There are numerous ways to go about this, but to organize yourself somewhat you should really research the competitive landscape first.

One of the first things any competant SEO person should do is to identify your website’s true competitors by analyzing high conversion keyword phrases. You can use whatever keyword tools your familiar with, or read those that I commented on in a previous keyword research tool post.

Identify your most relevant search engines (Google, Yahoo, others?) and identify the top competitors for each phrase. Repeat this process for each of your high conversion and high activity phrases and then compare across keyword phrases. The site that rises to the top SERPs with the most consistency is the true competitor to beat. This could be challenging, not the exercise, the competitor.

Website Goals – Got any? You should –

1. Increase Traffic from X to Y
2. Increase Sales Conversion from 5% to 10%
3. Increase Repeat Customer Retention

This list could be very extensive, but it should be clearly written out and very well planned and organized. Its very easy to say, I can rank #2 in Google for “NY Trees”, big deal, seriously who can’t anymore, it isnt 1995 anymore. Website analytics and overall SEO has gotten to a more sophisticated level and should be thought and planned out well.

Discuss the overall strategy with your client’s goals and audience in mind then –Plan your work and work your plan – a real intelligent project manager professional once said. 

If you have any better ideas on this topic, I would love to hear them. I am testing out a new strategy with a particular client and am always open to new and exciting ideas.