Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

It’s

Your

SEO Plan

When you heard about this book, you may have had one of two reactions. Maybe

you thought, “Great! A quick and easy SEO plan that I can follow!” Or maybe you

thought, “Uh-oh! An oversimplified approach to something complex.” Both of these

reactions are perfectly reasonable. A simple approach is important, but you should be

wary of anything that promises a one-size-fits-all SEO solution.

So let’s make one thing clear: there’s nothing cookie cutter about

your

SEO plan.

And since nobody knows your organization and website like you do, guess who’s in

charge of the fine-tuning? You!

Small and large companies, brick-and-mortars, nonprofits, and bloggers—each

type has its own set of needs, advantages, and challenges. Your assignment: Identify

which categories your company is in, read our tips and guidelines for those categories,

and think about how you can apply the customization to your own SEO efforts.

This is a “check all that apply” chapter—your company may fall into multiple

categories. For example, let’s say you run an independent toy store in Des Moines,

Iowa. You would want to read at least three of the categories in this chapter: brick-

and-mortar, B2C, and small organization. If you’re the world leader in granulators for

the plastics industry, you’d want to read B2B and large organization. Read what

applies to you, but also consider reading what may not seem to. After all, part of being

an SEO expert is knowing the breadth of what the Web offers. You never know where

you might find something interesting and useful for your own site!

B2B

B2B sites run the gamut from the little guys selling restaurant-grade deli slicers to the

huge corporation selling enterprise-level software and services. Large and small B2Bs

have a lot in common when it comes to the advantages and challenges of SEO.

Advantage: Niche Target Audience

Because your business depends on it, you probably

already know your customer well. Your customer fits into a particular niche: restaurant

owner, plant manager, candlestick maker, and so on. While your customers may not all

hang out at the same bar after work, it’s a good bet that they’re frequenting some of the

same websites. And if you don’t know what these sites are, it only takes a little bit of

time and creative thought to find them. If you already know what magazines your cus-

tomers subscribe to, what trade shows they attend, and what organizations they belong

to, you’re well on your way to finding analogous sites on the Web that speak to them.

Challenge: Difficulty Gaining Links

You may have heard that getting relevant, high-

quality links to your website is an important SEO endeavor, because it can improve

your ranks and traffic. This is going to be a challenge for you. You’re not a big enter-

tainment site or a fun

blog

with a cult following, and unless you’re a giant in your

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