SEO Knowledge?

[Frederick Townes]

I think the best thing to do is come up to speed on the basics, which means getting a resource like this:

http://www.seobook.com/ (ironically ranked #1 for "SEO Book")

Once you have an understanding of most of the principles, you need to define a strategy, for that it's simply best to allocate some resources to working with a search marketing company like http://www.w3-edge.com/ who can provide consultation as opposed to full-on fulfillment of your charge. You're going to also want to make sure that you make sure your site is highly usable, search engine friendly and built in a manner that support log analysis (so that you can monitor the sites performance fully). To be clear, the firm you consult with would learn about your product and it's audience, and from there perform competitive analysis, keyword research and perhaps statistical analysis to see how your web site is currently performing if at all. From there they would come back to you with input on keywords to focus on as well as link building strategies for the long and short term. And depending on your industry either paid search or media buys that can send targeted traffic immediately to your site. The reason for mentioning those perhaps off-topic points is that the SEO promotion for your product will undoubtedly take no less than 6-8 months to develop traction for your your targeted keywords (on Google) if your site is already prepared for SEO and has all of the formalities in place.

So this is why I suggest to grab a great book like SEO Book, then make sure many of the small details are sorted out for your site. The spend some time on the phone with someone who can direct your attention to the areas of focus, help get you some targeted short term traffic (that you will have to pay for) and then finally give short and long term keyword and link building strategies. One thing you should expect is to add a blog to your site as a compliment to your long term link building strategy.

Keep in mind, that organic or even paid search may not necessarily be a good fit for your product because your target market may not use SE's to find your product - in such a case the consultation will help you avoid a mis-investment and can redirect you to a better marketing channel.

Don't forget to ask the SEO about helpful competitive analysis tools like: http://www.webmasterworld.com/ membership is not a bad thing to have.