SEO Explained

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a relatively new form of online marketing for web sites. The goal of SEO is to increase traffic to your site by targeting relevant key words so that your site is listed higher in a search on one of the major search engine sites. Because it is a relatively new area, SEO can be misrepresented by dishonest vendors. For this reason, we highly recommend our clients read this brief but informative page on the Google:

From Google

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an acronym for “search engine optimization” or “search engine optimizer.” Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

• Review of your site content or structure
• Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
• Content development
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword research
• SEO training
• Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted by the heading “Sponsored Links”) as well. Advertising with Google won’t have any effect on your site’s presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search.

Before beginning your search for an SEO, it’s a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:

• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.

If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:

• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
• Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
• What’s your experience in my industry?
• What’s your experience in my country/city?
• What’s your experience developing international sites?
• What are your most important Search Engine Optimization techniques?
• How long have you been in business?
• How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

How Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Works

The diagram below illustrates how a search engine evaluates any given web page as well as how Search Engine Optimization can benefit the page rank in the results of a search for a given key word or phrase. The two biggest factors in determining a web pages Google page rank in the search results are Keyword Relevance and Page Rank.

 

 

Keyword Relevance

This is how Google identifies your page as being related to the words that are being searched for. This information is extracted by Google’s crawling robot program and stored on their servers. It’s called the cashed version of your page and you can see it by clicking on the “cashed” link provided with search results. The extraction process varies but on a busy site, it will most likely happen every second day or so. Once Google has its version of your page, it stores every word and assigns a value to each. The value is dependant on many things such as the number of times it was found on the page, where on the page it was located (the higher the better), and if it was special in any way (like a title). These are just a few of the 100’s of variables that go into this evaluation, the important thing to note is that for your page to show up high in a search, the keywords must be strategically embedded into your page.

Page Rank

This is a value that is determined by Google to evaluate how important your page is. It only evaluates the page based on other pages linking to it. It does not mater how much traffic the page receives or what is on the page itself. The value is determined by a complex algorithm that Google does not reveal to the public however most experts believe it is determined by the number and strength (measured by page rank) of the pages linking to your page.  In the end, this means linking pages to your page can increase your page rank. Many factors come into play here, for example linking pages with higher page ranks will have a greater impact than that of lower ranked pages. Google updates the page rank infrequently. Unfortunately, this can be one of the most frustrating aspects of Search Engine Optimization as it is a major part of the puzzle and can sometimes go for months before it’s refreshed.

Keyword Analysis

What keywords are people searching with?

This is the basic keyword research question that needs answering before you can begin Search Engine Optimization. The first and most natural thing that comes to mind is asking yourself, “What keywords would I type in if I was looking for my product?” Type in the terms you use and see what comes up. If the sites you see at the top of the search results are offering similar products and services, then you are right on the money.

Keyword research means look at your competitors

Try to reverse engineer your competitors website. Pay particular attention to what they place in their <title></title> meta descriptions H1, H2…H6 <b><i><strong> and their anchor text.

Helpful Questions

Here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself that will help you come up with some good keywords:

• Describe the top 5 products/services on my site?
• What would you type in a search engine to find these products/services?

Other useful tools

The following links are provided to help you do some keyword research on your own in order to accurately gauge who is searching for your products and services you must use statistical data which will provide the historical search volume as well as suggest permutations on your keyword phrases that perhaps you have not yet conceived of.

Search engine optimization process

The search engine optimization process is completed in the following three phases.

1. Keyword Analysis – In the preliminary stage of the SEO campaign, the SEO agency will work with you to select appropriate keywords for your target markets. They will accurately reflect search activity that will be identified from the markets interest. Key determining factors include, but are not limited to, search volume on the particular phrase, the number of competing websites with the similar search phrase, and creative insight into customer behavior. After refining the list of potentially appropriate keywords, the client will select up to fifteen (15) appropriate keywords.
2. Optimization Strategy and Implementation of HTML coding – Once the keywords have been agreed upon, the Search Engine Optimization agency will review the client website and forward a strategy document outlining the following information:
   1. The complete list of pages that make up the optimization campaign.
   2. Home Page Strategies.
   3. Internal Page Strategies
   4. Keyword and associated page setups, with search engine compliant HTML coding.
   5. The intended path that most spiders or search engine crawlers will follow.
3. Submission to Search Engines & Online Directories – Once the strategies and coding are verified and in place, manual and automated submission of links to your site will be performed. We submit your site to as many as 350 different search engines as well as 1100 various directories.

We ask that you understand that this submission process is one that depends upon the refresh cycles and policies of the third parties involved. As such, the results may not be immediately evident or realized. For this reason, we have developed a payment model that means you only pay on positive results after they are realized and verified.

The tracking of campaign performance begins and reports will be submitted to the Client every month via email. Key metrics on the report include each keyword with its associated performance across each search engine. An invoice will be submitted to the client each time the report indicates a performance benchmark has been met.
 

Pricing Matrix

To ensure our clients receive value for the money spent on SEO, we have devised a practical system to base the payment of our services. The chart below divides 3 different classes of keywords by 5 categories. This is a typical example of our pricing matrix but the number of the classes and amounts in each category changes depending on the difficulty involved with obtaining a top ranking for each keyword. To put it simply, the price a client will pay for our SEO service depends on the competition for the keyword or key phrase.

For example, if the key phrase scheduled for SEO were “Halifax Sheet Music” in the pricing example below, it would be considered a regional keyword. A charge of $180 would be required to begin the Concilio SEO campaign. Once the website link comes up within the first 15 search results on goggle for that key phrase and persists for 30 days, an additional $200 will be owed on the account.  At the time when the result is found within the top 7 ranking, an additional $325 will be owed. $440 for a top 3 rank and $580 in the event it were to reach number 1.

	Upon agreement of SEO keyword	Top 15 rank position	Top 7 rank position	Top 3 rank position	#1 rank position
Regional Keyword	$180	$200	$325	$440	$580
National Keyword	$225	$460	$780	$910	$1275
Generic Keyword	$450	$625	$960	$1275	$2500

 Guarantee & Terms

Because SEO efforts take time to take effect, patience is required. The majority of work will be performed within the first 2 months of signing the contract however the results may not be apparent for up to six months or more.  We have built our pricing matrix in such a way that our client is well protected in that payment is due only upon verified positive results that persist for no less than 30 days.

Clients are billed when one or more of the four targets are achieved and sustained for 30 days in the pricing matrix table. If a ranking should fall within 30 days the client will not be billed.  If the same keyword were to again achieve the higher position, it will again have to sustain that rank for 30 days. In other words, the days at the higher rank will not be counted cumulatively.

SEO is not an exact science. For this reason, we can’t guarantee that our SEO efforts on your behalf will culminate in a number one rank every time. For most keywords, a number one ranking is unlikely but not impossible. For all our projects, we target a top 3 ranking for our clients.

Payment Method and Terms

Due to the nature of the pay-for-performance campaign, we do not accept net 30 terms. Payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payments will be automatically billed to any major credit card.