Commentary
SEO Freebies
- by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 28, 2011
Search engine optimization experts have a tendency to give away information. There are countless blogs providing step-by-step strategies on everything from link building to image and video optimization. Some industries might call that revealing trade secrets, but these SEO experts believe they do it for the good of the industry. I could slam these guys and girls for cutting their own throats -- financially speaking -- but instead I look at the glass half full, rather than half empty, and agree with their do-gooder approach.
One caveat: it goes without saying that marketers who take free advice need to use good sense by verifying sources and confirming strategies before implementing them.
Companies aren't shy about giving away tools, either. Jeremy Bencken serves up a list of about 50 link-building tools that automate the process. Many are free.
The willingness to give away tips and tools to marketers at fledgling companies attempting to optimize Web sites is a new idea, but it does demonstrate goodwill. And it provides insights into how Google, Bing and Yahoo index and rank pages, so potential clients can quickly find information. LinkedIn has increasingly become a tool to support question-and-answer (Q&A) forums specializing in SEO.
AdGooroo said Thursday it signed on Chief Link Evangelist Eric Ward, with expertise in content linking strategies, to answer link-building and SEO questions for the company's LinkedIn group members. The initiative gives both new and advanced link builders the opportunity to have questions personally answered by Ward, who has more than 16 years of developing backlink strategies for companies such as Amazon, PBS.org, Warner Bros., The New York Times and Weather.com.
Ward, who helped AdGooroo develop its Link Insight tool, plans to answer between two and three questions weekly to dispel inaccurate information about link building that confuses people and leads them into building ineffective linking strategies. LinkedIn continues to become a social tool that fosters two-way conversations with existing and prospective clients.
SEO Dojo experts Terry Van Horne and Dave Harry, who is known to industry insiders as "Gypsy," also launched LinkedIn forum to foster conversations on a variety of topics.
The SEO community builds business by helping others. Many begin by providing information to demonstrate skills. Besides, Van Horne doesn't believe in secrets, so it doesn't hurt business. "Dave and I help a lot of people," he said, noting that nearly all their clients come directly from helping people first.
Laurie Sullivan is a writer and editor for MediaPost. You can reach Laurie at lauriesullivan@gmail.com.
Sharing information about SEO is no different than sharing information about how to sheetrock a room. You can learn how to do it and if you have basic motor skills and can afford the time and materials you can do it yourself.
Where the differences come in are:
- You may find dozens of different opinions about how to tape and mud, but not thousands that only differ, but also include information on related things like H tags, links, and "intersite cross-linking with long-tail keyword ahchor text".
- When you finish a sheetrock job, you can see what you've got. With SEO, you have to wait for results and even then you don't know if it's because of what you did, or something that happended elsewhere, like a algorhythem change, some social media traffic storm, or being indexed by a new search engine. Scientifilcally documented results and control of conditions are generally not possible for most clients, or more SEOs.
But the main thing why SEO information is shared is because those that can afford to have the work done by others are going to pay for it. Doing keyword research, editing pages, and submitting sites is mind-numbing work for most business owners who will get a better return on running their business.
Sharing of information never hurt any SEO that I know of unless the information they shared was so clearly incorrect that clients avoid them. And well, we do see that from time to time, but isn't that a form of natural selection and therefore desireable...?
Don't forget, SEO is still a buzz word to many people and that is not fully understood.
Some people know how to paint their house, change the oil in their car, make a pizza, replace their hot water heater, mow their yard, etc. But they choose to hire it done. I helped a friend sheetrock one time and learned I will never do it again. I'll hire a professional from now on.
SEO is just another service industry, but many buyers have no idea what work they are really buying. They know the results they want, but don't know the work that is involved.
We have to educate people in order for them to understand enough to buy it. Sure, some people are the DIY types, but many just want to understand what it is so they can make a smarter purchase.
Nothing, absolutely nothing is free.