SEO Snack: Week of January 28th
Quick Week Summary
What I worked on this past week
The big project of this past week had to deal with onboarding a new client. Technically two new clients but one had a bit of a crazy website than the other. They recently worked with another agency that had a “unique” strategy and we’re technically undoing/fixing a lot of that work to start off our partnership with them. From organizing pages and their hierarchy to setting up/fixing 301s, there’s a lot that’s gone into them already.
Week Insights
What I struggled with
Not Much (Go To Headache Section Instead)
There wasn’t really anything I truly struggled with this past week. A lot of it would go in the next “headache” section but understanding the whole situation with the new client(s) was a struggle in itself.
What was a bigger headache than it needed to be
Fixing New Client’s Old “Content Strategy”
This is where the main part of the week was… With having 250+ pages with not true “order” or organization, it was a battle to get through and understand what the past goal was with all this work they did.
From having 301 chains that need to be fixed to having many different location pages (but not all of them had the same services attached to them) and even switching up the “main” service area, this website had a lot of work done with not much thought put into it.
What went well this week
Client’s Website “Redo”
I believe I mentioned this project in the past but we’re redoing a website for a client so that it has a clearer message of what they offer and overall user experience.
Well, it’s going very well. The look of it is ideal and I have a really good feeling that people will be able to navigate it as they should as well as understand exactly what the company offers.
What to look out for or tune into
Agencies Not Having Strategy (And Not Communicating It Well)
This week is focused on “what to look out for” when working with agencies. Obviously, I work at one so I’d hope you’d apply these to the one I work at as well but it’s to make sure they have an actual strategy in place. Going back to this new client(s), it’s very obvious that the other agency knew that creating website content was a “plus” in SEO but they had little to no strategy around it.
Just creating pages to create pages won’t help. You have to know who you’re speaking to, what the true purpose of the page is (not just to hit on keywords), and how to “place” it on the website (not just create and hope it finds its place).
(It’s funny because this is something I mentioned I was bullish on last week but you have to have a strategy behind it)
What weird things happened
Conversions Not Lining Up
We had some interesting things in GA4 where conversions weren’t firing at the same rate as the form submissions were coming in. One had to do with how the GTM/GTag was setup and one we’re still checking on. A great reminder that I’ll mention in the “key takeaways” section.
Key Takeaways
1. Conversion Check-Ups
Always check to make sure your conversions are firing correctly whether it be weekly, monthly, etc., they are conversions for a reason and something you certainly want to be tracked accurately.
Now sometimes this might be harder if you don’t have a way to track it outside of GA4 (button clicks for example) but at that point, maybe it’s worth seeing if there is another way to track to see if the numbers line up.
2. VET MARKETING AGENCIES
I feel like I’ve hit on this one many times (and we’re only a few weeks in) but it’s to really vet the marketing agency you’re going to work with. I know the one I work at isn’t perfect but over the past few months, I’ve been shocked by the “promises” made to companies and then the lack of follow-through/communication when these “promises” are not met.
A few questions that might be worth asking when potentially working with an agency (especially for SEO services) are:
1. what tools do you use to do your work as well as track results?
2. how will you communicate the work you’re doing and the results that come with it (is it just slide decks sent to us, monthly meetings, phone calls, etc.)?
3. Are there any referrals I could potentially reach out to or where can I see some credibility other than Google Reviews (even though those are helpful, some folks pay for them and that’s not something I’m a fan of…)?
3. Document Processes (Edit) Regularly
If you’re a smaller agency (or even a one-person shop), being able to document true processes is important from the start. The more we grow internally, the more I realize how much we would fly by the seat of our pants at times.
That’s not a terrible thing but this past year (and even into this year) we’re having to put time to document these processes when we could’ve done it previously. (Also remember that as you grow, these processes will change, so don’t just do it once and forget about it, that’ll confuse new hires).
Resources To Look At
1. URL Monitor
Something we’ve been testing to have Google be able to track and index our URLs quicker.
2. GA4 Guides
Yes again… Because I even used our GA4 Guides this past week.
3. PPC Specialist Job Opening
I’m still going to plug this because we’re still taking applications!
