This was a series of fun conversations we had with Badfish Consulting re-aligned into a blog post. Too often do we explain services with technical terms which are difficult to relate to. When dealing with one of the most innovative leadership coaches in Rochester, we tried to describe the process of modeling an SEO strategy, a little differently.
Suzanne Piotrowski is one of the most innovative leadership coaches in the Rochester area. That being said, she is not an SEO expert and not a website developer. So when I was trying to explain various driftpoint Media services, I offered the “BadFish Consulting” translations of SEO and website guidance. They make more sense when you read a few of her programs like “Space Camp” and “Open Swim”.
http://badfishconsulting.com/?portfolio=space-camp-2013
http://badfishconsulting.com/open-swim-tuesdays/
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Stage 1 – Proof is in the Pudding
Dear Miss “nobody finds us from the website”…
I am going to give you the “here is what Steve sees” glimpse to how people find you online. Let’s call it the “Proof is in the Pudding” service, since I haven’t named anything yet. It comes with my 10 cent, don’t get too nerdy speech on how Google works with a small glimpse at marketing potential to know how much audience is out there. To develop such a politically incorrect report, I have some homework for you.
I precede the homework below with the statement that….
You are unique and in no way does naming others represent what your business is or will be.
Homework
Provide me with 3-5 companies in the Rochester area you would consider competitors.
aka “John’s House of Pancakes” or Cheatem Cheatem and Ripoff
Provide me with 3-5 companies which you consider “close” to what you represent or what you would like to represent, located anywhere in the world.
Extended Homework
Some people don’t know what to choose for keywords. You can choose to help draw some out for me, or sit in your comfy chair and I will identify ones I believe to be effective. Your involvement helps align my thoughts to where it should be.
You know your clients.
You know which clients you like.
Picture them before they were your clients, sitting in a room, wondering how they are going to get help with “???????????????????”.
Then we name that service, as that is where they start in Google.
example “leadership development”
I will use that information to put into my pudding mix and give you back a report. That report is the first glimpse at how the world of Google views you and gives you some measurement against your competitors.
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Stage 2 – Hugs and Kisses
You want to talk to your website and embrace the Google universe of tools. Google offers tools to watch the traffic coming in. They offer tools to help you determine if the website is in good standing and could be optimized. We start with getting those tools installed.
Setup Google Analytics
Setup Google Webmaster Tools
The trifecta of tools is to setup the tools that manage your ads coming back to your site, which we won’t touch yet.
Analytics will show you how the traffic flows, where it originates from, how it found you, and the behavior of what people did when they got to your site. Webmaster tools will show you what the site looks like from Google. Both require configuration work on your site. Nothing overly technical, but something for you to setup along side of your website guy.
Once you have embraced the Google way of doing things, you want to blow it some sweet kisses by firing up a small ad campaign or generating a regular stream of traffic to kick things off. That acts as kindling to the fire. See, hugs and kisses. Ok, that was a stretch.
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Stage 3 – Chiropractic Services
Reading the tools is the magic part. There is a list of things that align your site with the Google way of working. Everything from the structure of the files to controlling how you are represented in search results. I have done it enough that when I setup a site, I build that site keeping these things in my planning. Regardless, the tools help identify how far out of alignment your website spine is to the Google prescription and allows me to pull and nudge pieces back into place.
Here is a good beginner guide to perform the first spinal alignment. Some of it will make sense, and some if it seems out of focus. It is a place to start.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf