Can anyone answer a few general SEO questions?

MaBelleVie

Thu, Jul 03 2014, 10:13 am

1. What's the difference between paying a company for SEO and using pay per click?

2. Is it true that using an overseas SEO company will raise red flags in Google? What does that mean, practically?

Tia.

Barbara

Thu, Jul 03 2014, 11:03 am

MaBelleVie wrote:

I'm not an SEO person, but I can take the first.

SEO is Search Engine Optimization -- the goal is to get your website as high as possible in google results for a typical search. It deals with things like links in and links out, and keywords that google likes. My boss hates our web page because its repetitive. "Why do we need to say that 3 times?" Answer -- google likes it that way.

Pay per click drives web traffic to your website by people clicking on an ad. It has nothing to do with google results.

I don't see how use of an overseas company could raise red flags. How would google even know who does the SEO work? But as I said, that's not my field.

21young

Thu, Jul 03 2014, 11:43 am

I am an SEO. Number one rule: be VERY VERY careful about who you hire. Google is constantly tightening their guidelines and if you use an SEO who uses tactics that aren't 100% kosher your site will be penalized sooner or later.

There are many different aspects of SEO. PPC is paid search, and there is also organic search. Most SEOs do both, manage PPC campaigns and do organic SEO. Organic is a lot harder and takes longer to see ROI, but is much better for long term stability. You can run your own PPC campaign, but without a thorough knowledge of the industry you will probably lose money. It's definitely worth it to hire a competent SEO to run your campaign.

This is not true for all foreign SEO firms, but the majority of them (think India, Pakistan, etc.) will offer the world and use shady tactics that will eventually get your site penalized. The fact that the firm itself is foreign won't set off any red flags, but their tactics will. Obviously they offer ridiculously low rates.

e1234

Thu, Jul 03 2014, 12:02 pm

I will agree with the above

seo is modifying your site and linking and other strategies to make you site show up higher in a standard google search

ppc is paid ads showing up and the more you pay the more likely it will show up for your keyword

using a company overseas won't raise red flags - but be careful who you hire as a company can make it worse for your site instead of better if they don't do it correctly. there are also white hat strategies and black hat strategies - black hat fooling google until they catch on and penalize

21young

Thu, Jul 03 2014, 12:54 pm

It's endless. Both on and off the site, especially in link building, there are literally hundreds of methods that are used by black hat SEOs that are not allowed under Google's Webmaster Guidelines. It's not if but when you're caught your site will take a serious nosedive.