Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be overly complicated or a mystery to you and your business partners. In order for the SEO campaigns to be most successful you should have an idea about what each part of the strategy entails. You should know why you’re doing it to avoid confusion and frustration with any vendor you work with in the future as well.
The ability to not only speak knowledgeably about the subject but truly understand what makes up a solid SEO strategy will always save you, the business owner, money and time in the long run. Whether you choose to jump in and have an in-house team implement this strategy for you or you go out and hire someone to do it for you, you’re going to be ahead of the curve because you know what’s up.
SEO Strategy Part 1: Defining your Objectives
SEO is a long term solution; it’s NOT a one-time thing. Whenever we say this to people they look confused. The truth is that beginning your first SEO campaign provides your website and in turn your company with perpetual value over years and years over your competition. As opposed to something like Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising which only keeps you high in the rankings for a few weeks to a month, SEO will keep you ranking high on the list for months and even years to come.
When you start your campaign you want to consider what would be a success. Would acquiring a few new clients from organic search be your big win? What would you and your company need for massive ROI?
SEO Strategy Part 2: Keyword Strategy (It Isn’t As Hard As You Think)
The key to an effective keyword strategy without all the headaches is to obtain a quick ROI from all the keywords your almost ranking on page 1 for. I guarantee that your website is already ranking for some keywords on pages 2-10. These are what you want to start with. If you focus your efforts first on this “low hanging fruit” you will achieve a quicker ROI.
These will be able to rank onto page 1 much more quickly than a keyword you aren’t ranking for at all would. Why? Because, Google already considers you relevant for these keywords! You have to take just a few extra steps to make your site the MOST relevant for them.
By using techniques like competition research and tools like SEMRush you are going to be able to get those keywords to the top of the list rather quickly. In order to perform competition research type in one of your main keywords into Google and get the URL’s of your top three competitors. Use a tool like SEMRush and type in their domain.
It will give you all the keywords your competitor is ranking for. Basically, you get tons of keyword ideas without much work at all and you will be able to model your site after theirs to do better in the rankings for keywords.
You can also rank one page of your website for TONS of keywords! Old school SEO used to teach that you have to use one keyword over and over again on one page to get that page to rank. With the new Google algorithms that isn’t necessarily true anymore. Google is rewarding amazing content more than anything else now. What does that mean?
It means that you can rank for a ton of similar keywords all on one page. Basically it cuts out a bunch of work while also making your page look super sleek and streamlined.
Use a tool like KWfinder.com and type in your main keyword. This will give you a list of a bunch of long tail variations on that one keyword that you can use on your page and in link building. Basically, you can get one page to rank for over 50 variations of a keyword using long tails and similar topics.
Stay tuned for another post on this topic where we dive into parts 3 & 4 of our SEO strategy. In the meantime, share this with some friends you think would benefit from a little SEO knowledge!
