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Grumpy SEO Guy
This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 79 mistakes you should avoid. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because when I uploaded last week's episode of Grumpy SEO Guy, I did not realize that most of the channels were muted until it was already online. And some people messaged me and said, hey, Grumpy SEO Guy, there's no sound on your latest episode. So I had to go fix that. So I'm sorry about that, and thank you to the people who messaged me and told me that there was a problem. If you tried to listen to last week's episode and you didn't hear anything, you can go listen to it again. Everything is resolved. Besides that, the reason I'm grumpy is there are some mistakes that you can make with SEO from the standpoint of an agency, and I'm going to tell you what they are. Probably try to not make any of these mistakes. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical. And based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. So this episode's gonna be a little bit shorter. These last. Not the recent one, but relatively recent episodes have been, like, kind of longer. Like, there's been a couple that were over 40 minutes. This one's gonna be a little bit shorter. However, the next episodes are going to be pretty long, I think. The next one 80 is going to be long. Then one after that is gonna be pretty long, I think. And the one after that I think, will also be pretty long. So this one's a little bit short. Anyway, just wanted to let you know, in the meantime, first of all, thank you to all of my Patreon subscribers. I have a few Patreon subscribers. Thank you, guys. You are really, really helping the show. Of course, thank you to everybody who listens and emails me. But seriously, thank you to the subscribers on Pat because you were actually helping to produce the show and I really, really value your contributions and appreciation. So if anybody wants to help support the show on Patreon, you can go to patreon.com grumpyseoguy okay, second thing, I want to say, my mentor, who I've mentioned a couple times on here before, tells me that I should tell you guys this, so I'm going to. Okay. As you know, I don't sell anything because I think that a lot of people use a podcast as a lead magnet, and I hate that word. And I also hate the word marketing funnel, but I'm gonna say, or sales funnel. Like, whatever it is, I hate it so much I can't even remember what it's called. But anyway, I don't believe that a podcast should be a marketing tool because that feels gross to me. Like, it feels like you have an agenda. Like, I'm not providing value, I'm just trying to sell you stuff. Right? Like, I feel like that's what most things online are. So, yeah, I try not to do that, even though I obviously provide tons of value. However, I have been getting a good number of emails from people who want to schedule, like, zoom meetings to ask questions that are specific to their situation. Maybe they have questions about something on the podcast or maybe they have a specific question about a PBN they're building. I guess I am officially announcing then if you want to do a Zoom advisory call. And you know what advisory calls are because I explained it on the last episode. The difference between advising, consulting, coaching, and what was the other one? Mentoring. If you want to do an advisory call, you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com and we can talk about what you need and get the whole Zoom thing scheduled. It's obviously not free, just FYI. I give knowledge away for free, but I sell my time. We don't sell backlinks off a menu, but I do sell my time if you have questions that you want to ask me. So. So anyway. But anyway, just quick little refresher. Advising is being paid to tell people what to do and answer questions. Consulting is being paid to do work. Coaching is being paid to ask questions that bring the listener to the correct solution. So not telling you what to do, but asking you questions so that you arrive at the solution yourself. And mentoring is showing somebody how to do a thing for free. So, anyway, so I'm just mentioning that because I get a lot of emails and a lot of DMs on Reddit from people that are asking if I can. If they can book a call with me, and the answer is yes, please email me@hellorumpieseoguy.com probably no topics are off limits other than the name of my agency and my name in real life. But you don't need to know those things to do SEO, so. Lucky you. Anyways, okay, let's get on with the show. So I've already talked a little bit about some of these in episode six, which is the best and worst clients I've ever had and what I learned from them. But we're going to talk a little bit more specifically about some of them and we're going to talk about some other ones too. Okay? First mistake that you can make is this. Do not agree to work that you do not do just for the sake of getting a client. Okay? What does that look like? Let's say you're like, you know, becoming ready to work with a client to do SEO, right? And then they're like, oh, by the way, we also need some changes to our website. Can you guys do that for us? Like, before you answer yes to that question, let me ask you this question. Do you do web design or do you do SEO? Okay. Because a lot of people would say, oh, yeah, oh, we'll totally do that. And then, like, kind of freak out because they're not certain how to do that. Oh, no, I gotta find somebody to make these changes to the website. Oh, no. And it's like, okay, well, what I'm saying is do not agree to do something that you do not do just because you really need that client. Okay? This is a thing that happens, like, for people that are just, like, starting they have, like, you