I don’t think SEO is difficult, in fact I think it is rather easy. So why does it have this reputationas a ‘dark art’? well maybe it used to be a ‘dark art’, but I think it is much more likley its due to people in the industry like to cloud SEO in this aura of technicality and diffficulty which I dont think it deserves.

I am also of the opinion that most good SEO is done giving a full and clear explanation to the client what is being done, why it is important and what the overall strategy is. In terms that the client can understand!

This lead to 5 my step approach to SEO, which was used both with clients, but also for project managers and salesmen in a Search agency. Its is none technical explantion of the 5 keys steps in an SEO campaign.

Step 1. Describe your products and services in the way people search for them.

Research the way people search for your products and services. Choose to describe your products in way the people are actually searching for them. For example why use ‘organic search’ when everyone is searching for ‘SEO’, why use ‘DECT telephone’ when the majority of people in the UK search for ‘cordless phone’.

Step 2. Create your pages in a way that tells the search engines what the page is about.

After deciding on how you will describe your product or service, construct a page for that service in a way that leaves the search engine in now doubt what the page is about. Use the target keyword is all the required places.

• Page Titles
• Page Headers (H1, H2 and H3 tags)
• Content
• Alt text
• Bold text

Don’t cram the keyword into the page, just make sure the language is natural but references the keyword.

Step 3. Allow searches engines to access all relevant pages on your website.

There is no point in making sure you’ve chosen the right keywords and created your pages correctly if the searches engines can’t find your pages. Make sure the spiders can move through your site by the following.

• Use text links
• Have a site map
• Have multiple navigation types
• Use a hierarchical structure
• Contextually link out of content.

Don’t

• Use flash for navigation
• Use JavaScript for navigation
• Use pull down menu’s without alternatives
• Use search boxes without alternatives

If these techniques haven’t been 100% successful in getting every page on your site indexed by the search this is where XML sitemaps are useful tools.

Step 4. Create  links pointing to your site telling the search engines what you page is about.

As search engines spider the internet make sure they find as many quality links as possible to your page that tell them that your page is important and focused towards your target keyword.

Search engines determine this by;

• Reading the text of the link, so make sure the link text is the same as the keyword for the target page.
• Reading the site it comes from, so link from sites with relevant content.
• Ranking the importance of the site, so link from more important sites in the search engines.
• Judging the age of the site, so links from older sites are better than links from younger sites.

Step 5. Measure Monitor and Review

SEO is never finished. Many things change with users search patterns, competitor performance and search engine algorithms in constant flux. Also changes made may not have full effect until six months after the change has been made.

Due to these factors you should always measure success, review success and alter strategy where needed on a monthly basis.