Curious as to what seo firms actually do for clients. If I was doing it I’d take a look at the site and identify the keywords that will convert best with keycompete and real PPC data which would probably be the most accurate.
Then get these keywords in title,h1 tags and site copy. Fix easy problems like duplicate content, domain name canonicalisaton (sp?), mod_rewrite for dynamic pages and have good internal link structure.
After that it’s all about links and how to get them. Each site and niche is different so youd have to check all backlinks on competitors, see if you can get these links as well. And basically do what you can to get authority links, link bait, contact authority webmasters. But the easiest method would be to buy links from sites with low pr that stay below the radar.
That’s all I can think of, it does seem very basic. What’s the secret sauce that allows firms to charge thousands?
Hey Georgie.
What you outlined would be the core minimal things you would first look at. I think you are over-simplifying though. What if you have a client that has hundreds of thousands of pages, a content management system that does NOT allow you to rewrite URLs and a taxonomy that wouldn’t make sense to an architect. Then there is the management of removing pages, and convincing the powers that be to make changes that they do not think should be changed. Then there is search engine reputation management. Then sourcing high quality links. Then there is the PPC management and the crossover that occurs between the two not to mention the consultation on creating content that converts….. that goes down the copywriting route which also has links with SEO.
Finally, there is analyzing the clickstream data from analytics and applying what you find from that so as it does not negatively effect rankings.
Those are just the few things that pop into my head.