At present, many businesses know the basic components of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and its importance. However, when it comes to creating and executing a sound SEO plan, most businesses don't know the starting point. Thus, take help of these five steps to cover all of your SEO bases.
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. And choosing the right set of keywords can make or break your SEO plan.
The first step for creating a working SEO plan is to compile a list of around 10 keywords relevant to your product or services. Add these keywords into Google's Keyword Planner and look for variations that could be result-driving for your business.
Further, using competition and search volume as your measure, narrow down the list of vital keywords you would like to rank for. This way, you can ensure that you stay with keyword research mode and evolve your keyword list as per the industry and search trends.
Significantly, SEO is all about ranking well in search engines to increase web traffic. But that also won't mean much if you are showing up in front of a wrong audience. Thus, it's vital to know your audience first and understand them; demographics, search patterns and preferences, geographic location, etc. And the best way to know these things is to dive into your Google Analytics Account.
Start Blogging if you haven't yet. This is the most incredible way to rank your keywords and engage your users. In fact, every blog post is a latest web page addition to your website that provides you with a chance to rank in SERP.
Do remember that even if you're starting blogs to rank in search engines, you cannot discredit the audience. Make sure you blog once in a week and blog for your audience. Do include relevant keywords, and write about things your audience look for.
Link-building should be the primary objective of off-page SEO. In fact, link building is one of the biggest ranking factors. You need to dedicate some time and brainstorm various ways to attract inbound links to your site.
Start with small- share your links with local businesses in return of links to their sites. Added, consider guest blogging opportunities so that you can link back to your site.
Another effective way is to blog about articles related to current events and news. This way you can get linked to an industry influencer, which is a great way to earn some quality links.
As we know SEO is a time-taking process which asks for a lot of effort. Then what's good in spending all your time and effort if you can't experience business growth. There are numerous metrics you can track to keep your SEO plan streamlined. Make a monthly dashboard in Excel or use a web analytics package to monitor how much traffic is coming to your site from organic searches.
In addition, monitoring indexed pages, ROI, leads, inbound links, keywords and keyword ranking on SERPs can help you taste success.
You don't have to do anything to get higher search rankings. Just stick to these 5 step SEO plan and monitor them for a month. Eventually, you would be recommending this plan to your friends who are in this digital space with the same objective. You can start with one or two steps initially. Later, if you find them beneficial, implement others as well.