Even though everyone knows that Google has some big secrets when it comes to search ranking formulas they have been surprisingly open about a number of things. In fact, most of what is considered common knowledge in the SEO world is just information that Google has chosen to give away. Matt Cutts, one of Google’s many official bloggers, has just released a post responding to EU claims that Google isn’t transparent enough. In a relatively short post, he provides links to a wealth of information that is critical to website owners. I would start with reading the formula and background for the pagerank algorithm.
This information is the foundation of SEO. And it’s all there for free. Wait, free? If it’s free, why should I pay an SEO firm to do stuff that I can learn how to do for free?
Good question. Why pay someone to do something that you can do for free?
Here’s another question for you: how much time do you have? Do you have the time it would take to really understand all the ins and outs of SEO? How about the time to keep up with trends and changes in all the search engines. OK, maybe not ALL of them but at least the big 3. Do you have the time and freedom to try out experiments on a number of sites at the same time? Do you have the time to attend 3 or 4 search conferences each year? I have that kind of time. But then, this is what I do for a living. What do you do?
I also recently discovered that just about all the information needed to become a lawyer is freely available on the Internet. I still pay an attorney. And I pay him a lot more per hour than I pay myself. Why? because I want to make sure my legal affairs are done right and I don’t have that much time to spend on legal stuff. That’s not what I do. I do SEO.
I’m willing to bet that you have a pretty full schedule. And I’m also willing to bet that it’s taking care of your core business. So I guess the question here is if your would like to increase your search ranking and web traffic. If so, let’s talk. That’s what I do all day long.
