James' SEO Blog» San Diego

San Diego SEO Group at LinkedIn – JOIN!

James Harrison — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:54:33 +0000

I’ve just come to find out that I am a manager of a somewhat used-to-be dead LinkedIn group called San Diego SEO. Up until recently, there hasn’t been much action. Originally the group was dead because we had strict rules for who could join. (You pretty much had to be a San Diego SEO). But that didn’t work. So as suggested by other members in the group, we decided to expand..

If you at all want to talk SEO, join the San Diego SEO group today. I’ll post my share of findings and spread the word, and I hope my fellow member do too.

Now that I know that I’m one of the managers, I figured I’d pay my part. All questions asked in the San Diego SEO LinkedIn Group will automatically be sent to my email. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll be sure give my 2 cents.

I hope to make more friends with some of you. You can connect with me on LinkedIn Here.

*If any of the original members stumble across this post, let me know. I have a few questions for you..

A San Diego SEO Freelancer, That’s Me!

James Harrison — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:22:05 +0000

First off, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my SEO blog. I really do appreciate it. You can read another related post (found below) or subscribe here. Once again, thank you for visiting James’ SEO blog.

I thought I should re-introduce myself since things have changed since I started this blog and because I haven’t had a chance to update my ‘about James Harrison‘ page. For starters, despite showing up for New York SEO related terms, I do not live nor work in New York. I go to New York 4-5 times a year and it’s usually just to hang out with buddies for a week or so. Occasionally I’ll meet with a client but most of the time its pure pleasure. I just love New York City in fact given the opportunity, I would move there in a heartbeat, that is as long as I could convince my girlfriend, fiancé.

Currently, I live in Pacific Beach, San Diego, California. I’ve been an SEO freelancer for over 5 years now. However, I’ve only been running a professional SEO freelancing business (back by some agency experience from MEA Digital & Engine Ready) for over a year now.

Let me make that clear. I’ve been doing SEO for awhile now, but it wasn’t until working for a couple of the best online marketing agencies that I got the real, effective, professional skills and experience that sets me apart from the ‘rest’.

The freelancing business I run now is SEO by the Hour, a San Diego SEO company, firm, business. I know it says “we”, “firm”, “our”, etc. But it’s still just me, working from home, going after another SEO term. Once SEObytheHour.com is on the 1st page of Google for “SEO Firm“, I’ll revert back to my “Freelance SEO Specialist” feel. SEO by the Hour is still a 1-man shop. Every once in awhile I’ll get programming help from a buddy of mine, Joesph at Get SEO’ Now. Or, I’ll have some writers draw my up some content for bulk articles or a press release. Sometimes, I’ll pay an old co-worker of mine to manually submit a site to a list of websites for me. But for the most part, it’s just me.

Business is good, I can’t complain. I’ve learned a lot about running a SEO business and how to provide even more effective SEO services more efficiently so my clients can get more “bang for their buck”.

However sometimes I can’t help but miss the 9-5..

Sometimes I prefer having a job or being responsible for 1 department as opposed to a whole business.

Being an salesman, receptionist, accountant, service worker, linking expert, bill collector, reporter and client contact can be hard, time consuming and stressful at times.

Investigative Reporter Recognizes San Diego SEO Firm as Top Professional SEO Specialists

James Harrison — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:54:40 +0000

The i-Guy (Investigative Reporter, John Mattes) has uncovered the real SEO’s from the fakers who claim they know search engine optimization and charge you a lot of money for nothing. The same guy who helped to break the Iran Contra Scandal has now found the one honest and true SEO Specialist that can and does make a difference.

San Diego, California (PRWEB) December 18, 2009 — Former Fox News reporter John Mattes (investigativeguy.com) who is notorious for exposing corporate scams, getting beat up by insurance salesmen and chased off lots of criminal car dealerships has conducted investigations of various SEO and marketing companies in Southern California and has found a local San Diego company worth a GOOD review.

### FULL SAN DIEGO SEO NEWS STORY HERE ###

San Diego Chargers Twackle Feed (Twitter)

James Harrison — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:20:49 +0000

Thought I’d share with y’all the sports bar of Twitter. Being a San Diego native, I had to represent..

