Self-Qualification Guide for SEO Services
Everyone needs SEO? Right? Sounds kind of like an SEO company wrote that, don't you think?
The truth is, there are many companies for which search is not a major contributing channel and doesn't really need to be. Is it more common that SEO brings value? We believe so, but we make no assumptions here at Tangible Value, which is why we offer this guide to help you determine…
- Can SEO be valuable to my organization?
- What kinds of SEO services do I need or not need?
- How do I budget an SEO project?
Early Stage SEO Activities
These activities answer the question - “can SEO bring value to my business?” If you don’t understand how people use search engines to find companies or organizations like yours, then you’ll never have a succinct strategy and you may waste a lot of time and money doing “SEO stuff,” which is our internal term for SEO work that isn’t measurable and doesn’t ultimately affect your bottom line in a meaningful way.
Keyword Research & Categorization
The solution begins with the exercise of documenting all the things you offer as well as the people you want to talk to (who is searching) and coming to a thorough and organized list of keywords. Without this step, you do not have a strategy and you are not in control.
This is a strategic thought process, whereby you learn the words people actually type into a search engine relevant to your industry or product (they aren’t always what you think)and then you have to decide which ones really represent the specific audience you want to reach. SEO is typically a challenging channel to break into, so you should only have a list of keywords that have a high probability of bringing value to your bottom line or which have a clear theoretical path to conversion.
Keyword to Page Mapping
Equally strategic but warranting a bit more expertise than keyword selection is mapping keywords to pages on your website - or to determine you need a new page to rank best (a grossly underdiagnosed issue). This exercise connects the dots between how people search (how you must talk) and your website’s present state (how you are presently represented).
All the following activities aim to bridge the gap between your world in search and your present website. Bridging this gap should yield higher rankings when these specific words are searched and more ways for your audience to find you.
Qualify yourself for this stage
- Do you have an organized list of SEO keywords that you and stakeholders all believe represent your target audience (exporting a PPC keyword list from AdWords is not sufficient here. This can be a good start, but AdWords usually functions with very broad and sometimes irrelevant keywords and is a very different channel in this respect).
- Have you assigned each of these keywords to an existing page or determined that you need a new page to properly rank? Keywords should be very closely related to the content of the page such that the keyword or a close variation could be the title of the page.
If you answered an emphatic YES to each of these questions, you may be able to start at the next step. However, upon review of your keyword list we may recommend deeper analysis because a more complete keyword research can provide many more opportunities for success, whereas an incomplete or disorganized list will yield weaker results.
If you answered no to either question, we recommend beginning with a Keyword Research project.
Foundational SEO Activities
If the activities above provide you with a roadmap, the next step is to start working on your vehicle and getting ready to drive toward the destination. Foundational work is all about matching the content on your website to the way people search, which comprises adding or editing pages, adding keywords to content, and other such activities.
You’ll notice we haven’t talked about measurement or reporting yet, but this happens here and not in the first stage because in the absence of meaningful keywords, who needs to do any SEO reporting at all? Our stance is that no one does. Reporting should only show how much closer you are to previously defined goal over time - not the arbitrary motions of the ocean.
SEO Reporting Tool Configuration
There is no success without proper measurement, so once you have a list of SEO keywords that prove it’s a valuable channel for your business, you should upload this list to an SEO reporting tool. This tool will track where your domain(s) rank for each keyword on a given day and time. There are a multitude of options here and you should pair an SEO rank tracking tool with a general Web Analytics tool to connect the dots between better rankings and more visits to your site.
Create New Pages and Content (where needed)
In some cases you might have a page that effectively answers just the question implied by a given keyword. However, without building a site with SEO in mind this is rarely the case. In most cases a page is close but not quite and rankings suffer. In other cases you may think your page is just what the user wants, but page 1 of Google is filled with content that is very different than what you are offering.
In these cases we must match the style and calibur of content that Google and other search engines prefer as well as matching (as best we can) the intent of the keyword search. For this reason it’s usually best to create new pages dedicated solely to better SEO rankings for a given keyword.
Write Optimized Metadata
Whether a new or existing page, you will need to make sure the keywords in your strategy are properly represented in some of the main places search engines tend to look. That would be the page title or title tag and the meta description of the page. The meta description actually does not affect better rankings, but these two elements combine to make the listing that actually shows in search results. These elements need to reflect keywords and should also be written in a way that entices a user to click and represents your brand voice.
