The demand for effective skills in this discipline is currently outrageous. Although a few years ago almost anyone could get away with saying they are able to do SEO work, but now this is simply not the case. Companies demand that not only does one have several years experience, but they are also specialists in this style of writing, with the ability to keep up with internet trends and of course in an ideal world to predict them. But is this even possible to find or is this industry becoming like healthcare where it is impossible to know everything so best to focus on just one element?

SEO people are now required to do far more than they used to and in fact this is not just in the manner in which they optimise content. It is also in the way in which they think and in fact they are being asked to take on other jobs altogether. In addition to their SEO functions, they are asked to understand marketing and PR and let this feed into the way in which they work. Given that people study for years to qualify into these fields it certainly raises the question that expectations may be too high. As if this weren’t enough, they are also required to have a high level of technical knowledge. Now finding a technical person that can write or a writer that is technical can be very difficult and is this type of person even out there.

A way to approach this dilemma is to understand exactly what is required of a SEO specialist and this is of course up to the business itself. It must be clear on what its objectives are and what sort of talents the ideal SEO would require. It is easy to see that in these trying economic times businesses expect more from less, but it would seem that this is a short term perspective and those with a long term view that decide on investing in the correct talent for the job are really likely to do better.

Interestingly, there is an increasing trend of PR and marketing people being asked to dabble in SEO. While this again might have worked years ago when things were simpler, this is not going to be an effective strategy in the increasingly dynamic internet environment. Unless there is professional guidance most SEO activities will be futile in this type of situation.

Experts recommend that a company should have a combination of talent in order to achieve optimal results with SEO, PR and Marketing. This includes having a person that is marketing minded who understand business objectives and is able to effectively communicate your business to the world. Technically minded SEO person who understands the internet and the manner in which it works, they would be able to bypass the algorithms and similar measures in place to ensure the best results. A person who is a networker and understands the value of social media and building links. They will get more exposure for the content. Finally a project manager, someone who can bring all of these talents together. Now granted, it is possible to find people with a combination of two of these qualities perhaps, but it would really seem impossible to find all of these rolled into one – disappointing for those businesses that really have to watch their cash flow at present.

When budget is an issue and time to market even more important, it does make sense to utilise an SEO agency. Outsource this work to them, after all they are professionals and they know what they are doing. Given that the work is becoming more and more specialised by the day, this move reduces the time it takes to find someone to employ and the amount of time needed to upskill that person sufficiently.

It makes life a lot easier and ensures that there is indeed some level of great SEO to promote your business.

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The starting point is you should know before hand, how much of natural traffic and sales are materializing to your site presently.  For this the web analytic program will be handy and by going through the statistics in last month, you will know which of the keywords and phrases have driven the traffic.

For example if you are running an online site for machine tools, your web analytic form will show as follows:

Monthly Web Analytic Export

This is for a regular business where transactions occur every month.  If what you run is a seasonal business, then there will be no transactions at all in off seasons and you have to select the data from the seasonal months – two or three at best.

The above format shows the keywords and phrases, which bring you natural-search referred traffic through the search engines and the sales they turned out at your site. You have to make a comparison of available keyword market that is on those keywords and phrases what are the number of searches made in an ordinary month and for the same keywords what is your site’s score.  KeywordDiscovery.com and Google Adwords Keyword Tool can help you in this regard to determine the current rate of success your site has achieved.

Then record the total number of searches as per your keyword tool estimates for each keyword and phrase generated. Now you can make a simple calculation to know the fact – Total Searches minus your traffic /Divided by your Traffic – to know the growth opportunity percentage existing for the keywords and phrases, which are driving traffic from natural searchers. Supposing the Google search total in a month for a particular keyword phrase is 10000 and for the same keyword phrase for your site is just 1000, then you can find the percentage growth opportunity is – 10000 minus 1000 divided by 1000 = 900%.

