Perhaps you have been tasked with creating an SEO strategy for your business, but you are new to SEO and don’t know where to begin.

Undertaking your first SEO strategy can seem daunting and complicated at first. But, when you use the right resources, businesses of any size can see the growth they are looking for. Today’s blog looks at ten things you need

First, you need to acknowledge how vital SEO is for your business. 

Did you know that organic searches and local listings (such as Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp etc.) make up the majority of clicks on Google?

It is SEO that gets businesses ranking at the top for both.

Understanding how SEO works for your business will help you incorporate your wider business strategy in the right places.

Secondly, and no different to any other marketing channel, you must know your audience! Why? Because a successful SEO campaign begins with understanding who you are as a company and the audience you’re explicitly marketing to.

Ways to understand your audience:

• Create buyer personas.
• Understand how your product benefits them.
• Define your value proposition.
• Use analytics (Google Analytics or other) to understand your traffic & demographics.
• Competitor Analysis – what are they doing well? Or not so well?
• Decide whether your focus is targeting a local, national or global audience.

Third, look at your business goals. Where do you want to be as a business over a certain period, i.e. in one month, six months, a year or five years from now?

Add business benchmarks to give yourself a clearer picture of why you need SEO and where it plugs in. As you have outlined your business goals, you now know what you’re working towards, and you’ll also be able to determine a budget for SEO, types of work and campaigns that will best help your business succeed.

Next, you need to focus on the website’s intent and how it drives you to the business goals you’ve created in step 3. For SEO campaigns to succeed, you need to clarify the purpose of your website.

Once you know your website’s purpose, you need to research relevant keywords. Ask yourself why the searcher is looking for your site. What is their intent? Are they trying to find a physical store, learn about something or purchase a product or service? 

There are four different kinds of search intent:

• Navigational.
• Informational.
• Research.
• Transactional.

If a customer is trying to find your store, you need to optimise your local presence, as growth in local search has increased massively since 2020.

Organisations with a local brick-and-mortar store and a storefront will need to work on various online directories:

• Google Map Pack & Maps integrations on your website.
• Google My Business and Bing Places Profiles
• Reviews Management – such as Trustpilot or TripAdvisor, for example
• Optimisation for proximity, relevance and prominence.
• Local Business Citations and Classified Business Listing submissions.

After you have determined your website’s intent, you need to fix any website issues and ensure that your site is responsive, especially for mobile. Even in this day and age, this technical SEO aspect is overlooked. Did you know one of the most prominent search terms for local businesses is “near me”, and guess what, someone has searched for it on their mobile whilst they’re out and about? You need to make sure your site is optimised for both desktop and mobile. If you aren’t code-savvy, then speak to your website developer to find and eliminate any website issues such as page speed.

Content is Key, and knowing the types of content that rank well for your business is essential. However, your content must reflect the intent of your website and what your users want.

You could consider creating content (time and resources dependent) that is Longer, perhaps an infographic or in-depth piece. 

There is also the possibility of repurposing content, is some content still relevant and needs updating facts and figures or adding content? – 

Focus content around your FAQs, content with direct answers can work well. Also, use video content and image carousels. Video content helps to engage the user and keeps them coming back. Take advantage of tools and widgets, which can add usability and function to your website. Think about how you can enhance and promote your product listings.

Create a backlink strategy, and improve your link building through the use of:

• Anchor text: What word in your content is your anchor for your link?
• Link content: Ensure your link is relevant to the content around it.
• Trustworthy links: Link only to secure websites with high trust scores.

Finally, more and more people are reading reviews before deciding to go with your product or service. Therefore, the more reviews your business gets, the higher your ranking will be, so reach out to past or current customers for reviews – good or bad, they all count!

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