While to many, it may not seem like a major deal to put off search engine optimization until Web development is complete, the reality of the situation is that it can be a much more costly approach. In the following article, the search I have outlined some of the major issues associated with this approach and the true costs of delaying search engine optimization until the post-launch phase.

To experts in the combination of art and science that is SEO; it is taken for granted that search engine performance is highly contingent on many factors. These include Web site design, technical infrastructure, Web site content (marketing and informational copy plus “behind the scenes” tagging), and offsite optimization (primarily involving link popularity development and enhancement). When some of these factors are ignored, it is unlikely that optimal organic search engine visibility will be achieved, especially in competitive industries. Yet, it remains extremely common for companies of all sizes to skip critical steps in the process, or at least put those on the “backburner” until the other aspects of Web development have been completed.

One problem is that many traditional SEO or marketing firms provide their services in a vacuum. They are not actually involved in the design / development of the site or in the implementation of their SEO recommendations. Instead, they simply provide search engine optimization recommendations in document form. Because of this approach, they are not always aware of the incremental expenses - comprised of both direct and indirect costs that are incurred by postponing the implementation of search engine optimization.

As a full service interactive agency, Brulant has unique experience in measuring the true costs associated with a non-integrated SEO effort in direct comparison to those of our clients who include SEO as part of the initial scope of the design or redesign effort.

Direct Costs:

The primary direct costs associated with post site launch optimization stem from the rework that is often necessary. In most cases, decisions that are made during the design and development processes are not in alignment with or inclusive of search engine optimization best practices.

Technical infrastructure:

There are many aspects of a site’s technical infrastructure that can have a significant impact on search engine performance. Therefore, the ideal approach is to follow search engine optimization best practices at the time of initial site development. Otherwise, it is highly likely that additional work and significant expenditure will be needed at the time of optimization to rectify previously made decisions that preclude optimal search engine performance.

Typical points for rework include:

• • URL structure – an optimized URL typically includes targeted keywords, a shortened length, and only alpha numeric character, which may or may not have been requirements during the site design or redesign phase.
  • Canonical URLs – multiple versions of the same page existing on multiple URLs are often allowed to be crawled and indexed by search engines. SEO efforts are required to focus efforts on a single version of the page
  • Directory structure – SEO calls for a clean directory structure with descriptive folder names and concerted efforts to minimize the “depth” of pages within the design hierarchy
  • Use of JavaScript, Flash, or AJAX – SEO recommendations often include directions to externalize JavaScript code to ensure it is non-obtrusive to the spidering process. Additionally, rich Internet applications (RIAs) such as those that use Flash and AJAX require additional content to be presented in a format legible to search engine spiders (as well as to disability software).
  • Code cleanliness – while validated code will not necessarily help to improve rankings, poorly formed code that is difficult for the spiders to traverse can negatively impact ranking performance.
  • Code ordering with CSS – the use of cascading style sheets (CSS) enables the ordering of code to present keyword-rich content to the search engines first, followed by all of the code and superfluous page elements. In addition, CSS helps to minimize the amount of code needed to display a Web page, therefore reducing the code to text ratio.
  • Titles, Meta tags, Header tags, and ALT tags (and their corresponding placeholders in the database) – the basic tenants of SEO are often ignored by developers who may not have been tasked with this consideration. If not handled in a proactive manner, adding these tags can be very time consuming proposition, especially on large Web sites.

Design / Layout:
In a similar fashion to the technical infrastructure, layout decisions that are made during the design and development process can greatly impact the opportunity for search engine performance. In order to avoid rework in this area, a qualified search engine optimizer should be part of the design process to review prototypes and provide direction from the search engine perspective. Otherwise, considerable investment will likely be required to alter the site layout to support the requirements for search engine accessibility. Typical points for rework include:

• • Navigational structure and placement – the use of images as navigation elements are disruptive to search engines spiders and limit the ability to use descriptive anchor text within internal linking
  • Adequate space for HTML text content – many site designers disregard the needs of the search engines when developing a page, presenting in many cases only human-visible images. HTML text content is required for a search engine to be able to determine the true context of a Web page and is also a usability best practice.
  • Use of images and Flash in place of text – same as above, search engines cannot read Flash or images effectively.

By comparing four projects in which optimization was a post-launch initiative to four projects in which optimization was included in the initial scope of the design / redesign effort, summary conclusions have been made for the average incremental costs associated with site updates for search engine optimization.