Qualify yourself for this stage
- Do you track a defined list of SEO keywords in a rank tracking tool?
- Have you configured Google Search Console (a free tool offered by Google to help you see more about how you appear in search)?
- Do you use a Web Analytics tool like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics?
- Have you made sure all the pages mapped in your keyword research have custom-written title tags and meta descriptions written to include important keywords?
- Is your content equally optimized as those ranking high in Google and does the content that ranks best on page 1 look like what you are offering (meaning same length of words, answers the same questions, uses lists or bullets, etc.)
- Have you made sure all the pages mapped in your keyword research have custom-written title tags and meta descriptions written to include important keywords?
- Is your content equally optimized as those ranking high in Google and does the content that ranks best on page 1 look like what you are offering (meaning same length of words, answers the same questions, uses lists or bullets, etc.)
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may be able to skip to the next phase.
If you answered no to some or all of these questions, our teams can work from (or create) your keyword research document to custom-write SEO elements and create new content that represents target keywords while also matching your brand tone and voice. We can also set up all tools necessary to track SEO performance effectively.
Advanced SEO Activities
Even with all of the above items completed - there is a strong likelihood that competitors have done just the same. We can help you develop a more robust keyword strategy but odds are there will be places where you’re going head to head for the same keywords. In this case we need to affect the “popularity contest” aspect of the search engine algorithm, which measures the quality and quantity of other websites referencing your pages with what are known as backlinks.
Building Backlinks to Priority Pages
If you are serious about a few (or many more) keywords to improve traffic flow to your site, you will likely need to build more backlinks to these pages. All other things equal, Google tends to rely on “external signals” to determine which pages to rank in the top 10 out of the thousands (or more) that all have the first two phases of SEO maturity dialed.
There are many strategies by which to come by external backlinks - reaching out to publishers, developing scholarships to attract links from educational websites, guest blogging on third party sites, or just creating thought leadership content in the hopes that it will be shared or referenced organically. Google and other search engines have worked to limit manipulation of search results via link building and there is risk of penalization if low quality links are built at scale so one must be careful here.
However, there is great upside in a way to create high quality links and in many cases it is the only way to rank competitively for some of the keywords in your strategy. In these cases it’s best to proceed with caution and consistently measure the impact of your efforts.
Qualify yourself for this stage
- Do you consistently (monthly or quarterly) generate new external backlinks to specific pages on your site(s)?
- Do you work with a link building partner or do any link building for your site?
- Is the link building you do for the sole purpose of better SEO rankings? (PR efforts are usually very different and do not affect SEO)
- Do you isolate link building activities and measure rankings so that you can see if your activities are effective?
If you answered yes to all of these, well we may only be able to be an additional source of links for you - still a good thing since having more sources is always better. However, we would challenge any link building partner’s ability to report on the effects of their specific contribution. That’s a part of our service we are very proud of.
If you answered no to any or all of these questions and all other phases are complete, we would love to propose a small sample project so you can see what link building by an experienced professional can provide.
Wait, What About Technical SEO?
Ah yes, technical SEO. We generally find that technical SEO is an over-prescribed and underperforming activity. We are capable of such services but do not believe that things like “site health” in a general sense is key to yielding the vast majority of SEO benefits to your business. This is why instead of beginning with a “site audit” or “SEO audit” we would rather help you become strategic with your SEO keywords first and foremost since this will determine the opportunity SEO presents.
So, instead our policy is that if we can get keywords to rank at all, your site is indexed and there is no issue. If you think you have a specific issue with technical SEO or if we discover one while working together, we are equipped to address the problem with a dedicated project to rectify the issue.
We also have a proven track record with site migrations and site acquisition / absorption to maximize SEO gains and minimize losses.
Budgeting & Scoping SEO Projects
This question can’t be answered without a conversation to get into the details. Many SEO companies offer a flat rate monthly retainer or various pre-set tiers of service. We prefer to at least attempt at coming to a budget that matches your SEO opportunity and goals.
Your consideration of the content and answers to the questions above fast forward quite a bit of an early sales call and provide a context for how we do business. We hope it has been valuable and offer the next step of contacting us for a more detailed conversation if you think we could be a good fit.