Q and A: What files do I need to transfer from a client site in order to optimize it?

Dear Kalena...

I have a good fundamental knowledge of SEO and HTML, but have no practical experience. As such, I need answers to the following questions please. In order to do SEO from a remote location, it's my understanding that I will need to do a transfer from an organization's storage server drive to my computer, using FTP and Internet Explorer. However, I don't know exactly what should be transferred to do the SEO work. I would really appreciate some input on this please.

Also, once I have made the changes, do I simply save them and transfer the revised work back to the organization? In addition, do I necessarily need to use Dreamweaver or a similar type of program to make the changes, or can I just hand-code the changes? Please add as much detail as you think appropriate when answering these question.

Thank-you very much.

Peter

Kalena's Answer:

Hi Peter

Geez, I would've expected a cup of coffee or two to answer all these! Here goes:

1) If you have no practical experience in SEO, you have no fundamental knowledge, it's that simple. Until you have actually optimized code, you really have very little knowledge of SEO.

2) Again, if you don't understand what needs to be transferred in order to do the SEO work, in my opinion, you don't know enough yet to successfully optimize a site.

Basically, to SEO a site, you need access to the HTML code of all pages being optimized. What I do is ask my client for FTP access to their site and then I download a full copy of the pages to be optimized, including the CSS files, javascript and any images used on the pages. This is so that the pages render correctly in my WYSIWYG page editor while I'm working on them.

I generally hand code the title and meta tags first, then do the actual code optimizing in a text editor (EditPlus is my current favorite), before importing all the changes into the HTML code and tweaking any on-page optimization in my WYSIWYG editor. You might find you don't need to view the page in WYSIWYG and that hand coding is all you need. Every SEO works differently.

3) Before you start the SEO, you should find out from your client whether they are happy for you to have full FTP access to their site and simply upload the optimized pages, or whether they want their in-house site admin to implement your SEO changes. If the latter is the case, I create detailed code instructions for each page, hand them over to the client and then check the integration for errors. Some clients will want to see what the page will look like before it goes live so they can approve/edit your changes. That's when a WYSIWYG version comes in handy - you can upload your optimized page versions to a test area on your server or theirs and highlight the changes for them. Other clients will be happy for you to just edit their live site. But you should always make a backup of the old versions of their pages, just in case.

If you are serious about SEO, I strongly suggest you take up one of our SEO training courses which take you through the optimization of a site, step-by-step, with set assignments to test the practical side of your knowledge. You should also volunteer to work on some sites while you find your feet. Practical experience should help you decide how much you know about SEO and how much left there is to learn.

Need more than advice? Take a Search Engine Marketing course online

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