You have chosen your SEO agency, signed on the dotted line and now you’re sat back waiting for the traffic to start pouring in.
The agency will be busy reviewing keywords, looking for link opportunities, analysing your competitors and going through your site with a fine-toothed comb trying to identify any issues that could potentially hold you back. What though can you, as a client, do to help you achieve the best results possible from your campaign? There are actually a number of things which won’t take up too much of your time but should have a positive effect.
Be Mindful of Link Opportunities from Existing Partners
Existing relationships can be great for acquiring links. I’m not saying that you should pick up your phone right now and start ringing everybody in your address book begging them for links but try to keep in mind when speaking with customers and suppliers that links from their website could benefit your own site and business.
Why is this Important?
Have you installed computer equipment in a school or built a fence for a university for example? If so then you could potentially gain a link from a .gov.uk or .ac.uk website. These domains generally carry a lot of authority so links from them could be of high value.
Don’t be Tempted to Buy Links
$20 may sound like a great deal for 5,000 links but take it from me – it generally isn’t!
Why is this Important?
Not only will you violate Google’s guidelines but those types of links are generally of low quality and could do more harm than good. Stick to obtaining links from partners who want to link to you and don’t request payment.
Notify Your SEO Company BEFORE Making any On-Page Changes
On-going development is part of most website strategies and we would always recommend that your content is fresh and up to date. However, problems start to arise when you make structural changes, add new pages or update/remove old ones.
Why is this Important?
You think your main navigational menu looks a bit boring so decide to spruce it up a little. Your developer redesigns it, implements it and it all looks great. Before long your rankings begin to slip and everybody wonders why. It turns out that your developer has made the new menu using a script that search engine spiders can’t read. All of a sudden your most authoritative page (the home page generally) is no longer passing link juice to deeper pages therefore your competitors overtake you in the SERP’s for certain keywords.
When adding new pages always speak with your SEO company and take their advice first. Your new page may be accidently optimised for a term already being targeted elsewhere on the site. If you decide you want to remove an old page, again check with your agency as that page may be ranking well for a keyword which is driving traffic and to retain this traffic the page should stay live.
Implement the Changes your SEO Company Recommends
If you are paying for link building and on-page advice then to get the most out of your budget you should implement any recommendations the SEO company make. If you don’t agree with anything or you think the cost of the development would be too high then pick up the phone and discuss it – the SEO company may be able to prioritise the recommendations and give you some indication of the difference each one is likely to make.
Why is this Important?
Good on-page optimisation not only allows you to pick up long tail traffic, it helps to get the best from the external links that are being built by distributing link juice effectively around the site. Your agency should have solid data to back up any recommendations they make so by not implementing changes they recommend you could be missing out on vital opportunities.
Summary
The main takeaway from this post is to maintain regular contact with your SEO company. They are there to consult and give advice so use them for that purpose and your campaign should benefit. Keep in mind that buying links is bad but obtaining links from sites you have existing relationships with is good and should help towards realising the goals for your site.
Insights
