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Working Well With Your Search Engine Optimization
by Ross Dunn
http://www.stepforth.com
The SEO industry is growing out of its adolescence into
the realm of mainstream credibility. After surviving the
infancy and adolescence of the industry, search engine
optimization and placement is just being recognized as the
essential element that can make or break an online
business' bottom line. A successful SEO enriched marketing
campaign will require a few simple but crucial elements:
timing, organization and commitment. There are several
search engine placement strategies to choose from. This
SEO plan focuses on achieving traditional search engine
placements and does not address pay-per-click advertising.
Timing
It happens every November. Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) firms start getting phone calls from online
retailers desperate for traditional Top10 placement before
the Christmas shopping season moves into full swing, two
weeks later. Before considering the actual work and turn-
around time involved in achieving search engine
placements, potential clients put their service providers
in uncomfortable positions by expecting SEO's to provide
results within impossible time frames. In many cases, some
SEO providers take these jobs without letting the client
know what to realistically expect in the hopes the
placements will magically appear before the rush begins.
In our case, we are forced to explain the realities of the
situation.
A successful SEO promotion requires time, the amount of
which is dependant upon the competitiveness of keywords
your company has chosen to target, ("cars" vs. "Pintos in
Iceland"), and the existing popularity of your web site.
For example, if you represent a freshly designed car sales
web site that has not been previously promoted (no
existing online popularity) and your aim is to achieve
Top10 placements under the word keyword "BMW" within 2 or
even 3 months then you had better rethink your timeline.
Generally speaking a highly searched keyword with extreme
competition will require between 3 and 12 months of
aggressive SEO promotion to obtain desirable listings.
Where your company falls within the 3 and 12 month target
will depend on just how well promoted your web site
currently is. If your site is already well promoted and
found under other competitive keywords then you have some
power that a SEO company can leverage towards reaching
newer and more competitive keyword targets and may put
your placement goals within a 3-6 month range.
Companies without existing online popularity that wish to
compete under highly competitive phrases will need to
start from square-one. This will mean targeting less
intensive search phrases to begin with as well as
acquiring textual links from relevant websites. These
initial tactics will serve to enhance the perceived
popularity of your web site and build the leverage
required to obtain your ultimate keyword goals.
Organization
The act of optimizating a web site varies in complexity
depending upon the technologies employed within your web
site's design and the decision making structure of your
company. As a result, organization plays a major role in
maintaining crucial optimization and submission timelines
and for achieving ultimate success.
For example, there are many web sites that are database
driven and require special optimization techniques so that
search engines can actually spider content. These
techniques may require access to specific portions of a
web site and/or authorization from specific employees of a
company who are 'out of the loop'; not ensuring proper
organization beforehand can causes delays and can wreak
havoc with SEO timelines.
With organizations that have constantly updating web
sites, there are many hurdles that may be faced by an SEO
campaign.
Firstly, if whole pages are added and removed daily on a
web site, then a plan may be implemented to at least
basically optimize content before addition. This could
mean the alteration of META tags, titles, and heading tags
which, although only basic alterations, can play a key
role in enhancing web site popularity. This type of
communication becomes a key issue in such cases as this
and will play a major role in creating the desired
environment for success.
Secondly, many online businesses require website changes
made on a seasonal basis. As changes to an optimized
website may put the success of the promotion in jeopardy,
the company webmaster should make updating the SEO firm an
important part of the process.
Thirdly, constant site updates may present a version
control problem in which the site that is on the SEO's
hard drive may be radically different from the modified
version of the site. Again, webmasters should let the SEO
provider know when a change has been made so the provider
would know to download the fresh version of the website.
If a webmaster is unable to contact the SEO provider, that
provider should automatically download a fresh version of
the site each time they prepare to work on it.
Commitment
Although this seems the simplest element to explain, there
cannot be enough said here to highlight its importance.
Firstly, SEO promotions inherently take time! Initial
results are not always instantaneous and will often take 1-
3 months. Do not panic and change the optimization of your
web site! Day-to-day tweaking has long been a thing of the
past (since 1997/98 when Infoseek indexed every few hours)
and such alterations could harm your search engine
standings.
Secondly, should the search engines change the rules
without warning (this has and can happen); your SEO
representatives may need to re-evaluate the current status
of your promotions. At this time it is more important than
ever to be calm and listen to the experienced advice that
your SEO Company provides. The reality of the Internet and
the major search engines is that they are ever-changing
and all that an SEO can do in this situation is to provide
advice and re-optimize content if necessary.
Thirdly, as a veteran SEO I have often be faced with
situations where, despite our initial warnings on
expectations, a client has placed all his/her eggs in one
basket. It is extremely important that Search Engine
Optimization is not the only advertising medium being used
to promote your business! There is no question that
traditional search engine promotions are a proven and
effective form of promotion; to a degree, however, they
are still governed by chance and Murphy's Law. This degree
of chance is inevitably dependant upon the competency of
the SEO Company that you have chosen in combination with
the current stability of the search engines.
Finally, keep the lines of communication between your
SEO's, your Webmaster, and your Marketing Staff clean and
clear. This requires a commitment of at least one meeting
per month where each party can ask questions or inform one
another of their current status. This will serve to
maintain clarity throughout the promotion and allow your
SEO's to raise any concerns regarding inefficiencies in
communication or to note any upcoming changes in the
search engine world. It is important to note that SEO
promotions require continual maintenance and if your SEO
Company smells some winds of change in the major search
engines then it would be a wise idea to weigh their
recommendations before dismissing them.
In Summary
Planning for an effective SEO campaign should be a part of
a broader marketing strategy. While top search engine
placements will improve the visibility of your website, it
does not translate in to instant sales. We often tell
clients that we can bring customers to their door but we
can't make them buy. Even in the Internet environment,
brand recognition and loyalty often help consumers choose
which product to purchase. It helps if they not only see
your website but if they know your products as well. The
easiest way to sum it all up is in a series of two-word
keyword phrases. Use Timing, Good Organization, Commit
Yourself, Be Patient, and Get Noticed.
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