SEO Management DIY
The following is our Local SEO/SEO management outline, for clients (like yourself) looking to improve your search results on Google, and hopefully be on page #1. This outline should give you some clear insight into our very basic SEO strategy and methodology.

Auctus Marketing
Auctus Marketing is a Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing company for small to midsize businesses. Our highly trained team is comprised of online marketing professionals with well over 10-15 years of Search Optimization, Link Building, Online Marketing and Digital experience.

About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website on-page and off-page attributes, to achieve a higher search engine ranking position (SERP) within Google or other popular search engines. Google, the most highly valued and targeted search engine, is what most websites will conform their standards for on-site and off site SEO “best practices”. Attaining 1st page results is the goal, as almost 90% of people who search
never go on to the 2nd page or beyond on Google. 1st position on the SERP will generate the most traffic, while 10th position will generate a fraction of the available searched traffic, for any given keyword.

The time it takes to reach 1st page results and 1st position results on Google varies due to many factors. Highly competitive keywords can take anywhere from 6 months to a couple of years to rank for, while non competitive keywords can take weeks to a couple of months. It’s not easy these days to predict when results will happen because Google is constantly updating their algorithms and it’s simply very competitive today. Here at Auctus we try to provide as accurate as possible timelines for our customers to give you a more clear understanding of how long it’ll take to achieve “your desired” results. Results may vary depending on your competitors SEO budget. We will analyze your competitors and provide you with a idea of which of our SEO Plans will best suite your overall needs.

Search Engines and Search Engine Optimization are an ever evolving process, as search engine companies like Google are constantly updating their search ranking algorithms to help fight spam and search manipulation of their system. Once you reach 1st page results, you should expect to remain in that position as long as you keep your SEO tactics moving forward. Still, things can change and it’s important not to rest on yesterday’s gains. Google changes their ranking algorithm frequently and competition can overtake you. At which time additional SEO maintenance may be necessary to regain the desired positions.

All that in mind, the remainder of this documentation is to help you understand our SEO best practices, strategy, and methodology to help you decide if our SEO plans are the right option for you and your business/website.

Our SEO Management Process:

Our proven SEO process or management methodology is broken down into 4 different steps. Depending on your current situation, you may start anywhere within the model, however most clients will start at Phase 1 and we highly suggest you do.

SEO Step 1 – Keyword Research, Keyword Portfolio & On Page Audit (Month 1)

– Extensive Keyword Research & Competitor analysis to determine available keyword opportunities and difficulty. Many SEO tools are used here like Google’s keyword planner, Moz SEO, Ubersuggest, Google search and suggest, and source code views.
– Determine keyword portfolio based on your budget and desired timeline.
– Audit website to understand internal and external link condition, broken links, on site changes (schema) needed for keyword portfolio and overall on-site SEO strategy.
– Update website content, meta tags and on-page attributes as outlined within the audit.

SEO Step 2 – Domain Authority & Link Building (Monthly – Usually Starts Month 2)
– Begin root domain authority link building to improve DA.
– Schedule sub-page authority link building to improve DA.
– Build up website authority through a natural Whitehat link building strategy.
– Analyze internal link structure and improve it.
– Typically this takes approximately 3 to 6 months of consistency to cover majority of keyword portfolio.

SEO Step 3 – Traffic Analysis & Traffic Optimization (Monthly & Weekly)

– Analyze traffic patterns for weakness using Google Analytics & more SEO tools.
– Assess changes to on site SEO to increase conversion goals & metrics.
– Ensure clear goals and conversion transparency for client.
– Measure & benchmark metrics for improvement.

SEO Step 4 – Conversion Optimization & SEO Scalability (Monthly & Weekly)

– Explore keyword expansion options and opportunities.
– Strategize and discuss new goals & metrics. Where can we improve.
– Implement new strategy.

SEO Process:
SEO Step 1 – Research, Research, Research
It all starts with keyword research. You need to commence with keyword, market, industry and competitor research and analysis. Using Google’s keyword tool or other popular tools like aHrefs or Moz will help a ton. You want to try to uncover as many attractive keyword opportunities within your industry as you can. Present all keyword options in an organized spreadsheet (if needed). Finalize a keyword portfolio with you, that is best suited for your website, relevance, competition level and traffic level, etc.

