SEO/SEM Campaign –Order of importance

1.    Funnels, Analytics and Page Naming Conventions
•    Funnels help determine who is on your page, how long and when they drop off of your site.
•    Page Naming Conventions are good if you have part numbers, product numbers, and product pages.
o    Every page on your site (not just product pages) will benefit from this. Using initial keywords from the Keyword Analysis (See Online Visibility Analysis) to name everyone of the site's pages, folders, and other directories.
2.    Brand Brief/Creative Brief
•    This should be filled out by the client (company) requesting services. It is best to emphasize that answering the following is not mandatory, but the more accurately it is filled out the less billable hours we have to spend trying to figure out the answers to questions that are probably already on the tips of their tongues.
•    Please also (client) attach a sheet of keywords/phrases that describe their company, services, products, brand, and anything else they would like to be found for or would assume their consumer would search for them by (this includes common misspellings, acronyms, and abbreviations).
•    Also attach a sheet of any negative keywords (words they do not want to be found for). This would include competitor's products that they have nothing similar to, if they are a printing company they probably don't want to be found for Dell printers, this would also include specific services they do not offer.
•    This is the client's who, what, when, where and why.
o    Who is the client and who is the consumer?
    About the client: What is the client demographic? Typical age, gender, race? Does the target audience have anything in common or more in common than just a demographic (for example some brands target audience have completely opposite demographics but they all enjoy a certain soda, are all adventurous people, all like sports, all are good cooks, all like to dance, and all like adrenaline rush sports but one could be a grandma another could be a high school skater boy and yet another could be a ballet teacher and mother of three).
    About the company: How did the company get started? When? How did the company get its brand/name/logo? Who are the owner(s)? What is the company motto and mission statement? Does the company support any causes/charities? How long has the company been around and how has it evolved since then?
o    About the product: What do they want to market?
    What is their top selling product? What makes them the most money (this is not always the same as the top selling—(one product may cost more than the other)? Does the client have more than one brand? Do they compete in anyway? What else do they sell? What would they like to make more popular?
o    Deadlines: When do they want to launch the campaign?
     If there is more than one campaign (2+ products, sem/seo/social media campaigns, web launch/blog launch etc.) do they all have the same deadline or is one a promotion for the other? Is this coinciding with another big promotion, store opening, book signing, or new product launch?
o    Where is everyone? Where are they?
    Where is the company located? Is there more than one store? Does the company sell regionally, nation wide, or internationally? Does the company have affiliates or vendors?
    Where are the clients located? Who is the biggest target market? What are the top 10 regions for sales? What are the client's competitor's top regions?
o    Why?
    Why do you want a seo/sem/social media campaign? Trouble in natural searches? Trouble with PPC? Want to get to know your consumer and connect with them on a deeper level? Want to know what people are saying about your brand? Need to expand your brand's web reach online?


