Back in Business & SEO freebies

[SmarterGroup]

Hello people

Back in 2005 I graduated from the University of Warwick and immediately founded Smarter Housing Limited, a student letting agency which provided high quality accommodation with all inclusive gas, electric, water and broadband.

I raised £50k from a myriad of sources designed for start-ups, which covered the costs of getting the website online, all of my necessary legal paperwork (tenancy agreements, landlord terms of business), a trademark on "Smarter Housing - Raising The Standard" and some working capital.

I let my first properties in February 2006 and began trading (that is, tenants moved in) on 1st September 2006. By September 2008 the company was managing over 300 properties and had in excess of 1,000 tenants.

Sadly, at the same time I ran into some personal problems and I took my eye of the ball. In less than 18 months of not being managed properly (which is my fault) my staff managed to run the company into the ground. One employee even helped herself to several thousand pounds of deposits and dressed it up as an armed robbery (clicky:Margaret Joan Bearman in court charged with theft.

Ultimately, I had to stop trading in July of 2010 although in doing so I managed to take a look at my life and put things back into place before everything fell apart. For those of you who have been through divorces and child custody battles, stay strong!

I'm now starting again from scratch. I've just secured office space at the University of Wolverhampton Science Park and will be launching Smarter Card & Smarter SEO in the first quarter of this year. Its amazing how much easier everything seems when you've done it all before!

The last five years have been a huge learning experience. I've dealt with fraudulent landlords (claiming to own properties they did not) and corrupt officials (welfare officers taking back handers) amongst other things. All of this hassle could have been avoided with a little more due diligence and I am gradually posting some of the things I learned on my blog in the hope I can help other young entrepreneurs (although I'm 27 now!!) to avoid such stressful activity.

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a bit of an SEO freebie, please get in touch if you meet the criteria below....

Smarter SEO is a search engine consultancy with a difference. We want to empower small business owners and young entrepreneurs to do their own SEO work. Gone are the days of link building; content is king and YOU are the best person to create it. Before we launch our website we need 15 case studies to show we know how to make a website rank based on content. We have 3 spaces left!


If you're a small business owner and like the idea of doing SEO in house please get in touch. Ideally you need to be able to carry out changes to your own website and as such can simply follow our instructions. If you can't we may still be able to help but you'll need to decide whether you want us (or someone else) to do coding for you before you can implement our guidance.

Thanks for reading

[rogercbryan]

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a bit of an SEO freebie, please get in touch if you meet the criteria below....

Smarter SEO is a search engine consultancy with a difference. We want to empower small business owners and young entrepreneurs to do their own SEO work. Gone are the days of link building; content is king and YOU are the best person to create it. Before we launch our website we need 15 case studies to show we know how to make a website rank based on content. We have 3 spaces left!

Are you going to stand behind that statement?

[SmarterGroup]

Behind it? Or by it. If the latter, then yes.

Feel free to stick to link building if that's your cup of tea

[rogercbryan]

Behind it? Or by it. If the latter, then yes.

Feel free to stick to link building if that's your cup of tea

With over 100 first page rankings... I just might!

To everyone on YE... links are king right now. Content was king up until two years ago when Google laid off their 4000 visual auditors. Google no longer has the man power to review each and every website for content ratings. it just is not profitable for them to do.

This is sound advice that I have been using for a while. I'm not saying content is bad nor am I saying it does not help. What I am saying is that if you are going to invest your time and money into something that will get your site to rank then invest it in links.

I'm here to help!

[SmarterGroup]

At a guess you're in the business of charging people for generating links all over the internet.

My blog has almost no backlinks and is indexed twice a day by Google. It ranks #1 for terms ranging from my name to random iPhone apps, podcasts and business journals. This is based on content and content only.

It's now ranking on the top page for various GT5 (Gran Turismo) searches within an hour of me making the blog post.

Links are history but, like I said, feel free to keep pushing them as a chargable service.

In the meantime, I'll work on building my company in my way.

Thank you for your input

[rogercbryan]

At a guess you're in the business of charging people for generating links all over the internet.

My blog has almost no backlinks and is indexed twice a day by Google. It ranks #1 for terms ranging from my name to random iPhone apps, podcasts and business journals. This is based on content and content only.

