Having an SEO strategy is important because it helps you stay on track when creating content. Instead of just creating what you think people are looking for, your strategy will ensure that you’re creating content that people are searching for.
For content marketing, an SEO strategy is a critical piece of the puzzle because it is how your content will come to be seen in the first place, especially in search engine result pages (SERPs). If your content is scattered and unorganized, search engine bots will have a harder time indexing your site, identifying your area of authority, and ranking your site pages.
While the best practices for SEO can vary widely depending on the type of local company you are and what industry you operate within, there are some core aspects to keep in mind:
- Having a properly built website that is functional, user-friendly, and without any errors. This means you’ll need a site that’s up to date, with relevant business info, a functional contact form, and no broken links or half-finished pages. Your site should be neat, clean and presentable both to the end user and the search engines.
- Knowing who you target audience is. The more you understand your audience, the easier it is to know what they want or need. You can then optimize your site’s content and character to cater to those needs. In return – and if done properly – you’ll reap the rewards of more leads, more walk-ins, and ultimately, more profits. Knowing your audience and providing relevant and informative content to them is not only helpful for the consumer, it also tells the search engines what your business is about. The better the content, consistency and presentation, the better success you’ll have with your search engine rankings.
- Consistency is key, and something that often gets overlooked when doing SEO at a local level. First, it’s important that you’re using the proper search terms. Ensuring that your keywords and phrases are representative of your product or service, and also align with your geographic location is a key factor. But consistency is about more than just search terms. It’s about having the same information across the board – your address, hours, phone number, and other information should be exact on google business, your website, your social media accounts, and local business directories.
- Continually adding new content is another key factor. When performing SEO for your local company, there’s only so much that can be done on your website. If you’re a salon owner, a landscaper, or a graphic design business, there’s a limit to how much information you can put on your website without being redundant or including irrelevant content
- Most local business websites have about 6 to 12 pages and don’t need much more. once these pages are properly optimized, the next best thing to do is to continually produce content with a blog. With a blog, you can write about subjects, products, situations, questions, and anything that’s relevant to your field of expertise. Since your blog is ideally connected to your website, all that extra content will help you become an authority on your subject matter. If done correctly, search engines will recognize this and reward you with a higher level of authority for your geographical area, resulting in high rankings within their search result pages.
- Off site optimization and SEO is another great way to excel at seo as a local company. By creating content that can be posted to other sites, you’ll gain more notoriety and wider exposure. A press release published to a local newspaper, or an interesting and informative story about your business on the local chamber of commerce website can work wonders for your rankings.
- When a search engine sees that you’re receiving traffic from highly reputable sources such as local media outlets or government organizations, they’ll use that information as a vote of trust and you’ll be ranked accordingly. Maybe there’s a blogger in your town who specializes in writing about small business? Or a food critic from a big city whose blog has a 100k+ readership? Getting a good article or an A+ review from them can really boost interest in your business. Not only is this great for phone calls and walk-ins, but the web traffic and ranking leverage you’ll receive from a high-quality link is priceless.
- Local reviews are another excellent aspect of SEO that are becoming more important. Having good rankings and a generous amount of reviews on Google, Yelp, Trip Advisor and similar sites is something that major search engines have been factoring into their algorithms more and more over recent years.
- Stay up-to-date on SEO news and best practices. Just like marketing, the search engine landscape is ever-evolving. Staying on top of current trends and best practices is an important strategy, and there are multiple online resources that can help you do so. Here are a few resources to check out:
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Table of Contents
SEO Monthly Plan
- Devote time to keyword research related to your industry.
- List blog post ideas that leverage opportunistic keywords.
- Identify blog posts that can be updated or refreshed.
- Identify other SEO opportunities, such as holidays.
- List content ideas in a Search Insights Report.
- Assign content to your team.
- Track progress at the end of each month.
SEO Process
Once you’ve created your SEO strategy, you should also build a process to continue optimizing for new keywords and evolving search intent. Here are a few steps you can take.
1. Historically optimize your content.
Devote some time each month to updating old blog posts with new and up-to-date information to continue ranking in SERPs. You can also use this time to add any SEO best-practices that weren’t initially addressed, like missing image alt text.
2. Look out for changing keywords and new search intent.
After a few months, track how your blog posts are ranking, and which keywords they’re ranking for. This can help you adjust subheadings and copy to leverage new search intent that your audience may be interested in.
3. Add more editorial value to your old content.
Sometimes, you’ll find that a post is completely out of date. In this scenario, you should go beyond the average historical SEO update and give it a full refresh. You can do this by updating out of date information and statistics, incorporating new sections for added depth, and adding quotes or original data to give the post more referral traffic.
4. Create a monthly content plan.
To keep up with your SEO strategy, it can be helpful to create and refine a monthly content plan. You can place it into a spreadsheet, and your teams can track accordingly. The list below is an example of a content monthly content plan that takes the above steps into account.
With a monthly SEO plan like the one above, plus a tracking document like a search insights report, you can build out and execute on an efficient SEO strategy. You can also identify and leverage low-hanging-fruit topics to discuss related to your industry.
Create A Strategy That Supports Your Business Goals
Ranking in search pages can be difficult. While it may seem enticing to create content that is centered around high-traffic keywords, that strategy may not help you meet your business goals.
Instead, opt to create an SEO strategy that helps you address your individual business needs, like increasing customer acquisition, for greater marketing success. To learn more about SEO, check out our Ultimate Guide to SEO.
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