Wordpress SEO Expert

Improve your Google ranking with 25-year experienced SEO professional Peter Mahoney

The Pitfalls of Bulk Backlink Purchases: Why Quality Trumps Quantity in SEO

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In the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), backlinks hold immense value. They serve as a vote of confidence from other websites, signaling to search engines that your content is reputable and worthy of attention.

However, the allure of buying backlinks in bulk can be tempting. In this article, we will explore the reasons why this approach is flawed and the potential consequences it can have on your SEO efforts.

The Illusion of Quick Success

Buying backlinks in bulk often promises rapid results and the temptation of shortcutting the painstaking process of earning quality links naturally. However, this illusion of quick success can have detrimental effects on your website’s long-term credibility. Search engines like Google are constantly evolving and becoming smarter in identifying manipulative tactics. Acquiring a large number of low-quality or spammy backlinks in a short period raises red flags, putting your website at risk of penalties or even being deindexed.

Quality Trumps Quantity

When it comes to backlinks, quality should always take precedence over quantity. Search engines value links from authoritative and relevant sources. Bulk backlink purchases often result in acquiring links from low-quality, unrelated websites, or link farms. These links lack context, relevance, and can harm your website’s reputation in the eyes of search engines. A few high-quality, organic backlinks from authoritative websites hold far more weight and can provide long-term benefits to your SEO efforts.

Negative Impact on User Experience

Bulk backlink purchases typically lead to links placed in irrelevant, low-quality, or spammy websites. When users encounter such links, it negatively impacts their experience and perception of your brand. If visitors perceive your website as associated with untrustworthy sources, they may quickly exit, leading to higher bounce rates and decreased engagement metrics. User experience is a crucial factor in SEO, and jeopardizing it through bulk backlink purchases can have long-lasting repercussions.

Sustainable and Ethical SEO Strategies

Instead of resorting to buying backlinks in bulk, focus on sustainable and ethical SEO strategies. Invest your efforts in creating high-quality content that naturally attracts organic backlinks from authoritative websites. Engage in outreach campaigns, guest blogging, and foster relationships with influencers and industry leaders to earn genuine, relevant backlinks. Building a strong backlink profile takes time and effort, but the rewards are long-lasting, leading to improved search engine rankings, increased organic traffic, and enhanced online reputation.

Conclusion

While the allure of buying backlinks in bulk may seem enticing, it is a flawed approach that can undermine your SEO efforts. Prioritizing quality over quantity ensures the long-term success of your website. By focusing on sustainable, ethical strategies for link building, you can safeguard your online reputation, improve search engine rankings, and establish lasting credibility in the digital landscape.

Should I start SEO? The phone isn’t ringing and business is really slow.

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This is from a regular series I post here, which are replies I send to commonly asked SEO questions. I get a lot of them!

I’m thinking of starting Search Engine Optimisation but I’m just a bit stressed at the moment and the phone isn’t ringing and business is really slow.

It’s no secret that economic downturns can have a significant impact on businesses across all industries. When times are tough, many companies tend to cut back on spending, including investments in digital marketing and SEO. However, it’s worth noting that in times of crisis, SEO can actually be more critical than ever.

During the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, there were three types of clients: those who paused SEO, those who stayed throughout, and those who quit entirely. The clients who stayed throughout and continued to invest in their SEO efforts were the ones who ultimately reaped the greatest rewards.

By maintaining a strong SEO presence during challenging times, companies can position themselves for greater success in the long run. This is because SEO is a long-term strategy that requires ongoing effort and investment. By continuing to optimize their website and build high-quality backlinks, companies can improve their search ranking and visibility over time. When the economy picks up again and people start looking to spend, those companies will be in a much better position to capitalize on the increased demand.

It’s also worth mentioning that during tough times, some companies may not be able to afford to invest in SEO at the same level as they did before. This is where discounts and other cost-saving measures can be helpful. By offering discounts or flexible payment plans, SEO experts like you can help clients weather the storm and stay competitive, even when times are tough.

While economic downturns can be challenging, they can also be an opportunity for companies to invest in their long-term success through SEO. By staying the course and continuing to optimize their website, companies can set themselves up for greater success when the economy rebounds. And with options like discounts and other cost-saving measures, SEO experts can help their clients navigate the ups and downs of the business cycle with confidence.

Cheers,

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

New Page indexing issues detected in submitted URLs

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This is from a regular series I post here, which are replies I send to commonly asked SEO questions. I get a lot of them!

I have received an email from Google about my website after you did the Search Engine Optimisation work. It says New Page indexing issues detected in submitted URLs – what does this mean please Peter – you’re the WordPress SEO Expert!

Of course! Let me explain the concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and provide more information on the concept of “noindex” pages first. 🙂

SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s content and structure to increase its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be achieved through various techniques, such as optimizing on-page elements, building high-quality backlinks, and improving the user experience of a website.

One aspect of SEO involves ensuring that search engine crawlers can easily access and understand a website’s content. This is where the concept of “indexing” comes in. Search engines like Google use automated programs, also known as crawlers or spiders, to scan and index the content of web pages. This allows them to quickly and accurately retrieve relevant search results for user queries.

However, not all pages on a website need to be indexed by search engines. As mentioned in the original document, pages like privacy policies or terms of use pages may contain duplicate content that doesn’t add value to the website’s search ranking. Additionally, some pages may not be relevant to the website’s overall content or business goals.

In these cases, website owners can use the “noindex” directive to tell search engines not to index specific pages. This is achieved through a meta tag placed in the HTML code of the page, which instructs search engines to exclude the page from their index.

