Maintaining a Search Active Site

The work-in-progress of keyword based search engine optimization is divided into two distinct areas. The first is the immediate hard work that goes into the initial weeks or months of a contract; the research, alteration and implementation time. The second is the planned or piecemeal work supporting and sustaining website placements achieved at the start.

Maintaining a search active website is the most important yet most overlooked aspect of effective SEO. While plenty of articles have been written about the initial phase, less attention is paid to the second phase. That’s unfortunate considering the second phase might run the life-time of a website.

Acquiring relevant incoming links and keeping a site updated with fresh content keeps an active SEO busy enough but there are several other webmaster or website related tasks that take a great deal of time.

Websites grow and creative content proliferates. As new links and pages are added to a site, its “SEO profile” is subtly altered. Though generally beneficial, keeping track of these changes is a critical part of the SEO process. Jill Whalen once wrote about SEO and the Zen Factor, a sense of balance experienced SEOs feel when contemplating a website. A part of that Zen factor is the feeling of things being off kilter. As a site changes, SEOs often perform subtle tweaks to title tags and site content to maintain whatever sense of balance they feel works for each important document in that site.

As a site grows, keeping track of the file and server structure is important for SEOs. Making certain a spider can either find its way through to each page of the site or be fed each page via XML sitemap is a critical task, as is ensuring duplicate content issues are taken care of.

When site changes are made, they need to discuss those changes with the client. While some SEO firms have separate customer relations specialists, most SEOs communicate directly with their clients. This can be a double edged sword. Though the SEO benefits being able to give and receive personal instruction, explaining process to clients often takes a lot of time.

Also, SEOs are not always the best people to speak with non-techies as we often think in slightly different terms than the client might. The SEOs job is to get placements for their clients’ websites. That is a fairly narrow focus when considered against the clients’ jobs which tend to focus on their entire businesses. Often the SEO can feel their client’s eyes opening wide in resistance to recommended change. That, or glazing over while speaking on the phone. It is hard to make SEO interesting to those who are not interested.

Making the process interesting to the client is an important part of a SEO’s job because the maintenance of a search active site relies on client interaction. Unless the client hires a content writer, they will have to take responsibility for constantly adding content to their site. Once that new content is there, the process begins again though getting subsequent placements is much easier than initial placements.

Getting placements is one thing. Keeping them is another. That’s the value of maintaining a search active site.