Why You Need a SEO Maintenance Plan

A search engine optimization maintenance service plan will ensure that your site will continue to increase in its rankings, attract more visitors and make more sales. It's not enough to simply design your web site, have it optimized for the search engines and expect it to continually rank well. If left alone, you may soon lose the business your web site initially generated.

What should be included in a SEO maintenance service plan?

1. Monitor search engine rankings - there will be many fluctuations in your search engine rankings. This may be due to search engines changing their ranking formulas, or competitors trying to get ahead of you. More sites are added to the web each day so you need to monitor your search engine rankings to be competitive. I create monthly ranking reports on where your site is currently ranked for each of the major search engines.

2. Traffic Tracking - it's essential to know where most of your traffic is coming from so you can make adjustments to your marketing strategies. For example if most of your traffic is coming from one particular page, you may want to place your best products on that page to get more sales. I analyze your site statistics (if they are available from your web host) to check how much traffic you are receiving, where is it coming from and what keywords are being used to find your site.

3. Keyword research - web sites are being added to the web every day, therefore keywords that once got high rankings may no longer work. You may have high search engine positions for your most important keyword phrases but if you are not receiving any traffic from those phrases, you will need to evaluate the keywords that you have used. Attaining a number 1 ranking for keywords that no one will search for, will not increase your traffic.

Researching new keywords is essential to maintain good rankings. I analyze the current keywords used on your site and research and add new ones. Once the keywords have been chosen, the content should be updated to reflect them. This may include subtle changes to the meta tags, page titles and text headings; or it could involve adding additional sections to the site, rewriting content and reorganizing the web site's structure. It all depends on the specific requirements of the site and market.

4. Competitive analysis - an integral part of search engine optimization is determining what keywords your competitors are using. I analyze where your competitors are currently ranked for the same keywords you are using for your web pages. I also check how many competitors you have for each of the major search engines. If there are too many competitors for a particular keyword it may be better to use less competitive keywords for your web pages or use them in conjunction with the most popular ones.

I will also analyze the link popularity of your competitors to determine how many incoming links they have and what the quality of those links are. You should not link to unrelated sites and ideally link to sites that already attract a lot of traffic.

5. Adding fresh content - web sites that continuously update and/or expand their content, usually experience higher rankings than stagnant web sites. New keywords should first be researched before adding new content. This will help boost your traffic and rankings because visitors will have more ways to land on your site based on the keywords they entered in the search engines. One great way to achieve this is to add new articles to your site on a regular basis.

6. Web copy analysis - getting a lot of traffic to your site does not guarantee sales. It primarily depends on how effective your web copy is. (Read my article: " How to Write Effective Web Copy " www.isitebuild.com/web-copy). You want to convert visitors into sales. I analyze how your web copy is structured on the page, what words you use, if it is written for your visitors plus check it for spelling and grammatical errors.

7. Boost link popularity - this refers to the amount of other quality web sites that have links pointing back to yours. The more quality links there are, the better you will rank on the major search engines. I extensively research other sites related to yours and add or exchange links with them. This may require a links/resources page to be added to your site.

8. Tweaking web site structure and navigation - if visitors are having a difficult time navigating your site, reading the content or experience broken links, then I will repair or tweak the site to make it more suitable for your visitors.

Conclusion - your web site should be an integral part of your business plan. It may be the first view your visitors have of your business. You therefore should update and maintain it regularly so your visitors will want to revisit and keep doing business with you.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com.

Choose a Search Engine Optimization Plan or SEO Maintenance Plan that fits your web site. Visit: http://www.isitebuild.com/sitepromotion

---

Is a High Search Engine Ranking Important for YOU?

In the process of designing a website for clients the... Read More

Link Exchange Tips, No Tricks

Use text links, avoid image links. Anyhow, if you... Read More

Top 5 Search Engine Optimization Mistakes

There are a lot of ways to promote your website... Read More

Beat Google?s Dampening Link Filter with SEO Articles

Most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts agree that links back... Read More

Things You Must Realize When Searching

For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a... Read More

Choosing your Meta-Keywords

Introduction This article assumes you already know what... Read More

SEO Tips for Google

Getting a high ranking on Google is a big achievement.... Read More

The Long And Short Of It Is That These Two Sales Techniques Are The Same

With the Internet beginning to stand up and be counted... Read More

Is Something Missing From Your Keywords Research? (Part 2)

In my previous article, I raised the issue that proper... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 4: Content Optimization

Welcome to part four in this search engine positioning series.... Read More

Google has an Achilles Heal - Will Their Competitors Notice?

Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem... Read More

Search Engine Success & The Google-Vision Secret

Want to know the secret to great search engine listings?... Read More

Whats the Big Hurry?

Quite often I get asked what the magic solution is... Read More

How to Choose Keywords to Theme Your Pages and Boost Your Traffic

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is... Read More

How Search Engines Connect Sellers and Buyers

Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets... Read More

Five Short Quick Tips on Web Page Titles

By Catherine FranzSearch engine spiders read and record page titles... Read More

8 Essential SEO techniques

1) Title Tag - The title tag is the most... Read More

SEO and the Outsourcing of Inbound Link Building

Search Engine Optimization nowadays has a lot to do with... Read More

The Ultimate Free Google Ranking Tool

The first months my website was online, I was constantly... Read More

Submit Your WebSite: Add Your URL to Web Directories & Search Engines

Why get into Search engines and directories?Increase backlinks of your... Read More

Advanced Uses for the Google Algorithm

Previously...In our article on Understanding Google's Algorithm,... Read More

Getting Listed in the ODP, Google Directory

First of all, the Google directory is really just the... Read More

The Golden 5: Steps to Google Success

The Dream: You wake up one morning and notice your... Read More

Soliciting Search Engines

As your guide operator through the web, search engines are... Read More

3 Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins

My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all... Read More

How to Use the Google Patent to Get More Traffic

According to the recent release of the Google Patent Application,... Read More

Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake

SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be... Read More

Answers Count - Matching Keyword and Phrase Density

What's more important to your business success - the question... Read More

Keyword Density And How To Use It To Keep Traffic Flowing To Your Site!

Generating high traffic to your web site can be costly,... Read More

Attack Smaller Searches To Get The Big Ones!

Searching online can not only be fun, but you sometimes... Read More

Optimum SEO Keyword Density ? A Real-Life Case Study

So you've built your website, you know what keywords you... Read More

Getting Specific With Local Search Engine Optimization

Localized search engine optimization is often overlooked as an excellent... Read More

Onpage Optimization: Essential for Effective Offpage Optimization

Onpage optimization is the process by which various elements on... Read More