Search Engine Strategy Plan SESP Your initial plan can make or break your

Search Engine Strategy Plan SESP Your initial plan can make or break your

What exactly is a SESP ? It is something that we call the "Search

Engine Strategy Plan". In today's hectic world of the internet, with

billions of other websites and millions of competitors worldwide, to get noticed above the rest takes some serious planning. Without a strategy plan, you are just floundering wildly in the search engine seas, hoping that someone, somewhere might locate you. Search Engine Optimisation (or Search Engine Submission for that matter) is not rocket science. Nor should it take a phD or Degree in Computer Science. The simplicity of it all is hard work, research, setting goals and objectives and experimentation. As with anything, with the correct plan in place, you can achieve the results you require, and excel at that item.

Just like you would not launch a business without a business plan, nor build a

house without a blueprint, you should not plan a web marketing strategy without

first creating an SESP - (your Search Engine Strategy Plan). It is

surprisingly easy to work out a SESP. You need to first plan exactly what you

want to achieve with Search Engines. Is ranking for prime or common

keywords or keyword phrases that attracts a complete (and often unqualified)

audience, and getting complete blanket coverage important to your website, or

would you prefer to get higher ranking with alternative and defined

phrasing that attracts a more qualified customer that you know will be a quality

customer and will increase your actual conversion rates of the products or

services you are selling. What search engines are most important to your

website? What countries are you targeting? Are their specific industry

directories that would be important for your gain of qualified traffic and

leads? Plan it carefully. Plan it well. Do not rush into it. Plan before

executing! Let me say it again to make it hit home. Plan!

Once you have your SESP ready, then execute the Plan. Start your search

engine submissions, your directory submissions and work on your

linking strategies. Ensure that you follow up on the original execution and

ensure that everything is in place (much like auditing KPI's - Key Performance

Indicators - with a business plan), make adjustments where necessary and things

will start to happen. Your site will become indexed. If optimisation is

done correctly and you have a strong link strategy in place, visitors

will begin to find your website, whether via the search engines, or via the

links you have placed online with qualified linking partners. Qualified leads

and qualified customers will begin to hit your website. If your website looks

professional enough and your product is attractive enough to them, they will

turn from a lead into a customer and purchase from you. Results will happen!

Business will increase. Natural Ranking is where the REAL hidden business growth

comes from. Anyone can place a Paid Advertisement (PPC - Pay Per Click

campaign). PPC is simply finding appropriate keywords that your potential

customers would search for you with, visit Google or Yahoo, place the highest

bid on the keywords and your guaranteed exposure. But your also guaranteed a

huge click through bill! What happens if those click throughs don't actually

purchase from you? How do you pay for those PPC costs! You can answer that

question yourself.

Where talent in the SEO world really lives, is the ability to gain

natural rankings in the SERP's (Search Engine Ranking Position or Search Engine

Results Page). Answer one simple question and answer it truthfully. Are you

ready to learn and experiment? Yes that is correct! Experimentation is the core

of any SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialist. There are no instruction

booklets or official guides for Google or other search engines. Google's

algorithms are top secret (otherwise Google wouldn't have the stranglehold they

do!). Only select Google employees know what Google does and how it does it. The

rest of the world simply speculate, hypothesise or guestimate. Then you have the

SEO's in the industry that experiment. They theorise on current or future

changes, and have test sites that they experiment with, watching what changes

give what results. If the result is positive on their test sites, they apply

those same changes to their clients websites.

Experimentation! It is the key to

success with SEO! If you talk to an SEO and they say they

experiment, listen to them carefully and pay attention! You are onto a winner

with that SEO. The search engine game is fluid and ever changing. Your SEO must

be able to rapidly adapt to change. An SEO that is set in their ways is no more

than a person pretending to be an optimisation authority that has read a few

e-books and thinks that what they have read is the end all of SEO. If your SEO

experiments and publicly states so, then stick with them. If your SEO is set in

their ways and won't adapt, then run away. Run away fast! Find a real SEO!

Algorithms change often, and when they do, it has a fast and swift impact,

sending the SEO world into a complete uproar, often dramatically changing

rankings of websites, some dropping, some increasing. Throw the dice and watch

the result! But these changes are necessary. I hear you gasping with horror and

total disagreement. But picture this. If the changes did not happen, a few

detrimental things would take place and become embedded nightmares in our

everyday search travels. Firstly spammers would dominate. Imagine a world of

spammers completely dominating. You do a search for Zebra's in Africa or taxi

hire in London and up comes 40 top results for Viagra. But wait I searched for Zebras!

.... You understand and nod in agreement now don't you. Yes. Without change,

spammers would work out how to beat the engines and manipulate the rankings, and

natural search results would suffer and die, and you would treat your local

search engine like you do those nasty telemarketers who call you up at dinner

time wanting to sell you something you would never need. You wouldn't use them,

nor give them a second thought. Internet search and the wonderful world of

information that we now depend on daily would grind to a halt. Secondly, a

complete industry would collapse. The SEO industry. Why would you need to employ

an SEO consultant if you could simply read a manual and do it all yourself. Much

like we have gardeners, pool cleaners, office cleaners, web designers and so on,

who service our needs because we either don't have time to do the services

ourselves, we simply do not know how to do them or even because the benefits of

having these services provided to us outweighs the cost of the services, so we

have SEO consultants and a growing SEO industry.

Gavin Carlisle is a representative of SearchEngines.com.au Providing solid and free advice on the latest SEO trends and offering the use of many online Free SEO Tools to make SEO easier. Removing the myths and black hat from SEO.