real search engine optimization?

[silverfreak]

I've always wondered about this, figured some other folks might have some insightful opinions as well. Many web hosts provide search engine optimization services for lots and lots of money.

First I'd like to know, when your paying $5 a month for your web hosting, why would you sink in $300 for search engine optimization?

Second, can you really trust when a site says they can, "Get you top 10 ranking in Google!' when they don't even have it themselves? :D

[Toolz]

Originally posted by silverfreak:
Second, can you really trust when a site says they can, "Get you top 10 ranking in Google!' when they don't even have it themselves? :D Very insightful! ;)

[Rincewind]

First - SEO takes time and knowledge. Every customer is different and you have to work hard and use all your skills or even a team of skilled people in order to do it. These people need paid and so $300 doesn't actually get you all that many man hours. Decent SEO would cost you allot more than $300.

Also. IMHO, decent quallity web hosting should cost closer to the $300 per year than the $5 per month. In most things, you get what you pay for. Both good quallity web hosting and quallity SEO are the foundations on which a successfull business could be built. A business that could earn you tens of thousands of dollars. Yet you shirk at $300. You've got to invest to earn. If you try to run a business on pocket money then you will only ever earn pocket money back.

Second - Read Google's advice on this http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
Beware of SEO's that claim to guarantee rankings
Obviously the top listings in google for the term "SEO" is a good place to find people who really can do it.

Also. I can get you a No. 1 listing in google. As long as I get to pick the search term that you get to No. 1 on.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by silverfreak:

First I'd like to know, when your paying $5 a month for your web hosting, why would you sink in $300 for search engine optimization?
Good point, and it reminds me of the folks who SCREAM when their provider is down, claiming they are losing thousands of dollars per hour in sales. Along the same lines, why would pay only $15/mo. for a host (which breaks down to about $0.02 per hour) if you are relying on the site being up to generate 1,000's of dollars in sales. You can always smell the stink a mile away.

To address your question though, I think there are some definite optimization techniques which can help one improve in the rankings, however aside from SE-beating tricks, there's no magic formula to jump ahead to #1 with some of the SEs. HHO isn't #1, and to be honest, although it would be nice if it was, I really wouldn't expect it to be in certain search categories. In some ways, SEs are really only useful because everyone who wants to be #1 isn't.

[Rincewind]

HHO isn't #1, and to be honest
It's actually rather ironic. But when you search google for "host hide out" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=host+hide+out&btnG=Search) you get WHT.

Though this forum is No. 1 for the terms "host hideout" and "hosthideout".