Connect with your audience by covering the topics they care about the most.
Plan out a network of interlinked blogs that answer related questions and help each
other rank.
Write and publish content that helps people, and watch your rankings go up!
Find topics and outlines catered to your business.
A robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is a necessity for any marketing team that’s worth their salt. After all, there are 3.5 billion Google searches made every day (see today’s volume at Internet Live Stats), and an SEO strategy is what gets your business to show up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Yet, even with so many daily searches, an astonishing 90% of web pages get zero traffic. That means no readers, no leads, and no conversions. So what can your team do to ensure that your web page reaches your audience and attracts customers? It all starts with a plan.
In this blog, you’ll find what you need to create a comprehensive SEO plan. To take the guesswork out of your strategy, we’ll provide answers to pressing questions, including:
Let’s get to it!
SEO is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy because it capitalizes on an extremely common activity—looking things up online. When thinking about how SEO fits into your digital marketing plan, consider both the results this method can achieve and what role it fits within your overall strategy. Here’s how you can frame the discussion for your SEO strategy in 2023 and beyond:
The higher your website ranks, the more people will see it, read what you have to say, and take the actions you want them to take.
To get the most out of your SEO plan, this method needs to connect to your other digital marketing initiatives. For example, you can further improve your reach by:
SEO can form an enduring pillar to support your digital marketing strategy. In fact, we like to refer to organic SEO content as one of the few appreciating assets in marketing. The more content you create, link together, and maintain, the more successful your strategy will be as time goes on.
Pillar-Based Marketing (PBM) is a new—yet proven—example of how effective SEO is as a digital marketing strategy. This type of SEO plan focuses on creating clusters of content that cover related topics, also known as Pillars. These Pillars are “propped up” by Sub-Pillars and Supporting Blogs, which dive deeper into topics introduced in the Pillar. Here’s how an overview of this plan looks:
To see PBM in action, check out the Pillar network we wrote about it!
When making your SEO plan, it’s important to account for the four main types of SEO, which are:
Let's take a closer look at each of these types of SEO and what you can do to leverage them.
On-page SEO refers to the customer-facing content on your website that impacts how high (or low) your site ranks on SERPs. This includes content such as your blog posts, product descriptions, and your “about us” page. To improve your on-page SEO, write content that is clear, concise, and provides solutions to commonly searched questions. Avoid outdated SEO “shortcuts” like keyword stuffing (using the same keywords over and over again to the point where it makes your website harder to read) and reusing content instead of producing fresh writing.
Off-page SEO is what happens away from your website that still affects its rankings. This type of “SEO juice” can come from sources that you control (like social media and digital ads) or sources that you have less control over (like content on other businesses’ websites that links back to your site). To improve your off-page SEO, stay active on social media platforms that your target audience uses and promote new content and products with well-placed ads to drive traffic quickly. When finding ways to acquire more backlinks, avoid link farms, which are sites that accept payment to link to your site. Although this may seem like a good idea, search engines like Google punish this method of trying to game the system.
Technical SEO is how the mechanics of your website affect its rankings. This includes things like your site’s loading speed and ease of navigation. To improve your technical SEO, quicken loading speeds by compressing images, condensing code, and reducing the amount of redirection pages. You can also ensure that each of your webpages are clearly labeled, so both people and web crawlers can easily find their way around. One common trap to avoid in technical SEO is assuming that all of your links still work. Whenever you update your sitemap, you could interfere with how internal links function. Keep your links current to avoid frustrating error pages and lower SERP rankings.
Local SEO refers to how well your site ranks for searches focused on businesses “near me.” You can connect with searchers in your local area by including keywords with “near me” or “in [insert your location].” You should also set up a Google My Business page to ensure that you show up in Google Maps search results. When optimizing for local searches, it’s important to have reviews up on your Google My Business profile. However, avoid lashing out at negative reviews, as this will reflect poorly on your level of professionalism.
To give your website the best chance of success, follow best practices for on-page and off-page SEO as well as technical and local SEO.
To plan your SEO strategy, you need to identify which SEO methods you will use to boost rankings, and you need to create a process for carrying out that strategy. For example, you could choose Pillar-Based Marketing as your primary method for increasing rankings. To ensure that your Pillar content performs as best it can, you will also need to set deadlines, find writers, define a publishing process, promote your content, and assign team members to implement each step.
To get started, download our free SEO plan example! This SEO action plan template will help you layout topics for your Pillar, Sub-Pillar, and Supporting Blog content. You’ll also have space to enter drafting and publishing deadlines as well as tracking promotions. For more on how to get the most out of your SEO plan, take the Strategist Pathway Course in DemandJump University, which comes included with every DemandJump account.
Whew…there’s a lot that goes into creating an SEO plan! Here are the essentials to guide your process:
Every business should be doing SEO, and with the right tools, you can see incredible results! DemandJump is an SEO content creation platform designed to make key parts of your SEO plan easier. Here’s how:
You can do SEO on your own, and you should! Don’t wait another day to start climbing SERP rankings.
