Inbound Links Offer...

I am currently waiting on a reply from a company that offered us a link building campaign that would be specificly designed to promote one of our clients.

I approached them after hearing their advert on a generic radio station and wondered what they offered.

It turned out that after requesting a sample list of the links that they would build for the client that they were all based in the same area of the country, all designed by the same design agency and the largest page rank was a on screen page rank of 6. An on screen PR of 6 is superb but it was obvious that every client they had built a site for carried good anchor text links back to the designer.

It was therefore a complete waste of everyones time.

Having links is essential but it should be carried out by professionals.

If anyone is pitched such a service request a list of clients and a list of the links that they have generated for that client.
I would then suggest using the link:http://www.domain.com within Google to check the inbound links.

Another good source of website information can be found using the Yahoo Site Explorer here you will be able to see all of a websites inbound links to check against the list you are supplied with.

Remember to always check who links to those links aswell and if you see a reciprocal pattern forming then it's probably not worth it. It shouldn't do you any harm but it probably won't increase your indexing position either.

Found this superb source of info...

I was just surfing around looking for something to post about and I found this amazing source of information SEO Blogs

On this page you will find blogs from:

Digital Assistant
Search Engine Roundtable
Spam Whackers

Infact all of the blogs contain lots of superb information and will educate most people about Search Engine Optimisation and it's do's and don'ts.

1 for the GOOD pile !!!

I had a really good chat today with another potential client who is quite big in the Mens Deisgner Clothing industry today who was very happy with their seo provider and that company is called Blue New Media.

Blue New Media have a gorgoeous website as well.

Well done to Blue New Media

Here is a link to their SEO page

SMO, Link Building etc etc

OK we've all heard about SMO (Social Media Optimisation) and the all important Inbound Links but what is it and how can it help?

Building inbound links all be it obvious to understand is vitally important into the success of an SEO campaign. I can't find any news or discussions that can 100% say that bad inbound links will reduce your visibility within a search engine but it WON'T increase it. Therefore as it is so time consuming it is best done correctly first time round.

I think it would be wise for people to list the good the bad and the un-ethical suppliers of such a service here as well.
There are tons of companies offering just a link building campaign so I'm sure we can get a healthy list together.

Again - the views of others do not necessarily reflect the views of Total Search Solutions but I will follow up any comments and allow the companies to have their say.


Social Media Optimisation is another area which is hugely important into the success of an SEO campaign the benefits for gettting it right are huge.
This blog for example is No.3 on Google for Working SEO Techniques amongst 1.8 million other pages.
SMO deployed well will create huge amouns of links, traffic, page tank and then of course the higher ranking will take place.

The 3 busiest websites in the UK are Myspace, Bebo and Facebook and all 3 of them are huge viral marketing platforms

The smallest of the 3 has over 30,000,000 active memebers and is growing fast. Not utilising this space means you are missing out.

I found this blog to be very useful SMO Blog and should be adhered to if you are not using an external agency.

Anyone had good or bad experiences with SMO or SMO agencies?

Another good resource of information can be found here:

SMO Info


Apart from Total Search Solutions other providers of SMO are:


Spannerworks
Big Mouth Media


Good linking Strategies can be found here:


Intelligent Link
Search Sciences

I had a good chat with a potential client yesterday who said they would prefer to stay with their current agnecy as they had performed well. Whilst I don't really believe their methodology and that it is very dated I thought they deserved a link on here as they have provided a service to a client who is very happy to continue using them. Well done to Search Quest

Search Quest

Sceptical about Search Engine Optimisation?

I'm a sales guy for a UK based Search Marketing Agency called Total Search Solutions and we specialise in Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search Marketing, Social Media Optimisation and Affiliate Management.

Now all the spammy "Get Links to my site" is out of the way I'll carry on.

I want to build up a list of so called SEO agencies that people have used with the following outcome:

Paid up-front and not heard from them
Hard closing sales people
Over sold services
No.1 in google for all your keywords
Guarantees
Never there
Person that sold you the service has left or always off ill
Black Hat SEO (dodgey, spammy techniques)
That they have "Cracked the Google Algo"
Got you banned from Google

In-fact any service that you have paid for and received nothing for your investment within the SEO arena.

I intend to name and shame these people through my blog.

This will then be a perfect place for people to come to and have a rant about a service provider that hasn't delivered. I will then contact the provider of the "Great Ethical Service" and allow them the time and space on my blog to review what their previous client has said and give them a chance to try and redeem themselves in front of everyone.

I'm pretty sure that we will be able to draw up quite a long hitlist.

As a sales person for an SEO agency I come across people every day that are sceptical about SEO due to of having had an experience from this type of un-ethical or Black Hat agency. I will be calling these people again to see if they would join in the naming and shaming exercise. I have also heard very good things about agencies but I'll get to that bit in a second.

A perfect source for some information regards to the market place is:

Black Hat SEO
Matt Cutts - Google Engineer

Arm yourself full of information before accepting a contract with anyone that might call you, even me...

As for people that have had "Great Experiences" I would also like to hear from you especially if you have nothing but praise for the services that you paid for.

It is only fair that we have the Ying and Yang of the industry.

A couple of companies that have delivered superb services (views of people that I speak to) are:

Spannerworks
Big Mouth Media

I will also be placing huge amounts of SEO news, helful tips and links to tons of other blogs that will hopefully help you make the right decision in developing your business on-line.

Obviously the views that will be shared are not necessarily the views of Total Search Solutions

Let's see if we can make this space a better place to work within...

Regards


Joe Davis