Getting indexed is only part of the battle though. You want to make sure you're indexed for the right keywords. You probably did your keyword research when you first designed your site. The popularity of terms used to describe a thing can change, though. Your target market may have used one word to search for something six months ago, but is now using a different word more frequently. Quick: is "notebook" or "laptop" more popular? That's just one example. Google Trends can help you compare which terms are more popular in what parts of the world, even over time. Here you'd find out that "laptop" is the more popular term in general -- but "notebook" is much more popular in certain parts of the world, such as Italy. Many large SEO firms will have multiple contacts for your account, depending upon the type of question or need you have. So if you have a marketing or SERPs question, then you may get one person, but if you have a question regarding your site structure, you’ll get another person. If you have copywriting issues, you may even get a completely different individual entirely. Sometimes it's just too hard for an SEO consultant with too many accounts to keep track of your needs, in which case your account may end up with several consultants, which makes it more frustrating for you. If you want to make sure you're getting indexed in the search engines, it helps to create and submit an XML site map to Google Sitemaps. You can also submit a site map to Yahoo Site Explorer. But your best bet is to check out Sitemaps.org for more information about a protocol that is being adopted by all three major search engines (and possibly more). You will also run into the risk of a conflict of interest in a particular field or industry regarding keywords. This is because of the sheer number of clients the large SEO firm maintains. The more clients they have, the more likely there is that someone on their staff is working for one of your competitors for the same keywords. A good SEO firm will let you know if you’ll be working with them against a competitor, and either they will decline your offer for service, or they may make you sign a waiver of liability, stating that you are aware that your competitor also contracted this firm. It may be in your best interest, however, to find another firm who doesn’t have a competitor for a client. Tuning Up Your Web Site - Being Seen Not every web site gets the majority of its traffic from the major search engines, but you can't afford to ignore them. Therefore, you need to make sure that your site is being fully indexed by the engines - or at least as fully indexed as you want it to be. If you have content that is for subscribers only, you should already know how to keep it out of the indexes. Just don't block anything more. And certain things are still hard for search engine spiders to read or get past (JavaScript, flash, etc). SEO Firms: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - When to Think Small Small SEO firms or even individual consultants will be the choice for you if you are not happy with dealing with the disadvantages that larger firms create, like customer service. A smaller firm or individual will not have as many clients, and will be able to focus more upon your service, and probably will be far more available to you if you have questions or concerns. Further, if you go with a smaller company, there is a good chance you’ll have a single representative for your account, rather than many different contacts to deal with as you would with a larger company. It's good to have a checklist, because it's easy to miss certain things. Beyond that, though, you might need to be prepared to rethink certain aspects of your web site, especially if you simply built it and left it in a state of benign neglect for several months, figuring it will do its job. I compared a web site to a car in the introduction, but really, it's more like a pet: you need to feed it, water it, take it for walks, be alert to when it's not feeling well...the list goes on and on. So how do you know if your site really needs an overhaul? Start by checking your search engine referral and site traffic figures. You want to get several months' worth of figures. Chart your progress. Are these figures growing? And just as importantly, are site visitors doing what you want them to do (i.e. converting, buying products, ordering newsletters)? If not, it's time to get your site up on jacks, break out the tool kit, open the hood, and get to work. I saved the pricing aspect for last, not because it’s the least important (in fact it may be the most important factor for you), but because it’s not the easiest element to define. There is no set rate that is right or wrong for an SEO project. A few companies offer standard packages in tiers that are the same for every client that firm has, but even sol, every website is different, and every project has its own issues that may need to be dealt with. SEO companies or consultants can charge for a initial analysis or consultation, or it can be free. They may have a set price, or they may need to provide you with a custom quote. Prices for SEO have ranged from as little as $5.00 per hour, which you may see from countries outside of the United States and the United Kingdom, to as much as thousands of dollars for a project. To begin with, an important part of SEO as a discipline involves getting the details right. Admittedly, I say that as someone who has read a lot about the subject; I've never optimized a web site beyond writing articles and making sure they stayed on topic. But most of the information I've read on SEO, whether it's been from books, forum posts, blogs, articles, or what have you, has emphasized the "little things" that make a big difference. The latest report I’d seen on the Internet reported that on average, SEO companies employ nine people (that’s specialists and administrative people too), have 35 clients with an average value of $30,107 each, and $157,796 in annual revenue per employee (source: MarketingSherpa’s Buyers Guide to SEO Firms, third edition). Since only some of this made any sense to me, I looked up average SEO consultant salaries, which is technically a niche market, and there’s not really any averages out there floating around. Honestly, I could only come up with a broad price range: from about $30,000 to about $150,000, and on average, larger companies pay larger salaries. On