With almost 90 percent of marketers crediting search engine optimization (SEO) as a successful strategy, you know that it’s valuable and can help your company thrive. Launching an SEO strategy, however, isn’t easy. That’s why it’s critical to invest time in building your SEO plan.
An SEO strategy, also called a search engine optimization strategy, is the process of developing and implementing an SEO plan that works toward your SEO goals, like producing more SEO content or achieving higher rankings in search results.
Conduct a website SEO audit
Before your company develops any search engine optimization plans, you need to evaluate your current strategy and status. Even if you don’t have an SEO strategy, it’s still essential to conduct an audit because it provides your team and business with a baseline for your performance.
If you audit your website in-house or with an SEO audit tool, compile your results in a shareable location. For example, you can upload data to Google Sheets. That way, you can access the information whenever, plus share it with team members.
Research your target audience
Developing an SEO strategy goes outside your website. While companies will often start optimizing their site for search engines, like by writing and publishing blog posts, many skip the critical step of analyzing their target audience.
You may have a compilation of buyer personas already, but a successful SEO strategy plan needs more than that. It needs to understand how your audience searches and interacts online. That way, you can find not only relevant keywords but also create relevant content that speaks to your audience.
Complete a competitor analysis
If you want to make the most of SEO planning, however, your team should take the time to evaluate your competitors. A competitor analysis can help your company (or SEO agency) uncover opportunities for your strategy, as well as weaknesses in your competition’s approach.
Before your team starts evaluating your competitors, it’s essential to understand that your online competitors aren’t always your direct competitors. Depending on your keyword strategy, you may compete with industry blogs or companies in a different sector of your industry.
Compile a list of valuable keywords
Next, your team can move onto your keyword strategy. Based on your competitor research, as well as SEO audit, you probably have an idea about which keywords your SEO strategy could target. It’s helpful to log and expand on all these ideas, though.
That’s why you want to set aside time to research keywords. While your team can manually research keywords (without any tools), it’ll save your business time and improve your keyword research results if you use some tools. These time-saving tools range from web browser applications to browser extensions.
Create a list of recommendations
Whether your company’s decision-makers already support your SEO initiatives or you need to get them to sign-on, it’s critical for your team to compile a list of recommendations or a game-plan for your SEO strategy. This step is a vital part of SEO planning because it provides your business with a foundation.
When you create your SEO website strategy, you want to answer the following questions:
What do you want to accomplish with SEO?
What is the expected value or impact of your SEO strategy plan?
When do you plan to achieve these goals?
How do you plan to accomplish those goals?
What resources or team members do you need to complete those goals?
For the best results, it’s helpful for your team to provide a peek at your plan.
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