Search Engine Optimization has been called everything from a business imperative to voodoo witchcraft. One thing is for sure, every internet presence better have a strategy. Otherwise, you run the risk of simply floating along a current information without direction or control.

BlueCurve has developed a systematic approach to maximizing the full potential of any website and squeezing every last drop of organic search traffic available by combining SDLC methodologies and cutting edge techniques. The fundamentals of internet marketing have changed. Have you?

Our approach is very simple and broken out into a progression of 10 steps. At its core is the assurance that the entire strategy is devised around the goals of the organization. Our first question is simply “what exactly do you hope to achieve?”.

1) Business & Site Analysis

What are the goals of your business and how does the website fit into the overall strategy? First and foremost you have a business. The online presence of the business is simply another tool to be used to accomplish organizational goals. What are the goals and how does the site fit into the equation.

Once the relationship is understood the technical analysis can begin.

2) Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Every niche has a big dog. Who is it and what makes them tick? Where do they exceed? Where are they vulnerable? Who are there partners?

Every competition has a top competitor. Let’s find out who it is and learn everything we can.

3) Keyword Research

Possibly the most underutilized and misunderstood process in computing today. Keyword Research is the formal definitionof your online marketing plan. The results of this work direct your online presence from the point of publication forward.

Additionally, most brand exposure campaigns relying upon organic search fail before they ever began. Why? The Keyword Research was simply not on point. It’s about finding keyword combinations that both define your brand, play into Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and provide the best opportunity for success.

This is single most important step in any online campaign definition. How much time have you spent here? Enough?

4) Onsite Code Modifications

Do meta tags really matter anymore? How about internal linking structure? What format of a sitemap is the most appropriate for what strategy?

The earlier in the process this step is introduced, the cheaper the cost of changes. Simply put, once a website is live, the cost of broad site changes goes up exponentially. Additionally, massive changes in internal site structure once pages have been indexed and cached by Google can (and will) have adverse impact upon the SERP values. Ever consider how Google views your site?

5) Onsite Content Development

You can’t fool Google nor should anyone try. Be true to the brand of the business; provide useful content for your clients and traffic will follow. Consider Google a very hungry bear and website content is its food. It’s looking for a particular type of meal. Simply provide the meal and Google will reciprocate with floods of traffic.

6) Social Media Optimization (SMO)

SMO maybe the most dynamic of all steps in the process. The concept of a “bent curve” is derived directly from an example of wide SMO campaigns. The possibilities of execution are endless and the potential to wonder aimlessly is ever present.

If executed properly the benefits can be enormous. If executed poorly the negative impact can not only erase all gains in traffic rankings, but permanently damage the product brand as well. Tread carefully and purposefully.

7) Article Marketing (AM)

Article Marketing considered old school? Possibility. Is Article Marketing still effective in building broad traffic exposure? Absolutely. This should not be a spam technique. The principles of onsite content apply directly to offsite content as well. Articles need to be quality and topically relevant. Deep content offsite provides deep traffic onsite.

Link Development

New one-way and reciprocal link partnerships need to be considered carefully. Believe or not, association with the wrong crowd has been known to damage credibility with search engines. But, this shouldn’t be surprising.

Search engines don’t know you personally. But, they will pass judgment upon your business based upon content association. Whether it’s being listed within link farms or sites with questionable content, there is such a thing as a “bad” backlink.

9) Brand Awareness

This step is nothing more than a step back to insure (again) that all changes have properly represented the brand of the company and all related products. Have we expanded brand awareness? Did we help clarify the product in the process of content development?

Typically, most business models become clearer as a result of following this process. In a step wise fashion, it is good to check and insure that legacy positioning statements or product/service descriptions still match appropriately. We can never be careful enough when it comes to your brand.

10) Results Analysis

When we began the process a clear set of goals were established. How did we do? What have we learned? What additional changes may still be neccssary?

Many questions will arise during the final analysis. Consider this a continued refinement of strategy. The goal of BlueCurve is to provide a stable and predictable method for monitoring the success of your online campaigns and adjusting accordingly.