SEO Components

Our Extended SEO Programs are made up of several individual components which, along with our regular web site management service, work together to achieve optimal results. You may purchase one or more of these components separately. The fees for each component are the same if purchased together as a program or individually.

Keyword Analysis

Keyword analysis helps determine which keyword phrases to use to optimize your web site for best natural search results. "Best natural search results" means:

• best placement on the search engines (like Google)
• more traffic (higher hit count)
• better quality traffic (i.e., from people who want to buy from you)
• all without paying search engines directly (e.g., via a pay-per-click model).

What does it involve?
In our Keyword Analysis service, we work through a comprehensive process, using the latest research and various cutting-edge analysis tools, along with your input and our experience, to identify keyword phrases with the optimal combination of the following characteristics:

• high demand
• low supply
• most relevance to the product/service
• most likely to be used by your ideal client.

You will fill out an online questionnaire that helps us understand your business and its unique characteristics. We go through an exhaustive examination and analysis of your options to determine your best keywords. We then check your web site's current placement in the search result pages for those keywords as a benchmark. You will receive a detailed written report.

How is Keyword Analysis used?
The keyword phrases identified in this report should be used:

• to modify the text and code of your web site
• to determine the best domain names to purchase
• in the text of incoming links to your site from other web sites
• in any pay-per-click program
• in any other online marketing efforts.

When should Keyword Analysis be done?
Keyword Analysis should be done whenever significant changes in your company or business environment have occurred.

Prerequisites:
You must be a current Back2Front client. Keyword Analysis is recommended for most of the remaining SEO program components.

Cost: $150

Web Site Analysis for SEO

Web Site Analysis for SEO thoroughly examines all of the many aspects of a web site that can affect its search engine performance, with the goal of finding any areas that can be improved or updated. Successful SEO involves making changes to your web site. Although external forces do affect your traffic levels, the web site code and content is by far the most important and most easily controlled part of SEO.

What does it involve?
In our Web Site Analysis service we work through a comprehensive process using the latest research and various cutting-edge analysis tools. We combine this with the Keyword Analysis done earlier, the Statistics reports for your site, and with our own experience, to examine your current web site and identify areas that can be improved.

Web Site Code
We examine the code of the web site to identify anything that may interfere with optimal search engine access and indexing. We make sure all of the opportunities for instructions to the search engines are exploited.

Web Site Content
We examine the content of the web site to ensure your best keywords are used sufficiently and in the correct places for optimal results. We also check to make sure that all good content is accessible to search engines.

Placement on Search Results Page
A benchmark for success is your web site's position in the search results pages of the major search engines using the keyword strings you are targeting. A higher placement on the search results pages may mean more traffic to your web site, as revealed in your Statistics Reports.

Statistics Reports Analysis
The Statistics Reports we put together from the server logs for your site each month are the definitive resource for traffic level information. The server logs record every single transaction and quite a bit of information about each one. PageRank and placement are useful indications of relative success with certain keywords or with various search engines, but what really counts in the end is: "Who is visiting your web site? How many are visiting? When are they visiting? Which pages are most popular? Where did they come from? What keywords did they use?" etc. An analysis of the Statistics Report can answer these questions and more.

Using our Statistics Reports, we:

• evaluate the performance of the web site to date and compare year-over-year or monthly data (if we have it) to spot trends
• determine human traffic patterns as opposed to those of robots
• discover which keyword strings are currently successful
• see which other web sites are sending you traffic (incoming links); etc.

Domain Name Analysis
A domain name is your web site address. Ours, for example, is: "back2front.ca". Like us, you should have your company name as your domain name for lookup purposes and corporate identity. Having keywords that relate directly to the thing you do or sell in your domain name can significantly improve the SEO performance of your web site, which is why we also have "thewebsitepeople.ca," among others. Having multiple domain names all pointing to the same web site is not only possible, but also desirable. Domain Name Analysis will examine your options and recommend new domain names that will aid your SEO efforts.

If you are participating in an SEO program, we will identify domains that are available and that contain the keywords you want to target, buy the number of domains stated in your program level, and set them up. If you are purchasing domain names outside of a program, you may acquire as many as you wish. If you are purchasing the web site analysis separately, only the recommendation part is covered within the Web Site Analysis fee. Domain purchases are extra and the costs are detailed here.