It's now ranking on the top page for various GT5 (Gran Turismo) searches within an hour of me making the blog post.

Links are history but, like I said, feel free to keep pushing them as a chargable service.

In the meantime, I'll work on building my company in my way.

Thank you for your input

Can you give me 5 terms you are ranking for and your primary domain? I'd like to see your results. Like I said in my post its not that content doesn't help... just in a cost analysis you would find that link building drives rankings in a significantly faster and substantially cheaper manner. There is also a big difference in the amount of work it takes to get 1 site to rank for 10 keywords then it does to get 10 sites to rank for 500 keywords. If you are going to try to do the later with content... you'll need an army of people.

I would be willing to do a little contest if you are interested...

[SmarterGroup]

I could, yes. Am I going to? No.

You seem unaware of the fact Google's results are based on location and all of my content is geared towards the UK. You are clearly in the USA. What ranks here might not rank there and vice versa. You should know this if you're keeping up with the ever evolving way in which Google ranks content (there's a clue in the name!)

With regards to your comment that an army of people are required - that made me chuckle. Honestly, best of luck with your business... you really appear to need it!

To those who have sent DM's, many thanks. You all have mail

[rogercbryan]

I could, yes. Am I going to? No.

You seem unaware of the fact Google's results are based on location and all of my content is geared towards the UK. You are clearly in the USA. What ranks here might not rank there and vice versa. You should know this if you're keeping up with the ever evolving way in which Google ranks content (there's a clue in the name!)

With regards to your comment that an army of people are required - that made me chuckle. Honestly, best of luck with your business... you really appear to need it!

To those who have sent DM's, many thanks. You all have mail

So you don't want to have a little contest then? We are each entitled to our own methods... those that work... and those that work well.. The only way to prove which works best is to compare. That is what I was wanting to do. I'm not going to chase you but if you are ever ready to compare systems I'd love to give a try.

The idea was
1- We pick a keyword - not a super competitive one but one that isn't all that easy at the same time
2- We each create a page or a site that is brand new (must prove it is new)
3- We see who can get the new page to the first page the fastest using white hat only techniques

You can use your content system while I will use my link building system

We will max the contest out at 10 days... who ever has the best results will have bragging rights over which system is better

This isn't a I'm right and you're wrong scenario... its simply a which system works better. I think it would be helpful to everyone on YE to know so they can do this on their own.

Just so you know I employ a full time content writer so I appreciate the value of content. I just know based on my results that links are king not content these days...

[SmarterGroup]

You're missing the point.

As a very basic example, Google me anywhere in the UK and my blog will pop up in the #1 position on page 1 of the results.

However, change your location to the United States and all of a sudden I'm a mixture of low page 1 and high page 2. I know this (a) from using a proxy to test it and (b) from discussing this with friends, family and business contacts in the USA.

Since this is your industry you should know why this happens. Google has shifted their focus to content based local searches. So, to take another example, if you're in Birmingham, England, and Google "plumbers" - you're more likely to find plumbers in Birmingham even if you don't use it as a specific search term.

In short, the results cannot be compared. List some of your best terms and I'd be amazed if they're ranking well over here (regardless of your techniques).

[rogercbryan]

You're missing the point.

As a very basic example, Google me anywhere in the UK and my blog will pop up in the #1 position on page 1 of the results.

However, change your location to the United States and all of a sudden I'm a mixture of low page 1 and high page 2. I know this (a) from using a proxy to test it and (b) from discussing this with friends, family and business contacts in the USA.

Since this is your industry you should know why this happens. Google has shifted their focus to content based local searches. So, to take another example, if you're in Birmingham, England, and Google "plumbers" - you're more likely to find plumbers in Birmingham even if you don't use it as a specific search term.

In short, the results cannot be compared. List some of your best terms and I'd be amazed if they're ranking well over here (regardless of your techniques).

Interesting that you think like that... my SEO services are world wide... if You Google me in the US.. the UK.. Ireland... still the same rankings. I can also set my location to search based on your location.

I'm not arguing with your results and the location based search topic is sort of irrelevant to the conversation.

It's not me vs you... its links vs content... we both have different view points... I'm willing to have my system put up to scrutiny for the sake of educating people on YE so they know where to invest their resources... this is supposed to help people.

