Bullshit SEO Experts

[marfarma]

its just like what lawyers do. I had i lawyer set up a s-corp for me for $750, which he said was cheap.
My brothers friend is a lawyer and said he would have done it for $150.
Its just easy paperwork, but every other lawyer just charges $750-$1000.
They charge that much because they can get away with it.

They charge that much because they have to cover their expenses off their billable time. That means that they have to pay for their rent, their marketing expenses, their staff, their office equipment, their vacation time, their health plan, their pension contributions and their taxes off the revenue they pull in from client fees.

Assume 200 working days per year (365 days subtract weekends, holidays, sick time and a modest vacation) @ 8 hours per day. That's a total available hours for billable work ==> 1600 hours.

Assume our lawyer wants an income of $100K per annum. Less than that, he might as well close up shop and get a job. Given his overhead, lets further assume that revenue of $200K will provide that income.

If he can bill out all his 1600 hours, then his hourly rate could be $125 per hour. If your lawyer spent 2 hours interviewing you and filling out paperwork, combined, the bill would be $250. Not far off from the rate your brother's friend would have charged you.

However, anyone in a small professional practice is doing well to bill out 40% of their theoretical maximum billable hours. Most of their time is spent in administrative tasks, professional continuing education, and endless rounds of networking, and other marketing tasks.

So 40% of 1600 hours is 640 hours. $200K / 640 = $312.5 per hour. At that rate, two hours is $625, and $750 doesn't seem so far fetched. Play with income requirements and revenue requirements, and it's not hard to see that same two hours billed out at $1000 -- just pad the process out with one additional hour of face-to-face time, spent interviewing and educating the client.

Professional services is a very low margin business. To be able to make a 'professional income' you have to have the stomach to charge outrageous hourly rates. Once I confronted the reality, I decided that I really didn't want to have that professional service business after all.

That said, let me share some entertaining stories about unscrupulous SEO consultants I found over here: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: Ethical SEOs and Search Engineers Narc Out SEO Fraud - Inside CRM

 

[Karnul]

Anyone that thinks those rates are a ripoff hasn't tried to acquire corporate business.

90% of the work is jumping through hoops just to make your pitch.

You need a brand id for yourself before they'll talk to you -- or some great references from similar clients.

Don't under value your knowledge. If you can pull targeted traffic to a web site, there are companies out there that will value it at dollars per click.

Tip: don't show up to your presentation smelling like weed.

 

[bb_wolfe]

Tip: don't show up to your presentation smelling like weed.

Damn, I always forget that one!

 

[dogfighter]

SEO experts/consultants/companies are a joke. They over-write their proposals to distract you from the fact that THEY DON'T BUILD LINKS.

 

[ffblueocean]

any one could read one page and get an idea how to be an SEO expert -- companies like to hire consults and pay out the kazooooo for something that is easy. how many companies pay for web dev when HTML is soo easy? people make $$ off each other. smart ones are on this forum learning and sharing how to do themselves making the cash!

 

[muppet]

it's just information arbitrage, that's a normal way to make money isn't it?

 

[xmcp123]

SEO experts/consultants/companies are a joke. They over-write their proposals to distract you from the fact that THEY DON'T BUILD LINKS.

Links alone are not enough, and plenty do. Even most places that outsource pick and choose WHERE the links go and whatnot. They just don't do it by hand themselves.
And internal SEO is not to be underestimated.

 

[ldsmedia]

I love the old westerns where they take the con artist and tar and feather him. Since we live in a buyer beware culture, I think that would be real fitting.

 

[Confab]

Case in point is some seriously big bullshit I was reading a few minutes ago about linkbait and how much it could cost for an article plus promotion.

Maybe it's because I'm pretty new, but isn't there a pretty huge difference between a plain old article that is written by some english as a fourth language hack in bangladesh versus a "linkbait article" which is supposed to get other readers to want to link to it?

I would think that the second is considerably more difficult than the first. I would also think that given that you are REALLY paying for something that is supposed to generate links that payment should be tied to the article actually GETTING them.

So, if the article doesn't generate links, the company gets like $20 to reimburse them for the cost to create the article.

If the article suddenly starts nabbing hundreds of new links a day from other highly ranked sites ... then it might be worth it.

 

[ldsmedia]

Quality and results are worth paying for, but find someone who will charge that way. Work is only worth the investment if it gets you a ROI.

 

[ffblueocean]

I see it like this. I gladdy pay to have my car oil changed since I don't have to get my hands dirty.

 

[dogfighter]

I see it like this. I gladdy pay to have my car oil changed since I don't have to get my hands dirty.

And I see it like this. I'll gladly refill your car with bacon grease because you don't know the difference anyway.

 

[ffblueocean]

And I see it like this. I'll gladly refill your car with bacon grease because you don't know the difference anyway.

Point Noted ::: You get what you pay for!


Can I have a side of scrambled eggs with that?
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[GoogleSearchSux]

Maybe because I was an Economics major but this is just a simple case of Supply and Demand. Demand is going way the fuck up as people realize how important a search strategy is, and there just aren't enough guys who even know the basics.

Until SEO becomes a part of computer science course in college (i did hear a few are starting to teach it) expect people to pay out the ass becasue simply there aren't enough people who know this shit.

Disclaimer: I am biased because 80% of my income comes from consulting

 

[montydad5000]

Maybe because I was an Economics major but this is just a simple case of Supply and Demand. Demand is going way the fuck up as people realize how important a search strategy is, and there just aren't enough guys who even know the basics.

Until SEO becomes a part of computer science course in college (i did hear a few are starting to teach it) expect people to pay out the ass becasue simply there aren't enough people who know this shit.

Disclaimer: I am biased because 80% of my income comes from consulting

Bingo.

I was an Econ major myself. The whole world is nothing more than supply and demand.