Agenda

1. Agenda • What is “Discovery Documentation”? • Discover the business • Discover the goals • Discover the competition • Discover the technology • Discover the numbers • Summary

2. What is Discovery Documentation? • Discovery documentation is the process of gathering a list of core business drivers, goals and technologies that will allow you to anticipate obstacles, set expectations, and drive strategic vision and decisions.

3. Remember – It’s Called Documentation • Creating real documentation is an essential part of a successful SEO campaign • Write it down • Save the work somewhere easy to access • Refer to the document often throughout the SEO process to see if there are additional insights to leverage for the client.

4. Discover the Business – Business Model • It is essential to have a deep understanding of your client’s business goals and business model. Ask yourself and the client the following: • What are your core products, solutions & services? • Who are your primary customers and what job titles do they have? • What industry do you serve? • What sets you apart from your competitors? • Where are your customers located?

5. Discover the Business - The Client • What are your current marketing initiatives? • Who is available to collaborate in your team? • Technical resource? • Project manager for team? • Who is the decision maker? • What kind of content is available online and offline? • Are there sub-brands, other websites or online properties? • What is your typical sales cycle?

6. Discover the Goals • Understand the key objectives of the campaign • Drive conversions? How do they currently define an online conversion? • Generate traffic? What is the current traffic profile and how long have they tracked? • Increase brand recognition? • Increase rankings for specific keywords? What are their perceived most important search terms? • Other important KPIs?

7. Discover the Competition • Understanding the competition & perceptions are important to SEO strategy and research. • Client identify top 5 competitor websites • List likes, dislikes, competitive advantages & differentiators • Identify top competitors for their most important keywords phrases (identified in “understanding the goals”). • The keyword competitors may vary from the client’s top 5 perceived competitors. • Difference between business competition & online competition.

8. Discover the Competition Online • Pepsi would identify Coca-Cola as competitor. • For a “soda pop” keyword search other sites appear: • Niche information sites • General information sites like Wikipedia. • Universal results like images, maps & videos.

9. Discover the Technology • In order to do your job, you have to understand the technology abilities and limitations. There are several technology items you will want to understand. • CMS Platform • Measurement technologies • Website server & hosting technologies • Web based technologies • Database technologies • Corporate guidelines vs. technological abilities

10. Discover the Measurement Technologies • Are they gathering analytics? With an analytics tool or log files? • Who is currently creating reports? What metrics do they report on? • Do they measure through to conversions? Are the conversions tagged properly? • Do they have any other advanced measurement tools? • Have they tracked any historical rankings data?

11. Discover the Database Technologies • Are there pages that are only accessed after login? • Are there SSL, HTTPS, or other secure pages? • Is the database customizable? In-house or contracted/purchased? • Are your pages dynamically generated? • What kind of files can exist on the site (flash, html, xml, php?)

12. Discover the Web Based Technologies • Do they utilize any geo-location or IP detection on the website? • Do they use javascript? • Do they use flash? • Do they use CSS? • Do they use Ajax? • Have they developed custom apps through APIs? • Do they have forms? • Do they use frames?

13. Discover the Content Technologies • Is the site using a content management system? • Platform, version, customization of CMS? • How is CMS currently used by marketing team? • Can the SEO get access to the CMS? • Are there any currently known issues with the CMS? • Meta Tags, Heading Tags, Title Tags, Image Alt Tags, URLs, Internal Navigation

14. Discover the Client Guidelines & Limitations • Are there current website style guides? • Are there current content or branding guidelines? • Are there PR or marketing decision makers outside of the core project team? • What is their website update process? • Do they need technical spec sheets? Do they have quarterly coding updates? • Is there anything that is currently online that is going away?

15. Discover the Marketing Partnerships • Do they have another outside company help with any of the following • SEM (Paid Search) • SEO (Organic Search) • Social Media • Press Releases or Public Relations • E-mail Marketing • Web-Maintenance • Analytics Services • Usability

16. Discover the Numbers • Discovering the numbers and where you are at. • Verify analytics numbers and accuracy. Get access to Google Webmaster tools if available. • Understand how many other SEO, online & offline projects the client is currently running & has historically run. • Determine what metrics need to be tracked to report on KPIs to the client. • Use analytics insights to drive keyword research & benchmarks.

17. Summary – Discovery Documentation • Discovery documentation will allow you to understand how to succeed. • Understanding client business model helps you tell their story and enjoy deeper insights through the life of the project. • Understanding client technology allows you to implement and troubleshoot. • Understanding online presence allows you to harness the power of unique CONTENT! • Understanding client goals helps you set successful SEO goals. • Understanding the competitive landscape drives your keyword research and overall strategy.

18. Thank You