take them from obscurity to the first page because the Title tag on their home page was "Welcome!" or "Untitled".

How can you not heal the sick when all you really need to do is just lay your hands on them for moment?

It's always a tough one for me to just let someone flounder because they are too short sighted or cheap to pay you to fix it. But you gotta make a living.

[securedcc]

Made for AdWords sites are a great example of this. Just fill a page full of crap and trickery and watch the money flow in. Trouble is, it doesn't flow in because it's junk.


I have victimized on that site too. I look for something & clicked their site, it's full of adsense & found not what I'm looking for.

As much as possible, we update our site twice or thrice a week for fresh content since our sites is an article-driven one.

[full house]

I agree!people tends to create sites and didn't think if they earn from it...remember we create sites for people and get ROI.

[thersey]

Really true.Every newbie has turned into an seo expert.All claim to get you in google top 10.half of them don't even have their own websites and if they do they are not even in the top 100 of google.People should understand that chosing the right seo company is necessary