Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the site audit and the Search Optimisation itself, it’s very important to get some background on the business and the market. The client would normally brief us on the market and the business. We would establish who the main “off line” competitors are and get to grips with some of the dynamics of the business and the market.
But there are markets where there are very specific terms used: used by the businesses in the industry and, after a while, used by people who have researched the industry in order to get some product details on the way to perhaps making a purchase.
We use these discussions to get a ‘first pass’ on the keyword-research and to benchmark the sites against these industry specific terms.
We would also to see if there is a “local search element” i.e. is the business being searched for using geographic search terms and if so to what extent. There are plenty of strategies simply for the local search phase of the process.
Finally we would look to any emerging trends, innovations and new products. It’s important that if there are new trends and developments you want to ensure that that terminology is embedded into your site.