Research Indicators

Keyword Research – Research best possible targeted keywords to be used based on search volume, estimated time to rank and investment required for ranking within a reasonable amount of time based on clients “short term and long term goals”
Competitor Research – Research the competitors in your niche, evaluate their overall SEO marketing strategy and points of interests
Niche Research – Research niche competitiveness, volume, market cap & limitations
Budget Forecasts – Research industry “budget limitations”, evaluate market entry budget requirements, and project mid term & long term budget possibilities.
Link Building Estimates – Research estimated link requirements for first page rankings in comparison to number of links and quality of links of competitors.
Landing Page Review – Review client landing pages & consult on immediate on-site changes required to meet web SEO standards and best practices.
Website Review – Review client website navigation, url structure, internal linking structure, meta detail, keyword density, title tags, and other SEO factors that may need optimization.
On-site Optimization (Phase 1)

On page or on-site optimization is normally completed first before doing “any” external optimization for SEO such as Link Building. On-site optimization includes revising any landing pages that lack on page requirements to ensure maximum possible ranking relevance. On-site optimization ensures that Google has a clear understanding of what the page is about and what type of keywords you want Google to rank your page or site for. In most cases, 1 page should target no more than 2 to 5 keywords at one time. Mapping your internal web pages to specific keywords allows for faster and greater rankings as the page clearly defined for keyword relevance.
Listed In Order Of SEO On-site Optimization Importance:

Title Tag Optimization – Ensure proper usage and length of title page tag. Title of the page is the #1 most important SEO option on your site. It tells Google what the page is about and 9 out of 10 times the keyword in the title is what you will likely rank for in the search engine.
URL Optimization – Ensure best possible use of SEO friendly URLs. Using the keyword within the url string of the page helps reinforce the keyword you are wanting to rank for.
Headline Tag Optimization – Ensure proper usage of H1, H2, H3, bold and strong html tags with use of keyword that you want to rank for. Using headline tags and proper use if keywords in the help reinforce the keyword you want to rank for
Internal Linking Optimization – Ensure proper anchor text links within the website itself. Having anchor links from the home page or other indexed pages on your site reinforces the keyword you want to rank for on Google as well as passes page PR internally. Also ensure proper usage of anchor text links and use of dofollow linking structure.
Contextual Optimization – Ensure proper wording, spelling, and usage of content on each landing page you are wanting to rank for as well as ensure there is content, relevant content and unique content on each page.
Content Placement Optimization – Ensure proper placement of content on each page including location within body or navigation bar and ensure content is not placed in images or non readable JavaScript or flash.
Keyword Density Optimization – Ensure proper keyword density on page including word count optimization and frequency count to ensure ranking keyword is not over spammed or under used.
Alt Tag Optimization – Ensure proper usage of image alt tags, providing proper keywords within image tage and ensure no keyword stuffing or spamming.
Meta Tag Optimization – Ensure proper use of meta tag description and keyword tags including well formulated descriptions and non spammed keywords or keyword stuffing.
Outbound Linking Optimization – Ensure proper outline linking including limiting quantity of outbounds, proper anchor text of outbounds and proper dofollow and nofollow outbound links
Navigation Optimization – Ensure proper and standardized navigation on site, links to other internal pages and proper placement within side, top or footer navigation bars.
External Site Optimization (Phase 2)

Once the website and landing pages are optimized for SEO perfection and relevance, external optimization is then started — to increase rankings on the desired search engines. External SEO is commonly known as off page SEO, which is the practice of getting relevant, external 3rd party or partnered websites to link to your website or sub pages with the proper anchor text (keyword) you want your web page or site to rank for. External optimization also includes the careful study and practice of attaining quality based, relevant, natural links as well as testing and omitting links that no longer produce results. There are endless amounts and types of links available in the industry and what we call Dynamic Link Building Practices. This means that we do not place you on cookie cutter backlink programs with X amounts. We focus on providing a mixture of link building that is responsive for your domain and keywords by using and testing a wider variety of links and building the quality and quanity of links needed to provide rankings and results.
Sample Linking Options

Manual Link Requests – Manual link building is the process of “blogger outreach” to related websites. This is a modern style of link building, it appears natural and provides great quality. Often done in very low volumes due to the man hours involved and low response rates, we provide and obtain manual links as one of our Phase 2 services for all our clients.
Advanced Link Strategies (our little secret)
Social Bookmarking – These types of backlinking are usually the cornerstone of all SEO strategies. You can obtain an endless amount of bookmarking and you have the availability to deep link many of your sub pages to boost the internal authority of your domain.
Blog Commenting – Blog commenting has been a long term strategy that still produces results to this very day. A healthy mixture of unbiased link dropping in comment fields on recent news articles, blog and private networks can help backlink a large amount of pages and help boost the overall internal structure of your domain authority as well as provide a great tier 2 and tier 3 link structure to your network.
Press Releases – These types of backlinks are your gateway into news sites, blog and article directories. They offer a great foundation to establish any page or domain as well as help boost the overall authority of website and keep the domains link velocity consistent.
Directories & Business Listings – These types of backlinks are one of the oldest well know practices of backlink building.
and much much more…
Monitor Rankings & Reporting (Phase 3)