You can follow my original JameSEO Twitter account here or my Twackle account here.

Visit your team’s page and get at me on Twitter or Twackle.

SEO by the Hour? I Don’t Get It

James Harrison — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:29:04 +0000

I noticed quite a bit lately that some people don’t understand the concept of SEO services by the Hour. It’s actually a really popular question potential clients ask me. So, I figure let me take a stab at answering the question here in a blog post.

First, let me add, that I hate my domain SEObytheHour.com. I feel it limits what people think I can offer them. Plus it’s rare you can really charge SEO by the Hour. I just bought the domain some years back (because it sounded cool), built some links to it, played around with it and viola, it’s getting action.

But here’s how it goes anyway…

To my knowledge, Google’s SEO algorithm is proprietary. No one can crack it. I’m also willing to bet that some of the smartest, technical minded gurus are working behind the formula to do 1 main thing; deliver the MOST RELEVANT results for its users, so it continues to be the best search engine ever.

That being said; I don’t know SEO.

But I do know 2 things. 2 things that I feel are the core to everything I do. The understanding of these 2 things is what I feel sets me apart from he rest.

Google is the most used search engine because when people ask/query what they are looking for, they rarely have to go past the 1st page. The sites Google is picking to be #1, 2, 3, 4.. are picked for a reason..
The best way to figure out how to rank #1 is to dissect the competition; the top rankers. Why are they #1? Is it because they answer every who, what, why, how question there is about your target keyword? Is it because of their links? Check where their links are coming from. How did they obtain them? What do they say? What kind of content is surrounding those links? HOW MUCH WORK DID THEY HAVE TO PUT IN TO RANK #1?

Performing proper keyword and competitive research and utilizing web tools that make virtually everything your competition does transparent allows you gauge how much work you will have to do to compete. I can literally find out everything there is know about your competition and what chances you have to rank for those terms. The questions are, what keywords do you want to go after? Who’s ranking for those keywords? And how much work is needed to compete?

Asking those questions makes it easier to understand SEO by the Hour.

After years of hands-on experience working on all types of web platforms and structures and professionally recording how long everything takes, page by page I can guesstimate how long it would take to optimize your website, no matter the size or how it’s built. Normally, full-fledged SEO is implemented once really strong in the beginning and overtime you will make various changes here and there based on what Google tells you through its rankings.

OK, so onpage is covered. But what about offpage you ask.

Well, when really analyzing your competitors, you can determine why they are number one by using SEO analysis tools and link building tools that give you heaps of information. For some keywords, you can learn that the top guys got away with just doing free directory submissions utilizing their anchor text links. Sometimes the #1 site just did a bunch of articles and guest posted in several niche blogs. Sometimes you find out the top guy has been doing a monthly press release through PR Web for over a year. Or even worst, the top guy is an author of some book that was a New York Times Best Seller that has guest featured in all the top authority and news channels.

Again, I record how long it takes for me to do everything and the cost of what ever is needed. I know how long it takes for me to write a press release or how much it cost to have a professional write one. Same with articles and blog posts. I know how long it takes for me to email 100 webmasters. I know how long it takes for me to guest author in a blog. All in all, I know how to determine how much work is needed to compete with the top guy(s).

Most of the time if someone is coming to me for help, they are going after terms that require WORK. Terms that require 100’s of hours. This is why sometimes SEO has to be performed naturally over a period of time. Luckily I KNOW how long everything takes me to do.

Overtime, you’ll realize that SEO take hours and hours and is an ongoing campaign. After all, isn’t the keyword you going after valuable (to more than just you)?

Still, the most important question to ask yourself is; how can I be the most relevant site to the next 1 million people that type in the keyword I’m targeting?

Been Busy with SEO, But I’m Back (Selling Out)

James Harrison — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:39:09 +0000

Since it has come to my attention that some of my followers still think I work at MEA Digital, I decided to post an update. I’m no longer an Online Media Specialist at MEA Digital. I quit back in December 2008. Since then I’ve been working as a link building specialist ;) at SEO by the Hour in San Diego, CA. I’ve been keeping busy with affiliate marketing and other website duties since the turn of the year.

