Need your professional feedback for a client

[GuestBlogPoster.com]

Hey everyone!

I have a client that got a $500 proposal from some agency that summarized their work as follows. I'm literally copy and pasting this:

• Directory submission - 100/mo
• Targeted keywords - 5
• Blogs writing - 1 per month
• Articles writing - 1 per month
• Blog posting - 10 per month
• Article posting - 10 per month
• Deep linking - 20/month
• Classifieds - 02/month
• Press Release - 01/month
• Yahoo Answer - 02/month
• Local Listing - 01/month
• Comments on blogs - 02/month
• Social bookmarking - 10/month
• Social media optimization - 10/month
• Regional directories submissions - 20/month
• Search engine submissions - 10/month

This is a national company with a strong brand. Nowhere in this "proposal" is any mention of onsite optimization, any real content marketing, infographics, brand mentions, nothing...

I have explained at length that the tasks they are suggesting are a terrible idea, that they will likely get penalized and that most budgets at this range are usually ill advised. The agency has even admitted that they source this overseas to illegitimate firms.

I would love it if I could go to this meeting and have some community feedback as to why this is a bad idea. Please share your experiences, best practices and why most of these tasks are going to get them penalized.

Thanks everyone

Kevin

[KempRugeLawGroup]

No problem. Most of what I learned came from bad decisions or (rather less painfully) from other people on here. Happy to share!

Good luck!

Ruben

[GuestBlogPoster.com]

Ruben,

Thank you for your response, it certainly solidifies the stance I'm taking with my client. I certainly like to give people the benefit of the doubt as everyone in SEO has their own experience and perspectives. SEO is not black and white but in the case of this proposal, I needed some outside opinions because that price point to any business owner is just too appealing. That is, until their #1 sales channel is gone lol!

Thanks Ruben!

Kevin

[FollowerIncrease]

I highly feel as though these tactics are remedies from the past. When it comes to optimizing appearances on the highly searched search engine "Google" you must think nearly 5 steps ahead if not more. Google is constantly changing with the updates from once "Panda and Penguin" to "Hummingbird"

Also the way users search is changing as well. Users are searching the web differently as the generation of searchers are younger and more lazily using "voice search technology" to find the items they are looking for in queries. I expect that the "search option" will become extremely difficult to optimize therefore some in depth SEO tactics would be necessary to succeed long term.

Of course if you are looking for quick results these tactics could maybe prove fortunate depending on your type of niche however I do warn you against these tactics due to the fact that "Google" is spending much more time fighting these tactics making it more than likely "not the way of the future."

I would encourage you to speak with this client about their overall goals and what they are looking to succeed and even go in depth with what their knowledge even is on SEO because based on what their asking it seems "archaic." Today quality is key therefore it really depends on the company you are wanting to perform your SEO techniques. I feel as though in today's evolution of technology as well as "google search" a mere $500 is not enough to get personalized quality links in order to build your reputation on search engines.

Moz Expert

[KempRugeLawGroup]

The directory submissions jumped out at me as just absurd. I can't imagine there even being 100 directories worth submitting to, and certainly not every month.

Also, this firm used to have an SEO company that outsourced all its blogs and articles like it says your client is about to have happen to him or her. Tell her to look at some ODesk profiles from India and Bangladesh to see if she wants that type of content on her site. When I started here, one of the first things I did was delete every article or post they had written. It was awful. The only good part about the outsourced writing was that it was as poorly written, as it was poorly ranking, so not many people ever read them.

I can't remember if press releases were not going to matter much in the future, or if they were going to get your penalized, but either way, they aren't worth much.

Lastly, 1 local listing a month isn't going to cut it. At the end of a year, your client will have 12 listings. I doubt that will garner much benefit, and they will probably not even be accurate.

Good luck,

Ruben