Off the Top of My Head

Interview: SEO as a Profession with Sufyan

My next interview in the series is with Sufyan (known online as Sufyaaan). Relatively new to the SEO scene, Sufyan had been working as a Website Developer for quite sometime until his employer learned that he could make it big in SEO.  So, it was early in 2005 when he officially changed his field and got involved in SEO.

Apart from SEO, Sufyan spent most of his time developing tools to automate tasks that seem difficult to make. While modding at SEOChat, he posted a Google Ban Checking Tool which became quite popular.

Future plans include launching SEO Junkie that will have a blog and tools that he is currently working on.

What are the main jobs an SEO does for their client?
Gone are the days when SEO was all about fixing the Meta tags to get to the top of search engines listings.
In today’s competitive environment, there is a lot an SEO does than meet the eye. As for the main tasks he performs, they may slightly vary, but more often than not they include an initial site analysis, keyword research, competitor analysis, copyrighting, link building and monitoring the positioning. And that’s a never-ending process.
Whatever the main jobs, the goal is to increase the traffic the client’s site receives from search engines.

What are the advantages of hiring an SEO over doing the work yourself?
Well, I think that an experienced SEO who has the necessary knowledge can handle every part of search engine marketing campaign to make your site more visible on all major search engines and, thus, bring you more targeted traffic that will convert into sales.

Going with the DIY route can be a little time consuming and risky and can prevent you from day to day aspects of your business.

Either way, you need to be aware that what an SEO is doing OR what you are doing to your site does follow search engine guidelines at:

Google
Yahoo!
MSN

Never get your site optimized by an SEO who you don’t trust much.

How has SEO work changed in the last few years?
SEO has come a long way in the last couple of years. As a matter of fact, things that worked wonders before are ‘SEO jokes’ today. 

To put it briefly…

- Meta tags are dead.
- Keyword density is a myth.
- PageRank isn’t a help anymore.
- Unnatural links are devalued to death.
- ‘nofollow’ attribute = PR condom?
- RSS feeds are omnipresent
- Supplemental results are a nuisance. etc.

Still, SEO is constantly changing and will always continue changing as are search engine algorithms.

What is the biggest challenge to an SEO?
Getting the coveted #1 position on all major search engines, on all related terms, in a shorter time, for a longer time and not getting banned!!! Hehe..

Seriously speaking, I think that one of the biggest challenges to an SEO today is, no doubt, Google sandbox filter, IMHO. It is VERY annoying to an SEO and VERY hard to explain to a client with no prior knowledge about SEO.

Most of the clients get upset when they see no improvement in their traffic even after search engine optimization for quite sometime.

Depending upon the competitiveness of the term that you are targeting, you should tell your client an estimated time frame until his site gets out of the sandbox filter and experience a tsunami of traffic.

How do you decide your rates?
I would say the prices vary from site to site, depending upon the target market, level of competitions and their strength.

How do you get your clients?
By word of mouth (mostly)…

Is their a specific type of client you prefer?
Normally, I prefer clients who have a little knowledge about how it all works as opposed to those with no understanding of things.

Also, in terms of $$$, working for low-budget clients won’t pay off as much as mid-sized organizations.

Do most SEOs offer any kind of guarantee in regards to ranking?
Believe me or not, but no one can guarantee in terms of SE rankings. And, at the same time, I am positive that, after seriously analyzing their site and looking at the keyword area, you can tell your clients whether something is achievable or not.

Being honest with your clients is something that a professional SEO should NEVER close the eyes to.

What is the biggest threat to a professional SEO?
I think the riskiest thing to an SEO would be to get his own site (as well as his clients’ ones) banned by search engines much like seo-inc.com Hehe…

It will damage your standing more than anything in the world. Trust me!

With Google constantly changing their Algo, how do you explain big shifts to clients?
Firstly, Algo updates do not necessarily mean complete dropping rankings unless you are trying to trick a search engine in a foolish manner.

If you know your stuff well, then I don’t think you will be doing anything that will greatly affect your rankings after each update.

Well, It is a good idea to work for clients that trust you and can take your word. That way, you won’t have to worry too much about those updates.

Do you take on clients where there may be an overlap of industry with another client?
Never had to.

Where do you see the SEO industry 1 year from now?
SEO industry is continually changing. Things will change greatly in the next 12 months that cannot be predicted.

You know that Yahoo acquired del.icio.us recently which is an indication to the fact that personally tagging and social bookmarking might be the future of search engines. But you can never tell. You remember Yahoo beta-testing Yahoo! Mindset sorting results according to their type - research or shopping. Actually, there is a lot going on behind the doors.

But, one thing is clear; SEO will become more difficult with the passage of time and search engines will need human intervention to provide quality, relevant results.

What are some of your resources for keeping up-to-date in the industry?
I don’t have stamina to list all of them…To name a few:

- DigitalPoint forums
- SERountable forums
- SEORefugee forums
- Cre8asiteforums.com
- Seo-scoop.com
- Seomoz.org
- FishSeo.com

And the list goes on and on…

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 10:00 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.