Because I haven’t cared enough about this blog to make it a money maker, I’ve been neglecting it…

Every time I sign in, I see more and more comments I should respond to. I sometimes prefer just to go back to working on something else. But since I’m an SEO Specialist and this is my SEO blog, I might as well utilize (monetize) it.

So I’m letting all my readers know now; this blog back, but is selling out. I’m going to have banners, review sites, hold contests, update my wordpress and more. That’s the only way I’ll be able to set time aside to give you guys fresh SEO content, MORE OFTEN.

On the bright side, I’ll blog about everything I’m doing so you can follow along.

Local SEO Tips PT 4 of 3 – “san diego seo”

James Harrison — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:57:33 +0000

Almost a month ago I created a website called SEO by the Hour. I created this site because I am in the SEO/internet marketing community and I felt the need to possess a website that represented my resume or skill-set. I love my current job and make plenty of money to get by. However I figured it couldn’t hurt to create a site adverting my skills (it would also be nice to be the #1 SEO Specialist; at least according to Google & Yahoo.)Two weeks ago (between 2 of my Local SEO posts Off-Profile SEO Linking & Finalizing Your Profile) I decided to apply everything I blogged about by creating a page targeting “San Diego SEO” and here are the results if you Google search “san dego seo” (at least w/my ip);

Let me explain to you exactly what I did:

Referencing my San Diego SEO Business Profile on Google & my San Diego SEO webpage on SEO by the Hour.

One Page Optimization

Title Tag: San Diego SEO: SEO Specialist in San Diego, California
META Description: Freelance SEO San Diego – James Harrison; a San Diego SEO Specialist has been providing excellent customer service and superior SEO services to many local San Diego companies. Contact SEO by the Hour today for a free SEO quote. – San Diego SEO Specialist -
META Keywords: seo in san diego, san diego seo, southern california, san diego ca, 92109, seo specialist, seo, james harrison, sunny san diego
Headings:
San Diego SEO Specialist

Call SEO by the Hour Today!

Where in San Diego Am I located?
Under the 1st H1 I mention San Diego in bold in the 1st sentence (prominence). I also mention San Diego in the 2, 4 and 5th sentence also with the last San Diego bolded. I also tried to add content that supported San Diego like ‘Sea World’, ‘California’, ‘beach’, etc.
Under the 2nd H1 I made sure San Diego was in my first sentence and I bolded SEO (because SEO was in the 2nd H1 tag. Get it? SEO heading San Diego SEO content). I also mentioned 2 phone numbers, both with San Diego area codes. I made sure these numbers matched my business profile.
Under the 3rd H1 I mentioned San Diego and surrounding areas just above a map from my local business profile.
***Notice how I keep bolding phrases that relate to the H1’s. Also note that the map is a Google map ;)
Under the last H1 titled “Where in San Diego Am I Located“, I have a link pointing to my SEO business profile, a “where” link pointing to my business profile map and an internal link to another SEO page with “SEO” in the anchor text.
In the Footer I added my address and made sure the zip code was listed.

Off Page Optimization

I linked to it from my San Diego SEO blog. The link’s anchor text was “SEO Specialist located in San Diego, CA.” The title of that post is “SEO Specialist“. The URL is http://blogoptimizer.blogspot.com/2008/09/seo-specialist.html
I linked to it from the home page of SEO by the Hour with a link titled “San Diego SEO“. Simple, right?
The domain has several SEO and San Diego SEO related links pointing it and some of those pages have ’san diego’ in the title tag.
You can visit my SEO Business profile on Google to see how I optimized it.

So, there you go. If you are a business with an actual company location, build a page strictly for local biz and start getting biz through Google fast!

I’ve done this for several websites, but I never done it this fast, it was pretty awesome though, to see positive results so quickly.

James' SEO Blog» San Diego

San Diego SEO Group at LinkedIn – JOIN!

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A San Diego SEO Freelancer, That’s Me!

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Investigative Reporter Recognizes San Diego SEO Firm as Top Professional SEO Specialists

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San Diego Chargers Twackle Feed (Twitter)

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SEO by the Hour? I Don’t Get It

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Been Busy with SEO, But I’m Back (Selling Out)

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