My Approach to SEO
It seems like everyone in the SEO industry is looking for magic bullets. But sadly, trying to use "magic" these days hurts your position on the SERP. That leaves us with a choice: A) You can keep hunting for mythical and short-lived solutions, or B) you can develop a long-term strategy that focuses on proven techniques.
If you chose "B," I'm your sort of SEO. I focus on verified techniques, long-term results, and improving the overall quality of your site in the eyes of both users and search robots. The end goal is to align our objectives with those of Google and other search companies, allowing for low-risk, high-yield opportunities. How can we do this? Well, let's break it down.
Hunting for Issues
The first step is a thorough evaluation of your current setup to be sure you don't have one foot resting on a land-mine. Especially since the Google Panda update, webmasters have found their sites penalized but have very little idea as to why. I evaluate the architecture, content, layout, and off-site factors to ensure that you dodge the "spam flags" that Google implemented in early 2011.
Sometimes it's just a matter of eliminating those mistakes. Most times, though, your site has an opportunity to improve its position through both on-site and off-site SEO.
On-Site SEO
I start by looking at the architecture, both of your internal link structure and your actual URL hierarchy. Then I move into your main pages to see if there's any content that could be fleshed out, reorganized, or otherwise improved.
From there I delve into the back corners and code of the site to ensure that everything is well-structured, optimized, and validated.
After evaluating the more mechanical concerns, I move through your site's navigation, design, and funnels to answer one question: Are you taking good care of your visitors, both human and robot? I then give input on improving your structure, monetization, and anything else that applies.
The biggest thing I've seen is that webmasters often rely on old knowledge. For example, the idea of keyword saturation or meta keyword or alt-tag stuffing were once ritualized. Now they're useless at bestand devastating and worst. My evaluation and input will help bring you up-to-date and identify any areas for improvement.
Off-Site SEO
As crucial as a good site is to success, off-site factors matter just as much – and often more. I exmaine your approach to developing links, gaining social recognition, connecting with potential clients, and otherwise promoting your site. I'll help you root out ineffective or outdated tactics while helping you refine your workable strategies.
For webmasters who haven't stayed current on techniques, off-site SEO is a major area of need. Many of the strategies that were effective just a year or two ago now have diminished or invisible returns.
Other SEM
Beyond your organic SEO, I evaluate your social presence, social marketing, local optimization, search marketing, display advertising, customer communications, and video promotions. In cases where you want to learn about these or other ways to market your site, I'm more than glad to discuss those options.
Developing a Long-Term SEO Strategy
Once we're past examining the various elements of your current optimization, we can look to the future. I'll help you develop a long-term strategy that gives you the tools and knowledge needed to make advances on the search engine results page. This generally includes:
- Creating a content development plan. I'll help you understand what type of content your site needs, how you can position and pitch it, and how you can write it effectively.
- Re-approaching keywords. I'll teach you how to research key terms and competition, and then integrate LSI – or latent semantic indexing – as part of your keyword optimization.
- Developing a link-building strategy. I'll help you find the best places to get links, create a winning approach for earning those links, and set achievable goals for link development.
- Hiring out your production work. I'll walk you through the advantages and disadvantages of third-party work for a variety of SEO tasks.
- Examining paid marketing options. I'll help you evaluate and (if they seem advantageous) get involved with Google AdWords, Bing AdCenter, Facebook Ads, the Google Display Network, and YouTube promotions.
- Developing a social strategy. Whether it's limited to setting up skeletal accounts on Twitter or Facebook or employing a full-time social media manager to expand your reach, I can help you explore the options.
- Leveraging viral and social tools. I'll help you understand what's required to make viral content and how you can promote it through your social channels.
At the end of the day, there's no single thing that makes your site better. It's about making the best site possible and promoting it effectively.
Ready to see this strategy applied to your site? Jump on that free quote I've been promising.
Need more dataz? Take a look at my rates.