At Nancy Burgess Strategic Marketing, we’re often asked these questions.
In our last blog, we discussed the website design process at our online agency. We talked about how we’re different and how we start building SEO into your website from the start. In this article, we discuss how we “do” search engine optimization (SEO) and our SEO process—particularly for those who already have a website.
As you may know, there are 200+ algorithm factors that can affect how and where your site ranks on search engine return pages (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo) for SEO.
Other companies will give you a “free” audit and a flat rate of $550 to $1000 a month for SEO. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all strategy.
Instead, our SEO process always start with an audit and a customized strategy.
Step 1: Develop your website’s customized SEO strategy.
To know where we can achieve improvements on your site, we’ll conduct an SEO review, also called an SEO audit.
Don’t be afraid of the word audit!
It’s simply a checkup, just as your doctor might look at your bloodwork and vital signs—or your mechanic looks under the hood of your car. An audit is simply a series of diagnostics.
We need to determine what’s working well and what is not. To do this, we’ll:
We’ll learn more about your target audience and personas. Additionally, we’ll discover what you’re trying to achieve with your website. We’ll also explore how your current marketing efforts are working for you.
What’s more, to conduct a comprehensive audit, we’ll ask for the following:
We’ll access or set up your free Google tools: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. We’ll gather the information you provide and also:
Once we’re aligned on the NAP document, isolated four competitors, and identified 100 keyword phrases, we’ll run the audit. This is akin to your doctor’s office collecting all the diagnostic tests you’ve had. We’ll collect these data to see how your site is actually performing.
Among many other factors, we’ll discover:
This includes a minimum of four separate reports: Directory Listings, Overall SEO, Ranking Report, and Google Keyword Phrases report.
Step 3: Write the SEO report and strategic plan.
At this phase, we gather up all the diagnostic data, and write a summary report. This report will bring the relevant data points together. We also apply our expert knowledge of SEO to customize a plan for you.
There are also a lot of SEO mistakes, optimization myths, SEO lies, and outdated practices. To stay relevant with today’s best SEO tips, we participate in Google Webmaster Tools office hours. There, we hear straight from John Mueller at Google to know where we should focus our attention.
We assess the next steps and develop a plan.
We’ll meet with you via videoconferencing to review your report and next steps. From there, you can determine how you want to proceed.
If there are SEO changes that you or your staff would like to implement internally? Great! Do you simply not have the bandwidth? Not a problem.
We implement the plan for you. Sometimes people know up front that they will not have the time, talent, or resources to make changes. If you are an expert at implementing part of the plan (eg, a web developer enhancing site speed), that’s fine, too. Our experience has shown us that most people do not “get” SEO, and it’s best if we execute the plan for them. (It’s more efficient and delivers an ROI more quickly, because we have the expertise to make it happen.
If you don’t assess where you are, you don’t know how to get where you’re going. For instance, if you want to go to Disney World, you need to know if you’re coming from Tampa or Anchorage. Your route is different. That’s why we don’t provide a one-size-fits-all plan.
Furthermore, we want to make the greatest impact quickly. Many SEO companies or agencies offer a flat rate of $500 to $1000 a month to create SEO friendly content. Then they pass off the project to a contractor or junior member of the team. These 4 hours or so of SEO services each month are unlikely to get that boost you may need to make an impact on the business as quickly as possible.
Yes. Although we never make pie crust promises that you’ll rank number one, SEO does make a positive impact for the vast majority of companies. (The more competitive your field and the more savvy your competition, the more challenging it will be)
Google calculates that paid advertising results in $2 for every $1 spent. The search engine behemoth also estimate that you will get 5 clicks for every $1 you spend on SEO. Therefore, the company surmises that combining ads and SEO results in an ROI of $8 for every $1 spent.
At the time of publication, the meeting, NAP completion, audit, summary report, and SEO strategic plan is $750 for websites of average sizes. We believe this is an excellent value that will save you time and money in the long run. It is likely to drive “free” traffic to your site for months and years to come.
The audit and plan are not free, because it takes time and resources to make it uniquely effective. You will receive a customized report and strategic plan, not simply a computer printout. You are paying for the SEO expertise and overall understanding of digital marketing.
It depends what we need to do. If we simply need to tweak a few items, costs will be less than if the website requires an overhaul. These are typical costs:
If you do not have enough content or the wrong type of content on your pages, we will rewrite or write your content to be web and SEO friendly:
If you prefer to pay as a monthly fee, we can do that. We often work with terms for our clients. We often offer plans of $600 per month.
No. First, we recommend monthly monitoring of your analytics to see how you’re progressing and if additional implementation needs to take place. Second, the algorithm changes daily with larger changes occurring at irregular intervals (usually monthly or so). For that reason, it’s important to stay abreast of changes.
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