What does an SEO strategy look like? I hear this question a lot on discovery calls. And the truth is, it depends on what you want your business to achieve. I don’t do cookie-cutter SEO strategies for my clients. I create a custom plan to meet the goals you want to achieve. But, I still want to answer your question 😉 So keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look at how I develop an SEO strategy!
P.S. What does an SEO strategy look like in practice? Read this case study to find out!
Define Clear SEO Goals
I start my SEO strategy by defining clear goals. Goals determine the rest of your SEO strategy. These are a few examples of SEO goals my clients have shared with me:
- Driving traffic
- Increasing conversions
- Building brand awareness
By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you can develop a focused SEO plan. SEO goals should align with your overall business goals, too. For example, if your business goal is to increase online sales, an SEO goal might be to drive more targeted traffic to product pages. Jot down some SEO goals before you work on an SEO strategy!
Keyword Research
Next, I perform keyword research to determine the best keywords to target on my main web pages. When doing keyword research, think about terms you would use to describe your main web pages. Then, use tools like Ubersuggest (my go-to!), SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to find more keyword options related to the terms you thought of. You can compare the volume and competition of each term to find the best one for your page.
The best keywords are high volume and low competition, but sometimes those are hard to find! Keywords with high volume typically have high competition. I never go above a 70/100 for competition because small businesses are very unlikely to rank for those competitive keywords against large companies. It’s important to balance high-volume keywords with slightly higher competition and long-tail keywords with lower competition.
On-Page SEO Optimization
Now that I know the keywords I want to target on each page, I start optimizing. This includes:
- Writing unique SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Using header tags
- Including the keyword throughout the page
- Writing short, descriptive URLs
- Linking to other internal pages
- Compressing images and writing unique file names and alt text
- Increasing word count on each page to at least 300 words
- Creating a responsive design
I know this is a lot! But that’s what it takes to effectively optimize your web pages. On-page SEO optimization improves your website’s ranking potential, user experience, and site visibility on search engines. It’s not something to overlook!
Technical SEO Strategy
Are you still with me? We have another big project ahead of us: technical SEO. Don’t be afraid of the word ‘technical’. Even the most technically challenged of us can do these things to improve SEO!
Improve Site Speed
Use PageSpeed Insights to identify areas of improvement regarding how fast your site loads. The most common culprits are large media files (videos, images, gifs, etc.) Download, compress, and reupload media to fix this issue.
Mobile-Friendliness
PageSpeed Insights will also tell you how well your site is optimized on mobile devices. It’s important that your website is easy to use on smaller devices and loads quickly.
Fix Broken Links
Broken links are easy to fix and will make a big impact on your SEO. Use the tool Broken Link Check to identify broken links on your website. Either fix the link or remove it completely.
Check Website Indexing
Use Google Search Console to make sure all your pages have been indexed by Google. At a basic level, indexing means Google has seen your page and approved it to be shown in search results. In the tool, you can see which pages have been indexed and the ones that have not. You can fix any indexing issues the tool identifies and manually request indexing on individual pages.
There’s more that goes into the technical aspect of SEO, but I don’t want to overwhelm you more than I already have! Feel free to contact me for a free SEO audit to learn more about how you can improve your SEO.
Backlink Building
Backlinks are links from other websites back to yours. Although Google hasn’t outright said it (🙄), all the data shows backlinks improve your domain authority and search rankings. It’s like other people are telling Google that they think you’re a valuable resource. And even Google appreciates word of mouth referrals!
These are some ways to increase the number of backlinks you have:
- Guest blogging
- Podcast guest (check out this episode I was on!)
- Writing valuable, sharable content
- Partner with complementary brands
- Join online communities or directories
- Sponsor an event
Websites with more high-quality backlinks tend to rank higher. It’s worth the effort to improve your backlink strategy!
Local SEO Strategy
Even if you serve clients nationwide (or worldwide!), you should still optimize your website for local SEO. Local SEO ensures your business appears in Google’s local search results. And who doesn’t want to work with clients in your very own community?!
Set up a Google Business Profile and complete as much of it as you can. This is how you collect Google reviews, which I highly recommend you start doing! Businesses with more positive reviews tend to receive more traffic.
I always recommend businesses also consider utilizing a business listing management service. There are dozens of additional business listing platforms beyond Google Business Profiles. Make sure your business is accurate and consistent across the internet – from voice search to AI and beyond.
Don’t forget to optimize your website for local SEO! When it makes sense, target local keywords on your website. Here are a few examples for my business:
- Washington state digital marketer
- Marketing agency in Mt. Vernon
- Fractional CMO in Seattle
Ongoing SEO Audits and Adjustments
SEO is an ongoing process. Regular SEO audits and analytic reviews can tell you how well your SEO strategy is working. If you don’t have a peak in traffic after making these changes, you may need to adjust some things. That’s perfectly normal! An SEO strategy will never be perfect, especially with constant algorithm changes, but we can all do the best we can with the strategies we know work well.
I hope this answered, “What does an SEO strategy look like?” I’m offering free SEO audits to help you get started! Simply contact me and request a free SEO audit and I’ll send you a report with your current analytics and recommendations on how to improve. Book yours today!
