SEO Expectations and Commitments
You need a strategy to educate the decision-makers who will never actually do SEO, but who cut the check or approve the time spent for SEO. They need to know what to expect, and what's expected of them.
You need a strategy to educate the decision-makers who will never actually do SEO, but who cut the check or approve the time spent for SEO. They need to know what to expect, and what's expected of them.
I started a hunt last week. I am looking for a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) book to give to those decision-makers who will never actually do SEO, but who cut the check or approve the time spent for SEO. I haven’t found it yet…but I just started.
Too often, I have seen companies “approve” SEO only to treat it as a one-time hit, or a short-term project. Months or years later, when they asked someone else to “do” SEO for them, it is discovered that the company had laid none of the basic foundation for SEO, and it is clear that even the implementation was done incorrectly. Unfortunately, no follow-up or long-term measurement plan is in place that would catch this. From what I hear, this is not uncommon.
So, absent a book and being too impatient to wait for one, I thought I would come up with some guidelines for those who approve SEO.
But first, for clarity, when I write SEO I am referring to web page optimizing against organic search. Optimizing paid search is a closely related, but different animal.
So, if you are going to embark on organic SEO…
A Final thought: nothing is free, especially clicks. Enter into SEO knowing that there is a cost. It may be outsourcing costs, new people, or the opportunity costs of current people being refocused. I get very concerned when I hear organic SEO talked about as a way to get free clicks. It blinds people to the commitment needed and the value of SEO. Like everything else, tie the increases in target metrics to the cost of the SEO activity. This gives you a view into SEO ROI.
Steve Haar is the senior director of media at Leapfrog Online, where he oversees search marketing and other vertical efforts. Haar sits on the IAB Search Committee, SEMPO Global Search Committee, and the steering committee for the Click Quality Council. He combines his past experience in offline branding and mass media with his passion for online marketing in his blog, Think About Search.
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