Links are not just for references

When communicating with webmasters, as well as managers of online projects, we often encounter the opinion that links play a big role in SEO. They are given so much importance that the work of seo-specialist appears to people as a search for methods of linking to the site, the ability to write anchors and select donors, or worse, is interested in the correct choice of automated link exchange or link aggregator. Accordingly, seo when meeting with each other, most often interested in questions about who dilutes the anchors, where to buy quality links and what strategy of purchase.

Many clients of seo-services represent the distribution of time of work of a specialist in the promotion of the project in approximately the following ratio:

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In similar proportions they imagine the distribution of their budget (spent on payment for the work of a specialist and the purchase of links). Perfect ground for the growth and development of automated systems, isn't it?

In reality, a good seo specialist (with experience) performs a variety of tasks, most of which are related to analytics. Let's take a look at what goes into the work of a seo specialist?

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The numerical axis shows the approximate amount of time spent in hours on this or that type of work. Depending on the scale of the project, these figures may vary (also, some types of work are periodic), here are the average values for the entire cycle of work with the project.

Let's look at each item separately.

Niche analysis

Before starting an activity in any area, it is necessary to analyse that area, especially if we are talking about marketing and long-term investment (or laying out, depending on the angle of view) of money. What players are present in the market? How long have they been in the niche and what have they achieved in that time? With whom will you have to compete, and with whom is it better to make friends? All this requires analysis for the correct compilation of a strategy for the promotion of the site.

Making predictions

Based on the analysis, the client should provide forecasts - how many will be able to get traffic or orders in this market (in the short and long term)? Also describe all the risks. Based on the forecasts, the client decides whether to invest budget in promotion, or in general - in the conduct of online business (maybe nobody buys meteorites online and it is better to go to work as a miner).

By the way, if at this stage the client decides not to work with seo-studio, and the studio takes money only for secured site positions or traffic, the company loses one man-day (or more). In this regard, many companies do not offer to analyse, and say - "we can promote sites, do you want to or not?", implying that the client has an analytical mind and has already analysed everything correctly or vice versa - the client is not educated and does not even think about the prospect.

Work with the semantic core of queries

Having decided on the feasibility of promoting the site, it is necessary to prepare and, first of all, to make a semantic core of queries - these are the key phrases on which people can and should find the site. Depending on the scale of the project, the core can be from 10 words to 10 000 and more. And, despite the fact that there are tools to work with the core of queries, much here will have to be done manually (including brainstorming).

From a large pile of collected phrases, you need to find the most effective and promising ones. This may seem like a simple task, but, in fact, takes a lot of seo-specialist's time. After receiving the final list of queries, it must be grouped, as each group will have its own purpose and features, and from the result obtained will depend on the future structure of the site (if the client gives permission to change it).

Analysis of the site

Here we mean the technical analysis of the site and internal seo-audit. It is necessary to make sure that the site works well and quickly, CMS does not generate duplicates, unnecessary sections are closed from indexing, correct coding is used, content is visible to search engines and so on. On the basis of the analysis is formed technical task (or recommendations) to make changes to the person responsible for administration.

Analysis of statistics (reports)

If the site has already existed for some time in the network, one of the tasks of seo-optimiser - to analyse the statistics of the site, what are its current indicators, how people most often find the site, by what queries, using what search engines and so on. If the site was previously promoted by another company (or other seoshniki), it is necessary to analyse the reports on promotion - the dynamics of positions and methods used, as well as the acceptability of these methods (in terms of their usefulness in the long term).

Note that so far we have not talked about links.

Forming a promotion strategy

On the basis of the preparatory work carried out, it is necessary to draw up a website promotion strategy and agree it with the client. Set goals, outline objectives (what exactly needs to be done to achieve the goal) and assign them to roles (who is responsible for what). For each site will be a different strategy, depending on the initial data and objectives.

Learning new tools

The SEO market is changing, the approaches used to promote websites are changing, new tools and services are appearing. For example, Sapa has not always existed and it took time to learn its interface and various nuances of interaction with this service. At the peak of popularity of blogs and blogosphere, tools like Blogun appeared, because of social networks appeared Prospero, ForumOK, Twite and other services. The same thing happens on the desktop application market, every month new tools appear that require time to learn how to work with them.

Who invests in the development of specialists - the client, the employer or the specialist himself? Here everyone decides for himself, but it should be taken into account that a SEO needs to spend time on studying tools (this point cannot be put into a progress report, but the client, as well as the employer, should be interested that the specialists involved in his project are constantly developing).

By the way, one of the tools is Sapa's Wizard, which allows you to automate routine tasks.

Optimisation of the site structure and selection of pages for promotion

It's time to do something with the site, before that the client has not seen any results, except for the provided analytical reports. The first thing to do at this stage is to optimise the site structure, make important pages and sections indexable and accessible within a minimum number of clicks from the main page, use navigation filters, breadcrumbs and CNC. Perhaps this work will be done only once, but the optimisation of the structure will determine all further work on the site.

Based on the semantic kernel of queries and the chosen structure of the site should be selected, which pages are appropriate to show for each of the groups of queries, as well as to coordinate this choice with the customer. Perhaps this stage does not apply to small projects with 2-5 pages, but online shops and other voluminous resources should select entry points and justify this choice. This is one of the tasks of a seo-specialist (it is not always possible to fully automate this process).

Content creation and optimisation

Some pages from the planned structure may not exist yet, so you need to create content for them. Or additional content for already existing pages will be required. The task of the optimiser here is to write detailed TOR for the person responsible for content creation, if the optimiser himself is not it.

For each page should be prescribed titles, meta tags, optimise text and images, remove all unnecessary and make sure that the content was indexable (visible to search engine robots). All work should be done in accordance with the available semantic core of queries. The more pages on the site, the longer it will take to optimise the content. It is almost impossible to automate (except for the use of templates), so this stage will require a lot of man-hours.

Finding sites for placing links

Of course, without links, many projects with competitive topics, to promote difficult, so part of the optimiser's time is spent on finding sites for placing links. This process can be periodic, as sites over time can deteriorate or disappear, and the competition in the niche to grow.

Analysis of competing sites

Some time is also spent on analysing competitor sites, what sites are they promoting, what links are they using and how do they distribute the link mass on the structure of their site? This helps to find new sources of links, new ideas and correctly form link budgets.

As you can see, SEO is not only about links! External optimisation here is only 10% of the total amount of work (and part of this is the analysis of competitors' link profiles). Most of the work of a SEO is, first of all, analytics and internal optimisation of the site.

In order not to get lost in this sea of opportunities and tools, you can always carry out search engine optimisation of the site at an affordable price together with the AVSEO team. We will draw up an individual promotion plan for you and help you with both the first steps and further promotion.