When should Web Site Analysis be done?
At Back2Front, we build web sites that are search engine-friendly from the start. However, a Web Site Analysis for SEO may be needed or repeated for the following reasons:

• You make major changes to your business which requires us to make related changes to the SEO.
• You have just gone through a Keyword Analysis and we need to make changes to the SEO according to those results.
• Web sites are built with a number of goals and priorities that must all be accommodated. Only one of these is SEO. Often, SEO initially takes a back seat in favour of other priorities. However, when increasing traffic levels becomes a priority, a web site should be analyzed specifically with a view to improving SEO.
• SEO is not something that can be done just once and then forgotten. Your traffic levels may drop if you leave your site unchanged for too long. The search engines change their methods, technology changes, and your competition is not standing still either! Web Site Analysis for SEO will help identify what should be added and changed to stay competitive.

How is a Web Site Analysis used?
The Web Site Analysis is used to determine what changes need to be made to improve your web site's search engine performance.

Prerequisites:
You must be a current Back2Front client.
Keyword Analysis is highly recommended.

Cost: $150

Competitive Analysis for SEO

Competitive Analysis looks at your competitors' web sites and compares them to yours to determine what (if anything) needs to be improved on your web site so you can compete.

What does it involve?
We will identify your top competitors on Google by performing searches using your predefined keywords, or you may specify which of your competitors you want us to analyze. We recommend that you compare your web site to at least three competitors to get a good sense of the competitive marketplace. Comparing with only one may be misleading. You can opt to compare with the lead players in your industry to see how far you need to go to reach their level. Alternately, you can choose the closest matches to your business offering, size and location, to establish the minimum level. Or you can do both to really get a handle on your competitive position, which is what we do inside an SEO program.

The Competitive Analysis is similar to the Web Site Analysis for SEO, except that we must omit the Statistics Analysis, since we do not have access to the competitor's report. We also don't do a Domain Analysis (since we are not planning to purchase domains for the competitor). We will examine the competitor's web site for key SEO features such as keywords, accessible technology, size, content, meta tags, backlinks, etc., and then compare them to your web site and provide you with a detailed report containing our recommendations.

When should Competitive Analysis be done?
We recommend doing a Competitive Analysis when getting better page placement than your competition is important to you. It should be undertaken after most other SEO work has been completed. If your web site is not already optimized before we do a Competitive Analysis it may not be as well-placed as it could be, which means we will have difficulty establishing who are your real competitors on the web.

How is Competitive Analysis for SEO used?
The Competitive Analysis is used to identify any holes or further work that needs to be done to compete effectively with identified competitors.

Prerequisites:
You must be a current Back2Front client.
Keyword Analysis is highly recommended.
Web Site Analysis for SEO is highly recommended.
Your web site should already be well optimized.

Cost: $130 for each competitive web site.

Link-building

What is Link-Building for SEO?
A link-building program works to increase the number and quality of the incoming links to your web site (Sites that link to you). This will, in part, determine your position on the search result pages. In addition, the more web sites that are linking to you, the more traffic you will get directly from those links. This is why a link-building program is so crucial.

What does it involve?

PageRank
Google's PageRank is a number between 1 and 10 that is a measure of a web page's popularity. The higher the PageRank the better. Each of your web site's pages will have their own PageRank, which is mostly determined by how many other web pages link to your page. But it is also a measure of how popular those other web pages are. A link from a single very popular site may have the same effect as 100 unpopular web sites linking to your page. We use Google's PageRank as a benchmark to guide improvement.

Incoming Link Analysis
Using specialized tools, we examine the incoming links to see how many web sites are linking to your site, what the addresses of those links are, what text was used in each link, and if they have been used recently to access your site. This information is useful to:

• Keep track of your incoming links.
• Ensure the text of the links contains your best keywords.
• Determine which links are working best for you.
• Decide which web sites you want to check most often to ensure the link to your site stays up.

Reciprocal or Cross-Linking
A reciprocal link is a link coming to your site from a web site that you, in turn, link to—a classic "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" scenario. We recommend that you ask for links with non-competing but complementary web sites (for example, if you sell baby clothing, you contact a toy store). To be successful, try contacting web site owners personally or by phone.

A links page is a good idea and we will help you create one. We can also place the links on any page of your site. However, you should avoid cluttering your site with links as this could confuse your visitors.

To help with your link-building efforts:

• We search for sites that rank high for search terms you are using, look through the results for non-competing web sites, and then pass this list on to you as possible businesses to approach.
• We identify the sites that are already linking to your competitors and pass this list on to you as possible businesses to approach.
• We provide you with the code the other Webmaster should use for the link to your site.
• We remind you to work on this task in our reports.