On average, the post-launch method of search engine optimization led to incremental redesign project costs of roughly 30%. To put that into perspective, the incremental costs of updating the site layout and technical infrastructure for optimization of a $250K Web site was $75K. For larger, more complex sites, the cost is more significant; $150K in site enhancements for a $500K Web site project and $300K for a site that initially cost $1MM to develop. Much, if not all, of this additional design and development cost could have been eliminated if search engine optimization had been made part of the initial project scope, not an after thought.

Opportunity Costs:

In addition to the direct costs that are incurred when optimizing a site in a post launch fashion, there are also significant opportunity costs that should be factored into the decision making process.

According to many studies, 60%-70% of searchers prefer to click on organic listings over paid search listings. When they do, over 60% of searchers don’t look past the first page of search results, making first page search results critical to online success. Therefore, without the right SEO program, a great deal of opportunity to acquire new customers is being missed.

Unfortunately, strong organic search engine performance is not achieved over night. Even in ideal situations, the process of spidering, indexing, and ranking takes time. For a new site, one with a newly registered domain with no existing link base and established Google PageRank™, the process of ranking for competitive terms can take upwards of six months. For existing sites with strong incoming links and PageRank™, the process is expedited, but still takes time.

Optimistic Project Timeline for Post Launch Optimization:

Design or redesign project duration = 6 months

Post launch optimization project = 3 months

Optimization implementation = 3 months

Ranking adjustment latency = 3-6 months (redesign vs. initial launch)

—————————————————————————-

= 15-18 months

Realistic Project Timeline for Integrated Optimization:

Design or redesign project duration = 7 months

Post launch optimization project = 0 months

Optimization implementation = 0 months

Ranking adjustment latency = 3-6 months (redesign vs. initial launch)

—————————————————————————-

= 10-13 months

As illustrated above, the integrated approach to SEO, in which optimization activities are embedded in the redesign project scope, can shave roughly five months off of the time that is required to achieve top organic search engine listings. For the companies analyzed, the value of the direct conversions from organic listings over a five month period ranged from $625K to $2.2MM.

Summary:

While postponing search engine optimization may seem like a logical decision in light of timelines and overall project budgets, the truth of the matter is that it can be an incredibly costly decision. With additional direct costs ranging from $75K to $300K and opportunity costs ranging from $625k to $2.2MM, the total costs of waiting are between $700K and $2.5MM.

Before moving forward with your next Web site design or redesign effort, consider the direct and opportunity costs associated with making search engine optimization a post-launch initiative.

As far as the sweet part of our tale is concerned, everyone was pretty excited (you should have seen our President, Geoff Karcher, bouncing through the office) when we finalized the acquisition of TKG.com. Besides not having to spell out T H E K A R C H E R… when telling people about our web site, we also knew that long-term having a three letter domain would benefit us greatly.

The bitter continuation was that before we even started we realized the mission would be challenging. So despite mild protesting and “on the record” concern, the TKG SEO Team, led by Marketing Manager Jennifer Geh, “volunteered” to handle the web marketing transition of TheKarcherGroup.com to TKG.com.

Despite experiencing a wide continuum of issues, ranging from being blacklisted, to indexing issues, to benchmark comparisons, our little narrative has apparently become a perfect study of domain transfer issues, in addition to a great learning experience. We’ve even had some great changing domain name insight from professionals in the field like Anita Campbell which has proved extremely helpful. Ultimately, just like most things in the SEO world, you learn a little everyday.

]]> http://www.clevelandseo.com/2008/06/11/tkgs-domain-change-a-case-study-in-progress/feed/ http://www.clevelandseo.com/2008/06/02/ses-search-engine-marketing-sem-training-in-chicago-june-4-2008/ http://www.clevelandseo.com/2008/06/02/ses-search-engine-marketing-sem-training-in-chicago-june-4-2008/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:30:03 +0000 SageRock Web Marketing http://www.clevelandseo.com/2008/06/02/ses-search-engine-marketing-sem-training-in-chicago-june-4-2008/ If you are going to be in Chicago this week, come check out:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Training Workshops - Chicago, IL - June 4, 2008

I’m teaching a class called:
Tech Pitfalls That Will Derail Your SEO

Watch this video to learn more about the workshops and my class:

The best bet is to work with a qualified SEO firm.   How do you do that?  Cleveland SEO member Pilot Fish has created a list of questions to help you identify the best company to manage your SEO project.  This article also includes tips on how to avoid common SEO mistakes.   Read How to Choose the Right SEO Firm.

