Where to begin (SEO-wise) with my Website?

[JRodBeMe]

Hello,

We hired a company to design an e-commerce website for us.  Along the way they did some initial SEO design, but we are clearly a long way from where we need to be.  I'm not a web-designer or a knowledgeable SEO person.  I have the website linked to webtools, google analytics and obviously this site as well.

I've been toying with the idea of just trying to accomplish some SEO myself, but the more I read about SEO, the more daunting it seems.  I'm a full-time military pilot, so this seems like it involves more time than I have to give.  Where do I begin?

My Website

www.phoenixprintingsolutions.com

Thanks in advance

[SEO5Team]

These links below should give you a good idea on the steps needed for optimizing your site.

Perfecting on page optimization for SEO sites

Ecommerce SEO 

SEO for ecommerce

Ecommerce SEO Guide 

Advanced Ecomm SEO techniques

[EGOL]

Where to begin (SEO-wise) with my Website?

Educate thyself....

I've been toying with the idea of just trying to accomplish some SEO myself

Do this even if you intend to hire someone else.  It is really important for you to have some basic understanding about what you are buying.... and what methods are safe vs too aggressive (risky).   Lots of people buy poison.  You want to avoid that.

** I'm a full-time military pilot, so this seems like it involves more time than I have to give.**

OK... consider this....

Online printing is highly competitive turf.

You have arrived late to the fight.  You competition occupied the high ground years ago, they are dug in, fortified and now have all of the approaching ground carefully sighted in with a doubleoverkill of weapons.  They have highly-trained reserves that they can call in at any time if you threaten and they might see you coming before you arrive.

What do you think your chances are to assault that part time and without skills?

Some people like that type of a challenge.   I do - but pick my fights very carefully.    Just saying what you are stepping into.

If I was in your shoes and was offering walk-in service to people in Phoenix my first line of attack getting onto the local search map and getting established in Google Places for Business.   I would be optimistic about doing this.

If you goal is to use a website to generate orders nationally then you are going to need a big investment and an SEO team, at least for the short term.   I would consider this to be a gamble.  I might pick another fight - at least for now or until I got dominant locally.

[JRodBeMe]

Thank you for the replies.

We talked about being found nationally,  and found that we were probably biting off more than we could chew... especially being new to the online game.  So we decided to start out locally.  Realizing that the word "phoenix" was in the title, we figured we'd start with the city of Phoenix.  I've created profiles with google places, bing, yahoo and infogroup.

I will check out those links you posted.

Thanks again.

[Alex-Harford]

I'll add these links to EGOL's post:

To get a quick overview, read Google's guide on hiring an SEO: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291 
And the SEO Basics section here: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.co.uk/en/uk/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

If you want to get into more detail SEOmoz's Beginners Guide to SEO is great.

[EGOL]

Nice additions. Thanks!