Although old-fashioned marketing methods like print advertising still have their place, most businesses are finding that they get far more bang for their marketing buck by applying online marketing techniques. An SEO marketing strategy can pay off in a big way, but if you’re new to all of this, or even if you already have some idea of it, you may have a few questions. What is an SEO marketing strategy, and what should it consist of? Let’s get started!
What is SEO Marketing?
You may already know that search engine optimisation (SEO) encourages search engines to recognise the value and relevance of your content. When people search for businesses like yours, good SEO ensures that you get a higher ranking in search engine results and stand a better chance of being noticed.
Since SEO attracts attention and helps you to get more traffic to your website, you get more opportunities to make sales – and that’s just what marketing is all about. But just relying on blind luck or randomly selected techniques won’t get you very far. What you need is a clear and workable strategy so that you get the best results in exchange for your efforts.
What Does an SEO Marketing Strategy Consist Of?
Benchmarking and Competitor Analysis
Having decided that SEO marketing is what you need to get your business’s name out there, it’s time to start working on an SEO strategy. When strategising, your first two questions are “How am I doing now?” and “Where do I want to be?” Your strategy joins the dots between these two points. So, your first step is to benchmark your current SEO performance.
But, since you aren’t alone in wanting to make it to the top, you also need to check out the competition. A competitor analysis helps you to see what you’re up against and helps you to look for areas where you are most likely to achieve the kind of gains you’re hoping for.
Goals and KPIs
No strategy is complete without SMART goals. They’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. And, since all good SEO strategies should have measurable results, you can determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to watch to ensure you’re making the desired progress toward your goal. Not sure of what constitutes a realistic timeline? Dig deeper to see what needs to be done.
What You’ve Got and What You Need
There’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Supposing you already have content on your website, it’s time to perform an audit to see how it’s helping or harming your SEO marketing.
To round out the information you offer, and make it attractive to search engines, your next step is to develop topic clusters. That means deciding on the core topics you should feature, doing that all-important keyword research, and then outlining what pillar content you’ll need along with the cluster of supporting and complementary information you’ll link it to. Pillar content consists of the best and most complete information you can offer, and its surrounding cluster of related topics fits neatly into the picture in the form of internal links which all work to improve your search engine rankings.
Once you know how your content should fit together, you can see how your existing content fits into the picture, and you can plan for new content that will boost your search engine rankings.
Improving Your On-Page and Off-Page SEO and Fixing any Technical Issues
Before you developed a strategic focus on SEO marketing, you probably published your share of content. It can still contribute to your results, but it may need a bit of fixing. Optimising your on-page SEO takes a critical eye. For instance, the content should include certain words and phrases. It must be unique and highly readable. Apart from that, the URL should say what the content is about; your internal links should be helpful and relevant; and the choice of title tags should contribute to the overall impression.
Off-page SEO is less visible, but it’s still very important. It tells search engines what other people think about your content. For instance, if high-quality sites often link to your content for further reading, or if social media users frequently visit your website, search engines will assume that users will find your content worth checking out. If search engine algorithms deem it worth a closer look, you’ll see the results in your rising page rankings for specific search terms or “keywords.”
Finally, your website should be free of technical errors because search engines are looking for high-quality results. Anything that’s slow, buggy, or doesn’t work on all types of devices that people use when browsing will be downgraded.
Plan to Succeed
Supposing you have succeeded in identifying all the actions to be undertaken in order to get your SEO marketing just right, you’re ready to put together a workable plan. Your final steps are to determine who will be responsible for getting the work done, and by when it should be completed. You have a strategy!
At the same time, just having a plan and following it may not be quite enough. You will need to keep your finger on the pulse, adjusting your strategy when necessary. Your plan should therefore include review dates for checking your progress, evaluating your results, and making any necessary modifications to your SEO marketing strategy.
Finding Time and Applying Expertise
If all of this is leaving you gasping for breath at the thought of all the time and specialised expertise it requires, you aren’t alone! Unless your core speciality is SEO marketing, your business will be among the many to decide they need to outsource the development and execution of their SEO marketing strategy to SEO professionals – and you just found them.
At Yellowball, we find that SEO marketing is one of our most in-demand services. Business decision-makers are aware that learning curves can be costly, not only in terms of time and effort, but also in lost opportunities. So, if you’re eager to outrank your competitors and get the best possible results from SEO marketing, there’s no time like the present. Find out more about our SEO marketing services today and sharpen your competitive edge!
As one of the UK’s leading SEO agencies offering flexible 3-month SEO campaign packages starting from just £1,500/month, Yellowball are ready to help you drive more awareness, leads and sales for your website through SEO. Get in touch today.
