This is part of the reason why I encourage people not to spend money on any seo help community or resource other than SEO Book.
Rand Fishkin has made a post called
How to Handle a Google Penalty - And, an Example from the Field of Real Estate where he “analyzes” OaklandHomeSpecialist.com “Just to help out”.
He states:
It ranks #1 on a search for the brand name - oaklandhomespecialist - that tells me we’re not dealing with a “sandbox”-like effect
.
This statement in itself is plain wrong.
A new site can be sandboxed (not penalized) and immediately rank number 1 for it’s name within the domain name. A keyterm such as “oaklandhomespecialist” has no searches and therefor does not register as something that sandboxed websites would be eliminated from being able to rank for.
When you then search for Oakland Home Specialist in Google, you will realize that the site has absolutely no presence for a term which in itself gets next to no searches, which indeed tells me that the site is NOT out of the sandbox.
My point with this post is more than anything that you should be very careful with what you spend money on and what “advice” and “information” you really take to heart.
The latest discussions reagarding SEOMoz seem to be more than anything about the Page Strength tool which was initially free and overnight became paid limiting free usage to just a couple of queries per day. Signing up for the paid version will also give you access to all of the SEOMoz “information”.
While there is a wealth of good information for beginners in SEO, there is also a lack of first hand knowledge being presented as it is on Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.
The Page Strength tool is supposed to tell you
The Relative Importance and Visibility of a Webpage
The Potential Strength and Ability of a Page to Rank in the Search Engines
.
Having used the tool myself and having done some research comparing sites to each others and trying to conclude relevance between the numbers and the benefit the sites give to those who are listed (SEO and traffic wise), I have come to an end and realized that the tool really is not more than one of many products to sell “search engine secrets” to the gullible and the newcomers desperate to get traffic to their sites.
IMO the tool also encourages people to rather manipulate the search engines than build quality websites which do not need a lot of SEO.
I have always stressed the fact that as a search engine optimization professional, you need to take responsibility for the advice that you give to people, whether you give it directly or indirectly.
SEO is not easy when you start and have no websites which have established credibility in the search engines, but once you do, SEO is actually cakewalk. You can build brandnew sites, add good content and start ranking immediately just by getting incoming backlinks from your own websites with established credibility. If you wonder why some people get their websites ranked almost immediately and wonder what their trick is, there usually isn’t one to it.
Search engine optimization companies which have high success rates usually own a network of websites of power and of course also network with many owners of websites of power.
The actual work that they do on clients is minimal, but the key is to first get to the point where you have access to these tools.
My recommendation to website owners is not to waste time and money by signing up for a paid membership at SEOMoz, Webmaster World or similar places based on the name and the reputation amongst newcomers.
Like a moderator of Webmaster World has once told me:
“You’re right, the real knowledge will not be revealed amongst the public whether they pay for membership or not unless you’re one of the core group members. But being a moderator has brought me a lot of high paying clients, so for me Webmaster World works.”
Where should you start to learn about what to do regarding SEO and when should you begin?
There isn’t really any good place I have seen other than SEO Book and the Real Estate Webmasters Forum where the owner has a long history of success getting websites ranked and built the way that they perform in the search engines and also with those who visit them.
No matter how much I hate to say it, I would NOT recommend Digital Point as a place to come to for SEO advice unless you have a good neck when it comes to who to listen to, pay attention to and who to learn from.
The average crowd these days are the kind services such as SEOMoz target. Those who have made or are trying to make a career out of manipulating search engines without creating anything of quality. If you are a website owner and take your website and business seriously, I would stay away from the mainstream members. They will make sure that THEY will benefit from networking with you, while you on the other hand can wind up taking the fall for being in the wrong network at the wrong time.
My advice to you is to read SEO Book and join Real Estate Webmasters.
You can also sign up on my new
Real Estate and Search Engine Forum
.
Feel free to discuss this blog post and bring up any topics that you like and I will make sure to tell you as much as I can to help you get started right.
If you are dedicated and interested in learning how to start out, you will be successful.
Just stay away from those who want to cash in on your desire to get things done yesterday.
More than anything, experience and experimenting is the key to creating a powerful presence online.
So if you are interested in learning more, feel free to start a thread on my forum, read SEO Book and some threads on REW and then make up your own mind as to what you need to do in order to get where you want to be.
Ultimately YOU are the one responsible for your own success and your own failure.
Don’t try to take the easy way out and assume that the glitter is gold.
Imagine your website already getting all of the traffic that you want it to and then work on making it attractive to ensure that it converts visitors into leads and clients.
Be unique.
And if you are in the real estate business, also read the Property Hogs Blog
and find out if you can benefit from some of my posts.
The purpose of this post is not to single out anyone, but to be very careful at where you spend your money. More than anything be careful what decisions you make, because you yourself need to make them unless you hire a search engine professional which you can be confident in.
Here is a powerful post from one of the SEOs I truly recommend when it comes to taking advice from and hiring.
SEO Professionals THINK with an educated and experienced mind….. I consider myself a professional SEO based on my industry experience and educated decision making….
SEO is mainly about making the right decision ahead of time, and making it work. SEO and being effective at it involves strategic decision making and knowing what is happening and what will happen with the industry in the future because an educated SEO knows where it has been.
Good SEO is not about building more links than the next guy or doing better meta tags… It’s about key decision making…
How much he charges, I’m not sure, but he is the kind of person I recommend hiring if you don’t have time to mess with SEO and want results.
If you have questions or comments, comment on this blog post or in this thread.
Best of luck with your sites and hang in there!
Mike Dammann
