SEO is essentially being able to repeat what you've done in a fashion that follows the rules of each web browser. How much information you can get on other sites to reference your site. Focus more on the organic growth before anything else.
Email me through the board and I can send you a potential candidate to help you out. A friend of mine in College (graduated now) was really into SEO and ran a number of websites.
Email me Alex@printology.com Nobody can guarantee you anything with SEO but I do have a good group that we use
The only "really great" service I've used (after months of vetting) runs at least $35,000/year for the most basic campaign. If you want to rank locally you can get by with good on-site optimization, decent website, local markup, and citations from a service like whitespark.ca - good ballpark pricing on that is probably $1,200. Assuming your business has its own category in Google's map pack.
I will let you know the secrets of ranking websites free. You basically need find high ranking expired domains and buy them. You must buy your domain on different accounts so you don't trigger any suspicion from google. Once you do that you need 301 redirect to a buffer websites with your main website link on it. You need to make sure the domain that you're buying aren't marked spam by Google. You can use waybackmachine to see what was used on these domain before it expired. You can tell if the website were made of purpose or spam. You can also google the following Sitewebsite url) to see if that domain is indexed. Your buffer website needs to be well written and professional looking. No spam and must have unique content. On page seo is also important on your main website. After couple months you will see that your website is ranking and getting search engine traffic. I've been ranking websites for 4 years now and making a nice living off it, it can get a little chaotic with all these domains and accounts so need to be very organized. Let me know if you have any questions.
Google "SEO Houston" (or wherever). Make sure to skip past paid ads. If the SEC companz is worth a damn they will be one of the top 5 or so listed. If they can't SEO their own site to the top of the listings, why would you think they could lift up your site?
I believe the company that ranks #1 for "SEO Houston" is SSD - and I would not recommend them. That listing is attached to a virtual office which can get you into trouble long-term. I also haven't seen any great SEO companies coming out of Houston. A lot of agencies actually produce good SEO for their website but throw the campaign management to poorly paid employees who conduct tasks using automated tools. They aren't trained to put thought or strategy into what they're doing. They're just following a blueprint.
Just a tip, most companies that advertise SEO services are trying to sell google adwords to you. Gaining organic rank on google can be a difficult process no matter who you are. I've seen the ****tist websites rank #1 simply because they have been around forever. The only other way to gain rank is using blackhat methods.
My company used an SEO service that was about $900 a month for a 6 month time period. The results were very lackluster. Essentially it was one guy who was really good at making PDFs with graphs and data pulled from Google analytics with some suggestions here and there about what should be fixed or how google interprets this and that.
Not true. If you build an excellent website, one that deserves to rank in the top 10 for its category and you have the money to back it with PR you can definitely rank. Blackhat methods - you're gone overnight when Penguin refreshes.
In my industry, I know for a fact that the #1 website bought links. I checked out his back links for a glass business no less and his links were in time magazine articles, the new york times, and a bunch of other high prifile websites. The articles were hacked to have a backlink added to them and they had nothing to do with auto glass. You can think all you want that google catches these guys, but I know for a fact it isn't true. Also, your idea that excellent websites get ranked automatically and that ain't true either. A great website can't hurt, but it certainly no guarantee google will rank you. So basically, I disagree with everything you said.
That sounded like a good idea. So I did that (http://www.seohouston.com/about-seo-houston.html) , it looks like a page from the early 2000's. I guess it is all about how old a site is.
Hacked links on legit sites like NYT? That's a completely different level of "blackhat" tactics, something there is no blueprint for. You basically need a hacker. If it was a competitor I'd report them to the websites in question, they would remove the links most likely. A NYT hack is a pretty big deal. If it's a sponsored content post, that's different. I've had to recover 2 websites for companies that used blackhat tactics in the past. It isn't worth it. Once/if you're caught your revenue is gone overnight and it takes a lot of work and a lot of time to get the penalty removed. And I never said anything about automatic rankings, but okay...
it wasn't sponsored. the link was inside of paragraphs where you would be reading about something and all of the sudden the link would be there. Like this: The supreme court ruled that Obamacare *BEST WINDSHIELD REPAIR* was constitutional.
Thanks, guys. You have given me a lot to consider. I am rereading the answers again slowly. Thanks again. Actually my site has ranked high for years with google and is still around the fold on the front page and is an important source of business. I just found out that these folks I have been giving money to , around $400 per month (not much I realize) did not even have me submitted to bing local and I have virtually no organic ranking in bing which is starting to gain more market share.. I should note that these folks I have been paying are not the folks who got me high to begin with and that was more due to being around for awhile as people have noted rather than money spent on SEO. I have been complacent and not paying much attention the last coupe of years.