What SEO firm are you up against?
Typically when your start prepping for your interview as an in house SEO (or if you are talking to a potential new client), you will want to see what and who you are up against. Usually you will run some keyword difficulty type tools, then size up the competitors by reviewing a few of the “CEO List” keywords. Once you identify a pattern of sites, you jump on their sites and start reviewing what level of SEO tactics they are using and what you can exploit when surpassing them in the SERPs for your new client.
It is at this point I spend an extra 5 minutes per site and see if I can determine who I am up against. Plus, while I am at it I review what Web Analytics, PPC and/or email marketing vendors they are using. I always think it helps in your pitch to present them with new information on competitors they may not know.
Typically you can start by viewing the source code and scroll down to pick up the Web Analytics vendor by grabbing their tracking code. It is always interesting to see if they are using a free solution like Google Analytics or if they are purchasing a system like Omniture. Often times you can take a look at the site ID in that tracking code and use it as a footprint to see what other sites they may be running as well. This often opens up the door to discuss with your soon to be client regarding different tactics their competitors are using and what we can do to combat it. Side note: there is a neat Firefox plugin that will show in your status bar if they are running Google Analytics on the site
From there it is usually best to find your way to a thank you page so you can take a look at their conversion tracking scripts. Usually things are clustered together that will show you what PPC tracking software or email marketing software they are using. Multiple times I have seen eCommerce sites that actually post right there things like the cost of goods or margins on a product. It is amazing what people leave lying around.
Unfortunately, what SEO firm they are using is often the hardest of the bunch to find. But, many of the bigger SEO firms have their own tracking systems which are fairly easy to pick up. Other SEO firms will actually post the name of their company right in a comment in the robots.txt file (but be careful, because some companies have a Robots.txt generator).
You should always pay attention to what you are dropping in your robots.txt file, you don’t want to leave yourself open to the world. Jennifer Slegg just posted on this over on her blog. Take a look, it’s a good read.
- Jim