have no clients, right? And then you, like, you, like, you find somebody who's, like, interested and you're like, oh, man, I'm gonna get a client. Yeah. And then they're like, okay, cool. Hey, by the way, we need some changes to our website. Do you guys do those too? And you're like, oh, yes, Mr. Prospect, we do the Bro. If you don't do them, you don't do them. Don't agree to things just because you want the money, right? And this sounds so, like, obvious to anybody listening like, well, of course you wouldn't, dude. When you're in that position, you probably might think about saying yes, even if it's a thing you don't do. Okay, same thing with like. And I'll tell you, we did that for social media. Like, just go listen to that episode. Episode 6. The best and worst clients I've ever had and what I learned from them. But, like, we had this client who was paying us more money than, like, I had ever been paid for, like, a single client before at the time. And he's like, oh, we need social media too. Will you do that? And like, I stupidly said, like, look, I don't do social media. I don't even like social media. Like, I don't do social media. And I'm like, oh, yeah, we'll do it. And that was stupid because I was just kind of, like, focused on the dollar signs. And I would suggest that you do not do that. Agreeing to do their social media was a big mistake. Actually continuing to work with that client when they became very difficult was a mistake. But, like, anyway, do not agree to things you do not do just because you want a client. Okay, I know it sounds obvious, but when you're right there, when they're just about to agree to work with you and they're just about to pay you that cash, and then they're like, oh, well, will you do this for us too? Just be like, no, we don't do that. Probably the client won't even care. Like, the determining factor between working with you and working with, like, some other agency is probably not whether or not you will do these other things that you didn't even talk about. You know what I mean? So, like, whatever. I don't know. I know this sounds silly, but I'm just reminding you because noobs who were just getting their first SEO clients are possibly in a position to find themselves faced with this choice. And you want to not do it. Hey, we do SEO. We will do your SEO. We do not do web design. We do not do coding. We do not do social media. We do not do ppc. We do not do, like, whatever the thing is, right, Unless you, like, additionally do those things. Okay, but if those are not things you do, then maybe you should not agree to do them. Anyway. I'm just saying, because you will probably find yourself in that situation, okay, where somebody's going to ask you, do you do these things? Do not say yes just because you want to get them as a client. Trust me, it will not be advantageous for you to say that, okay, Next thing, and this is another one, you're going to hear it and you're going to go, yeah, yeah, that's pretty clear. I don't know why you need to tell us this. It's because I need to tell you this. Okay? Do not sign a client who is rude to you before they even become a client. Okay, Again, this sounds obvious, but I have to tell you, if somebody's rude to you and they're not even paying you yet, do you think that when they pay you, they're going to become nicer to you or even more rude? The answer is even more rude. So, you know, use that time when you're dealing with a prospect. And is this a person that I feel like working with? Okay. If they're already being nasty to you before they even actually are your client, you probably should stay away from them. Just. Okay, here's. Okay, it's like this. Look, the quick version is this. If somebody's rude to you and they're not even a client yet, probably nothing good will happen in a business relationship with that person. So, yeah, that's my advice again. Like, half of the people are like, well, duh. But, yeah, because the other half of the people need to understand, trust me. Listen to that episode. That's episode six. The best and worst clients I've ever had. And what I learned from them. It is not worth having such a client. It is not worth it. In fact, here's a rehash if you haven't listened to that episode yet. The client that was paying us the highest amount I've ever been paid at the time for a single client. Do you want to know why, like, I knew that not working with them anymore was the right decision? It's because every day when I would get to my computer and load my email, I was nervous that I might have an email from them. And I was relieved when I did not have an email from them. It was one of those, maybe you've never been in such a position before. Okay, But. And maybe it wasn't with work. Maybe it's like you have, like. Just, like, a friend that you hate talking to, and you know that, like, every time they contact you, you know that it's just gonna be, like, insanity, and you're just like, okay, good, they didn't message me today. Like, maybe. I don't know, maybe you, like, dated somebody like that. Or maybe, you know, I don't know, because, you know that it's just always gonna be, like, something bad. Like, if they contact you, right? That was this client. And it got to the point where I did not care how much money they were paying me. I was done working with them. So we stopped working together. And it was like, I felt amazing because I would get to my email in the morning and I would, like, look at it, and I knew that there were no emails from them. And I'm just like, yes, this is going to be awesome. So anyway, if you ever feel that way, also fire the client. So just FYI. Okay, what's the third thing? What's the third thing? The third mistake that you want to not do. Okay, I have done this one. This is silly and embarrassing. Okay? A long time ago, I had an amazing domain. It was amazing. It was awesome. I built an information site just for fun, right? With a subject that I sort of understood, you know, And I wanted to just put it out there. And I'm not going to lie, it was an AdSense site. I put Adsense on it, and it made very little because, I don't know, I always heard stories about people that made, like, loads of money on AdSense, but I never did. I think that anybody telling you how much money they made on AdSense is probably trying to sell you something anyway. I'm not Even sure that AdSense is a way to make money anymore. I know it's changed substantially. