We need lots of ongoing SEO help!

Hello Everyone,

We need lots of ongoing SEO work for the EliteFitness.com site. Right now, the site is undergoing a redesign, so it should be a good time to get started.

In order to help with our selection, we would also need a specific proposal developed for the EliteFitness.com site. It needs to be well thought out and specific as to what you plan to do for us - no boilerplate please.

Please also let me know your thoughts on the following SEO concepts and how they might pertain to us:

cloaking - Do you use it? Our industry is incredibly competitive. What software do you use? If you don't use it, what on page work would you do and how would it impact navigation.

link building - we need quality inbound links with Pagerank 4 or higher sites. How do you go about inbound link building and what software are you using.

Keyword analysis - are you using wordtracker?

Google PageRank funnel - are you familiar with the techniques used to funnel pagerank to specific pages of a site. In the case of EliteFitness.com, how would you structure our pages to funnel more pagerank to the home page. How would you want navigation to be restructured? How many links on the home page would need to be done in javascript?

Key Phrase Optimization - Ideally, we need page one for the terms "bodybuilding" and "steroids". I know that this is not easy. What are 15 keywords or keyword phrases that you might optimize for us? Where will you get them: Wordtracker? Google Sandbox? Overture? Along with these 15 keywords, provide the search frequency for each. It does no one any good for you to optimize pages for phrases no one searches for.

Please email your proposal to gs1@nym.hush.com. I hope that we will be able to work with you.

Sorry for "threadjacking" here sir.

Other SEO pros out there, how do you respond to a request like this without disclosing your proprietary method of SEO? I understand from a prospective clients point of view that it is important to make sure the SEO pro chosen is competent and capable. However, what's to say this particular request isn't just someone fishing for information that they can use themselves. How do you determine if the request is valid and actually someone willing to spend a few bucks?

Personally, I/we never outline specifics until the contract is signed. I think we've all been in positions with people trying to pick your brain. While I enjoy helping people, I also depend on it to make a living too.

Again, I apologize the individual who started this thread.

Well, this is a strange post. I get the impression this person knows just enough SEO to be dangerous. Asking about wordtracker is an odd question. It tells me they have picked up some of the buzzwords without really knowing the concepts they apply to. Or they are familiar with a few tools and looking for a roadmap to optimize the site themselves (try to anyway).

Normally I would have just ignored it and let it become someone else's lesson but since mike broke the ice... To answer your question as far as revealing tactics, I gently avoid it. I will discuss some to give the customer peace of mind that I really do know what I'm talking about. And I may go more in-depth depending on the impression I get of the person I am talking to. Call it HonorRank If I detect they are just trying to get the best site going and aren't out to screw anyone I'm much more liberal with what I'll discuss. Someone like the above poster, I wouldn't tell them anything. They are much to needy for my comfort.

I am usually overly generous with advice and info to a point of fault LOL However, I make exceptions with ppl on some boards and give them nothing short of a market & site analysis + roadmap to pursue.... No Im not the brightest crayon in the box at times.. but then again I believe in karma... LOL Some ppl especially small mom&pop shops are really just lost and looking for some help w/o the big purse to spend $1,K's. I like to think in the end it comes back to me via entrance at the pearly gates or a future referral

Whichever comes first, eh?

Notice which I mentioned first... order of precedence is key LOL

I agree to the overally needy comment and how that is usually a red flag, identifying a brain picker and not a buyer.

To the original poster looking for help:

"Right now, the site is undergoing a redesign, so it should be a good time to get started."

YES.

"In order to help with our selection, we would also need a specific proposal developed for the EliteFitness.com site. It needs to be well thought out and specific as to what you plan to do for us - no boilerplate please."

WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO DEVELOP A UNIQUE PROGRAM TO HELP YOU MEET YOUR GOALS

"cloaking - Do you use it?"

NO

"If you don't use it, what on page work would you do and how would it impact navigation."

