SEO Building Blocks

If you want to maximize results and minimize the time to implement, then I recommend you develop a strategy that builds upon a strong SEO foundation. I’ve identified seven building blocks for SEO success. The lower blocks form the SEO foundation for your website.

High level overview of the 7 SEO Building Blocks for Success:

1. Configuration
Start out right by choosing the right domain name, making needed server configurations, choosing and configuring a content management system and installing an SEO friendly analytics package.

2. Research & Targeting
Align your business and SEO goals, then perform targeted keyword research.

3. On Page Factors
Make it easier for the search engines to figure out what content is included on your pages and what the topics are. Optimize titles, descriptions, header tags, etc.

4. Information Architecture 
Information Architecture forms the skeleton or frame of your website. The joints are the links between pages. Search Engines use these links to discover pages and determine which pages are heirarchically more important than others. Links include main navigation, category navigation, sitemap, footer, tag clouds breadcrumb trails and more.

5. Building Awareness
The rest of the world, including search engines, needs to be aware of your website and the content it contains. Techniques for building awareness include syndication, XML site maps, link building and social media optimization.

6. Accelerators
Managing the distribution of page rank juice, expanding keyword research, strategic link building and generating buzz about your website will amplify or accelerate your results.

7. Measure & Refine
Once search traffic starts flowing in, results should measured agains business goals. Use analytics and advanced keyword research to find new opportunities to add new targeted content to the website.

Prioritze

Analyze your websites current SEO state in each of the first six blocks: Configuration, Targeting, On-Page Factors, Information Architecture, Awareness, Acceleration. For each block, determine the current depth of coverage.

Address configuration & targeting issues first. Deepen coverage at each level before moving up. You can and should work on multiple block levels at a time.

Try to avoid top heaviness. A good rule of thumb is: To improve SEO results, for any given block, the effort required is higher if blocks below are smaller. Smaller = less coverage.

Implementation Plan

1. Set goals for SEO
2. Analyze current SEO state (focus on foundation blocks)
3. Prioritize (based upon current state analysis)
4. Perform keyword research
5. Identify target keywords (consider search volume; business goals; brand; user roles; purchase phases; etc)
6. Implement improvements in foundation blocks
7. Add targeted content
8. Build awareness, accelerate & refine

For the clients that I work with every day, following this overall strategy drives an ever growing amount of targeted search traffic to their websites.

1. Do Your Homework First
You should have a solid grasp on the current state of SEO for your website and the opportunity that optimizing presents before attempting to gain support for your initiative.

Analyze current on-page SEO, URL structure, internal link structure, external links, etc to determine which areas need to be addressed. Be prepared to highlight both successes and shortcomings. Highlight the successes as something to build on.

Use whatever existing analytics data you have to determine the current amount of organic traffic. Perform keyword research, using tools such as Word Tracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/), to identify target keywords for which you want to attract traffic. It’s important to understand the relative quantity of searches made by users in order to narrow the list to the highest opportunity keywords.

Next compare your rankings against your competitors for these key terms. Use tools such as SEO Books Rank Checker (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/) to determine how your website stacks up.

With this information you are ready to build your case for SEO and develop an implementation strategy.

2. Communicate the Business Rationale
Everyone wants their initiative to be the “top priority” for IT. You must make the case why this SEO initiative should be made a priority. Use the current SEO state analysis, competitor analysis and keyword opportunities to assemble your business case.

Make sure that senior management on the business side is on-board before going to IT. IT wants to know that the initiative has clear support within the organization and how the project aligns to the business goals of the company.

Now you are ready to talk to IT about the details of the initative.

3. Define the Scope & Effort
Using your analysis put together a list of prioritized items you would like the IT team to implement. Note: Depending on your current state, some efforts might be undertaken before others. For example, if your on-page SEO is poor, then you may wish to target this aspect before you attack internal link structure. Massive duplicate content might be addressed before implementing a site map.

Your list should also be prioritized by what you believe would have the greatest positive impact on meeting the business goals. Let the IT team determine the effort (for their responsibilities) and you provide the effort for your area of responsibilities.

Don’t expect an immediate determination of effort. The IT team will likely want to provide a more educated effort and risk analysis. Ask for a date to receive their estimate. If the date is too far out, ask for something looser that can be used to gauge relative efforts.

4. Phase the Rollout
The IT team doesn’t have unlimited resources and most likely won’t be able to take on all the items on your list. Be flexible and willing to work with IT on how this initiative fits into their schedule.

Companies that commit themselves to SEO should understand that it is a long term initiative. Impact is seen over time and conditions change so set expectations that SEO is something that should be built into processes and regularly re-evaluated.

5. Don’t Rule Out the Intangibles
Individual IT team members are generally more excited to work on projects that they learn a great deal from or ones that enhance valuable skills. SEO projects often allow them to expand their skill sets and challenge their creative thinking.

If the project has high visibility within the organization, then convey this fact to the team. Their contributions to success will be made evident.

6. Don’t Give Up
Since your project will like have to be prioritized with all other initiatives, you likely won’t get everything you want exactly when you want it. Discuss regularly with IT the progress of the initiative, including regular updates (monthly, quarterly) containing your analysis of the impact based upon analytics. Positive results will motivate the IT team to want to work more on the initiative.

When presenting results to the business side of the organization, make sure you highlight IT’s cooperation and essential contributions to the project. The IT team will appreciate the recognition and you will gain respect for not hogging the spotlight. 

Following these 6 steps should increase the likelihood that the IT team will be on-board with your SEO initiatives.

I’ll be presenting (see final presentation below) on SEO for social media websites. This presentation is geared towards how to design a Search Engine Optimized social media website. The presentation will use real world examples of three social media websites: twitter, digg and stumbleupon to illustrate best practices and pitfalls for SEO.

The process we’ve developed involves considerable interaction with and feedback from the client throughout the project. We’ve broken up the project into 6 or 7 mostly overlapping phases:

It’s important to note that the UI design is determined about half-way through the project. This helps ensure that the design is driven by the business need and functionality instead of the other way around.

• •Goals (of project/website)
• •Scope List
• User List (Primary. Secondary & Tertiary)
• User Objectives
• Use Case List
• Design Needs (Look and Feel)
• Search Engine Optimization Analysis (Current state, if any, and future needs)
• Seed Keyword List
• Competitor List
• •Company Strengths & Weaknesses
• Key Messages
• Technical Requirements
• •Assumptions

Functional Definition Phase

• Competitor Analysis (Navigation, Messaging)
• Site Map
• Page List
• Navigation Elements
• Wire Frames
• Messaging
• Creative Brief
• UI Design Concepts
• Prioritized Target Keyword List
• Alignment of Use Cases to the Site Map/Page List
• Alignment of Keywords to Page List
• Forms (Fields & Validation)
• Technical Operating Environment Definition

Development

• Page Template Creation (From UI Concepts) (HTML/CSS)
• Template Image Creation (category specific images, etc.)
• CMS & Database Setup for Development
• Style Guide
• Custom Client Specific Coding (Functionality Not Available in CMS)Â
• Configure Content Management System to create categories, pages, menus, lists, etc.
• Seed Content
• Page Content Creation & CMS Integration

Testing & Go Live

• Integration Testing (plugins, content, etc.)
• User Acceptance Testing
• Deploy Solution to Production Environment
• Turn Site Live
• Training
• Support

Every project is unique. So expect to modify your plan with each and every project. Hopefully, this plan will give you a decent baseline to start with.