Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing (SEO / SEM)

When people hear about online marketing, they often think of two of the more popular methods that a company can use to enhance its visibility on the Web: organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.  Organic search engine optimization campaigns offer several distinct advantages over pay-per-click advertising campaigns, as many recent studies have shown. What follows is a brief listing of some of the findings.

Propensity to Click

Study after study indicates people are less likely to click on paid search ads rather than on results from organic search engine optimization. For example, one study found that search users are up to six times more likely to click on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results, while an eye tracking study showed that 50 percent of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. Other studies have shown that only 30 percent of search engine users click on paid listings, leaving an overwhelming 70 percent who are clicking the organic listings.  And a 2003 study found that 85 percent of searchers report clicking on paid links in less than 40 percent of all of their searches, and 78 percent of all respondents claim that they found the information they we searching for through sponsored links just 40 percent of the time.

Trust

Studies are beginning to indicate that the trust level for organic results is much higher than that of paid results, and that paid results are looked upon as a nuisance by some searchers. One study found that only 14 percent of searchers trust paid listings, and 29 percent report being “annoyed” by them.  Another study found that 66 percent of customers distrust paid ads.  Clearly, it’s not generally a good idea to upset potential customers before they even click on your link.

In an ideal world, you would use both SEO and Pay-Per-Click advertising strategically to maximize your site’s profile. However, budgetary constraints often make this impossible, and trying to do both on a limited budget or with minimal resources can result in neither campaign producing ideal results. In this case, it’s usually better to focus on one or the other. But which is best for you?

Pay-Per-Click Costs Rising

Meanwhile, pay-per-click costs are rising steadily. Between October 2004 and December 2005, average keyword prices rose from around $25 to just under $55.  And the cost of keywords can increase by as much as 100 percent during the holiday season.  These costs aren’t going unnoticed either; one study of problems experienced by U.S. companies found that 57 percent of respondents felt that their desired keywords were “too expensive,” while 51 percent expressed concern that they are overpaying for certain keywords.  On the other hand, when you outsource to an organic search engine optimization firm, your costs will likely remain more stable than the prices for pay-per-click advertising.

This document will also give you insight of our SEO / SEM strategies that have helped many websites to receive excellent rankings in organic search engines.  If at any point you have questions, please feel free to contact our SEO manager through email or IM mentioned below.

Contact:  Jerry Suhrstedt

Email:      jerrys@heavygu.com

About Us

We are a professionally managed, full-service, marketing and advertising agency located in Olympia Washington.  One of our specialties is the field of Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing.  Our team is comprised of a national based team of 50 full time employees working on various SEO and SEM Projects serving right now more than 100 sites on the internet.

At Heavy Guerrilla we believe the most effective way of offering the some of the highest quality work in the search engine optimization industry is to keep up with the latest technological developments. We are a fluid and dynamic company that keeps abreast of current trends in order to remain one step ahead of the competition and to give our clients a continued reason to choose us to manage their Search Engine Optimization and Marketing. We learn from developing trends and assess them as to how they can help our customers.

SEO Process Flow

Below are the details of our SEO process & strategy:

On Page Optimization

• Before beginning SEO work, we measure how your site is currently performing. This phase helps us to understand strength and weakness of your site.
• Key phrase research and analysis A Key Phrase is a combination of keywords that most appropriately define your product offerings and/or your area of operations. One of the most crucial steps in Search Engine Optimization is the process of Key phrase Identification. We carry out a deep analysis of your products and offerings and then sort out the most appropriate key phrases. For the above, we consult you first then we research on the keywords you’ve suggested and choose the right keywords. Then our SEO experts identify and finalized a set of target key phrases for your site’s search engine optimization.
• Keywords VS. Target pages
• As that of keywords, it is also important to select the proper page of the site that should be targeted for each keyword. After your approval of the suggested keywords, we analyze and finds most important pages of your site that we should target for optimizing for each keyword.
• Analytics Setup
• Before making any changes in the website, we setup google analytics so that we can measure the results after completion of SEO work.
• Comparative Analysis – Competitors & Client Website
• We don’t work without benchmarking. Our SEO experts analyze the top competitors of your site and compare it with all the aspects with your site. Here we check the various server related parameters like header status etc… along with the various website parameters like No. of indexed pages, Link Popularity etc.
• Web Pages Analysis
• Here we check all-important parameters of important pages of your website like site architecture & layout, Title tags, images, code to text ration etc… This gives us the current standing of your site. We check all these figures during & on completion of SEO and keeps close watch on it.
• Meta tags & Header tags Optimization
• After in-depth analysis of shortlisted keywords, results of comparative analysis & Web pages analysis we prepare the optimized title tag, description tag, keywords tag & header tags ( H1, H2 and H3) for all important pages of the site. Report is sent to you for confirmation.
• Content Creation (If Required)
• “Content is the king” . Search engine likes good and unique content in the website. Our copywriting team will analyze all important pages of your website to check if any page needs correction/addition/deletion in the text. If require we send you the report containing suggested changes.

