1. What do you want to achieve? In terms of both business goals and marketing goals?
SEO is neither a business goal nor a marketing goal. That's why you don't start by scratching your head over which keywords you want on page 1. That's approaching the task backwards. You start by getting your business goals and marketing goals completely clear.
If you own an online clothing shop, a business goal could be to sell far more dresses from the new collection than you sold from the last one. To get there, you need some marketing goals.
- More brand awareness
- More traffic to your website, so you learn more about the people you sell to and what makes them buy
- Reaching the purchase-ready dress lovers who are itching to put your dresses in their basket
Once you know your marketing goals, you can put together your SEO strategy.
The point is simple: your SEO strategy ties in with your marketing goals, and they have to serve your business goals.
Here, it's important that you know what SEO can and can't do.
2. Why does SEO make sense for your business?
If you have a limited marketing budget, SEO may not be the most important thing for you right now. If your website is old and slow, it may be smarter to spend the money on a new website.
Maybe you have a time-limited sale of last year's collection that needs to sell quickly. Then PPC marketing such as Facebook Ads or Google Shopping Ads makes more sense.
3. What resources will you need for your SEO strategy?
Every strategy takes resources before it can be put into practice. Find out whether you have a team ready right now that can do your SEO. Maybe you need to bring in new bright minds. Maybe an SEO agency should take on the job, or the answer is something else entirely.
4. Who are your target audiences?
Before you get started on the big SEO work, be thorough and find out who your target audiences are. What are they interested in? And what matters to them?
5. Where in the customer journey is it important for you to reach your target audiences? And what pain points do they have at that stage?
Your target audiences google different things depending on where they are in the customer journey. They search for one thing when they've only just started noticing their pain point and don't yet know the solution. They search for something completely different when they know what they want to buy, where and why.
So, as part of your SEO strategy, map out which stages of the buying process it makes sense for you to be visible in.
It's a good idea to be visible and helpful at every stage, from start to finish. If you don't have the resources for that, prioritise. Read much more about how to do keyword research based on the customer journey here.
6. What search intents do your target audiences have?
Brainstorm all the intents your target audiences might have when they google. It's part of your keyword research. When a page ranks on page 1 of Google's search results, in 99% of cases it's because Google believes the page answers the searcher's query.
Find out what people want to achieve when they hit the keys. Then surprise them with content that's even better than they dared hope for.
7. What's special about your business?
Find what you can do differently or even better than your biggest competitors. Consider these questions:
- How can you position yourself?
- What can you play up when someone searches for "your product, service or name vs. your competitor's product, service or name"?
- How can you deliver something better or completely different from your competitors?
- Which unique selling points can you play up?
The more clearly you see how you stand out, the more clearly you also see how you help the customers you want to reach. You also see how they should find you in the search results.
8. Who are your competitors?
You understand your market and your own business down to the last detail when you know your competitors. That also applies when you put together your SEO strategy.
Zoom in on what your competitors do well and what they do less well. Look at everything from their content and the structure of their website to the links they have and the keywords they target.
9. What are you ranking for right now?
A look at your current rankings shows you where there's untapped potential. It could be low-hanging fruit or outright gaps in the market.
Maybe you're on page 2 for the keyword “maxi dresses” and aren't found at all for the search “summer dresses 2019”.
You may also have been at the top of page 1 for a long time for a keyword you thought would get you off the ground. If it hasn't given you noticeable results, that may be a sign that the keyword doesn't suit your business.
When you look at what you rank for today, you find the untapped potential. That's low-hanging fruit or outright gaps in the market.
Maybe you're on page 2 for the keyword “maxi dresses” and aren't found at all for the search “summer dresses 2019”.
Maybe you've been at the top of page 1 for a long time for a keyword you thought would get you off the ground. If you're not seeing any results from it, that may be a sign that it isn't the right keyword for your business.
10. What are your competitors ranking for?
Your biggest competitors can give you inspiration for your own keyword research. Look into which keywords they target.
Are they ranking for keywords you should be ranking for too? And are there gaps in the market?
11. How will you get links to your site?
Link building is one of the most important ranking factors. A good, well-thought-out link building strategy can kick the door to Google wide open. The most important thing is still that you point relevant, quality links at your site.
Russian porn links don't belong here. So think relevance. Think PR and outreach. Think partners, mentions, local newspapers and good stories.
Sit down with your team or your agency. Map out what you should play up and who you should reach out to. The plan needs to hold up right now and tomorrow, next month and for the rest of the year.
12. How will you get links to your site?
Look into which type of content others in your industry often link to. Then make content that's even better than what's out there today. If people love your content, e.g. landing pages, blog posts or videos, there's a good chance they'll link to it from their own blog or website.
When people link to your content because they think it's awesome, it's called an editorial link. Google gives that kind of link a lot of weight.
13. What type of content should you create? And how often?
You can't optimise your website for search engines without good content. That goes for landing pages, blog posts and videos.
Good content looks different from niche to niche. One-size-fits-all rules can easily lead you astray.
So do your own analysis of what your industry and niche expect and want.
Do they expect checklists and bullet points? Videos or mostly text?
Every niche is different. In the fitness industry, the pages with lots of videos rank highest. That suits the industry well.
High-ranking pages on divorce rules and legislation often have bullet points and lists. The subject is heavy, and the lists make it easier to digest.
In the furniture industry, people would rather see plenty of images than read lots of text. And so on.
Find out what's happening in your niche and what your customers want.
Next step: Make a clear plan for how often you'll create new content for your website.
14. How will you get more Google reviews?
The number of positive Google reviews of your business affects your visibility. They also affect how potential customers perceive you. That's why it always pays to make a plan for how you'll keep getting more positive reviews.
Also read: How do you handle bad reviews online?
15. Are you up to date on the latest Google algorithms?
Your SEO strategy needs to take Google's latest algorithm changes into account. That way, you always follow Google's quality guidelines and deliver what Google considers important to searchers.
Strike a good balance between staying up to date and chasing the algorithm. Study the long-term trends and understand them. Then you can get ahead of your competitors. You won't get anywhere by uncritically following suit every time Google rolls out a new algorithm.
16. What's your website's site architecture like?
Your users need to know where they can find what on your website. The experience should be fantastic. They should feel guided without using a single brain cell.
Think of the supermarket. The cheese is in the cheese section, and the toothpaste is somewhere else.
There are also a thing or three you can fix so Google's bots can easily read and understand your site.
You can read much more about good website architecture on Moz's blog.
17. How do you increase both traffic and your conversion rate?
Don't get fixated on a keyword's monthly search volume or on top rankings. The figures don't help you if the searches don't bring you relevant traffic.
So think about what best “nurtures” your future customers through the customer journey. What makes them convert? And what keeps them as loyal customers?
18. Who should handle the technical side of SEO?
Find out who will make your website work properly on the technical side. Someone needs to set up correct tracking and optimise the site's speed. Someone needs to compress images, add microdata, keep the site mobile-friendly and set up redirects.
Don't have anyone on staff who knows technical search engine optimisation, and can't afford an SEO agency? Then you could consider outsourcing a few small tasks.
19. When should you update your strategy again?
Your strategy is an ongoing process and is never completely finished. So revisit it regularly and look for where it falls short. Add new initiatives when it makes sense.
Keep a close eye on how your rankings develop, and let the results show you the way.
Get help with your SEO strategy
Well begun is half done. Badly begun is… well, not good. If you don't have the resources to put together a well-thought-out SEO strategy, you're always welcome to email us at seo@amplify.dk. You can also get hold of the rest of the team at info@amplify.dk.