that note, please don’t ask me what I make a year, because I probably won’t tell you. It could just be that I don’t really know! Regular readers of SEO Chat will know that I recently discussed a series of tips on doing SEO that some might consider a little unorthodox. One of the tips advised readers to engage in regular site redesign - say every six months to a year - for a variety of reasons. This got me thinking about how one would approach redesigning a web site for SEO purposes. SEOs can charge by the hour, per project, or on a monthly contract. It’s a good idea to know what kind of budget you can truly invest in your project. Keep in mind that the money you invest will be just that: an investment. And no investment is bulletproof. Sometimes skimping on the project just for price will actually cost you more than you can afford in the long run. 19.Tuning Up Your Web Site Sometimes web sites are like cars. You can have a site that looks gorgeous from the outside, but if it's under-performing and not getting you where you want to go, it might be time for a tune up - or even a complete overhaul. Read on for your own care and maintenance guide. Ultimately, whether you choose a small or large SEO firm or company, know what you want ahead of time, and don’t be shy to lay it all out at the beginning what you need from your SEO consultant. Sometimes just talking to them will give you a feeling about how they will handle your SEO project. And no matter which you choose, natural search optimization takes time. There is no miracle formula that will speed your site to the top of the engines, no matter who you decide to hire, and you should run far away if someone tells you otherwise. And that’s the ugly truth. Now that I've given you an overview of the web site redesign process, I hope you'll find it a little less overwhelming. It needn't be scary. If you have a web site that is not working for you as well as you'd like, a redesign could help unlock its true potential. 30.Website Usability and SEO In this article, my focus is on how website usability goes hand in hand with good SEO. Usability science, or human factors, pursues the quest for human-computer interface designs that are easy to use. While Usability Day is about technology as a whole, and how that technology makes our lives easier, this article will turn its attention to website usability, and how it can be important in search engine optimization. At the same time, however, blogging isn't for everyone. One SEO says that he looks for three things in a potential blogger: special knowledge, passion for a subject, and good writing skills. However, a good blogger needs one more thing to make it work: time. Having the time to blog is all-important. If the site owner or head of the business does not have the time (or possibly temperament) to blog for the site, the task can be delegated to someone who does. It can even be shared among several employees, as long as their responsibilities are clearly outlined and they all have at least a modicum of the necessary skills and background. “Memory is part of usability. That's why navigation is such a pain in the neck to work out and make usable for everybody who will use your web site. There are ads, images, blinking thingy’s distracting your eyes, and your mind is going everywhere at once. Yet, when I tell a web site owner that people have trouble reading a page when there are 10 things happening all at once, they act as though I stole their blankie.” --Kimberly Krause Berg All of the major search engines, most especially including Google, love fresh content. The easiest way to guarantee that a site will receive fresh content regularly is with a well-maintained blog. It's an informal way to convey information to your visitors that they'll find helpful. The key point, though, is that the blog must be maintained. A web site with a blog that hasn't been updated in a while looks neglected. You do not want to have a web site that conveys that image. I began writing this article in October, but ironically, I wanted to finish it on November 3rd, which is World Usability Day. I write my articles in a funny way, some might think. I write the end, then I write the middle, and lastly, I write the introduction. I didn’t know anything about World Usability Day until I ran across the concept on CNN’s Morning News program, which kicked off events in the US at Hour 21, by Elizabeth Rosenzweig, World Usability Day Chair. What exactly does that mean? Searchers go to Google looking for one thing: content. So your redesigned site needs to have content, relevant content, and lots of it. If you're working with someone who is truly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his field, this shouldn't be too difficult to provide. A site for a real estate agent, for instance, might include articles on the advantages of living in the communities he services. The web site of a dentist with a family practice could talk about ways to encourage kids to practice oral hygiene and/or prepare them for their first visit to the dentist. The possibilities are endless. “Why doesn't this work better? Why can't they make this easier? World Usability Day is for all the people who've ever asked questions like these. This Earth-Day-style event, focused on easy-to-use technology, currently involves plans in more than 70 cities in 30 countries. WorldUsabilityDay.org, online headquarters of the international day, says, “World Usability Day promotes the value of usability engineering, user-centered design, and every user's responsibility to ask for things that work better. The Usability Professionals' Association is doing that by encouraging, organizing, and sponsoring 36 hours of activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on November 3, 2005.” Events included surveys on how appropriate use of color greatly impacts user experience online, seminars and conferences locally, and Open Houses. Redesigning a Site for SEO: an Overview - Make the Website Helpful With all the work you're doing on the site's redesign, don't forget your ultimate goal. It runs deeper than the one I mentioned in the first section of this article. It even runs deeper than getting to the first position on Google for all your keywords, though achieving this goal might help you do that too. Your ultimate goal is to be as helpful as possible to your site's visitors.
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