Over 50% of website traffic is derived from organic search results. That is why so many businesses are changing their approach by implementing SEO strategies and SEO management. Through SEO, they are growing their company’s revenue. This article will help you understand what an SEO strategy is; it doesn’t matter how familiar you are with it. There is also the option of investing in professional services for SEO management. Before we get into talking about your SEO strategy, we want to talk about what SEO is exactly.
Defining SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, improves the ranking of your website for the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). SERPs are the pages full of links to websites that are provided with a relevant search query. Practicing proper SEO management will increase the traffic to your website. It is an umbrella of techniques and strategies.
While you don’t get results overnight like you would with other digital marketing strategies (Such as PPC advertising). In fact, it can take months for the results of an SEO campaign to reveal themselves. However, the results you do make the wait worth it. Now that we have talked a little about SEO, we want to get into SEO management.
SEO Management
SEO management is a reference to your business’s (or agency’s) SEO strategy management. During SEO management, your SEO team will design, modify, and lead your strategy to greater heights in order to produce results that push you towards your goals.
It isn’t uncommon for a business to invest in using an agency that specializes in SEO. The reason is that their in-house marketing departments are busy and/or are not familiar with SEO. Over 50% of businesses utilize SEO agencies.
Whether you decide to partner with an agency or have an internal team to manage your strategy, you need to understand the basics of SEO management. With this information, you will be able to build a solid foundation to remain competitive in your industry.
Successful SEO Management in 4 Basic Steps
A successful strategy for SEO requires you to manage it properly. It doesn’t matter if you invested in an agency to help you; you need to know the details of the management process. So, we have decided to provide you with 4 steps that lead to Successful SEO management.
Research Your Audience
There are many businesses that have learned about their audience so they can excel with SEO. They researched their target market, discovering what people expect from their company and services/products. They have encountered many common questions and issues that their target audience has. To sum up, you have to research your audience if you want your SEO campaign, strategy, and management to succeed. Here are some common questions about your audience that you have to answer when you are researching your target demographic:
- What issues or problems does your service/product answer for the audience?
- What are the problems that your audience has with other businesses?
- What are the target audience’s demographic features?
- Where does the audience look when they have questions that need to be answered?
It is important that you reevaluate any past research you have made, regardless of whether or not you have marketing personas made. Consumers, like strategies, will go through changes over time. If your personas are outdated, it will cause issues with your SEO strategy.
Now that you have researched your audience, it is time to take the next step towards launching your plan.
Analyze Your Competitors
Competitor analysis will give you amazing insight, which will provide key information for your SEO management. It doesn’t matter if you are working on your SEO in-house or if you are investing in an agency; a competitor analysis needs to be done regularly.
There are two types of competitors that you need to evaluate. These types are indirect and direct.
Indirect competitors are the companies that compete with you for search results. As an example, two plumbing services may compete for the search keywords “Local Plumbing Companies,” even if their services offered are different.
Direct competitors, on the other hand, compete with you offline as well as online. You may already know a number of competitors in your industry. All you have to do is look at their presence online and how they invest in SEO.
You need to figure out the SEO strategy of your competitors during the analysis. In a few cases, you may discover that some of your direct competitors haven’t even invested in an SEO strategy. That is when you focus on indirect competitors, as they have made a high ranking based on their SEO practices. Look at these key factors of your competitor’s SEO strategy:
- Targeted Keywords
- Domain Age
- Backlink Profile
- Traffic Value
- Optimization Practices
This can be a challenging step for many businesses. However, once this step is complete, it does get easier to develop a solid strategy. Now on to the next step!
Site Optimization
Once you have researched your competitors and audience, you can begin to optimize your site for search engines. This is more of a time-consuming process than a hard one. That is why you need realistic goals (long-term and short-term) to help you achieve better results.
As an example, if you have 10 pages on your website, you probably won’t be able to optimize all of them in a short period of time. You have many responsibilities that you have to attend to, so to overcome this time-consuming hurdle, many companies utilize SEO copywriting services for their website.
When you optimize your website, you don’t just optimize any blogs or informational pages that you display. You have to optimize every aspect of your website to appease the search engines and audience. Here are the aspects you need to have optimized:
- Title Tag- This will display in search results. It is the page title, and it should be enticing to users, encouraging them to choose your website. It is recommended that you use keywords in your title tag.
- Meta Description- This is another piece of content from your website that will appear in the results. It is a summary of your page, which expands off your title. It should be encouraging, as well. Make sure you are using relevant, targeted keywords.
- Headings- Displayed on your web pages, serving the purpose of dividing content, you need to utilize keywords in these as well. However, for readability reasons, it may not always be appropriate to use keywords in headings.
- Images- The images on your website should still be optimized for SEO and your viewers. They need to be relevant and helpful. They improve the readability of web pages, helping users understand any topics that are complex. To optimize your images, make sure the filename and alt text of the image uses relevant keywords (As long as they make sense).
- Content- Now for the meat of the website, the content. This is what answers the user’s questions, informs them of what you can do for them, and addresses any issues a user may have. Keywords need to be placed carefully into content to keep it readable and relevant.
There are ways to mess this up. Keyword stuffing, and other black-hat tactics, will negatively impact your ranking in the search results. So, when optimizing content, make sure your team/agency is following the best SEO practices.
Monthly Reports
SEO uses data, just like any other digital strategy for marketing. With your website’s data, you are able to measure the performance of your SEO strategy. It will also offer insight into areas that are in need of improvement. With monthly reporting, you are able to make an informed decision when determining your next move.
With the right SEO agency in your corner, you will receive monthly reports. In a few cases, weekly reporting may be necessary.
If you are working in-house on your SEO management, then you need to establish a schedule that is routine when measuring and evaluating the performance of your strategy. It is industry standards to follow a weekly/monthly reporting schedule. When you look at your monthly reports, you want to look for increases in these areas:
- Conversions
- Organic Traffic
- Backlinks
- Search Result Rankings
To monitor your progress, use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics. However, it may be a challenge to track the exact results of your strategy. That is why you should greatly consider utilizing a qualified SEO agency for your content, reports, analysis, and audience research. While these are tasks you want to work on in-house as well, with the right company in your corner helping you out, you will be able to see amazing results in the future.
