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At 2-3K a month I won't be getting a SEO for a while.

We have reduced stuff on the front page already...ha,ha....Just throwing up our CDN now.

We did a redesign in the fall and went for the clean look with no excerpts/text from articles but have often debated if that may effect things.Sometimes pretty does not always work.I will look to fix this up as i have actually been debating on doing this already.

Ads are a unnecessary evil as they pay the bills and staff.We are doing some testing so their is some more ads than normal once we are done we will reduce them for sure.

Building links would be for serp's.

We use a lot of video and infographics when possible but when you are breaking news and leaks and want to be first to press with that type of info a video and info-graphic are not always applicable.We plan to do more infographics though.

Looks like some interesting software for managing our social media more efficiently and save us some time.We do everything it offers manually right now.

certainly agree nothing in GWT stands out in regards to bad links , or other red flags so we would need some help on where that issue may be.

We are always looking to improve our traffic and rankings, so is not a lack of, it is about getting more.Our traffic comes from direct and social media/never fake and search.We ranked well for our main keyword page one and had great traffic with no SEO.We dropped to page 3 though and it affected our traffic obviously and trying to get back to page one is our goal.I am focused on our main keyword as it does drive a lot of traffic for us.

In regards to our auditors recommendations we have followed all of it exactly and are just finishing up now.A lot of it was on site fixes.However the next stage is link building which we will need help for and hope for someone else to come in and give us some other suggestions and help with off site stuff as well.

I certainly understand and see your point of view and totally agree with what you said. Unfortunately that is all the budget I have right now and trying to make it work, but basically from what i am hearing that is that kinda money wont hire a decent seo.

On site wise i think we are pretty close with a little more work.Here is our site

Search engine rankings and link building is where i feel we fall short.

We have done a forensic audit with a great SEO already and implemented a lot of those changes.But he specialized in audits only so now we are looking for someone to take over the day to day and long term seo strategies.

We have a great name already and near 200k social media following and great traffic during our busy season.Content wise we have a tons of great content.

Where we are lacking is rankings as we are in a competitive market.

As I had said I have given them a try but they were out of my budget.

I am looking for a Good SEO for my tech news site and would like your help in recommending a good SEO that will fit in my budget of 300-500 per month.I have contacted many firms in the Moz directory of recommended firms but found they are out of my monthly price range.Google search for a decent SEO can be scary with so many so called SEO companies.I would like to work with a experienced SEO individual who can come up with a great plan for our site and also implement them.We just had a SEO forensic audit done with Alan Blieweiss and implemented his suggestions and are now looking for someone to work with long term for the rest of our SEO needs.I understand that I cannot afford the top SEO firms or industry leaders but with your help and suggestions I am sure we can afford and find a great SEO.

Please reply here or message me.

Thanks for the reply kyle

I use all in one seo currently but would like to try yoast, I will have to put it on my todo list for sure.

404 redirected is a great tool but we have a extensive 404 issue and requires a more investigating to solve the issue than 404 redirected can solve, how ever we will be using that plugin for future issues.

I have gotten a good audit done of my site now it is time to get the fixes done.

I have a developer I worked with for a long time that is good at coding and fixes on my site. However I am not confident in his abilities to execute some of the seo changes that need to be done.

Their are some common stuff he can tackle but when it comes to GWT and proper handling of 404's and 301's and other seo tasks I am not sure if he is the right choice.Maybe due to a lack of experience of dealing with the issues I have or is just not his specialty or web devs just don't know seo...lol....

Is obvious a lot of SEO's don't make the changes themselves but leave it up to the devs to handle it their suggestions and fixes. But from my experience devs are not so well versed in seo and you have a hard time knowing if they are doing it correct or can even do it.(of course they will say they can they want your cash and i understand that ). In particular a good amount of wordpress devs claim to know seo but i find that far from the truth.Even when guided to issues some of them will often leave you disappointed.

Sorry for my rant!

Now to my question , obviously not many SEO's make the actual code changes themselves (how i wish i knew a one that did) are their ones out their that do?

If not how do i find a good wordpress dev that can make proper seo changes and knows his stuff....example i need someone who can trouble shoot and track down some serious GWT I have and deal with some hardcore 404 & 301 issues . A lot claim to know but when push comes to shove I have been left disappointed.

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions or recommendations.

Thank for the reply, would it best to start a new thread or is their a category where I should post it?

I would like a extensive site audit and have around a 2K budget for it and would like to work with a company monthly as well, also would like to work with the company on a monthly basis with a $250-400 monthly budget. Is SEOmoz the best place to post for this type of requirements?  I would be scared to place it on odesk...lol...

Well I think I have run into a wall in my search, most of you gave some great device advice on where to look. The list of SEO on seomoz is great if I could afford any of them.I have learned a valuable lesson this week about the cost of SEO's.When i see prices of 5-10K for site audits and $200 per hour I know I am barking up the wrong tree.

Now I think I would just like a good seo that knows his stuff well and won't charge me a small fortune.

I have some ideas on what I think we need in terms of SEO but of course I would be open to the SEO's suggestions.What is the best approach when contacting these companies?

Tell them everything I think is relevant , needs, goals and so on in email phone / call? ask for a proposal?

How to find a SEO Guru

I am a looking for a SEO to take over our SEO needs for our website.I am not interested in learning SEO and would rather leave it to the pro's.We already have great traffic 800K+ monthly but we need to take it to the next level and beyond.

I have searched through SEOMOZ and read articles everywhere and done all that, I think I am more confused now than when I started on how to find a great SEO. While their are plenty of great SEO guys out their a lot of them I don't feel comfortable putting our business in their hands.Their are some smaller SEO's and some shady SEO's that won't work for us.Then some just don't have the credentials or background for us to hand over our hard earned money and have the future of our businesses in their hands.

We want someone who has worked on big projects and had great success and is a industry leader but is willing to work with me and be hands on just not send me reports and suggestions. I am Trying to find SEO guru who knows his stuff and knows it well.I know i will pay good money for this but would like to find some up and comers so I don't have to sell unborn children to afford their services.

What would be a good way to a great seo maybe even a guru?

Finding the right SEO has become a daunting task.