SEO can be broken down into four major areas:

• Investigation/Research
• On-page optimization
• Off-page optimization
• Monitoring and Adjustment

Investigation/Research
Before any changes are made to a website a lot of research must be done. Research typically starts with a client interview to determine what type of visitors would be ideal. Once these fundamentals have been completed a good SEO practicitioner will want to know everything possible about your site including such things as:

• How old is the domain?
• Has the site ever been de-indexed?
• Is the site built using a CMS software, if so which one?
• Who are your major competitors and what are their domains?
• Is the site code heavy or clean?
• How many pages does the site have?
• Has Google been able to index all the pages?
• Are there any “duplicate” or “similar” content issues?
• How many external links are there and are any from bad neighborhoods?
• Is the content original or from external feeds?
• Has any SEO been done on the site previously? If so have they participated in any “link schemes” or other questionable practices?
• How fast does the site load?
• Does the site appear correctly in all the most commonly used browsers
• Does the software allow for SEO friendly URL’s?
• Are there any bad links (404 pages)
• Does the site have a robots.txt file and is it properly setup?
• Are the “alt” attributes well planned and accurate?
• Are all page titles unique and accurate?
• Do internal and external links make use of proper anchor text?
• Are header tags well organized?
• Are videos properly optimized?
• Is the site heirarchy well defined?

The above details and other important information about the site will help your SEO specialist develop an efficient and well defined plan to optimize your website. In addition to the above it is necessary to conduct extensive keyword research and a review of competitive websites to determine areas where there may be weaknesses in the competition.

On-page optimization includes all the work associated directly with your web site and may include some or all of the following:

• code cleanup
• Adjustment in site architecture
• writing accurate and effective page titles
• recommendations on additional content
• tweaking of existing content
• adding appropriate image “alt” attributes
• review or modification of the “robots” meta tag
• internal linking
• judicious use of the link “description” tag
• review of server configuration
• possible modifications to meta descriptions

The above steps often include many sub-tasks and can be very time consuming. It is not uncommon for a business to pay more for optimization than for the actual design of the web site. This is due to the high number of hours involved in doing good quality SEO.

Once a visitor arrives at a web page the overall user experience will determine what actions they take. This is why many use the phrase “Content is King” in web site development. Even so, professional marketers understand how the economy and competition can affect what happens in the marketplace no matter what you include on your web site. This is why it is so important to make your web site an integral part of your marketing strategy; building in the necessary ingredients to secure positive results.

Off-page optimization includes all the efforts made away from your web site. It usually takes place after the on-page optimization is completed and may include some or all of the following, depending on your budget and marketing goals:

• Link building
• Social bookmarking
• Press releases
• Articles
• Blog posts
• Some web based ads
• Appropriate forum posts (no spamming)
• Appropriate blog comment posts (no spamming)

Often, off-page SEO should include traditional forms of advertising such as printed ads in newspapers or magazines. Even radio and TV may be appropriate. All of these bring traffic to the site and may result in a link “recommendation” by a visitor.

Monitoring and Adjustments

Rest assured your competition will not sit still when you take top positions in Google. They will make adjustments and do all they can to regain any lost positions you may have taken from them. For this reason it is essential to continue to monitor and make adjustments as required. This includes continuing to build link popularity while at the same time adding more high quality content to the website if and when required.