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Preparing an SEO Proposal

The SEO Proposal is one of the most important parts of an exchange between an interested client and an SEO provider.  There are three main areas that an effective SEO proposal should cover:  A) Strategic Overview and Assessment, B) Company Methodology, and C) Cost.

I feel more comfortable as an SEO provider giving a detailed outline of all the research I have done in the preliminary phase.  While I am not paid to do this research, I still do extensive work before taking on a project.  This allows me to familiarize myself with the niche market and also communicate to my potential client what I see as the SEO objectives for a given website.

The SEO proposal is both a contract and a blueprint for the work that will be done on a website.

Most of the preliminary research revolves around a site audit and a competitor analysis.  It is also important to list potential keywords that will generate quality traffic to the site.

Because I offer three separate SEO packages, I specify the number of optimized pages, keywords, and additional content for each price level.

I also give an itemized breakdown of cost based on the site analysis.  This allows my client to see how much each part of the job is going to cost.

Here is an example of an SEO proposal I created for one of my clients at http://medkioskinc.com.

I.  Strategic Overview and Assessment

A.  Objective/Target Audience

1.    Objective:  SEO to increase sales on an e-commerce site.

2.    Secondary objective:  Inform customers on products.

3.    Target audience:  (Please tell us who you think your target audience is.)

B.  Site Analysis and Solutions

For your site, http://medkioskinc.com, we found the following issues.
1.    Duplicate Page Titles

While your site is listed in Google, you have duplicate titles for each page.  This poses a problem to search engines.  You can see the duplicate titles by visiting this address (see here: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amedkioskinc.com).

Your page titles are the most important part of your site.  To correct this problem we will make each page title unique.  In addition, we will use keywords in your page titles.
2.  Ineffective Keywords

As I mentioned to you on the phone, keywords are extremely important to SEO.  Right now your keywords are exactly the same for every page even though your content is different.  Each page should be targeting one or two keywords, including your product pages.

To fix this problem, we will first conduct keyword research and carefully select the most optimal keywords for each of your pages.  Once we’ve chosen the best keywords we will place these words in your meta tags (description, keyword, etc.) and page content.
3. URLs of Dynamic pages are not “search engine friendly”

Your product pages are using a query structure for the URL, making it difficult for Google to search your site.  These dynamic pages are either unable to be indexed by the search engines, or it is difficult for the search engines to index them.

We recommend rewriting the URLs.  Rewriting is a process whereby the server converts fake URLs into real URLs.  So while a page will appear to be static, the server will really be grabbing the pages from a database.
4. General html optimization

Your site does not use header tags or formatted text (bold, italicized, etc). To optimize your html, we will add header tags <H1>,<H2>,<H3> to your product and information pages, and use bold and italic text to set keywords apart from other words on the page.  These tags will improve optimization.  We will also clean up your html.  For example, enclose sentences with paragraph breaks <p></p>.
5.  Navigation Bar and Internal Links

Your “product categories menu” is visible to search engines but your top menu is not.  We will create a CSS menu for your top menu. In addition, we will put in simple text navigation links at the bottom of the page.

There are no internal links inside your content.  Internal links help search bots navigate between your pages.  We will create internal links between your product pages.
6.  Social Media

Your site does not have any social media/bookmarking functions connected to it.  We suggest adding a social media button.
7. Off-Page Optimization

Currently, there are no sites linked to your site.  In order to gain traffic, you will need to build links.  With more links, your Page Rank will increase, and with a higher Page Rank, you will see more customers. We will submit to a list of shopping directories, both general and specific.

C.  Preliminary Competitive Research

1.  These sites enjoy competitive rankings on the tops 3 search engines for the phrase “medical supplies”.

• Medical Supply Group  http://medicalsupplygroup.com (PR3)
• Online Medical Supply  http://www.onlinemedicalsupply.com/ (PR4)
• Allegro Medical http://www.allegromedical.com/ (PR 5)

2.  These sites enjoy competitive rankings on the tops 3 search engines for the phrase “home medical supplies”.

• Allegro Medical http://www.allegromedical.com/ (PR 5)
• Elite Medical http://www.elitemedical.com/ (PR4)
• Online Home Medical Supply http://www.onlinehomemedicalsupply.com/ (PR2)
• Medical Supply Group  http://medicalsupplygroup.com (PR3)

3.  Other competitors we may want to consider for “diagnostic devices”.

• MedMarketplace  http://www.medmarketplace.com/diagnostic-devices/6.html (PR 4)

4.  Other competitors we may want to consider for “pulse oximeters”.

• Nonin  http://nonin.com (PR 5)

D.  Preliminary Keyword Suggestions

Keyword Research Statistics
(Note these are relative numbers and should only be used in comparison)

• medical supplies
  3,303
• home medical supplies
  243
• medical supplies & equipment
  137
• wholesale medical supplies
  76
• medical devices
  296
• pulse oximeter
  1,817
• pulse oximeter price
  288
• finger pulse oximeter
  156
• fingertip pulse oximeter
  82
• electronic monitoring devices
  13
• surgical devices
  5
• diagnostic devices
  1

2.    Suggestions

Depending on the package you choose, we can optimize your pages up to 25 keywords.  I’ve done some preliminary research already.  From this group, we will pick both “head” and “tail” keywords.  “Head” keywords target a broader audience such as “medical supplies”.  “Tail” keywords target a narrower audience such as “fingertip pulse oximeter”.  Using a combination of “head” and “tail” keywords we will drive traffic to your site.

