SEO Process

    What is the SEO process? SEO experts say that there are stages in which a company must go through before SEO can be implemented. Along with these stages comes careful planning and timely research for many elements that can affect the popularity of a website.

Step 1: Keyword Research

    One of the most important steps in the process is keyword research. As mentioned in previous portions of this e-book, using the right kinds of keywords, placed at the right places in your site, is a great combination for SEO.

    How can you do keyword research? You should be able to identify what phrases are the most suited for your website. Tools like Google Adwords and Keyword Tracker, which are described in chapter 9, are very helpful as well as easy to use.

    You don’t need a degree in computer engineering or long-term experience in SEO to be able to determine good keywords as opposed to weak ones. Keep in mind that you will be using these keywords for your page titles, navigation menus, articles, blogs, and other important content in your site.

Step 2: Identify your Competition

    The second step in the SEO process: scope out your competition. These are the sites with very high ranking on Google, MSN, or Yahoo search engine results pages. If you can check out the keywords that click on their sites, you may determine how well this can work for you.

Step 3: Analyze your Competition

    Google Adwords, the keyword research tool, helps you out in this regard by making an estimate of what percentage of competitor sites are using that keyword. From here, you can know if it will be worth using that keyword, or try out something else to avoid being part of the huge statistic that use them.

    As you identify and learn about the keywords of your competition, do additional research on them as to evaluate how their effective their SEO efforts are. Are they included in web rings? On what other sites are their links included? Do they have publications such as electronic magazines or newsletters? These are some of the elements you need to look for.

    Perhaps your competition has simple sites, but very user-friendly ones. Most of the time, visitor-friendly websites can also be search engine friendly. In many cases, too, sites that have less flashy stuff in them tend to rank higher, as spiders and bots are able to index their codes better.

Step 4: Analyze your website

Next, take a look at your own website? Again, be sure you use the elements mentioned in chapter 2 as a checklist of your website elements that you may need to focus on, or totally change in the SEO process.

    Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your site. Have you been more on design and less on SEO? Have you not been using keywords in places where you should? Does your site lack the navigation menu that is easy to use?

    After you have done this, focus your SEO efforts on the elements that need to be improved. You should try adding meta tags to specific areas in your site. Maybe you should change your content, making it more relevant, and more keyword rich.

    How about your links? Have you submitted your website to search engines and directories? Be sure you ask partner sites and affiliate sites to include your link on them. The more affiliates you have, the better it is for SEO.

Step 5: Site Maintenance and Track your Progress

    While you are doing this, determine a method by which you can track your progress. You should be able to answer the question: how well am I doing? Or where am I in the process exactly?

    If you have hired an SEO firm to do the job for you, ask them to give you reports on the rank, traffic, and popularity of your website. Another option for you is to purchase or download programs that are designed to analyze and follow trends regarding the activities of visitors on your site, as well as how well you are doing in search engine ranking pages.

    Maintenance will soon follow. As you keep track of your progress, be sure you constantly update your content, as well as your knowledge on SEO trends. Remember, don’t get left behind.

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