The Five-point SEO Sanity Checklist

In an ideal world you would always have about 2 months in which to launch a Web site, as far as preparing for its release to the open Web. Most companies don’t begin to think about search engine optimization and Web site marketing until after the train wreck of their dismal launch has brought them down to Earth.

On today’s Web, it should take you no more, from start to finish, than about 2 months to get a new domain listed and ranking competitively in Google, Live Search, and Yahoo!. Ask is a bit iffy, but I’ve watched sites hit their stride in Ask before settling down in Google’s top ten. That’s just the way Ask works. Once a site passes Ask’s quality tests, it zooms to whatever relevant position it deserves.

In 2007 SEO theory you need links from trusted pages for all the major search engines. Volume is a waste of time and resources unless you can actually get thousands of trusted links. The typical business Web site is never going to get that many trusted page links. They can reciprocate, distribute articles, submit press releases, buy links, hit all the directories, plague bloggers with requests for reviews, and do everything else conventional SEO wisdom says to do but most business Web sites will never get thousands of trusted page links.

Search engines don’t display Web pages in their results with “Trusted Site Status” icons. Wouldn’t that be great? But it’s not likely to happen. So the question for all Webmasters and SEOs alike becomes very simple: how do you identify trusted pages?

We can devise all the secret tests in the world, but for every major search engine there is one common denominator when it comes to identifying trusted pages: trusted pages pass value to other pages. Each search engine determines for itself whatever value a page shall pass to other pages.

You can look for trust in one two ways: by search engine or across all search engines. Clearly, a page that is trusted by Ask, Google, Live, and Yahoo! is more valuable to you as an SEO than a page that is trusted by only one of those services. And most basic value any page can pass is what we can call indexing crawlability. That is, if a spider from one of the major search engines visits page A and subsequently crawls and indexes page B through a link on page A, then page A has conferred indexing crawlability to page B.

Fortunately for all of us, there are some services out there that automatically identify new domains and pass indexing crawlability as soon as those domains come online. Many of us have noticed that, after purchasing a domain name, robots come out of nowhere and fetch the index page and robots.txt files. 999 times out of 1,000 people don’t have any content for the search engines when they set up new domains. They buy the domains in advance, thinking they’ll protect their name space.

Name space really doesn’t matter. After years of ranking highly for hundreds of search expressions, Xenite.Org has definitively put to rest the myth that domain name matters to search engine optimization. Where Google is concerned, domain names can help but they don’t matter. In fact, Google is not looking at domain names so much as page URLs. If you don’t get the domain name of choice, don’t panic. If you want that extra little oomph from URL relevance, just create a sub-domain and/or sub-directory and/or page file name that gives you the magic touch. Just don’t expect many people to remember page-url-names-that-are-really-long-and-hard-to-memorize.html.

Well, that was a typically long Michael Martinez preamble to what is really a short list of things you can do to make sure your new sites get indexed and listed. So let’s take a look at the list:

1. Identify at least 5 reliable trusted link sources
2. Let your site be as ugly as it has to be
3. Plan how you’re going to establish stability in the indexes
4. Plan how you’re going to replace any paid linkage you use to get started
5. Set your calendar for a six-month and 12-month review

And here is what all that means.

Identify reliable trusted linking sources – Paid links are not reliable linking sources. You have no control over those pages, you have no way of knowing if they will pass value, and you have no way of knowing how long they will stay up. Some people only buy links and they are happy. Well, they were happy until they went Supplemental with the 2006 Thanksgiving Google Update. What’s a reliable trusted linking source? Think of the Yahoo! directory. Much as you may hate Yahoo!’s directory service, it’s still there and, so far as anyone can determine, it’s still passing value. That doesn’t mean you need a Yahoo! directory listing. But that’s the standard by which you should judge reliablity.

And why 5 trusted sources? Hey, you’re welcome to go with 1 if that makes you feel comfortable. Me, I’ll take whatever I can get. Most business site operators won’t be able to find 5 reliable trusted linking sources. Link building SEOs probably have more than 5 in their inventories but the majority of them probably don’t know which sources are really reliable and trusted. I suggest 5 as a starting point. It’s a goal, a target. Don’t agonize if you struggle to get to trusted link number 5. Just understand that you can go out and get 200 inbound links the way you always have and the majority of them are probably not trusted.

Trust is becoming a precious commodity in today’s search world, and if you think Google is the only engine that has implemented trust filters, let me sell you a bridge in Arizona. You’re going to need it.

