My first SEO "client" - Follow as I journal the process

• got access to their Google analytics. I still need the webmaster console access...
• found a state-specialized PR service. This makes the PR worth it in my book since it will mostly be local / in-state. My thought is that this will give him some publicity and 'relevant' links to the area rather than random nation-wide links I'd get with a site like newswire.com. We'll see- he's willing to try it and pay for the service.
• Narrowed down PR writers to write the PR. I need to pick one and get in touch. I may write it myself but would still want a PR pro to look it over before we submit it. I don't know why I feel intimidated by writing a simple PR.
• Been keyword researching. Right now I've been "keyword dumping". He covers a lot of services so it's been a lot of keywords to rifle through. My keyword dump is for raw data and content ideas- which I'm getting a TON of content ideas.
• I found several active blogs in a specific niche I could potentially reach out to who either might or do accept guest posts. This is just in one niche- we've got several more to go
• Researching how to get a short/easy to remember URL for people to review on his Google Business page. Seems like there are several ways to do it, I need to buckle down and find the easiest one. Been trying to brainstorm ways to encourage people to review- I have several ideas to run by him.
• I was going to get us on Moz Local but I'm wondering if I could be a cheap-o and have the NAP done for a one-time fee. There's a ton of services who do this but I'm concerned about the quality and the possibility of them "sticking"? Researching this... Since it's not my site, I want to be careful and not play it risky.

lentilmental said:

And by client, I mean my brother in law. I have to start somewhere to build my skills and experience. It's my first time trying to rank someone else's website so I am planning to go white hat with this.

I'm not going to specify the area or niche we're in. Just going to say his website for a service-based brick-and-mortar business already ranks for some keywords, I want to continue boosting his rankings and get him on more first pages in searches, particularly for the locals. He also wants to rank for some new keywords.

He's got a pretty solid website- there's not too much to "fix" from a technical SEO standpoint. The site has good foundational content. It's fast, responsive, and the meta tags are all in place. I do have it as a task to see where meta descriptions and titles can be improved but again, there's nothing obvious or critical to fix.

So my efforts will focus on backlinks, content creation, guest posting, and optimizing existing content. I have a few extra things I want to try too.

So far, I've got 2 months, week by week, mapped out with tasks.

This past week I:

• got access to their Google analytics. I still need the webmaster console access...
• found a state-specialized PR service. This makes the PR worth it in my book since it will mostly be local / in-state. My thought is that this will give him some publicity and 'relevant' links to the area rather than random nation-wide links I'd get with a site like newswire.com. We'll see- he's willing to try it and pay for the service.
• Narrowed down PR writers to write the PR. I need to pick one and get in touch. I may write it myself but would still want a PR pro to look it over before we submit it. I don't know why I feel intimidated by writing a simple PR.
• Been keyword researching. Right now I've been "keyword dumping". He covers a lot of services so it's been a lot of keywords to rifle through. My keyword dump is for raw data and content ideas- which I'm getting a TON of content ideas.
• I found several active blogs in a specific niche I could potentially reach out to who either might or do accept guest posts. This is just in one niche- we've got several more to go
• Researching how to get a short/easy to remember URL for people to review on his Google Business page. Seems like there are several ways to do it, I need to buckle down and find the easiest one. Been trying to brainstorm ways to encourage people to review- I have several ideas to run by him.
• I was going to get us on Moz Local but I'm wondering if I could be a cheap-o and have the NAP done for a one-time fee. There's a ton of services who do this but I'm concerned about the quality and the possibility of them "sticking"? Researching this... Since it's not my site, I want to be careful and not play it risky.

Here we go...
Anyone has any tips or advice, I'd love to hear it. I think I'm on the right track! I'll keep updating as I go.

Click to expand...

philcav77 said:

Bright local does 1 time fee for citations distribution. You can choose quantity or send to the aggregators.

Click to expand...

710fla said:

+1 for bright local citations

Click to expand...

rajkumar31 said:

Good luck with your journey!

Click to expand...

b1step-ahead said:

good luck,, didn't read everything whats the niche and geo

Click to expand...

lentilmental said:

I'm not going to specify the area or niche we're in.

