An SEO strategy is integral to the success of any website’s overall marketing campaign, but it’s important to know that when it comes to search engine optimization one size does not fit all.
Different tactics work better on different sites, depending on the quality of content, and the niche of your site, among other factors.
Whether you’re just starting out with your first eCommerce site or you are looking to do more to grow your business, I’ve put together eight important things to consider when creating an effective SEO strategy.
1. Determine your goal
Before you can develop a concrete SEO strategy, you need to figure out what your goal is for your website.
Are you trying to drive traffic?
Do you want organic rankings in search engines?
Or are you simply looking for greater brand recognition and customer loyalty?
Identifying your main objectives will help guide all of your decisions going forward.
2. Examine all of your website’s pages
The first factor you need to look at when creating your SEO strategy is how many pages you have on your website.
If you run a small-to-medium-sized business and you have too few pages, search engines (and potential customers) may struggle to find what they’re looking for.
On the other hand, if you have too many pages, it may be hard for them to have a cohesive user experience and quickly find what they’re looking for.
The best bet is to find a middle ground of anywhere from 10 to 30 unique pages of content.
That said, there are always exceptions – if you run a business that sells two products or services that are totally unrelated to each other, and then having 50+ different pages of content isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as those pages all contain relevant information.
3. Keyword Research
The keywords you choose can make or break your SEO strategy, so spend time identifying the keywords that your target audience is searching for and then ensure that your website content includes these keywords in a natural way.
If you choose a generic keyword (i.e., new car), its unlikely anyone searching for that term will find your page—and if they do, what are they going to get? A new car?
Give people something more specific that solves their problem—then link out to other pages on your site for additional information.
4. Are you doing content marketing?
A content marketing strategy ensures that you are creating high-quality, targeted content. The content should be original and should provide value for your target audience.
You can do content marketing in many different ways, including through blogs, guest posts on other people’s blogs, social media, and more.
Creating quality content is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. It is the foundation upon which all other marketing efforts are built and without it, your chances of success are slim.
5. Determine if you need external or internal links
Do you want to link to other sites or other pages on your own site? While external links are generally more valuable than internal links, they might not be appropriate for every page.
Keep in mind that some page types (such as product pages) don’t have much value outside of their unique content. If it’s important that a page rank, consider finding ways to increase its internal authority.
6. Analyze Competitors’ SEO Strategies
Take a look at what your competitors are doing by using a few different tools (like SEMrush or Ahrefs) to crawl through your competitors’ backlinks, content, and any other pages related to their site.
This will give you a good idea of what kind of SEO strategy they’re using—and where there’s room for improvement and create links through local citations.
The more you know about what your competitors are doing and aren’t doing, the easier it will be for you to create a strategy that works specifically for your website.
7. Take a look at your Google Analytics
The best way to figure out if your website is really optimized for search engines is by using Google’s own testing tool. It takes just a minute or two and reveals a ton of information about how Google sees your site.
You can also see which keywords are ranking, which aren’t, and where you can improve your SEO efforts.
8) Test, test, test!
While it’s best not to jump right into optimization, it’s important that you start testing once you have a website. It’s one thing to create a website that showcases your brand; it’s another to create a website that actually converts traffic into customers.
To do so, you need insight into what works and what doesn’t—and whether you can even rank in certain search engines at all. The only way to get that information is through testing and research.
Finally,
Your ultimate goal is to rank well on Google, which means it’s important that your strategy always take the search engine’s preferences into account.
Above all else, focus on creating a remarkable website for users and you’ll be rewarded with valuable traffic and increased online visibility.
If you have any questions or comments about creating an SEO strategy, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I’m more than happy to help.
