Each morning one of the first things I do is create a “to do” list of tasks I hope to accomplish that day. Its an optimistic time, really – generally between 7:30 and 8:00 am, when I lay out my plan of attack. Now I know full well that not every item on the list will get done. And yes, at the same time its almost certain other tasks will present themselves throughout the day. Be it a special request from a client, a conversation with a prospective client, or what have you.
But just once I’d like to get most of those items done! I admit it – the biggest obstacle between myself and my desired level of productivity is one thing: organization.
So how does organization relate to SEO? Well lets see… I started studying search engine optimization around 2 years ago or so. I had a small web design business and I soon found out that leveraging the search engines was the best possible way for me to find qualified leads at an affordable price. I then soon began to offer SEO services to some of clients – most of which are relatively small scale websites, between 5 and 50 web pages.
It was easy to be a highly effective SEO when it was just my own site I was optimizing. In fact, I did very well by just kind of getting things done with no special method to my madness for about a half dozen clients. Then I began to get a bit busier. I’m currently in the neighborhood of a dozen ongoing clients, and organization is definitely the key. Without it, its easy to accidentally let a link campaign or revising content-type of task slip your mind for a client or two every now and again. Thus, I’ve been working hard lately on making sure I take a logical, sequential plan of action for each client.
Here are the various SEO related activities I try and keep an eye on every month for my search engine optimization and internet marketing clients:
- Keyword Research
- Title Tag Review
- Content Building & Updating
- Internal Linking Structure
- Inbound Link Building
- Monthly Monitoring of Rankings
- Monthly Monitoring of Traffic
Pretty basic, yes. For the most part these are the essentials of any SEO campaign, be it a monthly, ongoing campaign or some sort of a one-time three month push (of which I’m not a huge supporter). However, while its easy to know this, and just as easy to write it… its another thing altogether to remember. I’m on a bit of a new kick. I’m going to post these items on my wall so I stare at them every day. Basic. Nothing secretive. But essential, so very essential. Whether you are an SEO yourself or if you simply dabble around trying to optimize a hobby website of yours, I think it cannot be stressed enough that the best way I know to get high search engine rankings is to follow these basic principles – build content, appropriate title tags, knowledge and usage of appropriate keywords throughout, and strong inbound linking over the long-term. This works. No big secret, just hard work and good organization.