SEO or Natural Traffic?

**Bryan Le** · 07-01-2006, 12:48 AM

Hey guys,

To start this off, I have ALWAYS been a fan of earning my traffic the long, hard, and natural way. Building unique content, and never blatantly forcing myself to use key words and attracting them for a search engine.

However, there is a heated debated amongst certain people who really want to claim that it is very important to hire an SEO (which will sometimes cost you > $750.00) to optimize key words.

One of my sites has only been up since March 1st, but has earned an Alexa ranking peaking at 70,000, and a PR of 5. Never once during its lifetime have I done anything with the site to actively seek and promote my site for SEO activity or ranking.

I believe natural traffic and ranking is much more gratifying, ethical, and smarter then hiring an SEO professional who will do the dirty tricks for you.

Thoughts?

**Lpspider** · 07-01-2006, 01:15 AM

I would never spend more than double digits on SEO work. I've relied on about 96% natural traffic thus far, and it works for me.

**Andreas Bard** · 07-01-2006, 06:11 AM

I rely on booth really, but have not spent much money on SEO yet. But I will, since I believe it is a avery important thing.

//Andreas

**Hoang** · 07-01-2006, 03:26 PM

I like natural traffic. Never liked spending too much time trying to optimize my sites for search engines.

**ForgottenCreature** · 07-01-2006, 03:39 PM

I've never paid anyone to professionaly SEO my websites. I think I am pretty good at it, and my partner is great at it. I'm not a fan of the black hat seo stuff, and generally like to go for the natural traffic.

**LeNNY** · 07-01-2006, 03:42 PM

I havent spent any money as of yet .. In the busy & short cash flow lifes we live.. i just submit, keyword, post content, spread the word as best i can (never spamming) and wait for them

..

I think its always going to be a tough thing get going; but as Andreas says .. if it proves to be the next best thing happening and proven to work; i'd pay a small amount ..

**Lpspider** · 07-01-2006, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgottenCreature

I've never paid anyone to professionaly SEO my websites. I think I am pretty good at it, and my partner is great at it. I'm not a fan of the black hat seo stuff, and generally like to go for the natural traffic.

Yup, black hat search engine optimization doesn't usually last very long.

**Dr. Domaining** · 07-01-2006, 05:38 PM

There is nothing unethical about SEO and it is best to use every avenue possible to increase traffic if you want the best results.

**insane** · 07-01-2006, 08:43 PM

I like natural traffic,Dont have time for search engines

**handsome rob** · 07-03-2006, 01:45 PM

Natural traffic is best, as content is king, but these days I don't see how any webmaster who wants to be competitive can just ignore SEO. Ignoring SEM, sure, maybe. But not SEO.

**imported_htmlmaster** · 07-03-2006, 10:34 PM

To really win the game, you need to do both. Search Engines really are the best source of traffic. However, if your website has thousands of competitors and it's impossible to be any better than they are or your main keyword is rarely searched for, there is little point in optimizing your site.

However, if you do the "natural traffic method" of content is king, you should always optimize your content (If people don't search for what you write, why bother writing it?)

**petertdavis** · 07-03-2006, 11:26 PM

I have a hard time separating the "SEO" from the "Natural Traffic" because I happen to believe the best SEO is accomplished by seeking natural traffic.

**Pearse** · 07-04-2006, 05:24 PM

I have to agree with Peter. SEO is the art of generating "Natural Traffic". A correct SEO campaign can help put your site into the position of self promotion and create a viral internet presence. While SEO is definetly not the end all be all of internet presence it is one avenue that I feel should be a part of all online marketing.

**imported_mattd** · 07-04-2006, 06:01 PM

I agree with the concensus about natural traffic - a lot of the SEO "experts" just do stuff that you should be doing yourself anyway, like providing a sensible title, adequate meta tags in the <head> etc. Just concentrating on those two will probably go a long way to helping!

What they might be good at that you might have missed is tweaking your content to have a decent spread of keywords/phrases whilst not looking like spam.

**Mike** · 07-04-2006, 06:40 PM

I don't understand why anyone would want to disregard SEO. Even if you don't do a lot of it, at least do a little when setting pages up. Simple Heading tags go a long way toward helping a search engine understand what your page is about, as well as well thought out consise titles.

I do not keyword stuff or anything like that, but I try my best to properly set my pages up with what little html knowledge I have.

I also have not problem with paying someone to do SEO work, provided I understand exactly what they will be doing. I don't want anything unethical on my sites as things like that are sure to come back and bite you in the end.

**Pearse** · 07-05-2006, 02:03 PM

I think that is the key Mike. Communication needs to be 100% whenever you hire an outside consultant who could potentially damage your business. I feel it is also very important to work with an individual, someone that can become somewhat of a colleague rather than working with a generic company who is selling you "400 submissions and re-submissions". I think the way to look at it is that if your consultant can bring something new to your table you are in very good hands. If not, and your skill level is on par with theirs, it becomes a matter of whether you benefit from the time saved by using a consultant enough to justify the cost.

**Muhammad Haris** · 07-05-2006, 04:04 PM

I have both SEO and natural traffic at all of my website, It depends how much time you give to drive traffic to your website

**anitasearch** · 07-05-2006, 06:37 PM

"Natural Traffic" is fine if you have good content, unique words, and are willing to spend a lot of time tweaking your site.

As an ethical SEO (yes, there are a few of us) I specialize in organic search engine optimization. I help web site owners find the right keywords, write the title, description and keyword tags, and make sure that the web site is optimized for the search engines.

To ignore doing any of these steps can be harmful to your web site's health in the long run. I tend to help people who are not as savy as this group, mostly small business owners, or folks in very competitive markets.

Many of my competitors charge a lot more than just $750!! I have seen prices ranging up to as much as $10,000! :1eye:

**Dr. Domaining** · 07-06-2006, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petertdavis

I have a hard time separating the "SEO" from the "Natural Traffic" because I happen to believe the best SEO is accomplished by seeking natural traffic.

Right, the whole idea of "SEO" is to create natural search engine traffic. Without any SEO it is highly unlikely that you will naturally rank well for your desired keywords but then again it can happen and does happen.