2. Many businesses go through all kinds of steps before
hiring a search engine optimization professional.
Unfortunately, they often then sabotage that person from
the outset.
4. As a person providing seo services, I can tell you there is
one area that is almost always a point of conflict with
clients. This area has to do with communication,
particularly from the client to the person or business
handling the seo campaign.
5. Many businesses sabotage their seo professional right
from the start of the game. It all has to do with
knowledge. A seo professional is very knowledgeable
about the search engine ranking process. He or she can tell
you oodles of information about algorithms, back links,
inbound links, keyword density and other issues you
probably are not particularly interested in. On the other
hand, it is a mistake to assume your seo wizard is
knowledgeable about your product or service area.
6. Any business has a secret bit of crucial knowledge locked
away in the minds of a few individuals high up in the
company. This knowledge is protected with great effort
since it is deemed to be the key to success for the
business. Although each business is different, this nugget
usually has to do with why prospects purchase the
product or service being offered by the business. If you do
not provide this information to your seo professional,
problems will arise.
7. Consider the following situation. A seo firm is retained by
a client selling products. The seo rep asks all kinds of
questions about the typical customer for the business,
product lines and so on. From this, a keyword list is
developed and the client is asked to review it and make
any comments about any additions they can think of. The
business reports no changes. A year down the line, the
client has top rankings on dozens of high traffic keywords
on Google, Yahoo and MSN, but sales are less than
expected.
8. At this point, there is usually a serious meeting with the
players to try to figure out what is going on. During the
meeting, some little tidbit is mentioned that makes the
seo professional groan. The tidbit is inevitably internal
business information regarding why prospects purchase
from the business.
9. In our example above, the business sold products in the
active lifestyle industry. Top rankings were obtained on all
the relevant subjects. Sales were crap. During the serious,
serious meeting, it was leaked that 8 out of 10 purchasers
asked for the product to be gift wrapped! ARRRRRGGGG!
The seo campaign was tailored to people interested in
active lifestyles, not people that were looking to buy gifts
for such people. Our sales were terrible because the
listings were appearing in front of the wrong audience!
10. Yes, this really happened. Fortunately, keyword
modifications were made and the site rebounded in the
rankings after a few months. Whereas the site previously
converted at 1 in 1,000, it now converts at 1 in 30. The
next meeting was much more informal. In fact, there were
plenty of beverages and I took the next day off.
11. If you are going to retain someone to handle your seo
efforts, or any marketing for you, do not hold back
information. Understanding who and why people buy is a
pivotal part of developing a keyword list for a seo
campaign.