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Hey, Sports Fans! Haroon Rashid, Khemeia Consulting and welcome to Haroon's Hangout where we make
digital marketing simple, straight forward and fun! Today, episode twenty - 'The State
Of SEO in Leeds' (and that's Leeds, Yorkshire). We were going to have our illustrious leader,
Ian Sharp with us today. He can't be with us today but we're going to reschedule that
and he is going to come on the show at another time. But let's just go ahead and do this
one anyway I think because I think it's really important. So we're going to talk about what's
happening in Leeds, Yorkshire in terms of SEO companies, SEO services. Because we're
finding a lot more people are coming to us and asking for SEO services. And we, you know,
for those of you who don't know, Khemeia Consulting (where I work) we offer digital marketing
services and with that comes social media and SEO services around Leeds, Bradford, Yorkshire
and you know, further than that as well. But we're finding a lot more people are coming
to us for SEO help and they'll say, "Well we've engaged so and so person (or so and
so agency), we're still not getting the results that we want. So I just wanted to talk a little
bit about what's happening; what's the context of what's going on right now. And hopefully
you guys can get some tips from this about what kind of agency you should be going for
and what kind of things you can look out for when you're choosing an SEO agency for your
business. The best way I can talk about this is that there is a story. There's a good friend
of ours at Khemeia, he's a strategic partner and he has a specific SEO service that he
provides (and I'm not going to go into what it is), but it's very niche SEO. So he was
sat with one of the bigger digital agencies (or SEO agencies) in Leeds and he showed them
what he can do. Now he showed them and he said, "OK this is what I can do." And they
were like, "What the hell? What the hell is this voodoo?" (Laughs) OK and they wen't,
"You can't do that!" And he went, "Well I've just shown you. And I'm going to show you
again." So he showed them a few more examples of how he can do this particular SEO service.
Now the SEO Manager (I guess) didn't really like the fact that he didn't know how to do
it himself. So he asked our friend, he said, "Well, how do you do that?" And of course
our friend said, "Well I'm not going to tell you how to do it. You know, that's my thing."
So this SEO Manager kept bugging our friend - kept bugging him, kept bugging him; kept
persistently saying, "Tell me how you did this!" To the point where when it was time
for our friend to leave he was in the doorway and the guy (the SEO Manager) stood in the
doorway and was stopping him from leaving. And he was saying, "I'm not - You're not leaving
here until you tell us how you do this thing." And it basically resulted in our friend having
to say, "Look, move!" OK, he kept his professionalism, kept his cool and everything and you know,
the agency apologised later on and said, "You know, that was really unprofessional." So
why am I telling you this story? Well I think it just encapsulates a lot of things that
are going on right now when it comes to SEO agencies (and in Leeds as well). Because this
happened locally to where we are. And I think it shows there is a lack of knowledge (that's
a given) - there's a lack of knowledge with certain things around SEO. It also shows me
though that there is some sort of fear that is creeping in right now. Because I think
there's been a lot of changes over the past few years (things like Google Panda, Google
Penguin and in August 2013, Google Hummingbird). And that means that the state of SEO as a
whole internationally has changed. But it seems like some SEO agencies are afraid that
either the tactics they've used in the past for their customers are not going to work
anymore; and maybe their SEO effectiveness is just going to plummet (like a lot of companies
have done); maybe they are struggling to keep up with the changes that are happening in
SEO. And I think that story shows that there is some people that are very afraid right
now because they are - they don't know how to do certain things (like what we know how
to do). They don't know how to keep up with this kind of thing. And I think it just shows
that there is a really big split in the SEO industry right now, And this is happening
in West Yorkshire, in Yorkshire, OK. And it's happening in the UK and it's happening in
the world. So how does this affect you as a business? Well, there's so many SEO agencies
that you could choose from. It doesn't mean that they're all great, first of all. Now
you can watch last week's episode where I said it's called 'Four Key Questions You Need
To Ask An SEO Agency," (that's when you're choosing an SEO agency.) Go check that out
and it will help you to determine who's good, who's not. I think that you as a business,
you need to know what is a good SEO agency and what is a bad SEO agency. Now in Leeds,
Bradford, Yorkshire there are some good SEO agencies. Some of the bigger ones as well
they are still good and I think that is fantastic, OK. There are however (and this is in any
industry) there are other companies who aren't so good. And they will do a lot of good talking
and they will, in essence they can be considered 'Cowboys'. We've heard horror stories from
people that (some of our clients) who have engaged what they thought was a good SEO company,
they basically took the money, ran and they're just no better off. Why am I saying all this?
It's not because I want to come across as an arrogant person or anything like that.
We just want you to have the information so that you can find the best SEO agency for
you. It's not about us. It's about you guys - your business being successful, making a
profit. So we want you to have all the information that you can to make that informed decision.
So, SEO has changed...let's talk about that. SEO has changed in such a way where Google
is penalising sites for using what we call 'black hat tactics (SEO Black hat tactics').
That means stuffing as many keywords and phrases on a page that you can. And it seems really...
it doesn't read well. It doesn't read like it's written for a human. That's one thing.
So obviously if you have keywords and phrases, they get picked up by the search engines,
you rise up in the ranks. And what some SEO agencies were doing was is they went, "Right
we're going to shove as many keywords and phrases as we can." So for example I saw a
company in Bradford (Bradford, West Yorkshire) and (well I won't say what industry they were
in because you'll probably Google it and find them) but they said, "We are an (x) company
based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK" (This is on their homepage.) "As we are an (x) company
in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, we can provide your (x) services in Bradford, West Yorkshire,
UK." That's how they wrote it on their website. And you can agree, you will agree, that doesn't
read naturally. They were blatantly writing for the spiders. That's just an example of
keyword-stuffing. Now according to Google Panda (I think it was) that site would now
be penalised and it will drop in the search rankings because it's not written for humans.