But this is not all.  The most upside work comes really from the keywords and phrases where you are drawing blank with no traffic and sales. The next task is big in identifying the keywords and phrases that your site needs for driving natural traffic and this needs in-depth research to ascertain what additional traffic the same keywords and phrases can send in to your site. Your keyword research tools can be used to find out the most popular ways of searching for the content, after identifying the keywords for which there is relevant content at your site.

The value of keyword research depends upon two things -1) the relevance of your site’s content to the keyword and 2) the types of search terms used by real users should be fully there at your site. In this context you can refer to PJ Fusco’s keyword research primer for more details on keyword research.

As can be seen from the above table, the keyword phrases “Magnetic Drill” and “Multi Drill” are already generating traffic and sales from natural searchers, whereas there is no traffic at all for the keywords “Portable Saw”, “Portable Panel”, ”Panel Saw” and “Magnetic Screw Driver”.

Now that you have collected all the data, you can sum the “Total Monthly Search Volume” column, so as to identify the total SEO Traffic upside. It should be remembered that this number indicates theoretically 100% of the total available natural search traffic. It has been studied by researches that the No.1 position ranking in search engine listings will average about 45% of the click-through available.  As such if you rank No.1 for the keyword “Portable Saw”, which is approximately 200,010 searches per month, roughly 90,004 searchers from them which is 45%, will be clicking through Google to your site.  However, a more conservative approach for 5% click-through rate is recommended in estimating the opportunity, with your efforts in SEO can bring forth for your site.

By knowing the average revenue value each visit can make your site, you can estimate the value of optimizing your site in order to achieve those additional visits by natural searches.

Further similar spreadsheets can be prepared by the growth columns sorted so that you identify the keywords and phrases that can represent the biggest opportunities for growth and that will give you a prioritized list of content-topics to be optimized.

The foregoing is only an example of six keyword and phrases and are a fraction of the total opportunity you want to be estimated on the keyword research for your site.

You will find that the ranking data is missing from this formula. Site owners would love to focus on them, since Rankings are easy and quick snapshots of SEO progress. It is true that higher the ranking, larger the traffic will be from that particular keyword.  But rankings are notoriously unreliable to indicate SEO progress, because of personalization, blended search, vertical research, and other factors that are large in number.

For reliably setting your expectations for SEO success, you can do well to sticking to traffic, sales and keyword research as the basis of your SEO upside estimations.

As can be seen from the above table, the keyword phrases “Magnetic Drill” and “Multi Drill” are already generating traffic and sales from natural searchers, whereas there is no traffic at all for the keywords “Portable Saw”, “Portable Panel”, ”Panel Saw” and “Magnetic Screw Driver”.

Now that you have collected all the data, you can sum the “Total Monthly Search Volume” column, so as to identify the total SEO Traffic upside. It should be remembered that this number indicates theoretically 100% of the total available natural search traffic. It has been studied by researches that the No.1 position ranking in search engine listings will average about 45% of the click-through available.  As such if you rank No.1 for the keyword “Portable Saw”, which is approximately 200,010 searches per month, roughly 90,004 searchers from them which is 45%, will be clicking through Google to your site.  However, a more conservative approach for 5% click-through rate is recommended in estimating the opportunity, with your efforts in SEO can bring forth for your site.

By knowing the average revenue value each visit can make your site, you can estimate the value of optimizing your site in order to achieve those additional visits by natural searches.

Further similar spreadsheets can be prepared by the growth columns sorted so that you identify the keywords and phrases that can represent the biggest opportunities for growth and that will give you a prioritized list of content-topics to be optimized.

The foregoing is only an example of six keyword and phrases and are a fraction of the total opportunity you want to be estimated on the keyword research for your site.

You will find that the ranking data is missing from this formula. Site owners would love to focus on them, since Rankings are easy and quick snapshots of SEO progress. It is true that higher the ranking, larger the traffic will be from that particular keyword.  But rankings are notoriously unreliable to indicate SEO progress, because of personalization, blended search, vertical research, and other factors that are large in number.

For reliably setting your expectations for SEO success, you can do well to sticking to traffic, sales and keyword research as the basis of your SEO upside estimations.

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