E.  Positioning Report and Inbound Link Assessment

1.    Your site:  No position.  O Page Rank

2.    Your site:  Pages listed and # of inbound links in each search engine

• Google:  127 pages indexed (0 links)
• Yahoo: 48 pages (1 link)
• MSN:  10 pages (0 links)

3.    Competing sites

• http://www.allegromedical.com/ PR 5
  238,543 pages indexed (93,497 links)
• http://medicalsupplygroup.com PR3
  16,855 pages indexed (18 links)
• http://www.onlinemedicalsupply.com/ PR4
  5,661 pages indexed (36,580 links)

II.  Company Methodology

A.  How are pages optimized?

In the site analysis and solutions, I discuss how we will specifically optimize your pages.

B.  How are code changes applied and managed?

• First we will need FTP access to your hosting account (GoDaddy).  Once we have access, we can view and edit the HTML, PHP, or ASP documents to make changes.
• We use HTML editing software to change the documents.  Once the changes are made, we save them and upload them via FTP.  The new document overrides the old one and changes will take effect.
• We will save your current website prior to any changes made by the SEO process.

C.  Quality Assurances

Implementation schedule:

• Depending on the plan you decide to go with, this project may take two months, six months, or one year.
• Upon sale, we will follow up with a tracking schedule with milestones to accomplish by certain dates.
• We will review text, tags and any custom coding before completion.
• We will track changes we make to your site in a log.

D.  Advanced Issues

SEO challenges to be addressed.  Once I know more about your Content Management System, we can talk about the issues relating to URL rewrite.

E.  Search Engine Submissions

• We will submit to Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
• We will submit your XML sitemap to Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
• Paid Inclusion:  This is an option on Yahoo if you are interested.
• Secondary systems.  We will submit your site to the following secondary systems:  ExactSeek and Gigablast.
• The Business and Premium plan includes regional site submission.

F.  Directory Submission

• We will submit to the Open Directory Project (free) and Yahoo Directory (not included in our price) and Best of the Web (not included in our price).
• We will submit to second-tier directories, general, specialized, and local.
• We will submit to medical supplier directories such as DeviceLink.com (http://www.devicelink.com/), MedCatalogue.com (http://www.medcatalog.com/), and MedicRegister.com (http://www.medicregister.com/).
• We will submit to the largest yellow pages sites including Yahoo! Yellow Pages, AT&T Yellow Pages, and Super Pages (not included in our price).
• The Business and Premium plan includes regional directory  submission.
• Recommended shopping directories.  We recommend you list your products in Google Product Search and Yahoo! Shopping.  Additional shopping directories can also boost your traffic such as Amazon.com, Shopping.com, and PriceGrabber.com or any of your choice.

G.  In Bound Links

In this section I give some examples of inbound links that will increase your Page Rank and traffic.

1. E-Lynks Health Links PR4 (http://www.e-lynks.com/health.htm)
2. Business.com Health Care PR 5 (http://www.e-lynks.com/health.htm)
3. Disability Related Products/Services (PR 3)
4. (http://www.makoa.org/cmpyinfo.htm
5. Highlight Health Web Directory PR 5 (http://www.highlighthealth.info/)
6. Medicine From A to Z PR4 (http://houseleng.com/)
7. Yahoo! Directory Health Care Equiment PR4 (http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Health_Care/Equipment_and_Supplies/)

These are just some examples of the types of links I can build for you.

H.  Content Management

• Additional content to your website will increase traffic.  Content in the form of a blog, press releases, and articles strategically linking back to your site, will also increase your traffic.
• The Business plan and the Premium plan include a blog set up.  (Connecting the blog to your site will be an additional cost because it involves structural/design changes to your template.)
• The Business plan includes 2 SEO press releases, 3 SEO articles, and 5 SEO blog posts.
• The Premium plan includes 4 SEO press releases, 7 SEO articles, and 20 SEO blog posts.

I.  Results Tracking

• All packages come with a detailed directory submission report.
• All packages come with Google Analytics set up.
• The Business and Premium Packages will receive monthly traffic reports.
• Traffic reports will show the number of site visitors per month, number of pages visited, and the referring URL.  In addition, you will be able to see how many visitors came from search engines and other websites, the search phrases people used in the Search engines to find your site, and which of your pages were the first entry page of your site.
• We will analyze site growth (content) vs. traffic.
• We will analyze your monthly referring URLs.  This is where your traffic is coming from.  After your site has been optimized for keywords, you should expect 50 to 70% of search results to come from search engines.
• In addition, you will receive traffic from websites. I will explore which websites are sending your traffic because many of these sites may provide opportunities for link-building.
• We can identify email link referrals.  If you want to launch an HTML email newsletter or announcement, we will know how many people we are reaching.

J.  Client Involvement

The client is ultimately responsible for complying with the requests and direction as they come in. The SEO Vendor should have full access to information as it relates to his/her search marketing duties.
Logs, history, traffic, email marketing campaigns, others – these items must be agreed to beforehand.

III.  Costs

Itemized List (cost per item)

• Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis: $50 to complete research
• URL Rewrite: $100-400
• SEO changes to code (navigation bar, etc.):  $100-400 (see above)
• Optimized pages:
• 5 keywords/5 optimized pages:   $150
  10 keywords/10 optimized pages: $200
  25 keywords/25 optimized pages: $250

• Submissions and Link-Building:
  25 quality links:  $150
  50 quality links:  $200
  75 quality links:  $225
• Monthly Reports and Site Analysis:  $25 per month
  Content Management (PR, article-writing):  hourly
  Continued link building:  (see link prices)