Throughout the years, I have looked to find a model to measure and address SEO concerns, whether it is an opportunity from a technical, content or link development perspective and still being mindful of the overall goals of a given website.
I have developed a personal way to approach items that have been identified and break them down individually so the specific tactical approaches can be fully vetted to find the best solution. Also, it gives you the ability to measure the impact so you aren’t chasing something down a rabbit hole that will not return the greatest results for your efforts. In an attempt to make this simple, I have made this a four letter acronym; also it was simplified to make it easy to remember.
FIRM
1. Findings
No matter what the tactic, identifying the concern is one of the most important steps to measuring the impact to organic search.
2. Implication
How does the particular finding impact the performance of your site?
3. Resolution
What can be done to resolve the concern and improve the site’s performance?
4. Measurement
After addressing the concern, did it have the intended impact to the web site’s performance?
I have found this approach to be useful because when the item/concern is identified, it can easily be placed within the context of all other concerns and put into the appropriate order. This is not to say that each of the findings is independent of others, but it can help to better understand the aspects that can have the greatest impact on organic search performance. It is also a way to measure the cost, whether it is time or money, and evaluate the value of fixing the particular concern.
I plan on sharing some information following this post to give you insight into how to identify areas of opportunity and what are the three most important elements in organic search.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you suggest some seo report generating software so that we can send it to clients with ease .
This depends on what you are trying to report.
I recommend that you focus on business impact for reporting results, because this is the true measure of what an effective SEO campaign is actually delivering. As far as other reporting, it really depends on what you are trying to deliver (i.e. link development, content development, technical implementation, etc.).
Thanks for the comment!
Interesting concept. As someone eager to learn as much about SEO as possible, I look forward to your follow up post.
Great acronym you came up with there but I find this article to general. Can you cite an instance where you use the FIRM approach in your SEO work?
Great question, this is actually just setting up how to approach SEO concerns. I plan on writing on how to identify these concerns and applying the model to assess and address the concern.
Thanks for the comment… more to come.
For someone like me, that’s starting now on the SEO area this seems to be an interesting approach. Very recently I landed a small SEO project and I’m going to give your model a try. I’ll give you a feedback on what I tought about it in a few days.
Looking forward to read more articles about this approach.
After reading the post, I find your approach interesting. Although it maybe somewhat too general for beginners. I will try it out for a while and hopefully it won’t turn out with me “chasing something down a rabbit hole”
I’m looking forward to the follow-up of this post. Thanks in advance.
That’s got some serious marketing potential! good advice in acronym form is always good!
This is an interesting introductory post, but I’m tempted to see where you’re going with it. It would be useful if you gave examples for each point.
Interesting post.
I would like to read more details about this approach since i am trying to learn seo but it’s not so easy.
interesting article, what is the perspective in SEO in articles promotion?
This is really good article. Your key points are really good. I would like to add one more thing. Everything starts with #1. If you don’t select your niche properly, it’s difficult to get it right later. Thanks!
I’d agree with Lara that if you don’t narrow your niche as tight as possible, you’ll never really get ahead.
This is a good introduction into the world of SEO and I look forward to reading your next article on the subject.
Thanks for sharing this with us. I’ll try to implement some of the steps that you mentioned here on my own site and see if there’s any improvement.
Agreed. I’ve bene trying these steps out on my own site and have begun to notice some serious increases in the amount of visitors that i receive. Thanks again!
Brilliant acronym!
I particularly like the point you brought up about measuring the performance on the site due to the actions previously taken.
I look forward to your follow up posts!
Cheers
Interesting concept. As someone eager to learn as much about SEO as possible, I look forward to your follow up post.