Intro
We often hear marketers saying things like “SEO is hard” or “SEO is only for the big players” However the truth most of these marketers don’t realize is that in order to be successful in SEO requires a plan and coherent strategy. SEO is a tapestry that is best navigated through a structured approach rather than randomly focusing on isolated aspects of it like Keyword or Link Building. Moreover, SEO is a constantly evolving field with new updates, frequently being rolled out by search engines. So it is necessary to craft a dynamic strategy that is based on strong fundamentals and also is adaptable to the changing landscape of the SEO world.
What is SEO strategy?
Now that we have cleared why you need an SEO strategy let’s discuss what essentially an SEO strategy is.
SEO strategy is a blueprint for improving a website’s visibility on the search engine results. It involves steps of creating, optimizing, and promoting content so that it appears higher on the SERPs and consequently attracts more organic traffic to a website.
Now regardless of the niche and industry you are working in there are certain basic steps that need to be in the SEO strategy of everyone. Let’s go through each of these steps one by one.
Current Standings
The first order of business is to understand where you stand. This means that you analyze your current position in terms of SEO. This helps in planning ahead: setting goals, identifying the impact of your actions, and measuring the results of the strategy. To check your current SEO performance you should observe the organic traffic, keyword rankings, and the backlink profile of your website.
Keyword Research
The next step is to research keywords relevant to the niche or business you are in. Keyword Research helps you identify keywords that are similar to the queries that your users are making online. The keywords that you gather from your research will then drive the whole content strategy of your website. It is important to create your content such that the user’s search intent is satisfied by it and keyword research helps with this.
Competitor’s analysis
You can look at what’s already being done in the market by a competitor’s analysis. Analyzing the SEO practices of your competitors can help you with the following things
- Keywords that your competitors are using. You can also capitalize on the keywords that are not being used by them.
- Competitors’ backlink profiles can help you identify the websites that are providing backlinks in your niche.
- Competitor analysis gives you an edge by identifying what’s working and what’s not.
Set your goals and KPIs
Another crucial step for your SEO strategy is to set the goals and KPIs that you want to achieve from this strategy. Without setting clear goals and KPIs, you’d be roaming around in the dark without a clear sight of where you are and where to go next. But don’t confuse goals with KPIs as goals are broader results that you want to achieve from your campaign. On the contrary, KPIs are short-term measurable metrics that help you track your progress toward your goals.
These are the KPIs that you should be looking for:
- Keyword Rankings
- Organic Traffic
- Backlinks
- CTR (Click Through Rate)
- Indexing problems
Audit your site’s content
The next step is to audit the existing content on your website. By analyzing your website’s content, you can identify pages that aren’t performing well and need to be improved.
Optimize existing content and work on fresh content
Once you have audited your website content, you need to optimize the content on the underperforming pages. Additionally, in order to rank higher you need to keep working on delivering fresh content so that your website remains updated and relevant.
Now once you are done with the above steps it’s time to focus on the individual component of your website’s SEO.
On-Page SEO
Optimizing your web content for your users and search engines is called On-Page SEO. It is an essential step in your strategy to work on your On-Page SEO like optimizing keywords in your content, Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, Headings, and Internal links. You can identify how your website’s on-page SEO is working using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.
Technical SEO
Well as the name suggests technical SEO is the process of optimizing the technical aspects of a website. This process aids the search engines in finding, crawling, understanding, and finally indexing our pages. The more technically smooth your website is the easier it is for search engines to index and thus rank your pages. There are a lot of complex and detailed aspects of technical SEO, however, a few main things that you need to keep an eye on are:
- Website’s mobile compatibility
- Site loading speed
- JavaScript
- XML sitemaps
- Site architecture
- URL structure
And more…
Off-Page SEO
Often overlooked Off-page SEO is one of the most integral components of your SEO strategy. Off-page SEO is a term used for activities done to improve search engine rankings, however, these activities are performed outside one’s website. Off-page SEO often includes actions like Link Building, and improving the brand’s presence on social media.
In conclusion, SEO strategy is a map that helps marketers navigate the complex maze of search engine rankings. It becomes far easier to rank higher and attract organic traffic to your website when you have an effective SEO strategy in place. A good SEO strategy involves some basic steps like setting goals and competitors’ analysis. Additionally, it also involves delving into complex individual SEO aspects like On-page, Off-page, and Technical SEO. Preparing and then following this strategy step-wise is going to ensure success in SEO.
