I've had a couple of our clients use SEO companies (we naturally do a bit of SEO but it's not something we call ourselves 'experts' in).

In these cases they've just used concrete5's SEO tools and features, and then for changes that have required actual template or code changes they've simply referred back to us and we've spent the hour or so to implement the improvements.

We've not had any complaints or suggestions that Wordpress is needed - I personally wouldn't worry about that as an issue, or at least don't worry about it until it actually happens.

If that did actually happen, I'd directly tell my client that a good SEO company can work with any decent CMS , and that concrete5 is perfectly suitable for SEO work. I'd actually go as far as telling my client that if their SEO company suggests rebuilding their concrete5 site in Wordpress just for SEO reasons they don't actually have a clue what they are doing!

True on-page SEO isn't about plugins - it's about page titles, slugs, headings and adjusting text content, and concrete5 handles all that. Plus it's got the tools to carefully adjust search engine titles and descriptions easily.

One way to approach it is to ask them to get a report or list of SEO recommendations from the SEO company, rather than letting them loose on sites.

On top of this, concrete5 allows you to update SEO tags for all pages of the website from just one area, something the SEO department at my last job absolutely loved. concrete5 actually made their jobs faster and easier.

I have a split and on one side jaded opinion of SEO specialists. Some are very good, but for every genuine expert there are 10 who promise the stars in situations where they can't hope to do anything that produces worthwhile results and the money would be better spent on a few adverts (online or printed).

SEO needs to be part of a holistic process and bolting it on afterwards is a fundamentally flawed concept. Frequently, the job is sold as an additional service for a live web site by an 'expert', then handed off to a junior who repeats the SEO company 'formula' without any understanding of the real business requirement.

So for good SEO, get real expertise on board and design it in from the start of a project.

Totally agree with you john, All my sites are built technically SEO friendly. Then i work with my SEO partner who then looks at ways to maximise this by looking at the content on and of the site. Looking at social media, press releases, article writing and generally content based work. All of this is monitored using various SEO analytic and reporting software.

We have seen great results.

John hits the nail on the head with this one. My approach has always been that good websites get good search engine results. The last company I worked for did exactly as John describes, even taking people from other departments like the print shop (that had nothing to do with SEO) and having them follow some magic formula documented by whoever had the position before them. But doesn't professional entail experience? Charging someone hundreds per month for professional SEO while paying their newest intern minimum wage who has never done the job before is basically dishonest.

Hi,

Although I am based in the UK. I have been working with an SEO partner for the past few years. We have sites in Oz and USA as well as other countries.

I would be more than happy to work with you to get your clients the best results possible.


Tim

Thanks for all the suggestions (especially mesuva: I was hoping you'd chime in, given your local knowledge).

I do my utmost to make SEO-ready sites up front (including all the tasks mentioned above, plus sitemap submissions, Google My Business registration, Google Search Console registration, 301 redirects from current pages, analytics, etc). The main issue is ongoing tweaking: monitoring keyword performance, SERP, etc. Quotes for such work often exceed the client's income!

I'll pass on relevant details from here to my clients for their consideration. I'll also make the offer that I'll talk to any SEO guru they choose, to familiarise them with the 'concrete5 way'.

Well, mostly they say that because "WordPress has an awesome SEO plugin" or "WordPress has better ranking for Google" and crap like that. There are a couple of plugins for SEO for WordPress, so yes, they are right in some way. But I myself build an SEO Add-On for concrete5 too (for 5.7 and higher). It's called Devoda SEO and can do everything and more in comparison with the WordPress plugins.

Be sure you have the right person to enter your SEO though. As they all claim to be "the best" and ask "low prices" and such. Thing is, it has to work for your site and they have to prove it in some way. Me personally dislike services like paying a monthly fee and them having their own "CMS" kind of thing next to the existing site. So look up whatever you can if you find someone to do SEO!

- I don't do SEO for clients either by the way. You just need some local contacts to actually get in touch with, instead of being ripped off by others haha.

There right about WordPress, SEO is much better. Just join the flow.
All that buggy concrete5 beta sh^t is of no use.

Can you explain what advantages Wordpress SEO capabilities has over concrete5?