#buzzstarter

Last week, we discussed part 1 of how BuzzStarter’s best practices on 404s come to play. For the conclusion of this series, we will layout key bullet point action items on how we address 404s in general. For new people who are just getting into SEO, seeing 404 error messages in Google Webmaster tools can be nerve wracking. As we mentioned previously, handling your 404 page in the right way is an integral, but shouldn’t be a worrying exercise, part in improving your website’s user experience for your visitors and search engines.

Nowadays, the clients we get here at Buzz Starter are mostly successful sites that used to do well with their evergreen words or what most people know as the main taxonomy, or main keywords for the other “most people” bucket. A good number of these clients still continue to suffer since the Panda update, roughly 3 years ago and have been having a difficult time implementing changes to their site, mostly because the lack of in-house expertise of implementing the latest SEO best practices. The indecision has cost their business greatly when it comes to monetization of their traffic, especially for sites who’s bread and butter rely on Google Adsense or selling display adspace.

So one of the biggest questions most of our prospective clients ask us here at BuzzStarter always is this, “How fast can you get us to position number 1 on Google?”

Personally, when I get that question I try not to cringe or run for the hills because it gives me already an idea on how the project would be. It displays how the client is misinformed on how or what search engine optimization really is and the process it takes to make it work. The expectation is already high before we even do any discovery and it is not only is my job to make the clients’ organic campaign work, I also have to educate them along the way of the work SEO entails. In a perfect world, it is always great to have both consultant and client aligned on day one, both being aware what kind of work would be needed and knowledgeable enough of the process. However the reality is, this doesn’t happen quite often and you will be asked the same question above, “How fast can you get us to position number 1 on Google?”

Venture Beat SF, CA