Being Straight Up Cynical.

I'm a Web Developer who's been doing a lot of SEO reading these days. Yesterday I got talking to some people and basically, I want to throw out what i'm thinking and get some of your takes on it, since, well, you're smarter then I am...

After a lot of reading, looking around/just being on the net in general i've concluded this about SEO....

It's all a bunch of crap.

So, there we have it. I think there is a bottom line, which is as usual, money. Money will put you at the top of the natural links, at the top of the sponsered links (on the top and side, using google as an example).

Sure, SEO might move you up a little bit, you might be in the top 5-10 pages, but that's as good as it's going to get you. Keep in mind, I am refering to the keywords that are popular.

Let's use the example of Web Development. If today, you decided you want to be numero uno under the keyword of web development, without spending any money, just on SEO alone and gave yourself a year to accomplish your goal, it's still impossible.

Ontop of that, all of the companies that claim they can put on on page 1 are either liars or you are going to end up paying 6 figures to do it, and if you are paying that much, you might as well pay 2 bucks a click and get ontop of Google that way insted of paying some company that claims they know what they are doing.

So, this is my cynical view of Search Engine Optimization, to me, it appears to be all smoke and mirrors, if you pay, you're there, if you don't, good luck, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

What do you guys think? Am I right, wrong, crazy, etc?

Thanks
Caden

A well designed, properly promoted site will climb in the ranks on its own.

It's not a bunch of crap, it's just a constant battle. The more popular your desired keywords, the larger the opposing army becomes, and the larger army you need.

Example: "Web Development"? LOL, good luck. PHP has made "web development" possible for anybody to get involved.

I've come to the same conclusion. SEO takes too much time if you're an amateur and you still end up off the radar with Google.

For people who have the time to keep tweeking the site SEO may be worth it but for me it is too much hassle. I rely on other means of getting traffic now, including Adwords.

Even if you're right, that a page designed specifically for SEO and tweeked for SEO will climb the ranks on the search engines, how far will you get? Page 3? Page 4? I may be wrong, but personally if I don't find what i'm looking for in 2 pages, I adjust my search to try and get new results, insted of delving into page 15...

But hey, maybe that's just me