Sarasota - Tampa Business Owners- Some facts before you pay for SEO & Monthly Contracts

I have reviewed some interesting contracts the last few days and I want to give you some information:

1. Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is FREE. Most of what I look at for services and monthly services on these stupid contracts is information you get for free from GWT. You shouldn’t pay monthly for information you are entitled to for free. A real SEO will sign you up and show you how to access your information, but will not charge your for work that they haven’t done.
2. Google Analytics is FREE! Again, you should not pay to have access to that information. You may need help understanding the different aspects, but you should be able to access it at anytime and the info in analytics is not there because your SEO worked so hard to provide it.

These contracts and the work they discuss is often bull; sorry, no better way to put it!

Because I am so utterly disgusted by the contracts I am seeing I am offering to look at contracts for free - this is for Sarasota / Tampa business owners that are looking for Search Engine Optimization and/or Web - Internet Marketing. I will tell you what is a bunch of crap and what isn’t.

In This Economy Be Careful Before Paying Monthly for SEO Services that ARE not Really SEO Services!

PLEASE feel free to contact me anytime. Email me your contracts or call me and we will discuss it.

Melissa- SEO Aware

 

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SMX East 2008- the People, the Sessions, the Drinking and the “Big Watah” Scandal

Well, I am back and I am tired. I have to say that I am one of those that is flat out terrified of planes…I hate them, so the fact that I went to SMX should tell you that I really wanted to go. I had to drink before I got on the plane and I about broke my husband’s hand, but I lived…thank GOD!

 

 

Some People and Pics

Anyway, I have already said that Chris Winfield and his wife were super cool and very kind. They remained that way. I do have one really interesting picture of them. It looks like his wife is going to poke him in the throat and Chris kind of look like he sees it coming (look at his eyes). It could also be a ninja move, but she is nice and would never do that. It is just a funny pic from the SMX after party. NOW, if you decide to save this pic please know that Photoshop edited the name…I wouldn’t have named it that. Chris, if you want the full 20MB shot for the photo album let me know.

The Super Cool Dave Conklin and David Brown

I can’t tell you how many times I said, “There’s Dave and David!” Dave introduced himself and to my husband and I it feels like we have been friends forever. Super nice guy and he has 4 kids, God bless him! Send some work his way! Anyway, both Dave and David were welcoming, kind, funny and great people. I will miss Dave’s funny stories (until he starts IMing me or something!).

This photo has, in order left to right,  Jim Boykin, David brown and Dave Conklin

Jim Hedger

Jim is my buddy…I didn’t take a picture of him though cuz I forgot…BUT, I still consider him a great friend. He found me out of nowhere and started posting my articles on Site Pro News and all heck broke loose. Thanks Jim. We had a fabulous expensive dinner (J/K- New York Pizza, but it was good) and then hit the SMX after party. He is a great guy and I have only seen him be kind to everyone and to be honest that wasn’t the case with all the people.

Martin Bowling - Super Nice Guy and KEY Player in the Big Watah Scandal!

Martin is the nice guy on the left in a white shirt and jeans (if you don’t know who he is). Danny Sullivan is in a brown suit on the right a ways back. It was weird to see him in a suit. His wife is really, really nice.

Martin is cool and funny and played a large part in the Big Watah scandal…it is not my story to tell. See BigWatah.com and watch for updates. This is a fun and crazy crowd and it really was a great time.

Marty Weintraub

I have known Marty through the blogosphere for awhile. He has always been kind and funny, but I didn’t get to meet him in person until now. If you aren’t reading what Marty writes you really should.

Eric Lander

Well, I read Eric’s Blog on my iGoogle and I read Search Engine Journal, so I knew who he was. He was a great speaker at SMX and when I had the chance I said, “hey”. Like David Brown, Eric was genuinely nice. Obviously a guy that has been in the industry a long while and is well-respected, but was in no way condescending or rude. If you don’t read his stuff you need to, so go!. He also has the same haircut, or lackthereof, as my husband. Another plus Eric, I forgot to take a pic!

Some People I really Enjoyed Meeting

Bruce Clay!

Yes, Bruce Clay   (FYI, I look like crap in this photo, but I am proud of the pic so I had to put it up. (Blame my goofy A** face on this stuff called Heineken. I just look weird and like I am on drugs, but I don’t do them!)

You know, to me guys like Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, Bruce Clay etc. are like the coolest guys in my geeky little computer/SEO/Star Wars world. So meeting some people I think are really awesome was great. Now Matt Cutts wasn’t there and my husband was real mean and kept going, “Look! It’s Matt Cutts!” Just to see my head spin around like Linda Blair.

