Where should I be focusing SEO efforts first?

[Grow]

Hi everyone,

I am a digital marketing intern at a small marketing business.  They have a really horrible, 1990's ish website which I am currently working with them on a plan to completely redo within a few months. Until then I am fixing some issues on their current site which includes SEOing their current content that will be moved to the new site.  They have a ton of issues which include, but are not limited to, missing meta descriptions and title tags, no official keywords incorporated into their content, no analytics or tracking of keywords, a poor use of social media, and duplicate content. My plan was to fix all these issues first, then when the site relaunches really start focusing on the more advanced bits (which include link building).

The previous intern spent 99% of his time posting on forums building "backlinks". I've been going through his posts and saw he posted on mainly marketing forums on topics but never included any type of link back to the site in his posts or on his forum profile (his reasoning was he wanted to gain a reputation with the forum first so the admin would not delete his posts or so he'd be able to put a link in his signature).  He and the owner of the business say that this is the best and most effective way to help SEO and the owner is questioning whether or not I concentrate on that instead of the other issues.

So what do you think? Do you think I should be fixing all these issues first and waiting until the site relaunches to concentrate on forum backlinking? Or do you think it would be more effective to just focus on my energies on forum backlinking?

Also - the previous intern also told the owner that Wordtracker was a poor investment and is not useful. I have always thought that was sort of an industry standard. Do you think he's right? If so could you recommend something else?

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

[EGOL]

hmmm... this is a marketing company?  They need a kick in the pants. 

It sounds like as an intern you will be with them for a limited amount of time.  If that is the case then follow the advice given by others.

However, the folks at this company really need to go waaaay back to the basics.

If I was an intern there I would try to do something else - instead of attempting hatchet surgery on a sow's ear.

(This can be risky because you don't know who conceived the original site and what the company thinks of it.... however they must not think much of it if they are willing to turn it over to a stream of interns. Also your comments that the owner of the business thinks that forum spamming is good advertising shows that they don't understand the web.)

However, the truth is... this website should go back to the planning stages....  this company needs to determine:

1. the objectives of the website,

2. what they expect visitors to do, learn, buy, contact, etc. when they arrive at the site

3. plan a pathway through the site for each type of visitor that will lead to both visitor and company goals

4. and then storyboard a website that accomplishes both visitor goals and company goals

5. determine how people interested in the services of the company might search for the site

6. determine a cluster of keywords that will market your services in the geographic area that is served

7. plan content for the site that will position it in front of those keywords

Should you do this?  Hard to say.  It depends if the company is serious about making a good web presence or if they are satisfied with their current farting around.

I don't recommend posting their URL here... would be bad marketing.

[SteveOllington]

After following what the others have said on here about sorting the site out first, when you move on to link building, don't go crazy with keyworded anchor text on spammy sites. Go for branded anchor text first then move on to partial and phrase match as well, then mix in some exact match... all from decent sites. That's if you build the links yourself, but it's always preferable to have content that good that you just attract links naturally anyway... go for both approaches

[RikkiD22]

Obviously link building is important but I am always of the belief that if you have the opportunity to fix the on site issues (from an SEO, design and conversion perspective) first your efforts would be better concentrated there to start with.

This is because without the technical and on page corrections needed the efforts of your link building will be diluted and if your site does not convert well then your new traffic will not bring you the results it should.

[Marcus_Miller]

If the site is as horrible as you say, all the traffic in the world is not going to help out and if the only link building strategy is essentially lightweight forum spamming then... that is almost a complete waste of your time.

Your time would be better spent looking at a long term marketing strategy for the site, determine what your goals are and what you need to do to achieve them.

If I was you I would start at the beginning, do keyword research to determine demand, audit the whole site and see what assets you currently have in place and start planning a new site that capitalises on what is there and improves the hell out of it.

If your boss insists on quick and easy traffic fix then look at some PPC ads to drive traffic and factor the experience  gained here into your overall marketing strategy.

If the site is plagued with problems, light weight fixing of these problems may well result in increased conversions from the existing traffic. If the site is a train wreck then focusing on the rebuild and promotion is the best plan of action.

It's not my quote but if you can get your boss to realise that 'SEO is a marathon & not a sprint' and that he has to dig in for the long game then you should be able to concentrate on areas that will bring long term results that outstrip any such simple link building efforts.

Hope it helps & happy to feedback if you want to drop or PM a link

Cheers
Marcus