By day George Ajazi is a SEO professional, and by night… he helps small and medium sized businesses become optimized. You could say that this is a talent that would turn into a profitable business venture but George enjoys helping those who need it, without the hefty price tag that most professionals come with.
Intrigued by his free service, we thought that we should ask George a few questions about SEO and his own experience.
What do you enjoy most about helping others with their SEO needs?
That’s a very good question… I have always been intrigued with the concept of a small website being able to compete with a larger website on a specific keyword or phrase. And being able to do so without having to spend big dollars is what pushed me into SEO to begin with. Helping others achieve positive gains (like I had) is very rewarding.
Would you mind sharing a little about your experience within this area?
I started learning about search engine optimization in 2001. I had some experience with web development and enjoyed melding traditional marketing with technology. SEO seemed a natural transition for my affinity with the web.
After working on a number of corporate and ecommerce sites, I eventually made the jump to working for a Search Marketing agency. I spent time as a natural search consultant/sales engineer and had the pleasure of auditing well over one hundred large-scale websites (some of the biggest and best known brands). This really honed my skills in SEO. I am now a Manager of Natural Search at the largest SEO agency in the US.
What inspired you to start offering your services for free to small and medium businesses?
I keep my personal domain active in order to try things out and see if I can get any opportunities for side work. A lead came along some months back where a gentleman really needed help but didn’t have much of a budget. Call it what you will, but for some reason I decided to help him for free. I just couldn’t bring myself to charge him money for information that was basically second nature to me. I decided to help him for no cost but asked that he provide me a live hyperlink back to my site in return.
After that, I modified my site to try and rank for the phrase “free seo services”. And currently, I believe, I rank number 2 for this term. Next up is “free seo”.
I followed that up by contacting a blogger of a small business/entrepreneur blog and offered my services and myself as a free resource for her readers. The leads having been flowing in.
I also had a good friend of mine blog about it and help me put together a funny press release. Self-deprecation is cleansing to my soul (you will understand this if you’ve seen my press release).
Over time, I figure I will build up enough link equity to help even more people. The good karma can’t hurt either.
How can you be reached for more information about your free services?
I can be reached via my website: www.ajazi.com
Now that you’ve started to help these small and medium businesses get on their feet, do you have any plans to expand and potentially turn it into a business?
Hmm… That’s a really good question. I’m honestly not sure at this time. My guess is no but things could change.
What is the #1 SEO mistake that you’d say most people make?
The majority really over-think the problem. Understanding keywords and proper linking are what confuse people the most in my experience. I’m sure this seems cryptic but a full-blown explanation of this would take some time. Contact me and I’ll explain in greater detail. For free of course.
What do you think 2009 holds for the world of search engine optimization?
Paid search was the “in thing” for most companies in the past, natural search came next. Now, I feel, we are transitioning away from the traditional SEO issues that once plagued most sites. Platforms such as WordPress (for blogs and small sites) as well as large-scale content management/ecommerce platforms are making architectural SEO problems a thing of the past. The real concentration is on social (obvious to most), video and site refinement and expansion.