The SEO Analysis: What it is and Why You Need it
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One of the very first things we do when we start working with a client on a search engine optimization project is perform a head to toe site analysis. In fact, more often than not, we won’t actually even quote a price for SEO unless we’ve already done an analysis.
The reasons for that are three-fold. First, every single website is different. Second, we have no idea what we're dealing with just by glancing at a site. Lastly, and most importantly, we spend a large amount of time performing the analysis because it's such an important part of putting together a plan for a site's SEO project.
While this might appear at first to be not a particularly earth-shattering revelation, it surprises me how many so-called SEOs don't actually do an initial site analysis. Another thing that gets me shaking my head is the standard single page of statistics that many SEO firms consider to be an analysis. In this article, I'm going to share with you a couple of secrets to finding out what may really be going on with your website that we always look at during the course of an SEO analysis. But first, I want to show you a few so-called SEO analyses that quite frankly have me hopping mad.
I am a firm believer in looking at the entire SEO picture. There is no magic formula to optimizing a website for search engines; no secret formula to that winning combination. There are, however, a few foundational aspects of good, basic SEO. One of those is the analysis.
Now I don't want to sound like a suspicious, cynical individual who can find nothing better to do than to "spy" on my competition. I do, however, try to find out what other SEO firms are doing for my own benefit. So when a company offers a free analysis, I ask for one. I have several other websites that honestly have nothing to do with SEO. I have my own personal website with a blog, pictures of my kids, and my writing portfolio. I frankly don't have time to optimize it well. But I'm not really looking to gain a bunch of visitors to my site from the search engines; it's just my own outlet for personal stuff. So usually I ask for an analysis on this site. I also dabble in some web design, and occasionally, I'll want an analysis on that site, too. I usually reserve asking for the analysis on the last one for when I run across a particularly obtuse company who may not notice the many blurbs or links I have to my SEO site.
In my own research and desire to streamline my own analysis efforts, I have compared my information over the span of a few months. These are just a few of my findings.
Next: What a Site Analysis Should Include >>
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