Hello everyone. I'm new to Digital Point (well, I've had a membership here for a little while, but haven't participated much). I wanted to bring my own housewarming gift to you. I expect that we'll be able to learn a lot from each other, so consider this payment in advance (and hopefully the first batch of very useful information I have to offer you). Over the years, with the various changes from the search engines, my SEO strategy has changed. I've gotten better at some things, and not better at others. One thing, however, that I'm always asked by beginner SEOs is what they need to do to their site and how to build backlinks. So, here's what I have to offer ... My proven phase I SEO strategy for new clients My team and I begin by conducting a complete evaluation of where the client's site is at and we create a baseline to measure progress from. We generate reports for organic SEO campaigns using Rank Tracker by Link Assistant. We generate reports for local SEO campaigns using Bright Local. Then, to get started, we evaluate how we think Google’s Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird algorithms are evaluating at the site and make specific plans based on current best-practices. Next, we go to work on the critical areas related to each major algorithm: links, engagement, and content. Penguin deals primarily with links coming to the client Web site. We evaluate the existing link profile as well as the profiles of the client's competitors to develop and execute an intelligent, productive linking strategy to attract more links to the Web site. While our linking strategies vary for each client, most campaigns include at least some of the following components: Social backlinks. We work with the client to develop strategies to increase social engagement. We develop content that is worth sharing and roll it out to the masses with a strong push toward having it shared. We often spend advertising funds to jumpstart this sort of campaign and get the sharing started. Sister sites, part I. We often build out several sister sites to cross promote other aspects of the business. For example, a jeweler that specializes in wedding jewelry would do well to help newly engaged couples navigate the world of preparing for marriage. So, we create a content site that caters to newly engaged couples and the jeweler's ads are all over it. Sister sites, part II. Here, we leverage our sister sites to work together with other related sites. As we make friends with bloggers and other influential people, we offer to promote them from our sister sites if they'll promote our client's site. Some people might call this link exchanging, and I guess that, technically it is, but this activity results in much more than passing link juice. Because we're working with established sites, we typically worry about how much traffic the cross-promotion will generate, and not what the PR of the linking page is. Distribution sites. We repurpose the content we are creating for our client and that they are already creating. We create pdfs, audio, video, and other content as appropriate and distribute it across the Web, with links back to the client site. Get to know editors on popular sites. We work the social skills and get to know them by commenting on their stuff, following them on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then, once they know us, we make them an offer to either write a guest post for them, offer them products to review, suggest that they cover something we’re working on, or whatever seems mutually beneficial. Panda deals primarily with user engagement on the client Web site. We evaluate everything from bounce rate, to landing page conversion, to time on site, and many more metrics. We then develop and execute a comprehensive plan to increase user engagement on the site. These tweaks not only result in better search engine rankings, they will also increase the productivity of the Web site … more sales, more social mentions, etc. Hummingbird deals primarily with content. Good content is critical right now and companies that don’t get it right will be left behind. We often end up beginning a complete overhaul of client Web site content at this point to address hummingbird issues. There you have it. Questions?