Comments on: Should You Be Ranking For [SEO]?

By: Andrew Girdwood

Andrew Girdwood — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:28:10 +0000

It’s a vanity term, I think and nothing more than. I wouldn’t say we prided ourselves on the ranking but certainly some sales folk like to mention it.

In some ways its more of a curse than a blessing. We do a lot more than just SEO. We’re huge in PPC. We’ve a cutting edge brilliant display department. We’ve our own unique approach to affiliate marketing. We’ve our own social media philosophies. Yet people talk about us as a ‘SEO agency’ and this ranking doesn’t hinder that perception at all.

By: Peter Young

Peter Young — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:17:30 +0000

You wont hear me disagree either. I know Bigmouthmedia have prided themselves on being Number 1 (think its number 2 now actually) for search engine optimisation however I would suggest that is merely a branding exercise, rather than a lead generation tactic.

By: Matt Sawyer

Matt Sawyer — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:37:13 +0000

Having been in the same position as Ciaran I would have to say I agree, having being ranked for some of the key industry terms, including top 3 for ‘internet marketing’ and ‘online marketing’ it in fact brings very little quality clients. Far better spending time and money networking and branding.

By: Gab Goldenberg

Gab Goldenberg — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:17:07 +0000

As someone who DOES rank for SEO – albeit on Google.ca – I can confirm that most of the inquiries are from small businesses. However, other rankings have attracted business or at least leads.

@ Rob – do you find the search marketing clients are looking for PPC mostly or organic too?

p.s. Conferences are sweetness for links, and Sphinn and SU – real promotion, of ORIGINAL articles, not spam or rehashed crap – has been lovely for gaining links.

By: evilgreenmonkey

evilgreenmonkey — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:31:13 +0000

@esrun: I didn’t say that it wouldn’t work, it’s just the worst possible term to try these methods on.

By: esrun

esrun — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:02:37 +0000

mmmm not so sure about your view of the “muppett” option.. it will work…. Just don’t expect any long term rankings. But then when do spammers ever expect long term rankings? Throw as much shit at the wall and hope some of it sticks, repeat repeat repeat

By: Drabdesign

Drabdesign — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:34:50 +0000

It is rare for me to bookmark articles these days, yours though has been. Very interesting and well written, I do however disagree slightly with not ranking for a term like SEO. After all you just need to say no to the small ones and show the world how good you are. But that is just my opinion and I know of hundreds of companies do as you do.

I agree re local search, could be the next big thing in searching.

Oh well just as I was going to bed, I had better look around the rest of your site.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:41:31 +0000

Its that old chestnut again, why can’t marketing agencies rank … I used to scoff at the excuse they gave “we’re too busy ranking other companies than to rank our own” … now, I do beleive there is truth in that as we take on more and more clients.

I don’t hit the networking paths you go on about Rob, I have a young company to run after all. But our books got near-filled thanks to our rankings in just less than a year after start-up.

I’m not sure just having the words ‘SEO’ in your company name or domain name will drive you to page 1 – I studied those that ranked in the top 20 positions for various seo related terms for over 8 months until my link bait contest got pulled.

I have started to pull away from ‘SEO’ to a certain degree as the amount of stigma attached now makes it more then top-heavy.

Anyways, cheers for the post Rob and if I ever manage to find myself at a London event i hope to get a good fitba discussion over a few bevvies with you.

By: Matt Ridout

Matt Ridout — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:30:17 +0000

It’s something that I too have thought about – ranking for “seo”. You’re spot on from an agency perspective I imagine Joe Bloggs and his many friends would do nothing but clog up to companies business calender and bring very little to the table.

On the other side of the coin, I have been asked by the “Boss” why we don’t and for him and other more senior people they want to be No 1 at everything so they can play golf, sip brandy and say “I’m the best”!

By: Ciaran

Ciaran — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:52:30 +0000

Interesting post Rob. When I first moved agency side it bothered me that the company site didn’t rank for any industry terms. However I soon realised that this was mainly due to something that could be compared to the old cliché that the cobbler’s children have no shoes; in other words we were too busy optimising other company’s sites to optimise our own.

That said, I decided we should try so we did a bit of analysis to see whether there were some industry terms which were less competitive. And, by optimising (a bit) for some of these terms, and by blogging, sponsoring events, and attending conferences (great minds, eh?), we now rank #3 for ‘search marketing agency’ & page 1 for ‘digital marketing agency’ & ‘online marketing agency’ (as well as a few of the ‘london’ variations simply by submitting the business to Google Maps).

Do we get much business from any of these? Not really. But do we get it from the blog, that drives most of the links? Yes thanks; the rank’s just an added bonus.