Bad News

[avatar33]

It has to be such a sweet gig handling 6 figure/year clients and all you really do is tell them to update title tags and create content based around some keywords someone regurgitates from 10 minutes of research. From what I've encountered, 99% of people in the SEO world are braindead retards who can't figure out that Google DGAF about your site's SEO, only what you're spending on Adwords. SER/SEL comment sections are hilarious, but then again, they just demonstrate how dumb the competition really is.

6 figures a year? I was talking about 6 figures a month (7 figures a year!) contracts. A friend of mine working in a renowned Canadian agency sent me a copy of a contract they signed recently with a clothing brand that already has an in-house SEO team and decent rankings. Value of the contract? $150,000 a month over 3 years... and yes all they do is send fancy monthly reports telling the in-house SEO team of the client what meta tags to write and other on-site optimization shit. Barely any link building since the brand gets links naturally all the time.

 

[vgeek]

6 figures a year? I was talking about 6 figures a month (7 figures a year!) contracts. A friend of mine working in a renowned Canadian agency sent me a copy of a contract they signed recently with a clothing brand that already has an in-house SEO team and decent rankings. Value of the contract? $150,000 a month over 3 years... and yes all they do is send fancy monthly reports telling the in-house SEO team of the client what meta tags to write and other on-site optimization shit. Barely any link building since the brand gets links naturally all the time.

The only big contract I've seen from one of the mentioned agencies. It was only for ~$150k for the year, and all it included was "strategy" consultation. Any content creation, design work or specific backlink building was to be billed extra. The quote was for a company with in-house SEO. I don't get what added value they really provide. If you're an in-house SEO working with a 3rd party agency for common sense level stuff, aren't you not doing your job?

 

[Jon]

I agree with most of this, but honestly after all these years fucking around with Google I'm starting to realize this: there are awesome blackhatters, and awesome whitehatters, and both deserve a tremendous amount of respect because they essentially achieve the same results. Rand might be a bitch, but he's banking hard... and so is that Wil Reynolds guy from Seer and all those monkeys from Distilled that preach "write nice content and links will come naturally!" lol. The reality is they are all charging $XXX,XXX monthly retainers to A list corporations and all they do is send them PDF/Excel reports asking them to change their meta descriptions. LOL

The ones that deserve no respect are those that zig zag between both worlds, without truly mastering any of them. These guys are always uncertain about what they're doing and keep switching allegiances. I must admit that I used to be part of this gay school, up until I got slapped in 2012 and realized that there is no space for a "rainbowhat SEO". You choose your school and you master everything there is to master in it.

Fair points sir.

Rand is banking it hard and some of the tools they built were fucking brilliant and useful.... however... moz = shit show. I get offered millions of dollars and euros all the time to do VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY fucked up shit (6 VERY's = serious business), and I turn it down. Not because I don't love boat loads of funds, but because I know all too well just how much regret and bullshit comes as a hidden fee with those gigs. Rand doesn't even experience a quarter of one of those VERY's. But he built an empire based on bullshit, and if we know anything about organic material such as shit (regardless of the animal it falls out of) is that it's loosely fortified and shaky ground to build upon. But most of all, in the end it all disappears because it was... holy fuck what am I talking about. The moz thing is a kool-aid factory. That's it.

 

[JulianTrueFlynn]

6 figures a year? I was talking about 6 figures a month (7 figures a year!) contracts. A friend of mine working in a renowned Canadian agency sent me a copy of a contract they signed recently with a clothing brand that already has an in-house SEO team and decent rankings. Value of the contract? $150,000 a month over 3 years... and yes all they do is send fancy monthly reports telling the in-house SEO team of the client what meta tags to write and other on-site optimization shit. Barely any link building since the brand gets links naturally all the time.

I'm not saying I got that money, but I've worked for one of those kind of clients where links oncoming, million pages, in the news frequently, etc. It's a lot more than fixing meta data, like way more fun. It's a bitch changing anything because of the amount of approval needed, but working with that data was an incredible experience. Are you sure that's the only thing the contract laid out? Plus they're accepting a lot of liability and long meetings/compliance. They're also going to be used as another person in that list of approval for other things going on (you're the 'SEO guy' and they want to run ideas by you to make sure it's ok).

TBH a lot of bigger corporations won't touch link building for a list of legal reasons. They would be doing it under a different identity maybe. A lot of areas for compliance reasons have to claim whatever is considered their advertising and mark it clearly for consumers and I've yet to meet an attorney that said link building didn't fall under that. Usually they have so much klout that playing with the site is more than OK.

I see more corporations now buying SEO software and getting an internal hire and working with the SEO software company, shit we never heard of but costs 10k/m to use. It's a lot easier politically with these kind of people.

 

[Jon]

I'm not saying I got that money, but I've worked for one of those kind of clients where links oncoming, million pages, in the news frequently, etc. It's a lot more than fixing meta data, like way more fun. It's a bitch changing anything because of the amount of approval needed, but working with that data was an incredible experience. Are you sure that's the only thing the contract laid out? Plus they're accepting a lot of liability and long meetings/compliance. They're also going to be used as another person in that list of approval for other things going on (you're the 'SEO guy' and they want to run ideas by you to make sure it's ok).

TBH a lot of bigger corporations won't touch link building for a list of legal reasons. They would be doing it under a different identity maybe. A lot of areas for compliance reasons have to claim whatever is considered their advertising and mark it clearly for consumers and I've yet to meet an attorney that said link building didn't fall under that. Usually they have so much klout that playing with the site is more than OK.

I see more corporations now buying SEO software and getting an internal hire and working with the SEO software company, shit we never heard of but costs 10k/m to use. It's a lot easier politically with these kind of people.

Finally, a fantastic post we can both agree on!

When you speak from an experienced and not from a speculative cheap bully perspective you come out looking a lot better and exert far more authority on the topic. You should try going this route more often, sir.

+rep

 

[chakmapumpu]

Suddenly,a moment comes which is very full of pain and that time don"t avoid it.

 

[jstover77]

It has to be such a sweet gig handling 6 figure/year clients and all you really do is tell them to update title tags and create content based around some keywords someone regurgitates from 10 minutes of research. From what I've encountered, 99% of people in the SEO world are braindead retards who can't figure out that Google DGAF about your site's SEO, only what you're spending on Adwords. SER/SEL comment sections are hilarious, but then again, they just demonstrate how dumb the competition really is.

Yup, I took over a contract that was $60K per month from an Agency in NYC. These guys were complete hacks. Zero on page, and the links they were placing were free-for-all directories and profile links. The site was a fucking disaster. I couldn't believe these dudes were running an SEO agency. I see it all the time. 90% of the SEO companies out there are either frauds or have no clue what they are doing.

 

[DanTe_0101]

fuking asscunt gave me my FIRST DISSLIKE EVAR.

i hope u never die.