7 Steps to Create a Successful SEO Strategy

Search engine optimization (SEO) lets prospects find your products or services online. You might have a well-designed website with excellent content, but if it lacks SEO, people will struggle to find it on search engines.

Creating a well-defined SEO strategy will help your business succeed among the many other websites, companies, and brands seeking attention online. With ever-changing search engine guidelines and best practices, your business will thrive with a solid strategy that meets your marketing goals.

Start developing a winning strategy for ranking higher online with this step-by-step guide.

What is an SEO strategy?

Search engine optimization aims to improve your website’s visibility through organic search on Google or other search engines. More visibility and higher rankings mean you drive more organic traffic to your site, allowing you to save on paid marketing efforts.

SEO strategy is a plan used to achieve higher rankings. As search algorithms change, an SEO strategy provides a stable foundation to continue using the best practices to achieve results for your business.

Ultimately, SEO strategy focuses on the user rather than trying to beat the algorithms. Algorithms constantly aim to improve user experiences, so concentrating on the user will achieve the best results.

Benefits of a tailored SEO strategy

When you invest time and effort into your SEO strategy, you will get measurable results for your business. Here are a few benefits of SEO:

• Brand awareness: When you consistently appear in search engine results pages (SERPs), consumers gain familiarity with your brand. They develop positive perceptions of your business, leading to more conversions.
• Data-backed insights: With SEO, you get a clear picture of what works and what doesn’t. Tools like Google Analytics allow you to measure traffic, conversions, leads, and other data, letting you invest in strategies that bring results.
• Increased leads: SEO will help your business grow by allowing you to reach a wider audience. When they search for your service or product and find you near the top of search results, they’re more likely to visit your website and reach out.
• Better website: By using SEO best practices, you will create a more accessible website for search engines and users. This improved website makes users more likely to find you online and buy your product or service.

While SEO brings many benefits in any form, you will experience these benefits more when you have a well-developed strategy. A strategy gives you a path to follow to make educated decisions with specific goals in mind.

Steps to create an effective SEO strategy

If you’re new to SEO, you may wonder where to begin when creating an SEO strategy. Here’s a step-by-step process to follow as you seek to improve organic traffic.

1. Align SEO with business goals and define KPIs

Before you start your SEO strategy, note where you are now, where you want to be in the future, and how you’ll measure success throughout the SEO process.

Begin your planning with an SEO audit. An SEO audit tells you how well your website is optimized for search engines, giving you a baseline to work from as you seek to improve your SEO. Once you discover your current position, find a way to measure success with key performance indicators (KPIs). These may include:

• Leads generated
• Click-through rates
• Contact forms submitted
• Website traffic
• Average session duration

2. Perform keyword research

After discovering where you’re starting and where you want to go, start the SEO process with keyword research. This process allows you to see what people search for when they want your product or service.

Google searches are a simple way to begin. Start by searching for words or phrases that relate to your service. As you do so, note Google’s suggestions, which show common search terms and queries related to your topic. This process will help you generate a list to start with.

You can also use keyword research tools to find information about search volume and competition on particular keywords.

3. Examine the search results

The search engine results pages (SERPs) yield valuable information that helps you learn how to rank for particular keywords. Search for your keywords from the list you made during keyword research to see what appears on the first page.

One term might give mostly service pages, while another might provide primarily instructional blog posts. These results tell you what types of content to create or refine for SEO.

4. Define your valuable pages

Your website likely has many pages, and some will be more popular than others. Deciding which pages are the most valuable helps you determine where to focus your SEO efforts first. Some key pages to consider include:

• Home page
• Service pages
• Category pages
• Product pages

5. Analyze your competition

Your competitors with high rankings online will tell you a lot about what will generate success on your website. Search online to find competitors and browse their websites for ideas of content types, industry experience, and other factors that influence their rankings.

You can also assess your competitors through competitor analysis tools. These tools tell you about the other websites ranking for similar keywords or targeting the same audiences.

6. Start optimizing your pages

With an idea of the keywords and content types gaining higher rankings online, you can implement SEO techniques to start improving your website.

Use your research to start creating content that’s better or different from what you already see ranking highly in the SERPs. As you create new pages or improve your existing ones, focus on the searcher first, not the search engine.

Improve SEO by following best practices like:

• Including keywords in headers, content, and meta descriptions
• Adding internal links to other helpful site content
• Organizing URLs and including keywords in the URL
• Earning backlinks to your website
• Improving the page experience
• Improving page speed

7. Measure and track success

After you put time and effort into your SEO strategy, you want to know it’s paying off. Measure success using the KPIs you chose to see where you’re winning and where to invest more effort.

Compile your SEO efforts and their results in reports to share your successes with stakeholders. Remember that SEO takes time, so be patient, especially as you try to rank for more competitive keywords.

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Drive more organic traffic to your website with help from SEO.com. We’re digital marketing experts with over 27 years of experience crafting successful SEO strategies for clients.

Contact us online today to discuss our SEO services!