How do you measure yours SEO success?

[Sabryan]

Some SEO specialists become more successful than others. It may depend on several things, the company they work for, the way they work and why not think that they are somehow lucky
And to understand the reason I want to know the strategy of the best professionals.

[Living-seo-life]

Look in SEO Business there is no solid steady strategy, thats the interesting part of the Business, Things are very dynamic here. You need to interact constantly and thats how you can maintain your position. I dont believe it about being lucky when you are doing it with company like Google Yahoo and Bing. May be someone is doing the right thing without even knowing it.

Here is a good resource will give you a good plan to follow for off page optimization hopefully you know the on page elements already.

1. STRATEGY
What is your link building for?
- Traffic (conversion)
- SEO (traffic)
- Branding
- Launch (site or product)
What keywords (niches) are you targeting?
Group target keyword niches into market sectors
2. MANAGEMENT & METRICS
Who will do what and how?
Who makes and approves decisions and how?
What is the reporting process?
How do you make changes on site?
Agree metrics, eg, inbound links, traffic, SERPs ranks, mentions
Establish monitoring tools: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster, MajesticSEO
3. NETWORKING AND PROSPECT HUNTING
Using the following sources of sites, explore your online community, study, learn, network (make friends), list sites you want links from and rate them (prospects), record their key metrics: http://bit.ly/7bOJUS
Your own site's inbound links and referrers (use your site analytics tools, Google Webmaster Tools and MajesticSEO). 301 redirect 404s.
Relevant blogs (study, start commenting when confident, don't mention your own products at first)
News sites (comment, be supportive and helpful, make friends)
Journalists (contact, make yourself available as an expert - show your pedigree)
Forums (register, use your signature, be more helpful than promotional, earn community trust)
Specialist sites that accept content submissions
Specialist social sites (regsiter, help etc). http://bit.ly/8sosy5
Specialist groups on big social sites (like facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter)
Local sites, news sites (establish contact)
Trade associations (join, help)
Chambers of commerce
Relevant libraries
All 'trusted' sites (libraries, colleges, schools, councils, orgs, NASA). Find those that are successful and those that link to sites that are successful. Copy and better the resources they link to.
Your suppliers - they have websites, right?
"Competing websites - study inbound links, press releases, successful content and tactics. Search G with:
linkdomain:competitor1.com; linkdomain:competitor2.com; -linkdomain:yoursite.com"
Directories (don't submit yet. Only do low-quality links once a site is established). Consider becoming a directory editor.
"Search with your target keywords.
Search with advanced queries.
Read the quality sites you find, follow links on those sites.
"
4. CONTENT
Go through the following options and choose which types of content you want to produce …
Always be looking for spectacular content. But even in competitive markets, a solid, consistent approach will bring rewards over time.
What content do you have already? Is it link-worthy? Can it be made so?
Industry news (one-offs or regular)
National media news (one-offs or regular)
Regional media news (one-offs or regular)
Ask target bloggers/experts to comment on an article when writing it.
Interview key industry personalities
Reviews of others' sites and stuff
Reviews by other sites of your site and stuff. Do you have any product you can send for review?
Videos. All above in video format
Photos. People love photographs and will link to them. Social sites like StumbleUpon love collections of stunning and interesting photographs
Infographics
Surveys (for stories and PR)
Competitions & giveaways
Free widgets and tools
Free downloadable guides and whitepapers
Case studies
Learned resources (aimed at specific 'trusted' sites) that copies and betters the resources they currently link to.
Collections of useful stuff like lists, top tips, how-tos, 10 best, 10 worst, etc.
5. PROMOTION
RSS feed. Try feedburner: http://www.feedburner.com/
Newsletter.
Post on your site/blog.
Submit to generic social sites network: Twitter, LinkedIn, facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg.
Submit to your specialist social sites network.
Contact your specialist contacts with email, direct tweets, (even telephone).
Contact journalists you know personally.
Buy/use a list of relevant journalists' details ADD LINKS
Guest posts/article on specialist blogs/sites.
Submit articles on article sites like http://www.ezinearticles.com
Press releases to online and offline specialist distributors like http://www.prweb.com/ and http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/)
Submit site-of-the-day sites like Cool Site of the Day
Eric Ward's URLwire.
Buy 'page rank' links, ie links without the nofollow tag, if you want to take the risk but we don't recommend).
Buy promotional links (adverts) on generic sites like StumbleUpon and facebook; specialist sites; and PPC.
6. DEBRIEF & REPEAT
With team and/or with client.
Strategy: are you targeting the right keywords?
Tactics: are your chosen methods the right ones?
Systems: were you able to get done what you wanted done?
Move on to the next market sector and/or keyword niche

[ezestseo]

Good information by "Living-seo-life". Metrics is the way to measure the SEO success. But in my way if client is happy after SEO then you can say your SEO is succeed.

[Jemmie]

Hi,

Almost 80% SEO strategies are same for every website. You need to do 20% that makes different. That depends on kind of website that you are handling. Try to keep track on your competitor's what they are doing with the help of Google Alert.

Thanks

[keyideas]

Very good information is given by one of our friend. No one can guarantee in SEO because this is not depends upon the webmaster but it depends how that person is working for optimizing a website and what is his/her plan for any website.

[joy12]

Very Nice information you have posted. Thanks you for sharing these tips.

[chamoo007]

thanks for the superb knowledge
but what we almost use the same method.. what my measurement is simply how much time would it take to see your site at the first page... :) that means lesser the time,better will be your seo ranking

[shaniadavid]

Well for me SEO success is all about taking your website to the first page of google for the keywords having high search volume!

[Tiggerito]

How about making you client happy?

[rocco88]

I believe it should be based on 2 things.

1. How high you rank on the search engines ( Google, Yahoo, Bing)

2. The clients ROI is also another important factor.

[Speedo12]

You measure seo success in positions you acquire and the money you make from it.

[property1234]

I am Glad to read the reply of "Living-seo-life" and I wanted to thankful to him to share good informative information which is useful for all of us.once again thanks for sharing.

[likesonia]

I think client will never be happy.His demands never end and he always think when doing payment.

[prestige9]

what a post man..got to know so much about seo. a very big thanks...

[mattwls]

Your SEO success depends upon the niche you are targeting. There are people who build sites, post good content, build back links rank higher and make money from what they are selling. AND then there are people who have huge list they have built over the years and they just make a 1 page long sales letter website and make money by emailing their list about their new venture.

At the end of the day your success depends upon how much you were able to cash in from a website. You can build a informative site just to build a list and in future use that list to sell product / services.