12-Step Formula: SEO & Conversion Success

by Scott Frangos, Managing Director — WebFadds.com

I have been having a conversation with a friend and colleague who specializes in Adwords campaigns (mostly on Google, but other search systems as well), around the general question of what is the best formula to maximize your SEO for your WordPress Content Management System.

SEO is an important focus, but I have to add that if you’re in business, you also need to factor in “conversions” — converting site visitors to leads, newsletter readers, paying customers.  SEO is talked about quite loudly in the blog buzz, but what good is it to drive visitors to your site if they don’t then convert to help you reach your business goals?

So… here’s my formula — call it “Scott’s 12-step Program for SEO and Conversion Success”:

1. A good permalinks strategy – user friendly and SEO friendly.  Permalinks are the way you set your URL suffixes using the admin. area of your WordPress Content Management System.
2. A good meta tag and description plugin, smartly configured, like Headspace (more actively managed) or All in One SEO (set it and forget it).  We do this for you in our Max-SEO service.
3. A social bookmarking plugin like Yoast’s “sociable” — this is also part of our Max-SEO Service.  Note that this plugin also offers a “send this post to a friend” button.
4. Maximize your ping list with the recommended WP Codex list.  WordPress will automatically notify important directories when you make a post — but it only comes with one service loaded.  We load around 50 for you as part of our Max-SEO service.
5. Content, Content, Content. Everything else on this list is irrelevant if you do not post regular and useful content.
6. Both a Google Sitemap generator (for robots) and an indexing plugin (for humans and robots) — these are included in our Max-SEO service and we configure them to your particular CMS and business missions.
7. Good categorization and use of keywords when writing posts.  Do you categorize your posts?  Do you use the “tags” function to add keywords to help people (with a tag cloud, etc.), or robots (Google, etc.) find and rank your content?
8. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES: Redirect plugin if you notice problems in your stats logs, etc.
9. Off Site Organic SEO work:  Back links, commenting, etc. Contact me if you would like a quote for a social media campaign.
10. Join social sites like LinkedIn, and place your Blog feed onto your page at those sites
11. IMPORTANT (when you’re in business):  Be a “conversion blogger.”  Designate conversion goals, landing pages for optimization (to improve conversions), and use Google analytics and Google Optimizer tests to improve conversions of site visitors to leads, newsletter readers, and paying customers.  We have a service to bring you up to speed on Google Analytics — Analytics-MAX, Site Goal Service — and will be pleased to quote you on an optimization campaign for your landing pages.
12. Use adwords to drive targeted customers to your optimized landing pages.  Contact me for a quote on a good adwords campaign.