As we progress through phase 1 and phase 2, we will begin to see keywords increase in their positions within Google. We provide the tools in an easy to access platform that links your rankings, traffic and backlinkings on 1 easy to read report for you. Allowing you to keep track of everything, right from one single interface.
List of Metrics Provided

Current Keyword Positions – We provide daily ranking reports that show what position you rank for all the keywords we are currently working on and monitoring on the search engines. No need to check rankings manually or wait for reports, you get a user login and password that you can use anywhere and anytime 24/7.
Previous Keyword Positions – Our reporting tools makes it easy to see progress on your keywords over time. View progress as an entire keyword portfolio average or single our a specific keyword to view its individual ranking history or progress.
Estimated Backlink Count – Our reporting tool gathers backlink data from ahrefs, the most used backlink reporting tool in the industry, and compiles it in an easy to read report so you can see that backlink quality and velocity is increasing every month and that we are doing our job. Our backlink reports not only on our backlinks, but also any backlinks you may have received on the internet.
Traffic Visitor Analysis – If access to analytics is provided, breakdown of traffic visitors from SEO keywords is available in our reporting tool. Our tool simplifies your website analytics so you don’t have to look at and interpret confusing statistics.
SEO Analysis – We provide one on one analysis of your SEO campaign results and strategy with a dedicated account manager. Don’t leave interpretation of whats going on to software or automation. A real live human examines and pros and cons of your campaign so we can adjust strategy on the fly and react faster.
Traffic Analysis & Benchmarking (Phase 3)

As we progress through phase 1 and phase 2, the rankings start to show up on page #1 top 10 positions and begin to deliver targeted (potential clients) traffic. We help you benchmark your traffic performance metrics and provide traffic analysis to determine how to get the traffic to perform to meet the goal of your choice. Purchase a product, call a phone number, submit a form, signup to a newsletter, join a community and etc. We have a wide base of knowledge on all industries and can help you determine if your website is performing to standards and what actions to take, in order to make your traffic do what you want it to do.
List of Analysis & Benchmarks Provided

Volume of Traffic – Are you getting the right amount of traffic from the keywords that are ranking? If not, your click through rate may be low on your google ranking. Many times optimizing and tweaking the title and meta description can lead to higher CTR to your website.
Bounce Rate – Is your traffic leaving your website before they even know what you offer? Many times a visitor will click through and leave your site in under 10 seconds. How are they going to see the value your site, services or products offer if they don’t stick around? We can provide the insight and tricks to get them to browse around longer so they can see your offer.
Conversion Rate – Is your traffic converting at optimal rates? Can you increase conversions or is your conversion rate above the normal standard? We can provide the conversion insight to ensure your domain is performing at optimal levels so that we can put our attention into factors that will help increase the likely hood of a website visitor converting.
Time On Site – Is your traffic spending enough time on site or time on page to understand the content that is presented to them. 30 second visitors lengths on a page that takes 2 minutes to read maybe be a sign that you are losing your readers attention. We can help optimize pages to be more eye catching and create better content delivery strategies so your customers get to know how you are and what you offer
Entry Points – Is your traffic coming in to the home page, sub pages, offer pages, or blog pages? If you are not sure where the traffic is entering your site, you may be optimizing to an audience that doesn’t exist. We can help pinpoint and optimize your website entry points.
Bottlenecks – Is your traffic leaving your website from the same page for no explain reason? We can help figure out what’s scaring them away.
Traffic Analysis & Benchmarking Cont.. (Phase 3)
Funnels – Is your traffic following the traffic (funnel) path you want them to follow? These are called funnels, which are control entry and exit points of your website. Often called traffic patterns or traffic flow. If your traffic is wondering off to unknown pages or getting side-tracked and distracted, this may result in decreased conversion rates. This can be adjusted.
Goals – Does your website have defined goals that you want your traffic to perform? Are these goals being benchmarked, tracked and or optimized for perfection? We can provide the tracking and optimization to ensure greater portions of your traffic reaches your end goals.
Industry Standards – Is your traffic performing at, above or below industry standards? If you are unsure what the industry normals are you may be optimizing or overlooking aspects of your campaign that will make little or no impact on your campaign. Attempting to increase conversion rates on a website converting above average may be a waste of time and energy or overlooking a metric that is greatly under performing may be holding your online success back. We have over 10 years of experience in just about every online industry and management experience on thousands of SEO campaigns ranging from small micro sites to fortune 500 domains. How does your site perform against the norm?
Conversion Optimization & SEO Scalability (Phase 4)