The next thing is links. So people understood that, "If I have loads of sites linking to
my site, my site will go up into, will rise the search rankings)." So, what happened was
a load of companies would say, "Ring us, pay us a bunch of money, we'll give you loads
of links. We'll give you a hundred links. We'll give you a thousand links and all that."
Then sites were starting to rank. But what they were doing was, they weren't giving you
quality links from quality websites. They could be spammy sites or even ***
sites. And what would happen is Google saw this and went, "Well that's not right." It's
the power of association. Whoa are you associated with? If you're associated with a lot of spammy
sites and *** sites, you're not very reputable in Google's eyes...or anyone's eyes for that
matter. But if you've got quality links like say, if you have people like BBC News linking
to you or if you have people like you know, Mashable or Forbes and all those really good
websites linking to you, then the power of association is different. You're associated
with good, reputable sites so you start to rise in the rankings. So who are you being
linked to? Do you even know who you're linked to right now? Do you know who is linking to
your website? If you already have an SEO agency these are some key questions for you to ask
them because it is going to bite you in the...backside. (Laughs). That was a good one. So you need
to ask. "Who is linking to me right now?" What is the quality of the links that are
coming to me?" The other thing that Hummingbird has done (in August last year) was that they
were emphasising you need to create quality content. Quality content on a regular basis
so there's things about frequency (how often are you releasing content). Fresher content
is going to be promoted higher. So God bless what you did back in 2005, OK. That thing
might start to slip and it needs to make way for things that's in 2014 now. When was the
last bit of content that you created? When was the last blog post that you wrote? When
was the last video you did? Are you trying to ride the, you know the waves of what you
did back in 2002 (God bless that work). Or are you continually creating good content
for your customers? An SEO agency should be telling you to create content. Because the
strength of your SEO is determined by the strength of your content. Now, when it comes
to the state of SEO agencies in Leeds we think (like I say) there are good companies, there
are bad companies. You can have a look at Haroon's Hangout and our blog and you'll find
out all these little tips on what you should be looking for when it comes to picking the
right SEO agency. Now, like I'm saying we're not the only good SEO agency. We've had a
lot of great success with our clients in terms of SEO. You should be asking them, "Are you
using the latest digital techniques?" that's really important! And I wish I could go into
that in more detail but I don't have the time. But they should be forward-thinking. They
shouldn't just be barely catching up with what Google's algorithm changes are. They
need to be thinking, "What's the next curve? What's coming next? And how can we get your
business riding that wave before everybody else?" That's a strategic way to think about
your SEO. But if you just get somebody who comes in and goes, "Oh yeah, OK. We'll just
stick a bunch of keywords and phrases on your website - and that's it. We'll do some pay
per click as well." That's not what you want. By the way, pay per click does get some clicks
but it doesn't get nearly as many clicks and it's not nearly as effective as organic content.
When was the last time that you clicked on a paid promotion or a paid search? You might
have done, but how often do you do it? I bet you most of the time you click on the organic
stuff. And that's where your business needs to be as well. Pick a company who is using
the latest digital marketing techniques. Pick a company who is forward-thinking in terms
of SEO. Pick a company who is proactive in making sure that you are going to outrank
your competitors. Tell them, "How are you going to help me outrank my competitors?"
We have a system at Khemeia Consulting where we not only get you ranked on page one, (I'm
not just promoting myself, I'm just telling you how we think) we not only get our clients
ranked on page one of Google but we're thinking about the next step. How are we going to keep
you there and how are we going to keep outranking your competitors? That is key! SEO is not
just a one-off exercise. It's an ongoing thing and it has to be backed up by a good solid
strategy. OK it's like war. You've got to go in there knowing what you're going to do
and you need to be two or three steps ahead. Sometimes even five or ten steps ahead. You've
got to be thinking that way. Does your SEO agency do that? Is that the kind of agency
that you want to work with? Go and ask them those questions. I'm going to leave it there
today guys. Now as I say we're going to debate this I think probably in a few more episodes
of Haroon's Hangout and probably with Ian and other people as well. Because this a really
big issue. And I think that at the moment we are fighting the fruits of the issue and
not getting down to the root of it all. And if you're looking for good SEO agencies around
the UK, around your local area do get in touch. We do know some good people, we'd be happy
to help. If you wanted to work with us, yeah fine - get in touch with us! We'll see if
we are a good fit for you. But the main thing that we want is that you guys and your business
grows and it thrives. That's they key for us. We don't want people to get ripped off
because you know what? We've been ripped off and we don't want to see anybody else getting
ripped off as well. I hope you found that useful guys. It may have been controversial.
But hey, if you're an SEO agency and you don't like it...what? (Laughs) Don't shout too loud
or we might know that it's you who is causing problems! Alright! (Laughs) But seriously
guys, hope you found that useful. Remember Haroon's Hangout - you can join me every Wednesday,
10am where we make digital marketing simple, straight forward and fun. If you want to come
on the blog and talk to me more or on YouTube (if you're watching this on YouTube) go and
comment below let me know what you think. What are your experiences? Have you been stung
by a bad SEO agency? Do you have more questions about what kind of things you should be asking
an SEO agency when you're looking for one. We'll be more than happy to help. We monitoring
all these social media sites and we'll be there to help you. OK, guys from me and...(laughs)
we'll see you soon. Take care, Sports Fans!