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It's that time of year again; the one where we look back on everything we ate during the last two weeks and promise not to do it again in the new year. It's also the time that many of us set new and ambitious goals for our businesses. Unfortunately, while goals are important and ambition can be admirable, we make the same mistake with our professional resolutions that we do with our personal resolutions. Take the classic weight-loss resolution. The problem with saying that you're going to lose 20 lbs. in 2010 is simple – it's just not actionable. At the end of the year, you'll either have lost 20 lbs. or not, but that outcome is affected by dozens of things beyond your control. What exactly are you going to do to make it happen? If the answer is wait around and wish for the pounds to melt away, best of luck.
Uncontrollable SEO Resolutions
Similarly, our SEO goals are too often beyond our control. If you set a goal like "Rank #1 for Keyword X" (a very common SEO resolution, I'm sure), what does that actually mean in terms of action? Are you going to pray to the Google Gods every morning and say 50 Hail Matts to purge your SEO sins (my apologies to our Catholic readers)? If you're worth your salt as an SEO, you have actions in mind that you plan to take, so why not resolve to take those actions in a measurable way? It's fine to have ranking (or weekly searches, CTR, CPC, conversion rate, etc.) as an ultimate objective, but wishing won't make it happen.
Actionable SEO Resolutions
Before this starts to read like a self-improvement seminar, let’s look at some SEO resolutions that are actionable. These are goals that you can directly control – you're in charge of whether or not you accomplish them. I'll break them up into two groups: (1) On-page SEO, and (2) Link-building (with some social networking thrown in). Of course, not every idea is appropriate to every situation – these are just ideas for actionable goals (substitute an appropriate number for "X").
(1) On-page SEO Goals
- Rewrite X page TITLEs
- Write X unique META descriptions
- Create an XML site map
- Create a custom 404 page
- Canonicalize problem URLs
- 301-redirect X broken URLs
- Remove X low-quality internal links
- Create a new [cleaner] master CSS
(2) Link-building Goals
- Find X promising link prospects
- Send X personalized link requests
- Dig into analytics and find X hot topics
- Create X pieces of new content/month
- Write an e-book or comprehensive guide
- Spend X minutes/day building up a social profile
- Comment [thoughtfully] on X industry blogs/day
- Re-tweet X pieces of great content/day
What Are Your Resolutions?
Of course, these are just a few ideas. Let me open it up to the community – what kind of actionable SEO resolutions have you made for 2010? What can you do that will really kick-start your efforts and make you look like a miracle worker to your clients?
Photo licensed from iStockPhoto.com (Created by Chris Lamphear).
Most resolutions are not actionable and therefore useless.
Ha! Love that line Pete.
One of my 2010 SEO resolutions is to hunt down and capitalize on long tail keyword opportunities for my clients. Here's an awesome article I will be using to help me with that: https://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/6-steps-to-killing-long-tail-keywords-for-seos-content-writers/2009/09/21/
Seer Interactive publishes some great content. If it's not already in your feed reader, I highly recommend adding it.
Oh snap! Thanks Whitespark! My new years resolution was to trim down my rss feedreader, not add to it! [leaves to add Seer Interactive to FeedDemon]
I have to agree that Seer publishes some good stuff. Really granular, actionable information...
Let's not turn the internet into a mindfield. Only certain things need tracking. Past a certain point, we are wasting vital time that can be spent more affordably on actionable linkbuilding and other SEO tasks!
If I could outsource all of my metric tracking to India/China or some other low wage country, I would enjoy seeing the data.
I believe 2010 will be a big year for local search so i'd like to spend at least a few minutes a day working on tactics for one box optimization.
Great Post
I think we all get carried away with unrealistic goals, but we can deliver more if we take a reality check occasionally.
Rifki
1) Find a way to generate quality backlinks.
2) Find a way to generate quality backlinks.
3) Find a way to generate quality backlinks.
Quality backlinks: The bane of my existence.
On the SEO industry is kind of tricky get things complete done…
Google is one who takes us to discover new tendency, including the social media stuff based on the real time search they are working on right now.
If I have to list my resolutions, they will be:
Since everyone is talking about blogging, I thought I would say I have a personal, non-SEO blog that I fantasize will be a book someday. My personal goal (resolution!) is to blog there every week. I was doing great, but slacked off in December. I commit at least an hour a day to writing and then the nights I am actually going to publish it takes me about 2-3 hours to clean up the entry. I think good writing actually takes that much effort!
And on the SEO front, first, your list looks my SEO tactics docs, Makes me feel like I know what I am doing, phew.
But Dr. Pete, what do you mean by remove low-quality internal links. Help me out there.
Just suggesting some house-cleaning. Many sites still have hundreds or at least dozens of unnecessary internal links, especially on the home-page. Maybe they're duplicates, maybe you have an excessive footer, maybe they're just low value pages. Especially as the nofollow rules evolve, those links are just diluting your overall authority. If they serve a purpose for users or are necessary for spiders, that may be ok. Otherwise, it's worth rethinking them.
