Prior to performing “search engine optimization” on a site, it is essential to analyze the current status of the site for a baseline.  Don’t make any changes until you know where you currently stand or your marketing efforts may have an adverse effect on customer conversions (traffic that visits the site and takes the desired action)

There is a great deal of information that can be realized without having access to your site or an analytics tool, such as Google Analytics.  This is a mixed blessing, as your competitors also have access to this information.  Hmmm.

When I meet with a new client, I analyze their site and those of their online competitors*

Sample Report

Meta Title Missing (if it is not keyword optimized this will be stated).

Meta Description Missing (if it is not keyword optimized this will be stated).

Meta Missing (if it is not keyword optimized this will be stated).

Google PR 1

Google Cached Date 6/1/2009

Google Index  pages 35

Links Yahoo 25

MSN Index 23

No site updates since: 2008

Unique Visitors Per Month- 3,200

Time On Site 2.8 minutes

Traffic Trend - Up 10%

Alexa Rank 0

Delicious 0

SEO Score 80%

Title Relevance 66%

Images- Alt Tags Missing- 13

Created: 12-5-1998

Robot- No

Sitemap – No

Links Internal 11/ External 1

url: http://www. ficticious company/ services_maintenance.html  – Missed opportunity not optimizing for keyword.  

Keyword Cloud:

leaves lawn care local lawns washington metro suburban area experience specific choose service attention professionals apply seed fertilizers weed controls insecticides box

Title

Leaves Lawn Care

Description

Excerpted from the website:

Leaves Lawn Care is a local company, servicing lawns in the Washington D.C. metro and suburban area only. We have experience in handling the specific conditions in your neighborhood - and lawns like yours.

read more

Languages

English

Address

1726 Main Street

Baltimore MD  US

Contact

Leaves Lawn Care

410-555-5555 

Competitors:  For Keywords: merchantcircle.com  citysearch.com  leaf.com  lawns.com  manta.com  checkbook.org  superpages.com  leafathome.com  leaflawncare.net (created in 2007)  leafgreeninc.com 

leaf Lawn Care‎  3 reviews - Write a review

——-3 REVIEWS – This is good and we need to make sure that more are posted.

Google Adwords: Paying Competitors

Sponsored Links

1.                        Lawn Care

www.Scotts.com/Ortho      Protect Against Weeds & Pests With Ortho®. Defend What’s Yours™.

2.                        50% Off TruGreen®

TruGreenOffers.com/50%Off      Save 50% On Your 1st 2 Applications By Purchasing Our Lawn Care Program

3.                        Scotts Lawn Service

www.ScottsLawnService.com      Weed, Soil, & Other Inspections. Lawn Care From The Lawn Experts.

 Results 1 - 10 of about 17,900,000 for lawn care. (0.18 seconds) 

Keyword            (Google Ranking)             leafylawncare   merchantcircle.com

leafy lawn service                                              4                                13                         

Number of Results CPC Competition Current vol. Average vol.  

           317000          1.91     3.82             0                     22

Please note that if there is VERY limited traffic to your site (less than 600 unique visitors per month) than this is too little information to be recorded by the rating services.  Most information is still available.  You may not have access to the number of visitors per month, time on site or traffic trend.

.*Online Competitor- Anyone who has a listing where you want to be seen on the Internet.  It is possible that the competitor is a federal agency or not necessarily selling the same widgets.  If they are getting the search engine traffic that you want and need, they are your competitors.