SEO Superstar

What kind of website is it? What are they expecting SEO wise? I mean for example are they a new start up selling something that a billion other people are selling and they want you to make them come up first in google?

It is a real estate company. They are doing things a bit differently than other companies. They have been doing their own SEO work and have managed to come up in the top 3-5 on certain searches. Now they want to stop doing it, and have someone outside do it for them along with everything else there.

So they have been fairly successful so far, but I do not want to blow it for them. They mentioned some software a web guy was running for them as well but they do not have a clue what it was.

Expectations, they either want to remain where they are or move up but not fall off the first page of results. It will be my job to keep them there or make them better.

They also have a start-up sister company doing something a bit different, and they want a site created for it, then the SEO work for that one as well. So I guess they have a bit of both scenarios.

I think that you should be all right. You can follow what they have already been doing and improve as you go. You know the basic things right? Like creating good page titles, creating site maps, nice looking urls etc...

Here is a good article
http://www.optimum7.com/internet-marketing/new-articles-content/effective-seo-tricks.html

"I think that you should be all right. You can follow what they have already been doing and improve as you go. You know the basic things right? Like creating good page titles, creating site maps, nice looking urls etc..."

Uh.........not really! Build websites yes! Update sites yes!

Page titles, I think so! That would be what is written on the tab when the page is open right? If so then yes!

Site maps,.........not sure! What do you mean?

Nice Looking URLs,................wouldn't nice be a relative term based on who's judging it? I'm not sure I know what you mean by that either.

FYI - Just so we're on the same page, I am a networking administrator. I know networks and servers for the most part like the back of my hand. I have created 3 websites to date all using HTML through Microsoft Expressions Web. I am the furthest thing from a programmer known to man!! I can usually look at things and figure them out, but I couldn't write anything to save my life other than scripting for networking and printing purposes. I have been doing this for 8 years now and am very good at it!

Now that that's out of the way, the 3 websites I created seemed done right to me and the clients were very happy but they were not meant to be searchable. They were more for patients to log in and get documents from for doctors offices.

Knowing this, let's pretend I know very little (like that's tough) and assume not much.

Now what?

Yes you are correct about page titles, the names should be relevant to the content on the page. What I meant by nice looking urls are nice looking to google as well as humans. So for example not having urls that look like realestatewebsite.com/somepage.asp?blah=p16st
The should look like realestatewebsite.com/listings/best-new-house-in-malibu.html

Sitemaps are an xml file that you create for google to make their crawlers aware of the urls in your site. There are a number of ways to create the site map but it depends on how many pages the site is.  You should also make sitemaps for yahoo and bing.

Are you building this new website? If so I would suggest trying to use a content management system such as wordpress, drupal, or joomla. These will take care of a large part of the SEO right out of the box and are free. I can give you some more specifics later but that link I provided above is pretty much what is involved. Remember it is always going to come down to their content. Hope that helps a bit.

OK, now we are getting somewhere!
The page titles are correct, very simple and match what's on the page.
Site maps........NOPE!! Didn't even know they existed but I do now!

All the sites are only like 7-8 pages or so. More informative  type data overall.

Yes I will be building the new site. I looked into WordPress a while back but if I recall, it didn't make much sense to me. I also looked at Joomla as well ,I just do not remember what the reason was. I will try again and see if I can figure them out.

You have helped a bunch! I know way more than I did when I posted this question. I am getting ready to read the article you posted in about 5 minutes. I'm sure I will have questions. Check back in 15! ;-)

You could sub contract the SEO stuff to someone. Either permanently or on a train you basis.

OK, I read the article and now I am more confused than before I think. This seems more to do with website design rather than SEO. I am also having a hard time trying to figure out how WordPress or Joomla will help SEO. I remembered after looking at Joomla, I looked at it before for a client to update their site a while back but it wasn't a new site. This is kinda the same thing.

Let's say for arguments sake, I use Joomla to create the new site. How is that going to help with SEO? I agree the site will be setup properly, but how will that improve rank?

I read on that site about backlinks, backlink monitoring systems, backlink generation, but it didn't say how or where to do it. I get it, that's their business and they do not want to give away secrets.

I am looking for secrets. I am trying to formulate a plan so I can go back to that client in a week and say here is our plan for your SEO and have steps laid out.

"You could sub contract the SEO stuff to someone. Either permanently or on a train you basis."

That would be great!! Now, if I can only find someone to hire, to teach me how to do what they do so I can fire them that would be awesome!

I re-read my post, it sounded kinda hateful. That's not what I meant.

I would not let someone hire me, so I could teach them to do my job just to let me go later. I do not even like people over my shoulder when I fix simple things. If I have someone watching me, I always drop to cmd and start typing in random commands like ipconfig, netstat, arp.... all sorts of them until they realize they do not get it and walk away.

I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that to someone else is all I meant.

I I knew up front that I was training someone and it was a temporary gig and I charged a higher rate because of it, I would be fine with it.

Do it on the sly and I'll notice and start typing random commands too.

If the SEO person is cheap enough, maybe just keep them on permanently. A big part of SEO is new content and constant blog posts and press releases an such. Do you really want to be doing that stuff?

I am a relatively small company right now with only 1 employee (me). Lately things have been a bit slow. I wouldn't mind doing it myself if it will keep me busy and my client happy. When I get to the point where it is too much, maybe i'll look to join forces with a web company for this kind of stuff but for now, i need to keep as much in house as possible.

So with that being said, blog posts? Press releases? I'm listening..........

Luuker - other lthan Experts Exchange and looking at the Articles on SEO, the other good investment would be the website SEOmoz.org.  Their membership has a 30-day free trial, and they have great articles from the basics, to the very advanced topics.

EE Articles on SEO - https://www.experts-exchange.com/viewTopArticles.jsp?taID=5385

www.seomoz.org

Thank you all for your help. It has turned out to be a ton of work! We are moving forward though with the understanding I'm a learning rookie.