This model works so well that there are branches of the industry that are difficult to staff outside of consulting
If anyone hear ever starts wondering "Why can't I find a full-time dev with SEO experience...", suffice it to say that the reason is quite similar. (With the added wrinkle that pen testers cannot generally lock themselves in a room away from clients and make large amounts of money without running afoul of the law, and good SEOs can.)
I was going to say I do full time dev and know SEO but then I realized I'm technically a 'consultant'. I've differentiated my offering a lot by doing conversion optimization. When you explain all the things you're doing for a customer it's pretty easy to justify a price that will put food on the table, especially when you compare their outlay to what it would cost to get on AdWords (search volume * 50% CTR * avg CPC) vs. a #1 rank on a SERP. I also do a lot of AdWords work.
I basically do a work up where I put together a bunch of SEO landing pages and then optimize the landing page to get the customer to a conversion page which will actually convert them.
The basic process is like this:
Install Google Analytics
Install Google Website Optimizer
Install Google Webmaster Tools
Establish baselines for metrics
Optimize SERPs and ensure targetted SERPs are bringing high quality traffic (or volume)
Create landing pages or buy keyword domains and establish landing pages.
Optimize landing page conversion rate to a conversion page
Optimize conversion pages (funnels)
Rinse wash repeat.
One of the best things about doing SEO is that you get to know a lot of great people in the industry, designers, copywriters, etc. You also meet people from all walks of life and learn a lot about the inner workings of a lot of businesses. It's a very black art combining so many disciplines that it provides huge insight into both technology and the human psyche (the one thing that does well for both esp. Google is page speed, if your page loads fast it converts better and ranks higher on SERPs). If you're a nerd who likes interacting with people I can't recommend SEO enough. It's simply amazing to see the smiles on people's faces when you've doubled their traffic in a fortnight. Or when they type common searches and see their webpage.
I think the most important thing I stumbled upon is the separation of concerns between landing pages and conversion pages. High conversion pages usually don't rank well, but high SERP pages don't convert well so you have to separate them so each can do it's job most effectively. I have this feeling and idea that clicking on more links somehow establishes trust between the customer and the vendor. The more pages a person views the more likely they are to buy, and having a lot of pages allows you to slowly sell them on the idea.
I also evaluate options like building forums, wikis or other properties that are good for lead gen.
I was interested in reaching out to you for a possible engagement, but I couldn't find anything in your profile or your product webpage that would help me contact you and learn more. sachin@blueleaf if you're available and interested.
(Please, freelancers: have something in your profile that helps people hire you. HN is teeming with VCs, founders, and other people who want to hire you but you make it so damn hard.)
Is there any resource you would recommend to someone interested in learning more? I'm just branching out past core dev and building something where I would like to know more about SEO without having to wade through the piles of garbage out there on the net....some really shady SEO people/information/portals out there!
There isn't, even the stuff that is out there is highly relevant to some clients and highly not relevant to other clients.
Example: Duplicate content is bad.
Truth: If you're copying wikipedia it probably is, if you're optimizing a local company that serves multiple areas, it's probably best to duplicate that page and change the location name. If that company serves a thousand areas it might be bad.
eg. areas-served/mission-district is better than the dup content penalty because you get your keywords in the URL.
SEO is like Kenny Rogers in the gambler, every hands a winner and every hands a loser. It's all in how and when. Sometimes putting a sales pitch in your description is better than putting the keywords in. Sometimes jamming your description with keywords is better. And it varies from page to page even on the same site.
I'd actually say that you have a better chance not knowing anything, take ideas, try them out, see how they do. You'll do better figuring out your own stuff because you'll be optimizing in ways that others aren't. When Google changes their algorithms to defeat what everyone else who reads SEOmoz is doing then you may get better rankings. Also, you'll have the edge for 12 months while SEOmoz figures out what Google did.
If you want to learn SEO, find a bunch of terms, use a difficulty ranking to find the easy ones, and then try to rank on it. If you figure it out, put AdSense on the page. Also, don't try to rank on it with just one page, use multiple domains, etc. And it's not just ranking, use the tools to optimize your AdSense revenue. Also, don't confuse optimizing AdSense with conversions for a product you're selling. It's a different approach.
SEO is a little bit zen, it's not something you learn, it's something you practice.
It also seems to be nearly the same case for the top tier of mobile developers ("nearly" because the Apples and Twitters of the world can still pick them up.)
If anyone hear ever starts wondering "Why can't I find a full-time dev with SEO experience...", suffice it to say that the reason is quite similar. (With the added wrinkle that pen testers cannot generally lock themselves in a room away from clients and make large amounts of money without running afoul of the law, and good SEOs can.)