Getting started with SEO part 2: Who is going to be doing what?

Ah, our favorite thing to hear: Search Engine Optimization is free Marketing, right?

Sure. If your time is free.

More directly, yes, it’s true that organic search engine optimization does not have many direct costs.

Unlike buying advertising on Google via AdWords’ PPC, there is no cost associated with placement in organic search.

However, if your company or business is going to seriously consider having an effective search engine optimization strategy, you must be prepared to allocate staff resources or dollars to an agency to manage your SEO strategy.

Who is going to produce the content?

We keep saying this, but we can’t say it enough. If you’re not producing quality, original content of some kind at least weekly, you are not going to have much success with an SEO strategy.

An SEO strategy needs an editorial calendar with dedicated people to adhere to it.

Who is going to share the content?

Who will be seeding the content on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg?

This is critical as well. Someone must promote your content and this is the most basic level of self-promotion.

And, actually, your strategy should go beyond that to commenting on blogs and forums to share your contents there, too.

Who is going to pick new Keywords?

In order to produce significant search engine traffic, you must cobble up some of the long-tails Keywords.

Long-tail Keywords are the phrases that not a ton of people search for but are more focused in intent or purpose.

For example, 1 bajillion searches may come for “Plastic Surgery” but good luck ranking for that keyword.

Instead, try to cobble up the long tail and go after phrases such as “painless plastic surgery South Florida” or “how to find a plastic surgery doctore in New England.”

The number of searches will be a fraction of the head phrase, but, there are near infinite number of long-tail phrases that can add up to a significant amount of traffic.

Someone needs to be doing research the uncover these phrases.

Who is going to be monitoring metrics?

You should probably know if what you’re doing is working, right?

Yes. Yes you should.

So, you need someone who can, daily, look at your analytics software and determine successes, trends, failures and update you on the strategy’s progress.

Who is going to evolve the strategy?

If your strategy isn’t evolving, it’s dying.

A search strategy is not a set-and-forget thing.

You have to be nimble and adjust to shifting trends in people’s search behavior.

What is the competition doing? How can we get more links to our content?

We met our quarterly goals, so what are we going for next quarter? Next year?

Summary

In part one of Getting started with SEO, we said you had to determine if your website can host an SEO strategy.

After you’ve done that, you need to be able to budget for your SEO Marketing. If done correctly and executed properly, the more budget (time, resource and dollars) you allocate, the more successful the strategy will be.

That said, you don’t have to set a large budget up front.

Allocate a smaller amount for a quarter and see what the results are.

If you’re satisfied, put more in for the next quarter.