SEO Implementation

After your approval of our above reports, we start implementing it on your website. It includes content optimization, title tag optimization, meta tags optimization, image optimization etc. If your website is static, we first implement it in dummy pages, report you, and after your approval we make the page live. If your site is dynamic, we make changes on the live site. It includes but not limited to:

• Implementing Architectural changes if required
• Correcting the findings of comparative analysis.
• Optimization of title tags, header tags and other meta tags of important pages
• Optimizing internal linking structure
• Image optimization
• Content optimization according to finding of analysis
• Analysis & optimization of h1, h2, bold, a, table, alt etc.. tags as per meta tags optimization report
• Optimizing JavaScript and CSS codes
• Adjusting Code to Text Ratio as per the finding of analysis
• W3c Validation
• Off Page Optimization
• Off-page optimization (off-page SEO) are strategies for search engine optimization that are done off the pages of a website to maximize its performance in the search engines for target keywords related to the page content. It includes:
• One Way Inbound Links
• In bound links are one of the most important factors that guide your ranking. More the inbound links, better is the chance of getting ranked. We build one way links to your site with other related website
• Directory Submissions
• Here we submit your site various directories available on the net. These are the good source of getting inbound links.
• Submission to Dmoz Directory
• DMOZ is most reputed human edited directory on web. They have very strict criteria for inclusion. We optimize the title & description of your site especially for DMOZ & submit it manually.

Social Media Optimization

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites like dig.com, del.ico.us etc… Primarily, SMO focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO. It includes:

• Blog Setup
• As said, search engine likes content, having a blog in the website is the best way to provide unique content to search engines. We setup wordpress blog to your website and add the articles written by our copywriters. This blog is also use for link baiting – an unique link building technique.
• Article Submissions to Directories
• We create & optimize content rich article of about 300 to 500 words & submit it to reputed article directories available on the net. These articles are submitted with 2-3 links to your website in the authors box. Article submissions not only give you one way links but also the visitors.
• Submission to Social Book Marking websites
• Social bookmarking is one of the latest powerful SEO tool to promote website. We submit your website to various high traffic community websites like dig.com, delicious.com, orkut.com etc. It not only helps in getting you better ranked in search engines, but also expose your website to thousands of community members visiting these websites.
• Link Baiting
• Link baiting means encouraging others to link to you. Legitimate linking brings you quality traffic. Here we create an unique blog post ( or you provides the content) related to your service or product and submit it to various bookmarking websites. It not only helps in getting you better ranked in search engines, but also exposes your blog posts to thousands of potential customers visiting these websites.
• Squidoo Lense creation & bookmarking. Squidoo.com is a reputed website where you can create your own page with link to your website (same as blog) called a lens (ex: http://www.squidoo.com/forex-currency-trading). This lens is then submitted to various high traffic social bookmarking websites. Squidoo lens’ helps to generate sales and huge traffic.

Suggested Service Details

• Number of targeted keywords 25 (15 Primary Keywords and 10 Secondary Keywords)
• Services: ON Page Optimization
• Keyword research and Analysis
• Doc type Analysis
• Optimization of title tags of all important pages
• Optimization of other meta tags (Description etc…)
• Optimization of header tags H1, H2, and H3
• Analysis of bold tag
• Optimizing JavaScript and CSS codes
• Optimization of non index able attributes like Frames
• Optimizing HTML Source Code
• Image optimization
• Hyperlink Optimization
• Optimizing internal linking structure (Navigation)
• Optimization of external Links
• Broken links analysis & correction
• W3c Validation ( for home page)*
• Creation & Optimization of HTML Site Map
• Creation, Optimization & Submission of Yahoo (TEXT) Site Map
• Creation, Optimization & Submission of Google (XML) Site Map
• Website architectural correction (if required)
• Content Optimization ( if required)
• Canonicalization error correction
• Blog Setup (Separately on Wordpress.com)*
• Google Analytics Setup

OFF Page Optimization

• Link Building – 65 Nos.
• Directory Submissions ( including DMOZ.org) – 75 Nos.
• Search Engine Submissions – 100 Nos.
• Social Media Optimization
• Article Submission to Directories ( 3 FREE optimized article creation) – 75 Nos.
• Submission to Social Book Marking websites – 75 Nos.
• Setting up Optimized BLOG(1 FREE blog post) * – 1 Nos.
• Link Baiting* – 75 Nos.
• Squidoo page creation (1 FREE lense with images) – 1 Nos.
• Squidoo Lense Submissions – 75 Nos.
• Comparative Analysis – Competitors & Client Website
• Google Page Rank
• Pages recognized by Search Engines (Google, Yahoo & BING)
• No. of Back links (Google & Yahoo)
• Header Status
• Code to Text Ratio
• W3C Validation
• Social Bookmarking Presence

* W3C validation depends upon your site structure. Validation will be done only if it is possible to do it without making major changes in the website structure.

*Canonicalization error correction is done in site hosted on LINUX server and your web host has provided you the access to .HTACCESS file.

*Blog installation will be done only if proper access to your site FTP and database is provided.

*Link Baiting is done with reference to Blog. Therefore Link Baiting service will be provided only if Blog is installed in your website.

Post SEO Monthly Maintenance

• Service Details
• Article Writing 1
• Link Building 25
• Directory Submissions 25
• Article Submission to directories 25
• Submission to Social Book Marking Websites 25
• Blog Posts 1
• Link Baiting 25
• Squidoo Lense Creation 1
• Squidoo Lense Submissions 25
• YouTube Video Creation & Submission 0
• Search Engine Ranking Report Weekly