3.    Proposal
•    This is the client's who, what, when, where and why.
o    Who is the client and who is the consumer?

4.    Online Visibility Analysis
•    Keyword Analysis
o    List of basic keywords and phrases matching the clients products/services
o    (Use SEOMoz, Dogpile Wordtracker & Overture-(overture is for yahoo), webmaster tool, live keyword, Google)
•    Linking Analysis
o    Use: (marketleap, trillion,)
o    Client name: hyperlink1
o    Number of links:
o    Number of pages
o    Title and Anchor Text : Majority of sites contained: Keywords
o    Type of links (*indicates small number from this outlet)
    Competitor reference
    An affiliate site
    Referral
    Similar site
    Magazine
    Pr
    Newspaper
    Local yahoo
    Directory
    Service guide
    Angies list
    Internal
    Google answers
    Yahoo answers
    Merchant circle
    Social networks
    .edu, .org, .gov  sites
    Various blogs
    Yahoo 360
    Cnn
    Wikipedia
    Business.com
    Linkedin
    Career builder
•    Site Analysis
o    This is an initial assessment of items which need to be completed. Other items may come up while working on these items over the course of the year.
o    Custom 404 – This tells search engines and users that this page does not exist and will tell them where to navigate to.
o    HTML Sitemap – This is a roadmap for users of the site and will also help to facilitate the search engines to spider deeper into the site.
o    XML Sitemap – This is a feed that is picked up by the search engines daily (not shown on the site) and is much different than an HTML sitemap.  It is in an XML format and will help to tell the search engines how often content is updated and which pages are more important than others.
o    Needs Extensive Linking – There need to be more links coming into the site and an extensive external linking program would be very beneficial in organic search rankings.
o    Content and aesthetics example: Services Area List Looks Bad – Might want to consider trimming the services area list as it is rather jumbled and isn't providing a user benefit.  This may be able to be displayed in another format i.e. another page.
o    Internal Content Linking Structure – An internal keyword linking structure needs to be set up in order provide better content and keyword flow for the search engines. (Also no page should have over 100 links on it—preferably not over 50/pg)
o    Subpage breakdown – To prevent pages from getting to long it is important that content be categorized into subpages. This will provide additional content and will provide a better user experience which in turn will benefit search engine rankings.
o    Optimize .pdf's – This will entail creating Titles and Descriptions for all .pdf's on the site which will help them to be indexed properly by the search engines.
o    Make sure all incoming links are titled, tagged, and anchored, example: Quality Pro link says nothing about the company – Quality Pro needs to be contacted and the company information needs to be displayed.
    List all sites that need this done.
o    Set up Conversion Goals – Creates base points for improvement on the site in order to be more proficient in SEO/SEM analysis and decision making.
o    Change URL on BBB page – The URL on the Better Business Bureau listing online goes to the wrong URL and causes for user confusion and does not add external linking value at this point.
o    Put 301 on  HYPERLINKs that need reverted
o    Use 201 ONLY WHEN COMPLETELY NECESSARY
o    Alt Text on Images – This tells the search engines what the image is about and will help with keyword content as a result.
o    Robots.txt – This text file will help to manage search engine spiders by indicating to them certain parameters.
o    Give access to Webmaster tools – Very valuable tool which is already set up on the site which provides information that can be used for SEO purposes.
o    Refine Keyword Focus – Too general and needs to be refined.
o    Make Sure All Links Point to Relevant Pages i.e. if possible  HYPERLINK "http://www.theserviceguide.com" www.theserviceguide.com would help if linked to  HYPERLINK "http://www.theserviceguide.com/pages/rainbow_pest_experts.asp?cid=78" http://www.theserviceguide.com/pages/rainbow_pest_experts.asp?cid=78
o    Go through SEO check list
•    Search Competitive Analysis
o    Sponsored search advertiser competition goes from roughly 40 to just under 100 for most of the broader keyword phrases, such as pest control or pest control Minneapolis.  When you use longer tail terms (meaning more targeted or simply more words with less volume) competition can fall drastically.
o    Organically Google returns between 4 and 20 million pages for any given search. This is where we would tell them how they rank on average.
o    Search Competition can be broken out into 4 categories.
    Lead Aggregators Directories Nationwide Companies Local/Regional Shops
o    Lead Aggregators- (ie. servicemagic.com or myfreeestimates.com) generally use nationwide campaigns and because they are not an actual physical entity are unable to get listings in places like Google Maps and Yahoo Local providing a key competitive advantage to local shops.
    However, because they provide the ability to get multiple quotes in one location they do tend to receive higher click rates on their ads from inexperienced consumers.
o    Directories, like  HYPERLINK "http://www.dexknows.com" www.dexknows.com and  HYPERLINK "http://www.usdirectory.com" www.usdirectory.com, are fading quickly because they provide little perceived value to consumers.  They tend to have high budgets but limited controls or optimization due to the enormous amount of industries they serve (far more than the lead aggregators).
    Directories generally use keyword insertion techniques in their ads which leave them somewhat generic sounding and getting very low click rates.
    Because directories have no physical office they have no local or maps listings.
o    Nationwide Companies, such as  HYPERLINK "http://www.orkin.com" www.orkin.com or  HYPERLINK "http://www.Terminix.com" www.Terminix.com, are tough competition in the search space for a couple reasons. First, they have name recognition so someone who doesn't have a specific company in mind when they search for "pest control Minneapolis" will see the brand name and be drawn to it.  Because of this they can drive their cost-per-click down and therefore get more for the same amount of money as their local competition.
    Ads for nationwide companies tend to be generic and not as focused on the specific keyword however, as they use their brand name to get the click versus human time tweaking ad copy to the keyword level.
    Because these companies have physical locations where they or their representatives work from, they are listed in local and maps listings. They tend to be inconsistent and do not have a strategy to harness these listings at this time.
o    Local/Regional Shops, such as you, vary greatly from one to the next in their targeting, budgeting and sophistication.  These are much more of a wildcard and we will be competing with 25 or more "local" shops for most high volume phrases. We will have the advantage when going after the "long tail" terms as most smaller shops do not have dedicated search staff.
    Local shops have more customized and unique ads.  Some however are using the basic PPC management services of the yellow pages suck as Dex Online. These campaigns are notoriously mismanaged.    Because of generally more limited budgets from local companies, we can do a lot more with them regarding budget tracking, daypart spending, etc. to ensure we push their budget spend and increase our return on investment.    Local and maps listings are very common and the range in sophistication is big.  A few companies (including Abra Kadabra in Brooklyn Park) have obviously made an effort to have customers (or people posing as customers) submit reviews, not surprisingly all are very good reviews.

5.    Keyword Research
•    This is best done while optimizing a site or ppc campaign so you can test which words fit best with the company's individual site.
o    Good tools to use: seobook, seomoz, trillion, aiming click, doquments, golden keywords, keyword analyzer, keyword expert, rapid keyword, the dowser, web ceo, xedant keyword harvester, google adwords, Yahoo!

6.    Content and Keyword implementation
•    This would be a breakdown of all the pages that need updates including specific tags, content, alt tags etc. (this is after the initial phase and would come on around the 1 mo. Mark of the campaign and again every month following).
o    Go through SEO check list
7.    Link Building
•    This is the client's who, what, when, where and why.
o    Who is the client and who is the consumer?
8.    Social Media
•    The sites that each page should use to connect to their consumers are determined by interests and demographics.
o     All companies should be on business networks like LinkedIn.
o     Niche networks that relate to their product/services.
o    Major networks: Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Bebo (for younger audiences), Msn Groups, Delicious.
o     Blogs (preferably have one and comment on ones that are relevant to the company's industry as well as link back to the company website).
o    We will set up a way to directly connect and add content to multiple networks for the client if they want to be involved (this is preferred).