Well let's hope this new year brings new & better seo miracles :P
Up, Up and away!
Great simple points, but this year the resolution is increased revenue for non-relevant sections of the website by utilising AdSense as 2009 was the year of affiliate tests and it did not provide decent ROI.
I want to establish a link building strategy that I can use with of my clients.
I also want to develop a consistent SEO approach so that I can know where to make adjustments when certain measures are not successful. It is becoming more and more clear that SEO work is as dynamic a process as any and that it takes continual fine tuning.
I am newer to the SEO field so gaining a better understanding of what to fine tune is another resolution of mine. Resources like this site are tremendous and I am looking forward to posting, reading articles and attending events to learn more.
Establishing and documenting your SEO processes is a great resolution. SEO is definitely a long-term process, and the more you can bring method to your particular madness, the better off you'll be.
You are my new 2010 hero! Seeing it written in such a simple to do list just brilliant.
Had to thumb this one down. I don't like mixing religion with SEO! It seems quite a stretch to me. Also you completely missed the point of setting goals. Resolutions and Goals are not the same thing Doc. Resolutions ARE actions required to accomplish a goal.
My "goal" IS to rank highly for certain keywords and even #1 for other keywords. My resolution to accomplish it includes similar things to your lists.
But to suggest that it's unrealistic to have a goal to achieve #1 rankings for a certain keyword is short changing yourself. Do you think companies who hold #1 rankings did NOT set that goal? Do you really think they simply said "here's what we're going to do and see where it gets us..."? Nope, you need to have a goal BEFORE making "resolutions."
I disagree on the resolutions vs. goals issues - many, many people treat resolutions as just vague goals. New Year's resolutions are the perfect example - people fail because they aren't specific and don't have a plan. They just have a distant objective in mind and then hope for the best.
On the goal front, though, I'm not disagreeing with you (I may have overstated the argument to prove a point). I absolutely think goals like ranking #1 are fine. I just think that, by themselves, they're a recipe for failure. You have to take that goal and then craft actionable steps along the way. You can't make yourself rank #1 by will alone. Of course, you're still aiming for it, but success only happens when you can define something concretely achievable.
I should add that I do appreciate you commenting on your thumbs down. I have no problem with respectful disagreement.
Hey, SEO Resolutions!
Finally some we can achieve.
But yes, having actionable steps and goals is the key to achieving results.
I'm working out a more organized schedule of checking PPC performance.
X days for ads and X days for keywords, etc.
My takeaway was a bit different than yours cnoble.
The "Hail Matt" was an attempt to inject humour rather than mix religion, and the point about goals is that without a clear path to achieve them, at the end of the year those goals won't have budged an inch toward realization.
Hence the tile of the post.
Good list of resolutions Dr. Pete. One of mine is actually to create and develop more list for our site and 2nd reach 100 points on SEOmoz.
Here's to 2010!!!
I can't believe I haven't thought of making SEO resolutions.
Now I need to come up with some.
My Internet-related goal is to update my blog at least twice a week. I've really been slacking at that.
A lot of people are making this resolution about updating blogs. It's good, but it's always hard to find good subject matter so I suggest that you only write articles when you've got good subject matter :).
That's an excellent point.
I've found when I try and force myself to update I end up writing for the sake of writing and the posts are not interesting.
Maybe I will change my resolution to "Come up with two interesting blog ideas per week" which will keep be writing good content.
Writing is a tough one - it's hard to force creativity. I find that setting aside time (X hours/week) for blogging is in important. If you aren't in the writing mood, then brainstorm, read/research, etc. Eventually, if you put aside the time, you'll create something worthwhile.
That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Just keep your eyes open for any relevant news - anything that will entice users to your blog.
I jumped on the cloud computing bandwagon and tried to get some users to my site talking about Cloud Computing - there's been no luck so far, so I know that it's a mistake. (article is here).
A link a day will keep the seo-doctors away :-)
I will look for new and innovative ways to get links from potential linking partners.
find x practices that are underperforming and make them the best performing (if possible)
SEO Resolutions for this 2010. I have many... let's write down just few:
These are not all my resolutions, but surely the most important ones.
I definitely encourage you to contribute on YOUmoz - it's been a huge boost to my business. Even if it means taking some extra time, research, and a couple of rounds of editing, guest blogging can be a big boon to your reputation and personal brand.
I will... and with encouragements like yours it's going to be a "must do it".
This is something that I want to do, I've even written it on my personal blog (last time I linked to that I got a thumbs down for some reason, so I won't bother this time - but it's in my profile if you wish to take a look).
Do you have any tips for that? I agree with gflorelli1 that your words are encouraging :).
I think you have to treat guest-blogging like a job interview, in some ways. Your first posts on a 3rd-party blog should take even more time and care than posts on your own blog (and your own blog posts deserve 50% more time than they're probably getting - not a personal indictment of you, just a generalization about all bloggers, myself included). With a few hops, you can not only build your brand considerably, but go from writing for 100 readers to 10,000+. It's a powerful thing, but you have to work for it.
