Steps to building the perfect SEO strategy for your business

SEO is a big part of your online business. It’s also a lot of work and definitely not something you can do without a plan in place. Having a plan to stick to means you can always keep track of your actions and results, revisit them to find what isn’t working, and address your mistakes.

But how do you wrap your head around all things SEO and know where to start?

We wouldn’t blame you for feeling overwhelmed. Here are some steps which will help shed light on the things you need to do to build a perfect SEO strategy for your business.

1. Creating a keyword list

The first step you need to take is having a pillar keyword list (these are the core terms that define your business) and a page-specific, secondary keywords list. Why? Because keywords are at the heart of SEO work.

Keywords are what inform search engines about the topics a page is addressing. So if you’re in the business of selling baby clothing, then using the keyword “summer baby clothing” is likely to pull your site up on Google search when consumers are looking for the latest line in summer wear for their little ones.

To find out what keywords to use and start building your lists, you’ll want to use platforms like Ahref, SEMrush, and Google Keyword tool.

2. Picking the right topics

Now you have your lists, you want to create content that people look for, so your pages get clicked on more often. But how do you go about it?

First, you need to have the right frame of mind – the mindset of answering questions and solving issues for your potential consumers.

Stats show that topics that solve problems (how-to) get the most clicks (77%), whereas listicles and news/trends attract 57% and 47% of clicks respectively.

Here are some ways you can keep generating meaningful topic ideas:

• Use keyword tools like SEMrush to search for content ideas.

• Use Google related searches.

• Visit industry-specific forums.

• Investigate online social media groups for questions and problem-solving.

3. Having a posting schedule that works

Posting quality content on your website is essential because search engines like Google value quality over quantity. And anyway, no one wants to be pushing rubbish content multiple times a day. What you want to do is map out a content strategy that works best for you while taking your workforce, time, and resources into consideration.

Ideally, you want to post new content at least once a week.

4. Having a link building plan that works

After creating your content, your on-page SEO efforts (keyword placement, content structure, and page setup) will go a long way to make your page rank higher and retain visitors when they click.

But link building (off-page SEO) is the other side of the SERP ranking coin. In fact, Google considers it the second most important ranking factor.

So, coming up with creative ideas to have top domains reference your pages with a link is crucial to your success.

5. Periodical site analysis and optimisation

Things change as your site lives on. There might be a new ranking factor, a broken link on your page, or your database could use some cleaning up.

Periodic SEO analysis and optimisation help you figure out what needs to be improved to boost your on-page, off-page, technical, and local SEO efforts.

So, how do you get started? Here’s a quick step-by-step to guide you through the process:

1. Visit SEMrush (or another similar site of your choice).

2. Click on “Site Audit”.

3. Type your domain address.

4. Click “Start audit”.

5. Study the data it generates.

6. Staying updated

As we mentioned earlier, there’s always something new happening in the SEO space that can affect your strategy. That’s why you want to keep yourself updated on trends and new practices so you don’t get left behind.

Here are a few places to start:

• Search engine land.

• Diggity marketing.

• Moz.

• And AdShare.

Creating a suitable and workable SEO strategy for your business is critical. We hope this blog post helps. For more useful tips on SEO and how to do it successfully, check out our blogs on SEO 101.