• Do they have time, knowledge, and resources to successfully implement and maintain your search engine optimization program? And do they really care if it works or not?

IT Department

Typically your IT department handles multiple daily tasks from trouble-shooting your company’s LAN or WAN to fixing sales department’s laptops? Out of a busy IT person’s day, what priority and focus do you think he or she will commit to for your SEO program? And even if your IT department has some skills in web design or development, these skills make up only a small percentage of knowledge required for a successful search engine optimization program.

Marketing Department

Typically, your marketing department juggles many marketing projects at once and faces strict completion deadlines. From handling new print collateral campaigns to getting ready for new product or service launches, marketing personnel’s time is spread very thin. In addition, how knowledgeable is your marketing department in technical aspects of web design and search engine optimization? Do they have time to become well-versed? Do they have sufficient internal resources? Often answer to both questions is no, they do not.

Other individual(s) within your company

Ok, so responsibility falls onto someone outside of your Marketing or IT department. Who will that be and why are they responsible for your SEO program? Providing these individuals with a new “project of month,” will typically result in another check mark off of their monthly to-do list and frustration by top management of why their website is not producing any sales results.

Summary

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to try to leverage internal resources to maximize your company’s productivity and profitability – whenever possible. However, there must be a line drawn in sand between knowing what your organization’s capabilities are and what they are not.

As you can see, there is more to search engine optimization than meets eye. In order to implement and maintain a SEO program, you must acquire necessary knowledge, skills, and resources. This can be done by hiring a professional search engine optimization firm. Professional SEO firms have dedicated resources and experience to support your company’s web marketing initiatives. By leveraging their experience and know-how, your company can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program.

6)Don’t forget Geographics. If your products and services are local or regional, be sure to include your state or city within your search phrases. For example, an investigations company that conducts most of its business in Midwest would want to choose “Indiana and private investigator.”

7)Take a look at your competition. Based on your top three competitors, look at their website for specific search terms being used. Also, look at their META keywords to get a good idea of what search terms they think are important. Remember you want to look at competitors for your different markets served and products and service lines.

8)Analyze your website traffic. Make sure your web hosting company provides you with ability to analyze your website log files. Some hosting companies have you log into your account to view monthly web traffic reports, while others email monthly reports. Information obtained can tell you top search terms and search engines used to find your website and other valuable information. To get most out of your log file data, it is recommended to use a log file analyzer such as Web Trends or Urchin.

By applying these methods, you will be well on your way to generating highly-targeted keywords and phrases that attract right types of prospective clients - ones that have direct interest in your products, services, and solutions you offer.