Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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Why record the total number of pages indexed on a regular basis? For one, if

you previously had obstacles to robot indexing on your site, you’re likely to see a great

deal of improvement here once those obstacles are removed. And, if you monitor this

number, you may be able to catch and resolve any indexing problems before they result

in a major drop in traffic.

If any of your landing pages were not indexed when you checked last month, be

sure to look back again and see if your efforts have made a difference.

Looking to cut down on your workload? You can skip checking indexing if your

landing pages were already indexed last month and you haven’t made any changes to

your website in the interim. Or skip checking the total number of pages indexed and

focus only on your landing pages.

With a little sleuthing, you can see which search engine robots have visited your

site. See Chapter 10, “Extra Credit and Guilt-Free Slacking,” for more information.

Tuesday: Check Links

Today, you’ll follow up on the link-building campaign that you started just a couple of

weeks ago. We know you just started, but if you keep up with link building, each

month you’ll be faced with an increasingly long and gnarly tracking worksheet that

will be nearly impossible to assess at a glance. That’s why it’s important to keep track

of your link-building activities and accomplishments in a monthly summary report.

You’ll document the following in both words and numbers:

• Link campaign activities

• Google PageRank

Link Campaign Activities

Most likely, you’ve already had some correspondence, possibly even several back-and-

forth e-mail communications, with possible linking sites. You may have also made direc-

tory submittals this month and explored many other linking opportunities. Today, review

Now:

Check the indexing of any landing pages that were not indexed last month. Document status on

your Rank Tracking Worksheet.

Now:

Check the total number of pages indexed on your site in each of the four major search engines.

Record the value on your Rank Tracking Worksheet.

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