Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing Worksheet
In order to formulate a plan and cost estimate that will help you attract visitors to your website, we’d like to know the answers to the following questions. Please note that most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plans start around $2,000 and move up from there, and most PPC Plans start around $1,000 and go up from there – a project’s cost ultimately depends on the size and complexity of your site as well as your goals.
In this box, please describe the nature of your business and begin to scope out what you’re looking for. Tell us what “makes you tick”, what you’re trying to achieve (leads/sales/traffic/branding) and a history of the company and the domain. If you are entertaining the idea of redesigning your website, be sure to us know. A great SEO program begins with keyword research/competitive analysis and how that intelligence is used in the creation of your Information Architecture; try your best not to launch a new website and THEN hire an SEO firm. Be sure to list any items that will begin to define scope, such as the internal resources you might have available (IT team/Copywriters/Public Relations Department/Bloggers, etc.). By defining both what you are trying to achieve and the internal help you may be able to provide, we will be able to clearly define what role we will be playing on your road to success.
1.
What is the name of your company and your current URL(s)?
2.
What is the contact information of the person who would be in charge of communicating with/working with us?
3.
How long has your company been in business?
4.
Competitor URLs:
5.
Keywords of focus: Please provide a seed list here. Ideally, you will have some good information from past PPC efforts. If you do have PPC history, see below (send spreadsheet with info). Another good source for this data is site search.
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6.
PPC History (if existing PPC campaign exists): Explain which keywords have driven the best results for paid efforts, in the past. If possible, send us a spreadsheet showing Impressions/CTR/Conversion Rate/CPC, etc
7.
Budget: This may be an uncomfortable thing to share in the proposal process, but here’s why we include this. If we know what your budget is, we can prescribe a solution based upon the number of hours that you can afford. If you would prefer, you can address this by simply stating your goals, and providing the other information listed here, and then say “tell me how much this will cost”.
8.
Do you have a Google Webmaster Tools account?
9.
Please provide a brief synopsis of past search engine optimization efforts, if applicable.
Site Structure
1. How often is your site updated?
2. Do you know if your site content is dynamically generated?
3. What content management system are you using, if any?
4. Hosting: Who hosts your site? Shared/Dedicated? Apache/IIS?
5. How long has the website been live?
6. Do you have a sitemap? (Google sitemap? XML, Other?)
7. Do you know if any site functions (forms, shopping carts, etc...) hosted on a server other than the one that hosts the Web site?
What changes are you willing to make to the website?
1. Add additional pages?
2. Change site navigation? (from image-based nav to CSS/Text, etc.)
3. Change web copy/header tags?
4. Change home page copy/add home page copy?
5. Change Title Tags? 6. Can URL’s be changed? (Rewritten)
Linking Initiatives
1. How have you generated links to your website? (natural; some natural/some paid; some requested; press releases; reciprocal; any ROS – “Run of Site” links; for those that are paid, if any, do they expire any time soon?)
2. Do you have a PR Department or someone to send out press releases for you? Are you optimizing these? Could we have influence over how these are handled?
3. Any social media marketing programs? Bloggers on staff?
4. Do you have a list of current Directory listings?
5. Do you participate in other forms of online or offline marketing? If so, provide some background on these efforts, here.
Tracking the Campaign
1. How do you define success in this area? What are the key metrics of “success”? (rankings/traffic/leads/branding/reputation management). What are the highest priority products/pages/services on your site?
2. Who is your target audience? (demographics/psychographics, etc.)
3. What analytics product are you currently using? (or do you need us to establish an analytics program for you). Do you have conversion tracking enabled? (for leads/sales/downloading of white paper, etc.). If you do have analytics in place, does the current provider allow for conversion tracking for organic search traffic?