Optimization 101:
Completing A Project

This is a continuation from "Beginning A Project:

Even before we heard back from the client, we went to work on two things. The first was standardizing the fonts on all pages. That had nothing to do with SEO, but would definitely impact whether others would view the site as professional. The second was seeing what we could do with the graphics so that they had a better chance of looking better. Though it took consistent trial and effort, we eventually were able to increase the sizes enough on some of the graphics so that they would at least stay in some format when the fonts were increased; trying to do more only distorted the views.

Once the client gave us his keywords, that's when the serious work began. First, we deconstructed his keywords until we had a list of 50 terms to work with. Then we used a keyword analyzer to research each of these terms, to see what might work best for him. That took time, because it prompted us to rearrange some terms in ways we hadn't thought of before. Also, we knew we wanted to end up with a list of at least 20 terms, because we wanted to populate as many of the graphics with alt tags as we could. When we had our 20, we sent it to the client to verify they worked for him (he eliminated 5 of them, saying he didn't want to concentrate on that type of business), and when we got it back, we went to work.

We first created a meta tag for "description", so we could write a short mission statement of his business. Then we created the keywords meta tags with the top search terms we'd decided upon, and added some that were more descriptive of who he wanted to work for and where, such as city of location. What wasn't needed, which many people do, is putting his name and his business name in there. After all, if people already know his name to do a search for it, what purpose does it serve putting it into keywords?

We know the answer that some are going to give me based on what we did later, but I'm going to bring it up now. We rewrote the content on most of his pages, expanding it, so that we could slip in the keywords he wanted to concentrate on. On one page, since he didn't want a full biography page, we made sure we wrote something to show some of his business background and expertise. We also wanted to make sure we got his business name into the copy multiple times, on each page, and we bolded it so people would identify his business name with the services he provided. Some might say that bolding his business name would correlate well with the keywords in the meta tags, but our thinking was if people came to the page based on the other keywords, also bolded, that it would be sufficient.

What we actually did next was add alt tags to all the images, putting one search term into almost all of them. Because we were down to 15 terms, when we got to one of his pages, where, because of its length, multiple graphics had been put in, we didn't want to keep repeating them over and over, as that might look like we were trying to trick someone, so we stopped when we had used the 15.

We then went to the search engines to look for any references we could find about him so that we could link to him. Each link we found, we made sure that it had a Google page rank or at least 2. Most people don't realize that if they've done anything, either on the internet or within the area they live, their name is probably on the internet somewhere. When someone is as prominent as our client was locally, they could be listed multiple times, which is what we found. Not only that, but he was also a member of some organizations that have him listed on their pages. We had to discard some pages, though, because they either went to cached (old, saved data files) information that had no page rank, or were linked to PDF files, which also had no page rank. But we saved those links for later, just in case he wants to create some kind of media page later on.

We also researched his search terms to look for other information that might help us highlight some of his keywords even better. We used those links, as well as links we found while researching his name, to help build up importance for those terms he wanted to use. In theory and reality, those links will help those other pages more because it will give them backlinks, but, because they're also related to what he does in some fashion, they will also help the search engines understand how much importance he puts into those terms.

And we weren't done with him. We decided that he needed two more pages, and that he had to help us out. The first was that we wanted him to write his own theory about the importance of his main search term, so that we could create an internal link for it. We knew it would only help him because his target market might have some kind of idea of what they were looking for, and we knew this particular market happens to like as much information as possible to try to make better decisions. The second thing we wanted to do was create a links page where he could then have reciprocal links with other businesses and clients that might link back to him. Since his page was relatively new, he would have to contact those people he knew and ask for a link to his new page, since he was already listed on those pages, and being able to link back to him would only increase his website's prominence.

The final steps we took were relatively easy, once we had his page looking like we wanted it to. We submitted his site to 20 search engines, some all at once, a few individually, to get things going. We also got him listed on some of his local free advertising pages, including Craigslist, which, though we knew it wouldn't get him business, would help him in the short run to gain some prominence.

At that point we were done. In real time, the project took about 15 hours; there were some hours we didn't charge for, such as all the tinkering with the graphics that didn't amount to anything significant. We also don't charge for waiting time, only for the time we actually worked on his website. In real time, the project took a week to complete, since we sometimes had to wait to hear back from him. We created all the new pages as "01" so we could upload them and let him see what they would look like before making them the default pages. It's always smart to do something like that; make backup pages so you can go back to what was there before if the client doesn't like something.

All we had to do was wait for results, because nothing happens immediately. As time went along, he got an immediate bounce on Alexa's rankings, then with time got page ranks from Google. However, the most important thing he received were a couple of phone calls from people who had found him by using Google and finding him with their search terms. His profession isn't one where he's going to get thousands of hits; he'll probably never even reach 50 hits a day unless he decides there are more things he wants to do with the site. But the specific clientele who he wants to reach in his local area can now find him with ease, and he can compete with others in his area for that business.

That makes him very happy, and when the client's happy, we're happy.

© SEO Xcellence, 2007