This is what he said in his post.

“Search Engine Optimization is not a legitimate form of marketing. It should not be undertaken by people with brains or souls. If someone charges you for SEO, you have been conned.”

“like the goat sacrificers and snake oil salesmen before them, a new breed of con man was born, the Search Engine Optimizer. These scammers claim that they can dance the magic dance that will please the Google gods and make eyeballs rain down upon you.”

By these statements he obviously does not know what he is talking about. Yes there are those Black Hat SEO operators, but he does not single them out, he paints all SEO consultants with the same brush.

There will always be a gap in the market for SEO Consultants.

I agree with his premise that SEO should be natural, it should be logical. You should write your content for human beings and not for search engines. But just because people don’t do it does not mean that a SEO consultant who will help your content is a spammer and scammer or a con man.

There are many other industries who have speciality services that you could do yourself. But you pay people to do it for you.

• You pay a mechanic three times as much to change your oil. Is he a con man as well?
• Businessmen pay image consultants to better their image. Are they con artists as well?
• You might pay a painter to paint your house when you can clearly do it yourself. Is the painter a scammer?

The list goes on.

Just because we know what we should do does not mean we have the skill, knowledge, ability and time to do it. The market does not lie. If it creates a gap for a legitimate area of expertise, it is because there is a genuine need for that. Hence the need for SEO Consultants

What are we actually paying for in an SEO consultant?

Derek says that if you pay a SEO consultant then you are a fool. But lets have a look at what you are paying for. Then decide.

Knowledge -  Not everyone can know everything. We pay so many other people because they know more than we do. We pay for their knowledge on a particular subject. It’s always been like that. A SEO consultant has knowledge of Search Engines, Key words, form and structure that will help and aid in your content reaching it’s best possible position in the Search Engine Results. Yes you might know  a bit about SEO, after all it is logical and for the most part simple. But there are other areas where you might not know it all, because it is not your field of expertise. This is when you pay an SEO consultant. For his knowledge.

Time. Time is precious. Time is money. What is your time worth? Can you afford to waste your valuable time on SEO, a topic where you are not an expert in? Wouldn't it be more beneficial and profitable to pay an expert to do his job, while you use your valuable time to do what you do best.

You are paying for the SEO consultants time. The time he takes to research Key word terms and phrases. The time the SEO consultants takes to research competition. The time the SEO consultants takes to analyse your site and content.

Experience. If anything else experience is expensive. We pay people that have more experience than we do everyday. We pay the painter to paint our house, because of his experience he does a better job.

A web designer designs websites. He might also have skills in graphic design, but his expertise are not graphic design. That's why we hire a graphic designer or artist. They have the experience and expertise to do the right job.

You pay a SEO consultant because of his experience and his/her expertise

Results. You pay your SEO consultant to get results. Yes you can do most of the SEO yourself. But the competition out there in cyberspace is tough. Everyone is trying to outdo the other. There are millions of other websites trying to get into the #1 Google spot so that they can get traffic from potential clients and readers.

Generally you pay for what you get. Why is it that a Citi-Golf motor car is so so much cheaper than a Ferrari. Should I even answer that question? You know the answer. If you pay zero for SEO, whether that be a dedicated consultant or your own time, you will get zero results.

Can I do SEO myself?

The simple answer is yes. There are tons of tutorial and tips and blog posts on the internet that will educate you into how you can achieve results with SEO. You will even find some great articles on this blog about SEO, just do a search.

My Good friend Etienne from GoodSEO, has written some really simple SEO articles for newbie's. Check then out.

SEO friendly file and folder structures

Good SEO – My top 10 on-page factors

But if you want that extra bit. If you want to go the extra mile. If you want to beat your competition but can’t seem to do it by yourself, then you need to hire an SEO consultant. You can hire any number of good SEO consultants, myself, my good friend Etienne, or any recommended SEO consultant in your area. They are not con men, they are experts.

Conclusion.

There are bad SEOs out there, who give the entire industry a bad name — just as there are bad bloggers, bad designers, bad cops, you name it. There are also excellent SEOs who work inside of companies as well as through agencies for hire. Don’t tarnish an entire industry that actually helps many, many people in ways I’m sure you would agree with. SEO Consultants are not scammers, spamers nor are SEO Consultants con men

What do you think of SEO?

Related Reading:

The four pillars of SEO

The top SEO myth of all time.

Website Design, Coding, SEO - RAP - SEO Rapper

Top 10 Tips on SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for Absolute Beginners

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for the Absolute Beginners II

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