ASIDE FROM IMPLEMENTING "BEST PRACTICE" CODING WE WOULD WORK WITH YOU TO DEVELOP A CONTENT PROGRAM. AFTERALL, IN YOUR COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY, FRESH CONTENT IS GOING TO CRUCIAL. ALSO, THE PROGRAM COULD INCLUDE SOME TACTICS TO GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE FROM OTHER PLACES IN ADDITION TO SERPS.

"link building - we need quality inbound links with Pagerank 4 or higher sites. How do you go about inbound link building and what software are you using."

WE HAVE A FORMULA THAT FOCUSES ON GETTING LINKS THAT WILL BENIFIT YOU THE MOST

"Keyword analysis - are you using wordtracker?"

YES

"Google PageRank funnel - are you familiar with the techniques used to funnel pagerank to specific pages of a site."

INCLUDED IN LINK BUILDING

"In the case of EliteFitness.com, how would you structure our pages to funnel more pagerank to the home page. How would you want navigation to be restructured? How many links on the home page would need to be done in javascript?"

YES...lol

"Key Phrase Optimization - Ideally, we need page one for the terms "bodybuilding" and "steroids". I know that this is not easy. What are 15 keywords or keyword phrases that you might optimize for us? Where will you get them: Wordtracker? Google Sandbox? Overture? Along with these 15 keywords, provide the search frequency for each. It does no one any good for you to optimize pages for phrases no one searches for."

OUR COMPETETIVE ANALYSIS WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT

How did I do?

I think you got the job LOL

Hello Mike,

No need to apologize, I appreciate your concerns - I would have them too. I probably need to give you some additional background.

EliteFitness.com has been online for 10 years. We have about 40,000 visitors a day looking at a half million pages a day - but we do poorly in the search engines and always have. We have 500,000 pages of content on bodybuilding and steroids, and one of the largest and busiest bodybuilding communities on the net. In addition, google claims that they have indexed about 177,000 of our pages.

We desperately need SEO help, but do not have time to do it ourselves, and want to gauge the knowledge of prospective hires. We read PlanetOcean, so we are not totally ignorant of SEO.

We have found that most SEO "gurus" in fact know very little about SEO, refuse to do "on page" work, and want to make a big fuss over dated stuff like metatags. Having been burned in the past, hiring someone with little knowledge or who does not have the time to roll up his/her sleeves and get down to work is of no interest to us. With this said, if someone is talented, we will be a good client, that will provide monthly ongoing billing for someone who is willing to demonstrate that they know their stuff.

We have been speaking with the different SEO firms, and of them, we really liked positionresearch.com as they seemed to know their stuff and put together a very extensive and thought out proposal specifically for us. Unfortunately, some of our content was too risque for them and they backed out.

Thank you for the background. Please let me know how to contact you. I can be reached at mike@metteradvertising.com. Although your content is a bit outside of our normal relm (our business has focused on industrial clients until recently), I do believe we could help.

+

Hi Mike,

I appreciate your response and would like to talk with you more. Can you email me your phone number?

I took a look at metteradvertising.com and it would not appear that SEO is your primary business. Are you looking to freelance, or would you bring us in as a new client.

We have more fresh content than God, so we are obviously missing the boat somewhere, but content is not our problem. I believe our problem is with our inbound links with relevant keyword based anchor text as well as how we funnel internal pagerank given the enormity of our site. Please tell me more about your formula to fix both problems.

Regarding the google pagerank funnel technique, kindly explain how that would be "included in link building"? Are you familiar with this concept? Because I am just learning about it. My understanding is that essentially, it is developing a sites internal navigation to maximize the pagerank of pages like the order page or the homepage instead of spreading it out to pages like the "contact us" page or the "privacy policy" page. So, I don't understand what you mean when you write. "INCLUDED IN LINK BUILDING." The question I have not been able to get an answer to is this - How do you funnel internal pagerank without cloaking or building all of your links with javascript? And even the javascript technique does not seem possible if you need to use Server Side Includes to serve the ads on your homepage.

Lastly, I would be interested in reading your competitive analysis you mention. Kindly email it to gs1@nym.hush.com

Not only URL you can't right post like that first you will have to prove your seo skill with your valuable post.

No point digging up graves!

Thread Closed!