In online presence, SEO (search engine optimization) has a vital role to play. You may have a wonderful and well-designed website, but how do people on the internet come to know of you? There are numerous benefits of having SEO to help people to discover you online through ‘search’. But SEO is not just a simple step. It is vital that your business has an SEO strategy. Some studies have shown that only 30% of small businesses have an SEO strategy worth its name. A digital marketing strategy should also have a unique SEO strategy; otherwise, your website will not reach its full potential. But how do you create an SEO strategy? Here are six tips, but before that let’s look into some basics:
Basics on How SEO Works
To start with, you need to first understand how SEO works, only then can you formulate an SEO strategy. You may create a fanciful website and hope people would come in hordes. No, that is not how it works. People have to discover you. And for that, a proper SEO strategy is needed.
The internet has what is called search engines. The prime task is to search the truly world wide web for the right content based on some key inputs. The prime task of SEO is to optimize your website that would improve your website’s presence in search engine results. It needs to be underscored that organic traffic or traffic that comes through search engines makes up for 53% of all site traffic. If you do not get organic traffic, specifically the first page of results, then your website is missing out on customers. But you must be wondering as to how organic traffic comes. Well, that comes when customers search the web for a product or service using keywords. When a query that is related to your line of business is generated on the web, automatically a search engine will trawl through the thousands of websites that have those keywords and throw up results that are very close to the key words typed in as part of the query.
When such results are thrown up by the search engine, it is important that your website is featured on top or on the first page. Customers usually make their choice on the websites that appear on the first page. They seldom scroll down. Studies have shown that around 25% of all traffic goes to the first result on a Google search results page. The higher you get featured in the results, the more traffic you get. SEO is the key to help your website appear on top. A good SEO strategy has three key elements; technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.
Types of SEO
Technical SEO plays a vital role as it refers to the nuts and bolts of your website. If your website has some of the nuts and bolts missing, a search engine will not be able to find it in the wide ocean of other websites. Automatically it will not show up in the first instance. Technical SEO includes site speed, using secure HTTPS encryption, and mobile-friendliness. These features will give ample hint to Google that your site will be a good and safe experience for users. On-page SEO refers to the things on a page on your website – like copy, metatags, and image tags. These ‘pegs’ would aid Google understand what a page is about. Off-page SEO refers to everything that is going on off your website — like social media, and, importantly, link building. Link building refers to another external website that links to your website.
Tips for Creating an SEO Strategy
For the best SEO strategy, all the three SEO types are a must. Here are six simple and easy to implement tips to ensure you don’t miss out on any of them:
1. Technical SEO is a must
Technical SEO is obviously the starting point. Despite this, many websites overlook this and focus on on-page and off-page SEO. Many website owners just refuse to believe when they are told that they have technical issues to address. It is basic that a technical aspect should be part of your website and there are times when it can be improved upon. The way to go about is to use a technical SEO checklist to help you find all the potential issues at your hand that need to be addressed. When you have found them, add them into your strategy. Once done, fix deadlines to fix the changes and when they would be implemented.
2. Do a thorough research on keywords
You should do some deep research into keywords that are needed as these would form the core of any SEO strategy. Do not use fanciful words. When people search for Sachin Tendulkar, they would type in his name, not Masterblaster; Rahul Dravid is just that, not The Wall; Big B may be popular way to refer to Amitabh Bachchan, but people would type on his name to do a search, not Big B. Doing research would help you understand the keywords that would push your website up the ranking. Look out for the ones you are missing. Your SEO strategy should include a complete list of keywords you’re ranking for and what ranking positions you’re in for those keywords. Your SEO strategy should also include a list of new keyword ideas that are not in your basket. Coming up with new keyword ideas is not difficult, it can be done through suggested keywords. You can find these using keyword research tools. Another tip is that you can look at keywords your competitors are ranking for.
3. Break your keywords list to choose the performers
Once you have the list of keywords and ranking positions, you need to break it down further. Some keywords do better than the others. Hence, split your keywords and cherry-pick the ones you’re doing well on (within the top 3 results). Then look out for striking distance keywords (on the first page of results). After that look at keywords that are probably pushing your website rankings low (on the second page or not popping up on the ranking list at all).
This strategy will help you on how best you can optimize your SEO efforts. For keywords you’re not ranking for, create an altogether new landing page or, probably, even a blog. For striking distance keywords, try tweaking on-page optimization by adding the keyword to header tags. The keywords that are helping you in the ranking should be used for off-page SEO activity like link building.
4. Link building will help Google to push your website up
This is a very important aspect. Google does not reveal their ranking algorithm completely, but they have hinted that links are an important ranking factor. Hence your SEO strategy should include a link building strategy. You can make a list of websites you can work with to create great, relevant content that links back to your site. This can be done by using link research tools, as well as by looking at who links to your competitors.
5. SEO and Social Media
Social media may not have a direct impact on your rankings, but do not tick it out. Good and healthy social media usage will increase your online visibility and help push traffic to your site. Remember that the content strategy within your SEO strategy should be cohesive with your social media strategy. This will give a wholesomeness and you’re your digital marketing strategy more comprehensive. Social media influencers too can play a major role when they mention you or your link.
6. Always remember to use the right tools
To reiterate, SEO tools form an important part of your SEO strategy. Using the right tools can help you conduct better keyword research, find better link building opportunities, and analyze your SEO efforts better. There is no need to fret about this as there are incredible SEO tools available. Free tools like Google Analytics, Adwords, and Search The console should be used. Also consider paid SEO tools if you want to scale up your SEO strategy to the next level.
Stay Competitive
You may feel that once you have created an SEO strategy your website would take off. Yes, but you should ideally have a quarterly SEO strategy that is in sync with your changing business needs and goals for the best results.