SEO Contracts

Search engine optimization is not something that will just happen overnight, it takes time and many adjustments. When you offer SEO services you need to make it perfectly clear that for best results the client must enter a long term contract of at least 6 months to a year. I don't really like the 6 month option, because that is only enough time to build a strong base optimization, and if the client is satisfied after the first 6 months and wants to stop paying for SEO, then the web sites rankings may drop. If the web site starts to fall, the client will come back to you and want another 6 months, then you will have to build the site back up to the point where it was before you can begin to give additional results. With a 1 year contract, you have enough time to build a good SEO foundation for the web site and you are able to spend more time on link building for the web site.

I have outlined 1 approach to working within a 1 year SEO contract, these are not rules that have been set in stone, but merely a guide to how to get started when optimizing a web site.

The first 6 months
In the first 6 months of the contract you should concentrate on competition research, optimizing the web design's layout, cleaning up the code and optimizing the onsite content through keyword research. This may take a couple of weeks, depending on how large the site is, but this is the most important step.

My first step is competition research, competition research is the fine art of discovering what makes the top ranking web sites in that particular nice so successful. I look at the layout, keyword density, number of pages, internal linking structure, domain age(I swear it doesn't really matter, but it is good to know) and inbound links. I look to see if the competitions web site has any blogs, and if so how active they are. Also during this time I begin conducting keyword research and I start writing content and submitting it to the owner for approval if they ask. Remember, your keyword density should be higher than any site in the nice.

Next I optimize the web design. Study how the spiders crawl and position your keywords accordingly. If the web site was designed by a web design firm that neglects SEO, I may make a few web design changes, but I don't like to undo what has already been paid for. I edit the CSS and create headings 1-6 and implement them with keywords throughout the design of the site. I then replace "text as images" that may be strewn about the site, and work on a strong internal linking structure within the content. Remember to clean the code, many "web design companies" use WYSIWYG web design editors that create gnarly code that needs to be either removed or re-written. If the site is PHP, ASP.net, etc., you will need to clean up a bit more code than a basic HTML or CSS web design.

Now you can begin working the site into your daily routine. Create new, original content for the site on a regular basis, or change the content , this will make the spiders return more regularly and help you see what works and what doesn't without waiting a month for an update. Create a few blogs the web site and make posts regularly. Make sure your blog posts are good link bait so you can begin the begin building links before you begin the link building phase. You will find there are many ways to create new content for the search engines without ever typing any new content.

Once you have established a good routine for both you and the search engines, now you can begin the link building aspect of the SEO campaign. I won't get into link building, because my fingers hurt. While building links, always monitor what people are searching for to find web sites like the one you are optimizing and make the proper adjustments to your content and internal linking structure.

Remember to always keep good analytics for any site you are optimizing.

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