Anita, of Small Business Trends fame, recently put up an article over at Inc.com. She was kind enough to quote me in the article. Check it all out here:
From Blogs to Online Communities — Anita Campbell — online communities — blogs.

Thanks Anita!

Thanks for being so amazing and for being so kind as to reference me.

Take care!
Sage

The blog, spinfield.com, has two purposes. One is to educate and entertain clients, potential clients and others in the marketplace. The other purpose is to demonstrate how a good blog is run.

“We have compelling content and interesting perspectives on the latest trends in online marketing,” Jim Fisher, IdeaStar president, said. “It’s a good opportunity to engage in a conversation with the marketplace.”

Plenty of hardcore programming involving RSS feeds and interconnectivity to the global blogosphere are included in the site. “The views we present on the Spinfield blog will immediately become part of the global conversation on those subjects,” Jim said. Content is provided by 14 members of IdeaStar. The goal is to post at least two articles, podcasts, or vidcasts per day.

So take a look. Leave comments. Subscribe to the blog. We hope you’ll find something interesting.

Despite working faithfully over the last decade to build our brand, reputation and search engine rankings through our domain, we decided to make the switch because of the simplicity, ease of recognition, and increased branding possibilities of a three letter domain.  Plus, the new domain will eliminate the countless misspellings of the name Karcher.

“We’re thinking of it as a 10^th anniversary present to ourselves,” said Geoff Karcher, TKG president. “We’ve been watching this domain for a long time, and when the opportunity to obtain it came along, it was just too good to pass up, despite the short-term challenges it presents for our search engine optimization team.”

Geoff’s referring to the fact that, by switching to a new domain, we have to rebuild most of our coveted rankings in Google and other search engines.  “This is a major undertaking that will put our skills to the test to maintain all we have established in the last decade, but we can handle it,” he added.

In typical TKG style, however, we’re planning to make this as fun and educational as possible.  Over the next few months, we’ll be documenting the impact of the domain change on a new blog located at www.tkg.com/tkgseoblog.  We hope the blog will become the most comprehensive case study available on the topic and serve as a guide to businesses who may be considering a similar move.

The old domain, www.thekarchergroup.com, will continue to function, redirecting visitors to www.tkg.com.

If you have an account with LinkedIn and are a member of Cleveland SEO, you are officially invited to Join the Cleveland SEO group there. Doing so will associate you with other members of Cleveland SEO as well as place the handy Cleveland SEO logo in your Group and Affiliations section of your profile.

Now, LinkedIn requires approval for members into the group and in order to make this process as smooth as possible, I have taken everyone from the mailing list and added that name and email address into a pre-approved list for the group. If you’re lucky enough to have your LinkedIn account and your Cleveland SEO account contain the same information, all you need to do is join the group and you should be a pre-approved member.

If you’re not quite that lucky, no fear, just join the group anyways and you will then be manually approved.
The easiest way to join the group is to view someone’s profile who is already in the group. In this instance, I’ll use myself as a guinea pig…

1. Go to the Greg Habermann LinkedIn Profile.
2. At the bottom you’ll see my Groups. Click on the ClevelandSEO logo
3. You will see a brief description and a chance to join the Group. Click Join!

That’s it! If you have any questions or concerns, let me know and I’ll do my best to take care of them.

Job Responsibilities:

Assist Paid Media and SEO specialists with:

o Competition, phrase, market research
o Management of day-to-day client relationships
o Operating management tools to maintain ROI goals
o Writing / Designing ads and landing pages
o Modifying websites for SEO
o Monitoring, measuring, and reporting metrics to clients
o Developing and managing Social Media promotions

Skills and Experience:

o Bachelor’s degree in applicable field
o Proficiency with HTML, Excel, and CSS
o Strong organizational and analytical skills, plus ability to manage simultaneous projects and demanding deadlines

Excellent benefits package includes generous vacation; flex time; medical, dental and disability insurance; simple IRA matching. Come work in a collaborative, enriching environment in an exciting, fast-paced industry.

Please contact Jenilee with resume and cover letter at: jenilee@sagerock.com

Check out what it’s like to work at SageRock