Page 2 - I want to start my own SEO company

If your good at on-site seo then the off-site should look after itself.

Basically when it comes to seo keep in mind - title tag, content (on and off site) and relevant anchor text links.

To be honest just doing the on-site seo with no link building should get you somewhere - say you had the keyword web development in bristol, i cant see why you wouldnt be on page 3-5 of google after say 1-2 months of launching the website.

If you have any other question or I haven't answered the question how you would like just say dude.

Your honestly advising someone that they can set up a business taking peoples money when they don't have the first clue about off page??


Your advice is not worth a great deal thankfully.

Laugh and what yours is?? There are alot of people like you in this industry, im guessing you prob work for an agency aswell and your coding ability is limited to html and basic css.

You think when twitter started they did a link building campaign which made them successful, its all down to the development and onsite functionality, dont worry i have spoken to them about it when i went for an interview there for an SEO role.

To kick start a company/business is always easier than to run and maintain a company/business. Liked what terriwells said, I would suggest you look into getting a job at an already-existing SEO company first is more appropriate, because it seems like you are still away from so called professional SEO company, as based on the question you asked, I find that is most standard question that your client will ask you too.

Stevenseo - I know you probably hate this thread right now, and everybody on this forum, but you can actually pull some value out of this.

To all the posters that told him to find another job or quit doing SEO because he's just never going to be successful...I mean, there was a point in all of our lives when we didn't know how to type on a keyboard, much less the finer points of SEO.

Stevenseo - you can learn SEO. Go buy a few books. Read a few websites. Spend a few months learning. You can teach yourself, and when you have a specific question, you can use this forum for help.

To all the SEOChat members that have failed miserably with their posts in this thread (and there are many of you) -

If somebody wants to learn SEO, we should be encouraging them and giving them resources. That's the point of this forum.

Sure, Steven shouldn't quit his job and start up an SEO business right now - but tell him to start learning, rather than to stop and change focus. You're not his financial advisor...or wife.

If your skin is that thin - you will never make it as an SEO because clients are way worse than your peers.

Your peers aren't paying you anything... a customer is and that customer wants something in return... and a customer doesn't care what you did last month... "it's not what have you done for me - it's what have you done for me lately"...

Your peers have filled this place with info for every question under the sun... so the correct response would be don't ask us to rewrite for you "search for it".

But the point isn't whether he should learn about SEO. The point is that he definitely shouldn't start his own business in an area that he has such little knowledge. This industry has a shady reputation and this is exactly the reason why. People taking on clients when they shouldn't be.

I am not knocking anyone for wanting to break out and do things on their own but if you spent as much time as I do talking to customers that have spent many thousands of pounds on SEO's that have done nothing other than tweak their page titles, meta description and keywords etc then I am sure you would feel the same. When you take on a customer you take on their risk. The economy in pretty much every country is shot at the moment and a few thousand pounds per month can be the difference between someone getting through and someone shutting up shop because they cannot sustain the spending. If you don't have the skills, knowledge and resources to help a site rank then you have no place taking their money.

If the truth is a little hard to swallow then that's just the way it is!

I don't work for an agency or any company come to that. I work for myself and I do so as a result of people approaching me and asking for my help based on the success that I have had and the advice I have given. So as you mention it my opinion is worth something. It makes me a great living thanks very much!



I am really very proud of you. I mean what response did you want to that? You asked them for a job very well done. It has nothing to do with this post or anything else come to think of it, but since you mention it, twitter are the great success that they are due to a very unique concept (content) and fantastic marketing (viral) is that not the essence of SEO?

If you think that any SEO can survive without a working knowledge of off page then you are in a different world to me.

I think you need to learn and action offsite on your own sites first and try and get some good results.

I've been into a company before to give consultancy on SEO and in the meeting have been a server-side coder and a PPC accountant now there not SEO professional but they still have some understanding of SEO. Now when they start drilling you with questions you need to know what your talking about on and off site.

If you know how to code stevenseo why not start a company doing web development, im sure if a client wanted some SEO you could out source to another company and im sure if you passed them work and you was good at coding they would prob pass work back.

lewisdb i understand how important an all round working knowledge of seo is offsite and onsite.

I just noticed that stevenseo wasnt happy with the response he got (which all made sense to me) and wanted to give him an answer which best suited his skill set.

Now its up to him if he wants to start a company up doing SEO its down to his knowledge if that company survives.

Okay. Let's be serious for a second. The impact on your business or the whole SEO field of one more shmuck starting an SEO company and duping a customer will be negligible.

Intelligent business owners will know what to look for when hiring a good SEO, and good SEOs only want to work for intelligent business owners. If you have seen scam artists and poor SEOs have an effect on your business, it is likely a problem with your sales pitch or your references.

(Though I doubt it, because I know who you are and what you contribute to this forum.)

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is this:

Pfizer and their Viagra are no less legit because of the prevalence of knock-off male enhancement pills, just as you or I do not suffer because of the prevalence of bad SEOs. In the end, (some) men will still need help getting it up, and they will buy Viagra. And in the end, (some) webmasters will still need help getting their rankings up, and they will choose you or me.

I agree but I also Speak with many people who have wasted thousands. If my advice or comments can make one person think twice about jumping into something feet first before they are ready then happy days!