As much a black art as it is a science, search engine optimization (SEO) generally involves modifying both the visible and the invisible portions of your Website.
The visible portions of your Website are the words and pictures on your Web pages that your visitors can see. Search engines give a lot of weight to these elements when deciding how to rank your site. We help you select appropriate keywords and optimize the text of your site to maximize your search engine ranking.
The invisible portions of your Website are found in the HTML code of your Web pages. There are several important invisible elements in the heading of your Web pages that we will help you optimize. In addition, we may recommend changes in the way your Website is hosted or the way pages are displayed.
The art of SEO comes from experience with dealing with the ever-changing requirements of search engines. Make a mistake on your Website SEO, and your ranking could plummet. In fact, in the past, Google has meted out the “death penalty” to giant corporations, for violating SEO rules. Don’t take the chance of this happening to you. Beware the lowballing, quickie SEO bottomfeeders, and especially beware anyone who guarantees a number 1 ranking for a nominal monthly fee. Be safe. Let StratVantage plan your SEO strategy.
Here’s an outline of a typical StratVantage SEO engagement:
Infrastructure Assessment
These steps form the foundation from which your SEO effort will rise.
Item: Initial Site Survey
Time: 1-2 hours
Rationale: We check out basics of the technology involved with your particular site and begin to identify specific issues we need to consider.
Item: Keyword Research
Time: 2 hours
Rationale: Web marketing guru Seth Godin states that there are only four possible goals for a Web page:
- get someone to buy something right now
- get someone to give you their email address so you can build a relationship
- get someone to tell a friend
- get someone to go to another page on your site.
Picking one works better than picking two, and picking more than two is silly. Using the results of a conversation with you and the text from your Website, we identify the core focus and goals of your site. We identify, through research of competitive and similar sites, words and word combinations that are popular search terms to achieve your goals. We make recommendations on how to incorporate these keywords in your Website copy to draw the most visitors.
Item: Site Structure Review
Time: 2 hours
Rationale: We review the structure of your site, how the pages are arranged and linked together, to ensure that your site can be accessed by search engines. Simple linking mistakes can prevent search engines from seeing all your pages. Typically we give you recommendations to be implemented by your Webmaster/technical staff rather than directly modifying your Website. If you don’t have a Webmaster, StratVantage can provide one.
On-Page Optimization
A critical part of SEO is getting your web pages ready for the search engines. These steps ensure that when the search engines arrive, they find good content that will rank well.
Item: Meta Data Review
Time: 2 hours
Rationale: One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO is the metatags attached to your pages. We ensure that your pages all have appropriate, targeted metadata.
Item: Copy Review
Time: 2 Hours
Rationale: Search engines match user searches to the actual words on your pages. We make recommendations for copy changes to ensure that the words on your pages are targeted towards capturing the searches that searchers use. We recommend both changes to existing copy, and suggest some popular topics for additional copy based on the keyword research.
Off-Page Optimization
Once your site is solid, and not before, we begin working on the exterior factors of SEO. We submit your site to the major search engines to ensure inclusion. We also submit your site to human- and computer-compiled directories and other interested Websites. Such Websites can supply more traffic to your site by giving people more avenues to find you. Additionally, you receive generally higher search engine rankings if your site has more inbound links.
Item: Search Engine Submission
Time: 2 Hours
Rationale: If your site is new, it may not appear at all in the major search engines. For those search engines with free submission, we ensure that your Website is included in their schedule of Web sites to index. Actual time to inclusion will depend on the search engines’ schedule. In addition, we submit your site to various human-edited directories. At your choice, we can submit your site to sites that either charge for inclusion or offer a fast-track capability for a premium price. Additional charges for these services will be negotiated upon request.
Item: Link Development
Time: 4 hours (Additional time or monthly recurring contracts available)
Rationale: In modern SEO the number, theme, and quality of links pointing toward your site have a major impact on how well your Website will appear in the results. We find business directories, hobby sites, and related websites that may be interested in linking to you.
Total Package Price: US$1,500
StratVantage can help
StratVantage’s initial SEO package gets you started with SEO. However, SEO is a process, not a one-shot deal. You will want to have us monitor your position and make adjustments on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. We can quote you rates for these services upon request.
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