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I had a website. It was doing very well. It was ranking very well. I had some Edu links. Let me tell you how I got these. So this was back, I think, in, like, must have been, like. It was before 2010. I'm trying to remember. It was a couple years, so a few years, I think before 2010. Anyway, I had made this website and I had emailed some. Okay, I know I say that I've never done link outreach before, but, like, I've never done it for clients. Okay. This was, like, the very, very beginning of my SEO career. And I was just, you know, learning how to do things, and I made this website and I emailed some professors who had webpages. I'm sorry, who taught the subject that my website was about. Okay, okay. Anyway, so. And I got, like, two or three, like, edu backlinks, and it was amazing. I was pretty much on page one, like, from there on out. So, anyway, look, here's the thing, though. This is just like, a small note, okay? If you're going to get. Okay, first of all, anybody who is offering you Edu links is probably not being truthful. Okay? It's very difficult to get Edu links. If you do manage to get edu links, you want to get them from like a legitimate section of the website and not from blog comment spam. Okay? Blog comment spam from edu sites is worthless. Just like blog comment spam from other sites. All right? Like it's all, it's, it's worthless. So basically like I got. Anyways, I got these links from the professors homepages. Okay? Like good, good links. Anyway, it doesn't matter. So the point was this website ranked on page one as long as I can remember. All right, so let's fast forward like until maybe last year and I went to check something on this website and it was like in another language and I'm like, oh no, that got hacked, right? So let me tell you another story in the meantime and then we'll come back to this one. I have another website. It's a business site that is satirical. Okay, I'd love to share it with you because if you like grumpy SEO guy, you'd probably also like this website. But I'm not going to because, you know, whatever. Anyways, look, and one day I loaded it and it had like thousands of pages of Japanese spam. And I'm just like, oh no, what happened? I got hacked. So I had to figure out how to fix it. It was totally annoying, but I did get it fixed. And I think the site, I think it's got like maybe 60 articles on it. I started it a long time ago and I haven't posted anything on it in a really long time. But I think probably not even 60 articles. But you know, it's something like that. It's not really that big of a site anyway. It had like thousands of indexed pages and I'm just like, oh no, I got hacked. And I had to like discover how to get it back to the old ver. It was a big, it was a big mess. It didn't matter, but I got it. I got it. I got it solved. So anyway, look, look. So when I saw this other website, the one that I was just talking about, and it had all this like foreign language stuff on it, I'm like, oh no, I got hacked. So I had to sign in. Just hang on. If you think, you know, some of you probably already know what happened anyway. But for those of you that are uncertain, just keep listening. Okay, So I signed in to my registrar and I'm like, what? I can't find it. What happened? So what happened was I forgot to renew it. Oops. And somebody else picked it up and turned it into a spammy site. So the lesson is always renew your sites. Do not forget. Because then this happens. This site was incredible. And I probably. The site was incredible. It ranked really well. It had. I could have done a lot of stuff with it and I didn't. And now I'm not gonna get it back. Like, dude, like, first of all, nobody's gonna sell it back to me because it's got an amazing backlink profile. Second of all, it's been spammed like crazy now and. Oh, well, so. And it's weird because I. I usually have auto renew on. On all my domains and I'm not sure why this one was not using auto renew. But anyway, what I'm telling you is you should be sure that your websites do not expire and you forget to check them, especially if you have a lot of them or any. So anyway, again, people are going to be like, yeah, no kidding, of course you should do that. But dude, if it happened to me and I've like. And I've been doing Internet stuff for so many years, right? Like, I just believe, maybe, maybe I should remind you because, like, there's like a person out there who's gonna go, like, check their domains right now and then like, change them to auto renew and be like, yes. All right, so anyway, that was the whole purpose of this. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is grumpyseoguy. You can visit the grumpyseoguy subreddit or you can email me at hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders, because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder. And it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will clasp an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com grumpyseoguy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday when we talk about. A review of episodes 61 through 79.