Conducting a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign is one of the surest ways for your business to build its web presence and reach the first page of Google. Effective SEO campaigns can perform many different functions, including improving the utility of your content (search task accomplishment), improving your website’s functional performance (rendering, page speed, etc.), and increasing your digital visibility.
With an effective SEO campaign strategy, small businesses can outrank their much larger competitors, helping them establish a measurable competitive advantage. Though the best SEO marketing strategies will take weeks or even months to fully come to fruition, these strategies have helped countless businesses of all varieties achieve their broader marketing goals.
A recent survey revealed that 44 percent of businesses spend time and resources on search engine optimization. However, with growing portions of the economy shifting either partially or entirely into the digital sphere, effective digital marketing strategies have become even more important than before. Failing to engage in a productive SEO campaign will invariably cause your business to lose digital real estate to your competitors.
If this is your first time engaging in any sort of digital marketing, you might be wondering where to begin. Fortunately, by taking just a few initial steps, you can position your business for long-term success. In this blog, we discuss how to prepare for an upcoming SEO campaign and what your business needs to keep its digital progress sustained over time.
Defining Your Business
Without clearly defining your business, it will be impossible to know which keywords, phrases, and types of content your business will need to pursue. Knowing who you are as a business—and being able to clearly communicate this with your SEO partner—will help make it much easier for your business to actually improve your web presence.
Developing a strong brand identity and a general business origin story will help give the campaign some initial purpose and direction. These components of your business will be identified and discussed at length during the onboarding portion of your campaign, helping to ensure that all parties are on the same page and ready to move forward.
Establishing a Website
Your website will also need to be developed for your SEO campaign because, in many ways, your website will be the piece of your digital footprint tying all other components together. Your website will be directly connected to all social media pages, to articles and guest posts, to your business’ communications, and to most other things your business does online.
If you do not currently have a website, your SEO team can help you get started. To begin with, your site will need a standard home page, an about us page, a products page, and a contact page. Eventually, you will want to develop your site further, including things such as staff bios, blog posts, and reposting media content. Start by working with a basic website template; as time goes on and your business continues to grow, your website should also continue to grow with it.
Hiring an SEO Partner
For many business owners, Search Engine Optimization can be overwhelming. Even if you are a good writer or are familiar with web development, upkeep ofyour digital presence is something that requires a constant, coordinated, and dedicated effort. Rather than taking time away from your business to focus on your digital marketing efforts, your business would likely be much better off leaving your SEO and other digital marketing campaigns to outsourced professionals.
There are many benefits to choosing to partner with a digital marketing agency. In addition to being able to fully audit your site and identify opportunities for improvement, your team will also be able to continually generate whatever digital content you might need. Blogs, guest posts, social media posts, and press releases can all be carefully coordinated to reinforce one another and rank for identified keywords. Most companies are able to see initial results within a matter of weeks, with results continuing to accumulate over time.
Local SEO
Recognizing the local elements of search engine optimization will help your business significantly increase its exposure to people in your area. To ensure that your local SEO campaign is ready to get off the ground and running, your business should begin by coming up with a basic description (citation), a longer description, and also coordinate the universal elements of your brand. This can include your logo, your company slogan (or key phrases), your preferred fonts and color schemes, and more. As suggested, these details can all be discussed and finalized during the onboarding process.
Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
In order to know whether your SEO campaign was successful, you will first need to come up with some method of measuring the campaign’s performance. Choosing a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will orient your campaign and help you know when it might be time to make adjustments.
In terms of web performance, there are many KPIs that are connected to things your business can directly control. Page speed, for example, is directly dictated by the various technical components on your site (image size, framing, etc.). There will also be KPIs that measure things you indirectly control, such as the bounce rate, the click-through rate, total web traffic, and more. Understanding the relationships between these essential indicators can significantly improve your overarching web strategy.
Developing SEO Campaign Goals
Once you have chosen the KPIs that are most appropriate for your campaign, you will then need to set specific goals. Suppose one of the KPIs you are using is organic web traffic (which will be relevant for pretty much every SEO campaign). You’ll need to decide the web traffic your business reasonably believes it can generate and then make changes accordingly.
Developing goals can be challenging. Balancing realistic expectations with your desire to improve can make it difficult to find your perfect “sweet spot.” In some cases, using the “SMART Goal” model might be beneficial. This involves selecting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
Conclusion
Beginning an SEO campaign might be one of the smartest things you can potentially do for your business. SEO campaigns offer myriad benefits, increase your business’ visibility, and its ability to convert prospective leads into eventual sales. But before you formally start your campaign, your business probably wants to get a few basic things in order. By working with your SEO partner, defining your business, and clearly setting your goals, your search engine optimization efforts will be incredibly fruitful.