Traffic is starting to pick up, rankings are hitting the top spots and your SEO campaign is paying for itself and generating an ROI. The next step is to scale the campaign to generate as much traffic, conversions and revenue as possible. This is when we begin to analyze budgets to determine new keyword portfolio opportunities and set new business goals and objectives. Common strategies include #1 rankings on as many keywords as possible to maximize traffic as well as dual and triple rankings or more. Soaking up every available position on a keyword search result is a great way to snub out competition and reap the rewards and traffic all to yourself.
Ways To Scale Your SEO Campaign

Increase Keywords – Increasing the total number of keywords you rank on the search engines, ultimately increases your traffic and reach. As your SEO campaign evolves, increasing budget to target more keywords may be advantages to your online marketing strategy. SEO should be a long term strategy.
Aim for #1 Spots – The #1 spots get anywhere between 10% up to 40% or more of the available search traffic for that search term, while positions #5 and less get significantly less. By aiming for #1 spots, you can essentially double, triple, quadruple or more your search engine traffic simply by ranking higher on googles search results. The leap from #10 to #1 can be huge and a very long process, but many times worth the effort.
Multiple Rankings – If ranking 1 spot for 1 keyword delivers a wealth of traffic and business, why not rank 2 or more. Shove out your competition by dual and triple ranking multiple properties for desired keywords. Tricks include ranking your social media properties such as facebook or youtube, web 2.0 properties such as squidoo or other selling platforms like Ebay or Amazon.
Micro Sites – Often times an overwhelmingly large website can confuse customers. Creating microsites to target individual products, services or related keywords often offer a great way to increase sales, segment customers or expand your reach without sending all your traffic to 1 main site.
Reporting
Our SEO Company provides daily reporting of all your SEO metrics through our customized reporting platform, which checks and logs your rankings daily on Google and bing/yahoo. You can check your rankings daily or as you wish, by simply logging into our backend “SEO reporting system”. You can also view historical ranking graphs, and even track daily visitors in real time. We can provide you with our custom tracking script which put live visitor data into your reports, so you know exactly what keywords are getting visitors and watch it increase as we improve your rankings. The tracking script will also report on all unmonitored search keywords and pages that receive traffic so that we can decide if we need to add it to your keyword portfolio.
SEO Methodology
I have studied Internet marketing and search engine optimization for over 10 years. In this time frame I have come up with my very own standards and best practices of what works and what doesn’t. There is an infinite amount of theories, ideas, misconceptions, spoofs, and false claims as well as many facts, industry standards, new technology, and best practices. Web Market Pros helps you avoid the confusion in the industry and eliminates the endless research and sifting through fact and fiction.
Your friends, colleagues and even other internet marketing professionals will always suggest new ideas and ask if you are already doing something that they heard about. The Local SEO Company understands that there are many ways to go about SEO and we have put together an advanced strategy and foundation of ideas, methodologies and best practices that we have found to be consistent and work “time and time again”. While there may be many other options available in SEO, we stick to the ones that provide consistent and measurable results for “our clients”. We are also consistently testing out new ways to achieve the best results for our clients and as these new strategies are tested and developed, they are implemented across all our client campaigns.

How To Start With SEO
At Auctus Marketing we suggest you start your SEO campaign with a budget that you can sustain for 6 to 12 months. Often times we get clients that go too small and end up ranking for keywords that deliver too little traffic to make any significant ROI and revenue volumes, while other clients hit the ground running too hard, running out of funds to continue SEO efforts and often times leaving them on page 2 or 3, just out of reach of success. A competitive, stable budget means everything.

If this is your first time doing SEO — targeting between 1-3 keywords is usually best, depending on your budget. Each keyword is optimized individually to meet your search ranking goals. Some keywords will take months to attain while others might be achieved in as little as a couple of weeks. A mix of long term and short term keywords is highly advised vs. all short terms or all long term search terms. This will help your business see immediate, as well as long term results for your SEO campaign.

Going Forward With SEO
As you attain rankings for your desired keywords, traffic begins to increase and revenue begins to generate ROI. We recommend evaluating where to take things next, which is usually around 6 to 9 months into your initial SEO campaign. Suggestions may include to increase your keyword portfolio, go after more competitive keywords or aim for #1 spots. In either case, you should expect long term SEO efforts over the years of your online marketing campaign.