Click to expand...

lentilmental said:

And by client, I mean my brother in law. I have to start somewhere to build my skills and experience. It's my first time trying to rank someone else's website so I am planning to go white hat with this.

I'm not going to specify the area or niche we're in. Just going to say his website for a service-based brick-and-mortar business already ranks for some keywords, I want to continue boosting his rankings and get him on more first pages in searches, particularly for the locals. He also wants to rank for some new keywords.

He's got a pretty solid website- there's not too much to "fix" from a technical SEO standpoint. The site has good foundational content. It's fast, responsive, and the meta tags are all in place. I do have it as a task to see where meta descriptions and titles can be improved but again, there's nothing obvious or critical to fix.

So my efforts will focus on backlinks, content creation, guest posting, and optimizing existing content. I have a few extra things I want to try too.

So far, I've got 2 months, week by week, mapped out with tasks.

This past week I:

• got access to their Google analytics. I still need the webmaster console access...
• found a state-specialized PR service. This makes the PR worth it in my book since it will mostly be local / in-state. My thought is that this will give him some publicity and 'relevant' links to the area rather than random nation-wide links I'd get with a site like newswire.com. We'll see- he's willing to try it and pay for the service.
• Narrowed down PR writers to write the PR. I need to pick one and get in touch. I may write it myself but would still want a PR pro to look it over before we submit it. I don't know why I feel intimidated by writing a simple PR.
• Been keyword researching. Right now I've been "keyword dumping". He covers a lot of services so it's been a lot of keywords to rifle through. My keyword dump is for raw data and content ideas- which I'm getting a TON of content ideas.
• I found several active blogs in a specific niche I could potentially reach out to who either might or do accept guest posts. This is just in one niche- we've got several more to go
• Researching how to get a short/easy to remember URL for people to review on his Google Business page. Seems like there are several ways to do it, I need to buckle down and find the easiest one. Been trying to brainstorm ways to encourage people to review- I have several ideas to run by him.
• I was going to get us on Moz Local but I'm wondering if I could be a cheap-o and have the NAP done for a one-time fee. There's a ton of services who do this but I'm concerned about the quality and the possibility of them "sticking"? Researching this... Since it's not my site, I want to be careful and not play it risky.

Here we go...
Anyone has any tips or advice, I'd love to hear it. I think I'm on the right track! I'll keep updating as I go.

Click to expand...

• BrightLocal citations are all done, waiting for it to be totally completed on their end.
• PR has been sent off. I’m a little disappointed so far by the lack of reporting the service offered so I’ve only found 2 sites so far the have posted it. They were quality sources at least!
• It may be a delay in Google indexing them. So with that and applying to various HAROs, I set some Google alerts for any new articles matching my keywords so I’ll hopefully catch any and all new backlinks / PR posting about us.
• Obviously, we are continuing to applying to various HARO stuff
• I rewrote all their titles and descriptions. There were a lot of duplicates and the titles weren’t as effective as they could be. I took inspiration in tone and language by Googling my niche and studying the SERP ads. If you ever need good descriptions, SERP offers a lot of insight. No one pays for bad ads so you’re likely seeing a tried and effective ad.
• I've been making some backlinks along the way.
• I did a fairly exhaustive keyword “dump” and created a blog post list by topic. I made it a pretty chart that included stats like search volume, etc. I got it approved.
• So that means we got to writing. We’ve gotten several blog posts done and I’ve already started wanting to rewrite a few pages- mainly to expand on things and focus on some keywords.
• The problem? The CMS is propriety and the company is very uncomfortable to let us add content or a blog. They’d rather we pay for them to do it. I’m hoping we can all get on a call to discuss. I’ve been in a similar situation before so I am hoping I’ll be able to navigate it to our favor.
• I still need to put Majestic to work in finding some opportunities.
• Since we’re behind on updating the website and adding the blog, I’m just going to go ahead and start pitching to related niche blogs. I found them mainly by googling my niche + “accepts guest posts” (or other word variance).

cerentine said:

Awesome and good luck! A suggestion is to keep all on site / off site work organized in a log doc - this makes it easier for you and your "client" when you have to revert back to what you did x time ago. And its easy for you to get your client the transparency that is often lacking.

Click to expand...