What Should I Expect from My SEO Expert?

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a pretty complex and ever-changing "game." It's not a one and done, as some people might think. Just like your own health, your website's health is a lifetime commitment. Give it some love, and it'll love you back.

We often get asked,

What should I expect from my SEO expert?

Below are some SEO best practices that Spartan Spark Recommends

Make sure your web developer is doing these as a minimum:

• A properly indexed blog on the home page (see content writing below)
• A Content Management System that can be easily updated
• Pages built with automatic keyword density
• Auto Link Density: Pages are automatically linked to each other. Pages that are referenced are included at the bottom of each web page allowing for high search density and better indexing by search engines
• All pages have "last changed on," which is important for search engines to know when the page was last updated
• Properly formatted headings
• Make sure all your pages are WC3 compliant, which means that the search engines are able to read the pages
• Loaded on fast servers, giving your website even more points with the search engines because they're looking for a good user experience
• Page speed is optimized
• Minifying javascript
• Use schema
• Geo targeting
• No parsing errors
• No use of flash
• If you've got more than one URL for your website, you need to redirect or use a meta tag called conical to say which one is the one true one; otherwise, you are splitting your Search Engine score between the multiple URLs, and you will be penalized for duplicate content
• Make sure any links pointing to your website (backlinks) are from reputable sources: Index 3 or 4 or higher; and ones who are using best practices; otherwise, if they get penalized, you will also lose reputation. In that case, ask to be removed.
• Website is 100% mobile-friendly: not just visible on mobile devices but actually mobile-friendly.

Make sure your content provider is doing this at a minimum

• Writing good content on your blog and website that shares your expertise and therefore naturally uses your keywords
• Writing consistent blogs: consistent writing gets the search engines to come back and index you more frequently
• Writing good content around your website so that you have a low bounce rate
• Creating new and relevant pages on your website to set you up as the "Wikipedia" of your niche
• Headings are important to search engines: search engines like you to format your pages just as you would a document, i.e., Level 1,2,3 Headings, bolding, and italicizing
• No duplicate content on the website or around the web
• Linking different pages to each other using relevant keywords
• Going back into old content and updating, refreshing or deleting

Resources:

• Backlink Checker: to make sure only relevant websites are linking to yours
• Page Speed Checker
• Mobile-Friendly Test Tool
• An old school but free CSS Validator

Find out how your website is doing.

Get a Spartan Spark Audit.

Written By: Dafne Canales

Founder and CEO of the innovative digital marketing software company, Spartan Spark, Dafne Canales Lees has earned her reputation as the Data-Driven Digital Storyteller. Her 7-Second Trust Formula uses behavioural marketing strategies to create client trust via digital marketing platforms for a more personalized user experience that translates into additional sign-ups, sales and increased profits.

A member of the Neuromarketing Business and Science Association and the Society for the Advancement of Behavioural Economics, Dafne travels monthly to California to attend meetings with her advisory board. A sought-after speaker and facilitator, this creative innovator never stops giving of her time and talent, even teaching corporate in-house marketing teams the latest digital marketing strategies.