Musings of an SEO Guy

The Musings of an SEO guy
Musings of an SEO Guy

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The Musings of an SEO guy

 

Playing Devils Advocate with SEO

A question came up about whether websites that link to your website need traffic, and yes a website having traffic can only be a good thing – I like to play devils advocate and see both sides of the coin.

This is because it is easy to logically assume that a website with no traffic means that the link is not very good.

You could perhaps argue that if a link with traffic is a 7 out of 10 then a link with no traffic is like a 3 out of 10.

So is there value in getting links from such sites and does it even help with rankings?

I listened to a guy called Greg Morrison, he is someone that is in the shadows behind the scenes in the SEO world, he is happy testing on his websites and just doing SEO every day. So you may not have heard of him but some regard him as the PBN king.

A PBN is a private blog network, where you buy websites that have decent power or relevance to the website you are trying to rank. Then you build the website out to a basic level, put some articles on it and in one of those articles link to your website.

These websites generally have no traffic or very little because they are no value, often they have spun content or just generic content – just to fill the website with something.

So Greg Morrison ran a test, and he wanted to find out a few things.

Can you rank a website with a curse word in?

Can you rank a website with just PBN’s? (plus a few directory links and Web 2.0 links)

Can you rank a website with PBN’s with little to no traffic?

Can you rank a website with none of the technical SEO techniques people use? (for example Schema)

Can you rank a website with no Name, Address or Phone Number for the business?

Can you rank a website with terrible content and brute force it with links?

miami seo bitch

So the website is called miamiseobitch.com and basically he wanted to break the BS around SEO and show that you can rank with pure links and a partial match URL website.

He has only just worked on it in the last 6 months to make it look a bit prettier and have a couple of those things because he found someone to send the leads to, he was ranking top 5 with his old version and was like hhmm i may as well do it up a bit and sell the leads.

His good friend Kotton Grammar has been ranking number 1 for Miami SEO for like 8 years and he wasn’t trying to outrank him just to make it to the first page to show what can be done.

kotton grammer media

You also have Ryan Stewarts Webris ranking at the top for Miami SEO and he just sold that for several million dollars.

webris

Now obviously the best leads that Ryan and Kotton got were probably not from their websites, but you can bet your bottom dollar that both Kotton and Ryan were investing in their website to make it rank higher simply for credibility when they talk to prospects.

I know at least Kotton was investing a few thousand dollars per month to keep his number 1 rankings (this was across many USA cities not just for Miami)

I really like this case study that Greg Morrison has created on miamiseobitch because it just throws out all the nonsense of SEO and shows that behind it all links are all you need and you can brute force it.

Now obviously google will become smarter and figure more of this out over time, it has already started going that way as you know.

But for me, this website is like a canary in the coal mine, as long as it stays top of the search the PBN’s are still alive and kicking (PBN’s done right of course).

Not that I would ever use PBN’s at this point, but it does fascinate me – just like Kyle Roof who ranked a website number 1 for rhinoplasty Plato (which is a decent-sized city in Texas) in 2 months with just lorem ipsum plus the main keywords and a few web 2.0 and directory links – that to me is like a Picasso or a Mozart – a rare peek behind the google curtain.

It was literally like this – lorem ipsum Rhinoplasty Plato lorem ipsum etc

Also, he did this in a competition against the top SEO’s in the industry and beat them all with it.

These 2 experiments show in the rawest form how powerful links are and content with your keywords are.

 

The Rollercoaster of Search Engine Optimisation

ups and downs of seo

We had a question from one of our clients, basically, we have taken their website from outside the top 100 for their number 1 keyword, and we got the website to 24th within a couple of months.

However just this last week it dropped from 20th to around 50th position. Below my thoughts on the matter.

My personal opinion is in each niche there are a handful of main money keywords that I don’t know how but perhaps google realises somehow these are the number 1 keywords that people are going for – and for those, it does funny things with.

For example, on Happy Koala (my personal SEO agency website) my longtails were like page 2 after a month and a half but SEO agency Birmingham was stuck down in 100.

Then it gets to 2 months and more long tails are moving up and SEO agency is bouncing in and out of top 100, then 3 months and more long tails are moving up and SEO agency Birmingham is bouncing around at the bottom of the top 100 and stabilising, then out of nowhere it bounced up from 80th to 20th in one day.

So for me, it makes sense that the main keyword is going to do weird things compared to the long tails, but if it has gone up to 20th position there is a good reason behind it – it’s like google letting you look behind the curtain for 5 minutes of what the future may hold.

The bouncing down is simply just stabilising because it has moved up fairly quickly from nowhere and it’s like the stock market – it bounces to new highs then drops to new lows which is a higher low than it was previously, then it steadies itself and bounces to new highs again.

If google thought the site was worthy of being 20th position then it means things are on the right track, Google isn’t just accidentally putting you in 20th position for no reason and it not like it is trying to test the site out because there is no traffic there, and since then all we have done is add more good quality links – just got to wait for it to kick in.

It’s sometimes a little bit of a rollercoaster with loop the loops and scary moments but all the while you’re moving forward around the track and getting closer to the finish line.

The Monthly SEO Agency Headache

monthly headache with invoice seo clients

Below is part of a conversation I was having with an SEO consultant about the headache of chasing clients each month to pay their monthly invoice.

Below is my reply, I am not a sales guy but I do like logic and I think the below answer makes the most sense.

—

I understand about the invoicing situation that is a difficult one.

On paper in my head – it makes sense to frame the client like this and say.

 

So let me ask you a question

Mr client, does it make sense to spend a couple of hours each month for the next 6 to 12 months chasing you to pay an invoice each month, not just that but then multiply that by all out clients.

this is valuable time that is wasted for both of us that could be used more productively with you running your business and us helping your website rank higher in Google

this is why we have an auto bill each month to keep it simple and easy for both of us.

you will be able to see everything that we have done and are going to do with our live report which you can access at any time.

and on top of that, you are free to cancel with 30 days notice if you are not completely satisfied so you are completely in control.

Does this make sense to you?

(what can they say here other than yes because it is a win-win for both parties)

 

Now, this makes logical sense and it’s being put over in a way that’s a benefit to them.

Like I say on paper this makes sense for both parties in my opinion.

Reality is obviously a lot different but try it next time you get a client and ask them if they think auto bill is right for them.

Author Profile

Matt Henry
I take care of ClickDo Ltd. SEO Clients - I help businesses grow online with the latest SEO services & digital marketing strategies. Personally, I like to work with a small number of clients and focus intensely on those projects. This allows me to have the time to constantly be keeping up with the latest trends in Google.
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