Let your site be as ugly as it has to be – That means that if you have to put ugly little HTML links at the bottom of every page where your visitors can clearly see them in order to ensure that your pages are well interlinked, do it. That means, which sounds better to you: ugly or not listed?

If your Web site design doesn’t include rational HTML linkage for on-site navigation, you need to get ugly or just plan on buying links for the rest of your life. It’s your choice. You get no third options, although I’m sure a few snake oil vendors in the SEO industry will offer you plenty.

Plan how you’re going to establish stability in the indexes – After you get listed and ranked, hold your breath. You’ll see your pages vanish mysteriously. Were you banned? Penalized? Did you trip a filter?

Don’t panic. If you only have a handful of trusted inbound links, what do you think is going to happen when — during the normal course of rebuilding their indexes — the search engines temporarily sever the identified relationship between your site and those links? You lose rankings. Sometimes you lose listings. It happens. It’s normal. Plan for it.

What can you do? Get more trusted links. And how many more do you need? As many as it takes. Be sensible. Get a few links this month, a few next month, etc. When you see your page has stabilized (stays in the same spot for about 2 months running) you’re done — for now. Remember that other people may try to outrank you and leave you with no choice but to build more links. But don’t be stupid. Don’t start the endless cycle of link-building. Many competitive SERPs are actually secondary or so-called “long-tail” SERPs for your competitors. They may not want to fight for the number 1 slot where you have gone after it.

Plan how you’re going to replace any paid linkage you use to get started – Amazingly, many companies launch Web sites, go out and buy links to get them listed and ranked, and then slowly realize that they have to keep paying for those links. Some Web sites just need to buy visibility. They are cheap, low-quality, cookie-cutter, wannabe sites. They are the independent convenience stores of the Web. They usually never get many natural links. They’re stuck in the Unbranded Zone. They’ll probably have to rely on PPC ads forever.

But let’s assume you’re working on a site that will establish brand value. If, after a year, you have not reduced your linking budgets, you’re doing something wrong. Brand value brings natural linkage and visibility. You may never drop the PPC ads but you should aim to be in the position of saying, “I feel like spending only X dollars on PPC this month/year”. You should not be in the position of saying, “We have to spend X dollars on PPC or we’re out of business!”

See the difference?

Sites that establish brand value are typically large content sites which offer a lot of information (in addition to products and/or services). Yeah, I’m talking about non-converting content. Do you think Amazon has brand value? The next time you browse one of their product reviews, look for the “Buy this product” link embedded in the review. You won’t find one. The reviews may be shown on product listing pages, but the reviews themselves are non-converting content because their only calls to action are the little “Did you find this review helpful?” links.

So there you are with lots of products and services but no informational content. You’re screwed, Dude. You have no brand value. If you think copywriting for product listing pages is extremely hard, think about how much easier it would be if you only chose to build brand value.

Set your calendar for a 6-month and 12-month review – In a professional marketing campaign, reviews may be performed monthly or quarterly. SEO moves to the beat of a different drum. It should take you 2 months to get a new site indexed and ranking and another 2-4 months to get it stabilized. If you cannot do this in 6 months, you need to revise your strategy.

Now, if you’re going after the number 1 slot for “pizza”, you have your work cut out for you. Understand that “indexed and ranking” means “indexed and ranking for useful expressions that send adequate converting taffic”. “Indexed and ranking” does not mean “listed number 1 in every real estate market in America”. I’m not saying that cannot be done in 6 months.

But it ain’t gonna happen with just 5 trusted links.

So at the 6-month point the SEO needs to review where the site is in the major search engines. Has the campaign established visibility, stability, and brought in adequate converting traffic? If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, then you need to change your strategy. A new campaign is called for.

But what if you’re doing okay? Then do you still need a 12-month review? Well, that’s what I would do. After all, most search traffic tends to be either seasonal or driven by news and entertainment events. That is not necessarily so in some consumer products verticals. But you need a 12-month review to ascertain whether there may be any seasonal or event-related spikes in traffic. You cannot be sure from just one year’s worth of data, but if you see obvious spikes, then some of the priorities for the 2nd year campaign have been set. You need to compare back-to-back years to be sure of where your seasonal and event-driven spikes will be.

Two years. They didn’t tell you that in SEO school, did they? But you need about two years to understand a Web site’s market and its relationship to that market. And beyond the second year you probably need to do a five-year review.

But that’s a topic for another day.