Directory Submissions
Submitting your site to general business and vertical market directories (specific to your industry) is a good way to get lots of incoming links. There are a number of free local and national business directories we can get you listed on. We also research vertical market directories in your industry, get your web site listed on a number of free ones we find, and send you a list of the ones where payment is required.

You will receive a detailed written report where we:

• list all the directories in which you have been entered
• list "payment-required" vertical market directories that might be of interest to you
• identify the page rank of your top level pages
• list all existing incoming links.

When should Link-building be done?
Link building should be an ongoing task and a regular part of your marketing efforts. We schedule link-building activities in our SEO programs regularly throughout the program.

Cost: $150 for 10 general directories, five vertical directories, and a list of 10 web sites to approach for cross-linking. Our standard fees apply for new pages and updates required.

Article Submissions

Writing informative articles is an excellent way to add "link-worthy" content to your web site. We encourage you to write up everything you can: how-to articles, product reviews, tips, resources, case studies, technical studies, industry best practices, FAQs—whatever you can think of! They don't just have to be about your company or your products; they can also cover related topics. Put this information on your site and you will accomplish several SEO goals all at once such as:

• Fresh updated content.
• Lots of good keyword-rich text.
• Increased web site size.
• The ability to give an impression to your web site visitors that you are an expert in your field.
• As well, you will get more web site owners willing to link to your site if you have good content they want to link to.

If you have already written, or are writing, good content for your web site that can take the form of standalone informative articles, you should also be submitting them to online magazines. You must make sure that there are links back to your web site with every article published if you want this to be effective for your link-building program.

In our Article Submission service, we will take that tedious task off your hands! We will submit and configure your articles to our list of five online magazines.

Cost: $50 per article

Blogging

A Blog is a special kind of web site that is designed to allow visitors to contribute content. It will only work if you have something interesting to say on a regular basis that your visitors will care enough about to respond to. The value of a Blog for SEO is that it generates links to your web site, or adds content to your site (if the Blog is embedded).

If a Blog is a good fit for your business, we will help you set one up and remind you to spend time on it regularly as part of our program schedule.

Cost: Since a Blog is considered a Basic Plug-in Module for your web site, the plug-in pricing applies. See Plug-in Module for details. Our standard fees apply for new pages (for embedded Blogs).

If a Blog is not a good fit for your business, you can still use blogging to drive traffic to your web site. Find other people's Blogs in related fields and post content by answering questions or making pertinent comments. Then you can add links back to your site at the end of each post. Your contributions must be relevant to the topic, or the owner of the Blog will likely remove them.

E-Newsletters

A company newsletter sent by email is a very useful SEO method in that it can drive significant amounts of targeted traffic to a web site. The more traffic a web site has the higher it will be ranked, which in turn will create more traffic—and it snowballs from there. Professionally managed lists and newsletter mailings can also provide vital business data that can be used to further identify markets, interests, and client preferences.

Back2Front recommends Constant Contact as its favourite e-newsletter service; we will sign you up with them or you can do it yourself using the link below. You will pay them directly for their service. Constant Contact provides all ongoing support—and they are excellent at it!

Sign Up with Constant Contact Now!

• We will help you choose a template.
• Adjust the colours and fonts, create custom images and add them to the template to make it look more like your web site.
• We will also add keyword-targeted permanent links to your web site for SEO purposes.
• Add the e-newsletter signup form on your web site to automatically start building your mailing list.
• Archive the newsletters on your site for increased SEO. Although Constant Contact offers an archiving service, this content will not count toward your SEO if it is not on your web site.
• Place the articles you write on your web site so that you can link to them from your newsletter. This will encourage click-throughs to your web site.
• Optionally: You can take advantage of our Newsletter Proofreading service: $50 per newsletter (including corrections made online).

Cost: Since a newsletter service is considered a Standard Plug-in Module for your web site, the plug-in pricing applies. See Plugin Modules for details. Our regular rates apply for additional web pages that contain the articles and/or newsletter archive pages, and for updates to your web site as needed.

New Pages, Domains and Updates

During the execution of our SEO programs we will be registering domain names, adding new pages, and updating the content and code of your web site. The number of these items will depend on your program level and are budgeted for within the monthly cost of the program.

Our regular fees, which are outlined on our How Much page, will be charged for these components and they will be listed as such (not as SEO) on your bill.