By marking these pages as “noindex”, website owners can avoid potential issues with duplicate content, improve their website’s overall SEO, and ensure that search engines focus on the most relevant and valuable content on their site.

In conclusion, receiving a notification about “New Page indexing issues detected in submitted URLs” after SEO work has been carried out is a common occurrence, and usually, it’s not something to worry about. It simply means that some pages on the website have been marked as “noindex”, which is a recommended best practice for optimizing a website’s search ranking and visibility.

Cheers,

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

Let’s make a video showing our search engine rankings before we start

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Could I suggest you take some good screen shots of ‘before’ with ranking and general state of my website.

I’d also recommend a video screen recording showing the rankings and where everything is currently.

Looking forward to working with you! Your feedback and reviews I’ve heard word of mouth are really outstanding. Let’s get this SEO going!

As we embark on the task of overhauling your site’s SEO, I would like to address a potential issue that could affect the accuracy of our data.

To ensure we are comparing “apples to apples,” we need to use Google Search Console. This is the official stats package for SEO, and it provides us with accurate and reliable data that we can use to measure the impact of our efforts. Unfortunately, if you have not previously set up Google Search Console, there will not be any existing data.

In most cases, I set up Google Search Console as part of my work, and after a month (assuming you take me up on my offer of a free month’s ongoing service), I use the first week as the “before” data and the most recent week as the “after” data. This allows us to compare the performance of your website before and after the implementation of our SEO strategy.

However, if you want more accurate “before” data, I can set up Google Search Console for you now and run it for a week (or maybe even nine days) to ensure we have a sufficient dataset before beginning the SEO work. This will provide us with a better pool of data to work with, resulting in a more accurate analysis of our results.

Of course, the downside of this option is that it will delay the SEO service. If time is a concern, we can proceed with the original plan and use the data available in Google Analytics. However, it’s important to note that the data from Google Analytics may not be as accurate as the data from Google Search Console, as it does not provide the same level of detail regarding the performance of your website in search results.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. If you want to proceed with the most accurate data possible, we can set up Google Search Console and wait for a week before beginning the SEO work. If time is a concern, we can use the data available in Google Analytics and proceed as planned.

Please let me know which option you prefer, and we can proceed accordingly. I look forward to working with you to improve the SEO of your website.

I’m glad to hear that you’re pleased with the options and excited to move forward with improving your website’s SEO. As we proceed with the project, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. I’m committed to providing you with excellent service and ensuring that we achieve the results you’re looking for.

To give you a better idea of what to expect, once we have the data in place, I will conduct a thorough analysis of your website and develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that addresses any issues we uncover. This may involve optimizing your content, updating your website’s structure and design, and building high-quality backlinks to your site.

Throughout the process, I will keep you informed of our progress and provide you with regular updates on the results we’re achieving. My goal is to work closely with you to ensure that we achieve your objectives and deliver measurable results that help your website rank higher in search results and attract more traffic.

Thank you again for choosing me as your SEO consultant. I’m confident that together, we can achieve great things and take your website to the next level.

 

Cheers,

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

How much would you charge to SEO lots of sites?

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Thank you for your detailed explanation about the danger of buying links, I really appreciate it. I thought to myself that buying links doesn’t sound like a great idea, but I’m no expert!

So, what would you suggest? Is there a package we can offer my client instead, where we focus on gaining them real, quality backlinks? They’re a big company, so budget is very flexible.

Also, I’ve got a client with 14 websites so far, we’ve worked with them for years and they’ve asked about SEO and the following:

  • Full SEO Audit and SEO Overhaul
  • Keyword Research
  • Google Search Console and SEO Tool Setup
  • Local SEO
  • 20 Keywords
  • Content Optimisation
  • Technical SEO (Robots, XML, Sitemap)
  • Monthly Report

I think they have just got that from an SEO package on Google, but roughly how much would you charge to do this for 14 sites? They’re a restaurant group, so adding new locations and websites every couple of months.

I definitely do the overhauls, local SEO, search console, keyword research, usually up to 12 keywords that I report on (but could do as many as 20*), technical SEO and monthly reports.

I make recommendations for content but don’t make those changes directly.

* = if when they say 20 keywords they mean “we want to be optimised for 20” then I recommend reading this article – because that’s not really how things work anymore:
https://peter.mahoneywebmarketing.com/how-many-keywords-do-you-include-in-seo-reports/

And in terms of pricing for multiple ongoing sites, how’s this sound (this is the absolutely the lowest I can go, it’s my top tier agency rate). Usually this rate is reserved for people who come to me through my website too, because PPH charges me 20% on all sales which makes it hard to offer this rate here.

But here it is:

SEO overhaul is always £100+VAT
Monthly SEO campaign is usually £100+VAT per site

So essentially, we have a series of units of work that cost £100+VAT each.

With this rate I’d charge the first ongoing unit per month at £100+VAT, then each subsequent one at 25% off: £75+VAT.

So if you have me do two initial overhauls and we’ve got three ongoing clients on the books in a given month, you’d pay:
100 x 2 (for the initial overhauls)
100 x 1 (for the first ongoing client)
75 x2 (for the other two ongoing clients)

= £450+VAT

basically, the first ongoing job in a month is full price, then the rest have the 25% discount.

I’ve probably over-explained that. Let me know what you think!

 

Cheers,

Peter Mahoney
WordPress SEO Expert

Prices are quoted exclusive of VAT unless expressly stated.

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