That does make a lot of sense. It intimidates me to be honest. YOUMoz seems like a place for the big guys - I'll probably give it a try during the Summer.
Mmm... what you say is confirming what I was thinking about guest blogging. I will surely start exploring that path as I truely believe that build a strong (or at least respected) voice in the market also give a strong commercial 'weapon' to use with your (potential) clients.
Ok... that resolution has risen up to position 1 from 5. And if i was once able to do the same in the italian television rights arena, I'm confindent enough to encourage myself doing it again in the Web Marketing one.
Thanks again Dr. Pete
"To create a seriously thought page on Facebook and profile on Twitter for eMarketingOnline (my company) and really start taking advantages of Social Web Marketing"
I'd add here (...) AND keep it live (...)
It's a huge problem for a lot of companies that doesn't understand social media marketing, that is't not only about launching and presence - it's about actions and activity...
Otherwise your efforts will turn against you.
You're so right about this point.
When I see the boom of the business use of Facebook and Twitter, I have some kind of deja 'vu of the '90, when the classic phrase was: "If you aren't in the web, you are out".
Now it seems almost the same: "If you aren't in Facebook (or Twitter), you are out"... and, honestly, IMO Social Media Marketing it's not a real obligation for many kind of Companies... using a market I love to take as an example: a funeral firm doesn't really need a Facebook page (even if the idea to create a fan page widget for a funeral sounds quite cool).
I love how you've put that - it's perfect. Everyone thinks they need to be involved in social media to get anywhere in business but they don't.
If you're a taxi company, you probably won't need to Tweet about every individual you pick up.
I dunno traxor. I'd consider subscribing to a feed that described the different fares in the taxi drivers day. It'd be kinda voyeuristic. ;)
I agree 1,000,000% with that point!
I'm sick to the stomach of people who think that they're covering the social media area if they just have an account on Twitter, Facebook or other mediums and x amount of followers/fans.
You can have 100,000 followers but it doesn't mean they really follow or even care what you're doing unless you're getting them involved, doing something significantly interesting and so on and so forth.
To really take advantage of social media you need to want to take part and be involved. If you don't want it, then you will never utilise the medium as well as you could be.
My personal resolution is to get my on-page SEO to a high standard first time, every time, ready for link building and social media
Analyze analytics stats every single day! More statistical thinking probably can't hurt and does help drive more strategic action on SEO campaigns. So far so good this year.
Every day? Wow. That would make my head hurt. I would rather spend the time improving something and check my stats once a week/month.
I wouldn't analyze stats every day but I would check them to see if the traffic is stable, the sites have stayed online and to be forewarned about potential problems.
It's difficult to find many actionable resolutions in a profession that is so erratic and unpredictable. That's my two cents anyway.
I always make a list similar to yours at the beginning of the year, many of which I manage to achieve.
One thing I really need to work on is my personal website. I spend so much time on other sites, that I rarely get a chance to work on link building for my own site.
This year will be different however; I'm going to try and get as many links as I possibly can. Whether it's through data licensing or other means.
We all let our own sites slide - it's the curse of being a web professional (cobbler's children and all that). I made a major effort to develop my own site and build content last year, and it really meant treating myself like a client. I had to have actionable goals, set deadlines, and set aside time. Otherwise, it just doesn't happen.
You're absolutely right. It took me from September to December to complete my personal site. If it was a client's website, it would've taken me anything from 2 to 4 weeks maximum - including sketching, mockups etc.
Until I started to treat my site like a really important task nothing was getting done. Fortunately, I managed to find some time at the beginning of November and managed to get the majority done, finally finished it over a period of a few days and late nights at the start of December.
So for anybody working on their own site, I advise you do the following:
Unless absolutely necessary set some time aside during the working week to work on your site. Remember that a website is a marketing tool that you need. If you're going to lose significant amounts of money, then just let it wait; but if you have time - use it!
Have a plan of what you need and want from your site. Many people jump at it with nothing planned. Treat your site like a clients site.
If you're wasting your time don't bother. A lot of designers get a 3 month itch and think they need to change their site. Chances are you don't. If you're happy with it but feel there's something wrong, develop it instead!!! It'll save you heaps of time.
I hope that helps anyone reading this.
I want to try and get more out of BING. With the little bit of effort from the end of last year I've seen a decent amount of quality traffic from BING. I'm going to try to capitalize on that as much as possible.
Tell me more about what you did to get PVs out of Bing! Please.
Is your mom actionable?
Only 5 days into 2010, and someone has already brought my mom into it. Must be a new record.
No offense Dr. Pete, I'm just out for collecting negative mozpoints. See, -100 should remove the nofollow just the same as +100 in my opinion.
I have to say I really laughed out loud when I read that comment. Good things Dr. Pete can handle it. Reminds me of a @SEOmofo comment.