Search Engine Optimization is an excellent way of making your business valuable, searchable, and discoverable by target audiences. With an effective SEO strategy, you can rank higher in search results.
Users are more likely to visit a website that appears on the first page of Google’s search results- those listed on second or other pages experience little to no traffic.
However, SEO is more than a simple search element. Instead, it’s a complex strategy that optimizes your website and sets you up for success. Here we discuss how you can create your SEO strategy:
Step by Step Guide to Creating an SEO Strategy for Small Businesses
Here’s a comprehensive guide to creating the ideal SEO strategy:
Brainstorm Keywords
Keyword research and brainstorming is the first step of any effective SEO strategy. Optimizing your content for relevant keywords gives your website an upper hand.
So, when users conduct product research seeking relevant services/items, your website will also appear in search results. Identifying the right keywords is an excellent way of ensuring your site ranks higher in Google’s search engine.
An incredible yet straightforward way of finding keywords is by using free keyword tools like Google Ads, SEMRush, MOZ, and more. Ensure that you study each keyword’s competition and search volume to understand its value and relevance before adding it to your list.
Once done, focus on long-tail keywords containing three or more words. These keywords attract qualified traffic and increase click-through rates. For instance, if someone searches for ‘coffee,’ they could be surfing for various chocolate-related things, from drinks to cakes.
Once you pinpoint relevant terms, integrate them throughout your website:
- Titles
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Body text
- Links
- Image alt text
Determine Your Goals and KPIs
Setting goals and KPIs is at the core of creating an effective SEO strategy. To curate a plan, you need to determine where you want to end up and what you want to achieve. It also allows you to measure your success and track your progress.
People often use goals and KPIs interchangeably; however, marketers need to set both to create a killer SEO marketing strategy:
- Goals- Your desired end outcome
- KPIs- Metrics that help you determine your progress towards your goals
Create Quality Content
Part of creating an SEO strategy is creating captivating content. Why? Content creation helps you rank better in search results; you won’t rank in any search results without any content.
To drive traffic and improve brand awareness, create compelling and informative content for your audience. You can provide content through various channels, including:
- Blog posts
- Educational yet exciting articles
- Webinars
- eBooks
- Guides and how-to posts
- Web content
You may even use engaging videos and attention-grabbing infographics to enhance the user experience.
Research reveals that internet video traffic is likely to account for 80% of all buyer’s traffic. Another study shows that pages with videos can boost conversions by a staggering 80%!
Set Up a Blog
According to insightful research, the average business that updates its blogs enjoys 55% more traffic. In addition, brands that blog receive 97% linkbacks.
Case in point: Blogging is an incredible way of optimizing your website and engaging users. The fact is that every new blog is a unique opportunity to rank in Google’s search engine results.
If your company doesn’t have a blog yet, get started today. While writing your blogs, keep the following tips in your mind:
- Use long-tail keywords no more than three to four times throughout your article. Google acknowledges too many keywords as a red flag
- Once you’re ready to publish your article, add links to the page
- After posting your blog, add it to the parent blog page
Focus on On-Site Optimization
Your website comprises the most important elements for search engine optimization. Here’s a quick rundown of the on-site optimization elements you should focus on:
Title Tag
Your title tag tells search engines about your page content in 70 characters or less. You have to integrate your business name and relevant keywords within these lines.
Meta Description
Your meta description tells Google’s search engine more about your website content. Create your meta description with your target audience in mind and include your primary keyword.
Internal Links
Create a practical link-building map by integrating inbound and outbound links within your web pages. Ensure you link to reliable and trustworthy sources.
Improve Your Site’s Load Time
Page load times affect both your first impression and search engine ranking.
As your business expands, you’ll add more content and pages to your website- you’ll also want to ensure your site’s load time doesn’t slow down. Typically, slow-loading websites experience lower search engine ranking and higher bounce rates.
According to research, one in every four visitors abandons a page that takes longer than four seconds to load. In addition, up to 46% of buyers don’t revisit websites that perform poorly.
Boost your site’s load time to avoid missing out on potential customers and deliver a positive user experience. Here’s how you can achieve this:
- Reduce redirects
- Compress image file sizes
- Enable browser caching
- Leveraging a Content Distribution Network
Master Off-Page SEO
Links are one of Google’s top three ranking factors, and often marketers find it impossible to rank high without a robust link-building strategy.
Thus, if you want to garner substantial growth and hit your goals, focus on creating a solid link-building plan. While there are various ways of earning backlinks, the most effective ones include:
- Digital PR
- Broken link building
- Creating link bait and promoting it with outreach
- The skyscraper technique
You may even leverage link-building tools like SEMRush Link Building Tool, Ninja Outreach, or Moz.
The Bottom Line
An SEO strategy helps you foster credibility and trust with your target audience and boost brand exposure. But creating an SEO strategy can be a time-consuming and complex task.
To help you out, our industry leaders at Firestarter SEO leverage the best practices and tactics to boost engagement and drive traffic.
Sources
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-strategy
https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-strategy/#header5
https://backlinko.com/seo-strategy#create-a-list-of-keywords
https://neilpatel.com/blog/simple-guide-to-seo/?lang_geo=pk
https://www.webfx.com/blog/seo/seo-steps-to-build-your-strategy/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/09/15/small-business-seo-services