I saw Bruce walking around, but was just a bit too chicken to walk up to him. Dave Conklin just kind of sprung him on me at the SMX After Party and I have to say, that Bruce is a nice guy! He has no reason to even care who I am, but he stopped and talked for awhile. Really cool, nice and a great hugger. He is kind of snuggly, and I am not saying that in a sexual way y’all, so don’t start any SEO scandals and gossip…I just don’t know how else to describe it. He was also very nice to my husband.

Rand Fishkin

It’s Rand Fiskin…it is like meeting Han Solo! Or Yoda! You have to compare him to Yoda after Linkscape…(Yoda is on my desktop and my motto came from him. This is a big compliment)

In case you don’t know, he is newly married and showed us a picture of his wife during his portion of the session. He even said, “Isn’t she beautiful?”, as he went back to her slide…women love that crap, Rand! Your nice guy meter hit the roof with that one! Really nice guy! (Rand, after 17 years of marriage all I can say is it only gets better)

Ok, again, bad photo…this time blame it on this stuff called “Malibu”…I am telling you these folks like to have fun!

StuntDubl

Again, nice guy! He looks about the age of my oldest son, but nice guy.  If you think you are big into SEO or anything related to it OR if you offer it as a service and you don’t know who Stuntdubl, Rand Fiskin or Bruce Clay are, you may want to take that service off of your Web site.

You can see a half headshot of Dave here. Markus941 is behind him and holy crap! Who knew he lived in the same city I do? Not me or him! His mouth hit the floor when we said where we were from.

From the White Hat Session

Kimberly Krause Berg and Kate Morris. Two really nice women. It is always cool to meet people and then they end up being so nice. Stephan Spencer was also very, very nice.

 

 

Avinash! Great Book! Thanks

Can’t forget the Apogee girls [That is what my husband and I called them! ]. See them in the pic right behind me? They were very nice and cool! Roger Montti was very friendly too. I have to go to bed…

SMX East was a lot of fun.

Melissa - SEO Aware

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Is CNN Biased In This Presidential Race? I have been watching and testing…

I think no matter what side you are on it is obvious that the media is clearly biased, they want Obama. I read CNN.com everyday and I also read the comments. I noticed that their were very few that were positive on McCain’s side. So I tested some things. In the last 4 weeks I have commented positively for McCain 20 times and positive for Obama 20 times. Comments are moderated.

Guess what, not one of my McCain comments were published and every single Obama comment was published. What are the odds? I actually emailed CNN and asked them if they realized this was going on. I got no response.

Let me be clear, 15 of my positive McCain comments were not rude or offensive. I didn’t insult or belittle Obama in any way. Five comments were a little more testy; still not rude or offensive. I followed this plan with my Obama comments as well. I also didn’t just comment from home. I went to Panera, Starbucks, client’s offices, my son’s school and I even pulled over in neighborhoods and made comments from there. I have also made comments this week while I have been in New York - 2 for each canidate - one at the hotel and one at SMX.

So, is it safe to say that CNN is biased? I don’t know. You decide. I will say this, they have lost a reader.
News organizations need to be objective, they need to report from all sides. If they are not going to approve positive McCain comments they should put that up on their site. I feel other news organizations need to evaluate their behavior as well.

Melissa Fach - SEO Aware

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At SMX East…

Well, I can’t comment much, yet, on the sessions. Today will be a much more exciting day. I have met a lot of people and I have to say the nicest people so far have to be Chris Winfield and his wife. They are down to earth, welcoming people. His wife is as beautiful as everyone says.

I will be writing more about SMX soon.

Melissa

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Are You Wasting Time Trying to Get High Traffic Numbers?

I hear people talking about traffic all the time. They need it and they want it, but do they really know what they want?

If you have a blog and you want a lot of traffic/readers it is understandable that you are using Social Media to the extreme and working to bring in readers. Business Web sites, on the other hand, are a totally different animal. Social Media is important, but does it bring the traffic that will convert to sales? Are you using social media in a way that will help your business make money?

Business Owners

I have a lot of business owners that call me and tell me they have read about social media bringing Web sites a lot of traffic and they want it. Well here is the thing, social media can bring you traffic, more traffic than you might be able to handle, but if you have 1,000 visitors in a day and the phone doesn’t ring you are wasting your time and money.

Business owners need to be targeting specific locations, specific demographics and consumers that are interested in the services and/or products they offer, not the net junkies. Increased traffic is great and can indicate your pages are indexing highly and potential costumers/clients are finding you OR it can mean that people are finding your site and it wasn’t what they were looking for.

Analytics can help you determine the kind of traffic you are getting, but there are plenty of articles out there about that. The point I am trying to get across is if you are looking to use Social Media to increase traffic, pause for a few minutes and determine what your goals are. Do you want to say that you had 30,000 visitors this month or do you want to say you had increased sales? If you are looking to increase sales you have some research and planning to do. Hiring an effective, honest and ethical SEO company should be your next move.

Melissa- SEO Aware Sarasota

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