Doc Sheldon

Doc Sheldon has worked in marketing since the 1980s and he's been writing professionally since the 1970s. He owned and published weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines during the ’80s, before becoming a business consultant and ultimately "retiring" in 2008. He began studying SEO in earnest in 2003, and now specializes in technical SEO and GDPR compliance. His passions are the development of the Semantic Web, trying to figure out what changes may be coming next from the search engines and eliminating misinformation.

What to Expect from your SEO Consultant

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Very few services such as those offered by SEOs can be readily priced, without having a good idea of what the scope of the project will be. In reality, if someone gives you a “package price” without knowing more about what the job will entail, one of two things is probably true:

  1. they’re quoting you high pricing, in case the scope is extensive;
  2. they’re quoting you a limited scope, regardless of what the job really calls for.

Either way, you won’t be getting the best value possible for your money – you’ll either end up paying too much or receiving too little. Sometimes both.

What to Watch Out For

If someone quotes you pricing for optimizing your site without even knowing its URL or having a chance to at least check it out superficially, then you-re most likely talking to a rank amateur – although charlatan is a possibility. Just knowing how many pages your site includes is not enough information to allow anyone to put together an accurate cost proposal. A conscientious SEO will generally take some time to scrutinize a site before providing pricing for optimization – there are simply too many variables to consider and the good ones like to provide their clients what they really need – no more, no less. The larger the site, the more time needed, in order to detect all the issues worth attacking. In some instances, such as a large ecommerce site, a full site audit may be called for.

Likewise, if an SEO offers a “guaranteed” ranking, run, don’t walk! NOBODY can guarantee anything more than a conscientious effort. Rankings are fluid and in a constant state of flux, as well as

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How to Build a robots.txt File

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First of all, its not a necessity for every website to have a robots.txt file. This file exists to tell the search engines you want them to limit their access to specific pages or directories of a website, so without one, the entire site would conceivably be indexed. It can address either all or just specific bots.

Depending upon the site, of course, allowing the search engine to index any and all pages could present a problem. For instance, if an ecommerce site with on-site search function doesn’t limit access at all, then every single search would result in a new URL being created – which could appear in Google’s search results (as well as any other search engine’s SERPs). This can easily result in a site with only 400-ish pages having tens of thousands of pages

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Do you Need a Site Audit?

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A site audit can yield a lot of very valuable information to allow you to optimize your website effectively. But is the cost always justified? Perhaps not always, but I’d say usually, yes. A quick snapshot of your site can usually tell you if a deeper dig is called for.

If your mechanic proposes an engine overhaul before even checking under the hood, or your doctor suggests surgery before running any tests, you’d rightfully question their judgment, wouldn’t you? The same is true for a site audit. Any reputable SEO is going to have already taken at least a quick look at your site before making a recommendation for a site audit. If they’re quoting you a price before you’ve even shared your domain name, then run, don’t walk.

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