34 replies to this topic

[jmedley]

The way i feel about all this is when your holding a position as a SEO i think its goes be on a checklist. I think you need to look out for your company and consumers best interest. If that is your goal from start to finish instead of trying to follow all these rules i.e. putting so many words in your body passages. I think ultimately the best companies just market that way and do things that way instead of trying to do it the other way and getting nowhere.

[chrishirst]

putting so many words in your body passages

:: that sounds painful

[qwerty]

This is the reason I recommend the use of sans-serif fonts

[mcanerin]

Maybe there are actually 2 types of checklists - a basic one, and an experts one.

The basic one would be very simple - Do you have any links to your site? Do all your title tags say "Welcome to My Site"? That sort of thing. This is good initial training for people just starting out. And yes, most SEO's who teach or speak have run into website owners that actually don't have any links, and do have titles like that.

I think this type of checklist has a place, though no professional would/should need to use it.

The more advanced one is something that I think should only be used with training. For example, you need to be well trained enough to know when a part of the checklist does NOT apply or should NOT be followed. In short, it's a guide and a tool for remembering things, not a roadmap or step by step instructions.

I know sometimes I'll get on a roll and forget to check something, until I look at my checklist (which is in my case my report outline - kind of a big, bulky checklist). This is common when I'm pretty sure I know what the main issue is, and start focussing on it. The problem is that sometimes the main issue isn't the only issue.

Ian

[nethy]

Again, there's nothing wrong with using a checklist for your optimization as long a you understand the reason you're checking off whatever it is you're checking off.

I actually meant "checklist" in the context of this thread. I mean brainless, knowledgeless checklist SEO.
It would do a lot of sites a lot of good. Obviously, the more in depth you go in the tasks, the more in depth you go in the training/explaining. But there is quite abit you can do with a basic set of tasks.

The problems start when/if they start trying to get too smart without understanding what's what. KW spamming, useless link building, buying useless services....

But, if it were a matter of "have unique title descriptions foreach page that describe what the page is about and reflect the content of the page." with an example. you should be fine.

You wouldn't be maximising traffic potential but in some cases you'd get 1000%s more traffic (its easy if your traffic is 20 UV's per month).

How many sites out there are pulling less then <100 UVsp/m that could be pulling >500 with the same basic content. For a lot of business this'll mean an extra contact every week or two. Not really worth a PHD but sometimes the potential is there an very little needs to be done to unlock it.

Only real problem is the keyword research side of things. That can't really be checklisted, and business owners are bad guessers. So they need some luck on this.