If you want to do the contest geo-centric so you can take advantage of your skills that would be fine as well. Heck if we both rank well maybe people will buy services from both of us.

What keywords does your blog rank for?

[SmarterGroup]

In the words of Penfold, 'good grief Dangermouse'.

You still fail to take in the relevance of Google's emphasis on geographical location.

Here's another example for you. An app for the the Parrot AR.Drone*: AR.Flight Record. My blog is ranking at #1 here in the UK, yet it won't be elsewhere. There is absolutely no point in making it do so as my affiliate links only pay out on UK traffic.

As I keep saying to you, my sites are aimed at the UK market because that's where the money is at. I get no benefit from overseas traffic due to the way in which they are monetised.

Feel free to give examples of your high ranking sites but, again, as said previously, I will be frankly amazed if they rank here. Link building won't help on that front and I'm not sure whether I should be telling you ways round this. It would be like Richard Branson telling BA how to run a successful airline, only on a much smaller scale

*note, this is linked to a Google search and not my blog entry as its the content that counts.

[SmarterGroup]

"If you want to do the contest geo-centric so you can take advantage of your skills that would be fine as well. Heck if we both rank well maybe people will buy services from both of us."

I'm not here to win business, I'm here to help Young Entrepreneurs. My initial post offered freebies as it is win-win: small business owners get some insights into doing their own SEO and I get to put together a portfolio of success stories for a new business.

At a guess this difference is why you're so keen to defend link building. Your time would be better spent looking at the way in which Google has evolved as opposed to defending, in technological terms, archaic techniques, and virtually offering out your competition

[SmarterGroup]

"Interesting that you think like that... my SEO services are world wide... if You Google me in the US.. the UK.. Ireland... still the same rankings. I can also set my location to search based on your location."

Worrying that you say this, as a search for Roger Bryan gives the following results:

#1 - It'll Come in Useful One Day - Roger Bryan
#2 - Aberaeron Gallery
#3 - Photographer based in Wiltshire - Roger Bryan

In fact, your website doesn't turn up until the middle of page 2, which is what I would expect (and even said of my own blog when searching from the USA).

This is using Google.com and my search preferences are set to worldwide. If I happen to be doing a UK specific search you don't show anywhere in the first ten pages.

[eleven7]

Gentlemen--arguably not the intent, but I think my amusement:learning ratio is about even for this thread.

[rogercbryan]

"Interesting that you think like that... my SEO services are world wide... if You Google me in the US.. the UK.. Ireland... still the same rankings. I can also set my location to search based on your location."

Worrying that you say this, as a search for Roger Bryan gives the following results:

#1 - It'll Come in Useful One Day - Roger Bryan
#2 - Aberaeron Gallery
#3 - Photographer based in Wiltshire - Roger Bryan

In fact, your website doesn't turn up until the middle of page 2, which is what I would expect (and even said of my own blog when searching from the USA).

This is using Google.com and my search preferences are set to worldwide. If I happen to be doing a UK specific search you don't show anywhere in the first ten pages.

Why would I optimize for my name? What business would that bring? From this search term your geo-centric rule does apply. In the US if you Google Roger Bryan I am #1 (without any SEO being done for it). This is an accomplishment do to the fact that there is a band Roger Bryan and the Orphans as well as a school Roger Bryan Elementary. I doubt anyone is optimizing for this name.

You mentioned that you are not trying to gain business you are just giving away freebies.. I understand that... this is my point. If you are going to help people on YE you need to be giving out the best possible info and that means NOT to tell them that content helps rankings more then links. That is bad info... this is my reason for continuing this conversation.

I do have to concede that I do not have experience optimizing for a local google platform. So if you are going to use Google.uk my rankings will not appear as they would on Google.com. It's a matter of going for maximum exposure to the most relevant audience.

I would like to hear from some other people on this... what works better in your experience?
Link Building
Content Creation

There is no argument that they both work... but links work about 10x's faster...

Let's try this... someone give me a three word business related term.. lets see how fast I can get a page to rank in the top 10 using links... Not a contest... I just want to show what can be done with links...

Adam I think you have a great system and it obviously works for you... the problem is it is not the best out there and I want to make sure people on YE have all the info