You’ll see me use the word “ideal” a lot if you haven’t already. I’m an idealist, and this helps me a lot with prospective clients less educated in the art and science of search engine optimization. I paint the picture of an ideal scenario and allow the client an opportunity to run with it. Here’s how we typically go about kicking off SEO with a new client.

1. Conduct Discovery Meetings

I’d estimate that 80% of search marketing agencies fail from the start because they skip this step. What is a Discovery Process? It’s the process wherein time is devoted to truly understand the client’s business. It includes interviews/meetings with key stakeholders, establishing a firm prioritized list of client goals, and learning the language of the industry through the client’s employees in the trenches.

Many agencies skimp over these details because they either fear adding any additional fees or because they haven’t learned from past experience that it’s nearly impossible to satisfy a client who is misunderstood. We believe our clients’ success is important enough to warrant doing things right the first time, with the understanding that goals may shift and priorities may change as time passes.

More often than not, an organization seeking SEO services lacks a concrete understanding of their own goals. The Board of Directors loses confidence in previous marketing attempts due to a lack of visible ROI, and demands changes be made or heads will roll. Sometimes the internal marketing manager recognizes the need for a change of pace before the executive level demands it, but the approach and results are the same. Most clients need an expert to educate them on what SEO can and cannot do for a business, and to help them solidify their goals so that ROI can be traced and measured.

2. Deliver Competitive Analysis

What are my competitors doing? How can I get my site to rank above theirs?

These are popular questions that need a skillful answer. I’ve had two conversations in the past year where a client wanted to replicate everything their top competitors were doing. In the client’s mind, if Brand X is ranking #1 for “Carpet Cleaning Solution” (random phrase I just made up), then everything they’ve done to get there is golden. So they want to bid on all the same PPC phrases, get links from all the same places, and submit to all the same directories.

One irony here is that the competitor often has better and more extensive copy on their website. That’s not something you can copy, word for word. You can emulate a competitor’s best practices, but even companies with the best rankings sometimes mix in a few unwise strategies that could bite them in the end.

MarketNet performs the competitive analysis not simply to emulate the competition. We also evaluate what the competition has done on the positive and the negative side. We may find a weakness in a competitor’s strategy that the new client can capitalize on. There are also some insightful linking strategies from time to time that we can replicate. But across the board duplication is not a recommended strategy by any stretch.

Sometimes the greatest benefit of a competitive analysis is the baseline it creates. You now know where you stand against your top 3-5 competitors. This report can provide a measure of progress over time. Some clients use this competitive analysis as an initial baseline for annual comparison. We urge all clients to bear in mind that competitors aren’t suddenly stationary simply because we’ve begun implementing strategy and tactics. This report will only serve as a competitive analysis, and not as a measure of all actions conducted on behalf of the client’s site going forward. In other words, if a competitor increased their SEO budget by $30k annually while our client remained steady. It’s plausible to see a drop in certain competitive areas based on the sheer increased number of hours (and link buying dollars) a competitor may add to their link building efforts. Remaining competitive while maintaining ROI is the key.

3. Recommend Tactics

With the Discovery Phase and Competitive Analysis completed, it’s time to deliver recommended tactics. The client’s goals, budget, internal rules and corporate culture, and degree of competition inform the tactics we recommend.

Goals and Budget are the most important. Are the goals attainable with the available budget? Do the goals contradict each other? Does the budget indicate a focus on interactive marketing or a half-hearted effort?

These questions might sound ridiculous, but I’ve intentionally included the questions that are most commonly obstacles to success. One client has two goals, both requiring the budget to be spent differently, and neither can be fully satisfied while the two goals compete. One client throws a pittance at web marketing because someone said they should, but they’re not willing to spend even a fraction what they would spend on a useless print ad. A client tells a lot by where they focus the marketing budget.

Once we have goals and budget that make sense, we assemble the equivalent of a pie chart. X% of time and budget available go to Z. Y% of time and budget go to V. And so on. The point is to deliver the best results within the framework of opportunities and limitations each client presents.

4. Implement Tactics

This is mostly straightforward. There are times when a client requires a rogue IT department to implement the changes, and this has often put a strain on the timely implementation of SEO tactics. If an IT team wants to debate the need of each change or has a backlog of issues to resolve, it can take months to implement recommendations on-site. The more time it takes to implement tactics, the more time it takes to see results. Simple as that.

Whenever MarketNet is able to implement tactics, we know there will be a quick turnaround and more immediate results.

5. Test Results Via Analytics

Once we’ve begun implementation, it’s time to analyze results on a monthly basis. We look at search behavior and on-site behavior. It’s important to do both. We might succeed at ranking #1 for an important phrase, but if the page it leads to is boring and difficult to navigate, all ranking efforts are for naught. It’s important to understand that a complete SEO strategy will frequently require on-site adjustments, whether for usability or stylistic appeal.

Each month we’ll make recommendations to improve our efforts. Some recommendations require additional spending beyond the terms of the initial engagement. This is to be expected from time to time. The client is welcome to approve or deny these recommendations, but the ability to achieve one’s goals often hangs in the balance.

Why would you recommend something other than what fits into the initial engagement? Each competitor is making strides toward their goals at their own pace. If a competitor increases their link building efforts and suddenly start to break away in rankings, it’s important to not maintain a business-as-usual stance and just watch them outrun you. Search Marketing is nothing if not flexible and constantly changing based on the competitive landscape.

6. Rinse and Repeat

Each month, MarketNet implements various new and ongoing tactics. We strongly recommend each client approve an annual review in order to measure results against the baseline and also to make any major adjustments that may be deemed necessary as we negotiate our way through the year.

In an ideal world, these steps will lead a client to success. The not-so ideal factors that play a role are budget, time to implement, and time to approve ongoing recommendations. Clients rarely understand how much power they have to affect the success of an agency led Search Marketing initiative.

Any questions? Feel free to submit thoughts and questions in the comment box below.

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