Learn Your SEO Action Plan
PART I: FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 1: CLARIFY YOUR GOALS
What Is SEO?
Do I Need to Perform SEO for My Website?
What Are the Overall Goals of My Business?
What Function Does My Website Serve?
How Is My Website Connecting with the Goals of My Business?
The SEO You Have, Not the One You Want
Some Interim Solutions
Who Do I Want to Visit My Website?
What Do I Want Visitors to Do on My Website?
Which Pages Do I Most Want My Website Visitors to See?
How Will I Measure the Success of This SEO Campaign?
Tracking Lets You Drop the Duds
Tracking Will Help You Keep Your Job
Tracking Helps You Stay Up-to-Date
CHAPTER 2: CUSTOMIZE YOUR APPROACH
It’s Your SEO Plan
B2B
B2C
Large Organization
Small Organization
Brick-and-Mortar
Blogger
Nonprofit
CHAPTER 3: ETERNAL TRUTHS OF SEO
Robots Deliver
Search Results Are Blended
Directories
Pay-per-Click
Site Feeds
Meta Search Engines
Algorithms Change
Humans Are Smart—Computers Aren’t
Text Matters
Keyword Selection Is Key
It’s Not Just about Rank
Ranks Change
A Holistic Approach Helps
Search Engines Don’t Like Tricks
SEO Is Not Brain Surgery
CHAPTER 4: HOW THE SEARCH ENGINES WORK RIGHT NOW
In Pursuit of Right Now
Google Basics
The Best of the Rest: Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask
Yahoo!
MSN
AOL
Ask
Organic Ranking Factors
Paid Placement
Pay-per-Click Advertising
Paid Inclusion
SEO Trendspotting
PART II: STRATEGY
CHAPTER 5: GET YOUR TEAM ON BOARD
The Challenge of SEO Team Building
Marketing, Sales, and Public Relations
Marketing: VIPs of SEO
Selling SEO to Sales
SEO and Public Relations Can Relate
IT, Webmasters, Programmers
Communicating with IT
The IT Workload Conundrum
How SEO Benefits IT
Graphic Designers
Value Graphics
Educate and Empower
Make It Official
Writers and Editors
Executives, Product Managers
CHAPTER 6: YOUR ONE-MONTH PREP: BASELINE AND KEYWORDS
Your SEO Idea Bank
Week 1: Keywords
Monday: Your Keyword Gut Check
Tuesday: Resources to Expand and Enhance the List
Wednesday: Keyword Data Tools
Thursday: Keyword Data Gathering
Friday: Your Short List
Week 2: Baseline Assessment
Monday: Conversions
Tuesday: Ranks
Wednesday: Indexed Pages
Thursday: Inbound Links
Friday: Site Assessment
Week 3: Competition
Monday: Identify Your Top Five Competitors
Tuesday: Snooping Tools and Techniques
Wednesday: Assess On-Page Factors
Thursday: Assess Off-Page Factors
Friday: Paid Competition
Week 4: Baseline Monthly Report
Monday: Keywords, Landing Pages, and Competition
Tuesday: Site Visibility
Wednesday: Conversions and Red Flags
Thursday: Personalize
Friday: Quick Reference
PART III: YOUR SEO PLAN
CHAPTER 7: MONTH ONE: KICK IT INTO GEAR
Week 1: Basic Site Optimization
Monday: Page Titles
Tuesday: Meta Tags
Wednesday: Robot Walk-Through
Thursday: Site Text
Friday: Implementation
Week 2: Link Building
Monday: Your Existing Links
Wednesday: Surf for More Link Opportunities
Thursday: The Art of Link Letters
Friday: Submittals and E-mails
Week 3: Set Up Your PPC Account
Monday: Study Hall
Tuesday: Prep Your PPC Keywords
Wednesday: Write Your Ad Text
Thursday: Enter Your data into the PPC System
Friday: Turn On your PPC campaign
Week 4: Visibility Check and Monthly Reporting
Monday: Check Organic Status
Tuesday: Check Links
Wednesday: Check Conversions
Thursday: Monitor PPC Ads
Friday: Action Items
CHAPTER 8: MONTH TWO: ESTABLISH THE HABIT
Week 5: Site Structure Improvements
Monday: The Spider’s-Eye View
Tuesday: Shape Up Your Site Map
Wednesday: Clean Up Ugly Listings
Thursday: Your Robots.txt File
Friday: PPC Quick Check
Week 6: Conversion Tracking
Monday: PPC Conversion Tracking
Tuesday: Get to Know Your Basic Server Stats
Wednesday: Tracking Online Conversions
Thursday: Tracking Offline Conversions
Friday: PPC Quick Check/Link Building
Week 7: Research and Development
Monday: SEO News and Trends
Tuesday: Task Journal Investigation
Wednesday: Explore Local/International Search
Thursday: Shopping and Media Search
Friday: PPC Quick Check/Link Building
Week 8: Visibility Check and Monthly Reporting
Monday: Check Organic Status
Tuesday: Check Links
Wednesday: Check Conversions and Image Improvement
Thursday: Monitor PPC Ads
Friday: Action Items
CHAPTER 9: MONTH THREE: IT’S A WAY OF LIFE
Week 9: Build Content
Monday: Discover Content You Already Have
Tuesday: Develop New Content
Wednesday: Optimize Non-HTML Documents
Thursday: Content Thieves
Friday: PPC Quick Check/Link Building
Week 10: PPC and ROI
Monday: PPC Sanity Check
Tuesday: Organic Apples and Oranges
Wednesday: A/B Testing
Thursday: Close the PPC ROI Loop
Friday: PPC Quick Check/Link Building
Week 11: What’s Your Problem?
Monday: New Site, New Problems
Tuesday: Copywriting to Improve Your Search Results Snippets
Wednesday: Catch Up with Your Team
Thursday: Fun Tools for Site Assessment
Friday: PPC Quick Check/Link Building
WEEK 12: VISIBILITY CHECK AND QUARTERLY REPORTING
Monday: Check Organic Status
Tuesday: Check Links
Wednesday: Check Conversions and Image Improvement
Thursday: Monitor PPC Ads
Friday: Action Items
Moving On: Forging Your Own SEO Path
CHAPTER 10: EXTRA CREDIT AND GUILT-FREE SLACKING
The Slacking Spectrum
The Extra Credit Continuum
Day-by-Day Extra Credit Tasks