The internet is awash with amazingly detailed guides for creating an SEO strategy to match the SEO trends of the moment. My hat is off to those sites.
This is not one of those guides.
I’m an SEO strategist who prides herself on being fluff-free and getting shit done.
This is why I’m about to give you only the briefest theoretical overview of an SEO plan and its benefits.
Because what I really want to do is walk you through an actual sample SEO strategy. Why?
So that in the time it takes you to get to the end of this article you’ll have a workable SEO plan written up and ready to go.
Ready? Let’s do this.
A quick outline of modern SEO strategy and how it shapes content marketing
The goal of an SEO strategy hasn’t changed since the early 2000s, when SEO became ‘a thing.’
A strategy’s job is to define how organic traffic (aka curious humans) is driven to a website and to convert that traffic into contented customers.
It describes how you plan, create, organize, and distribute content to make this happen.
What has changed over the years are the ways search engines rank, return, and reward sites.
As a result, the way you build your strategy to gain organic traffic has also changed.
A modern SEO strategy is human-centered
A search engine’s intention has always been to reward a human-first approach.
However, thanks to algorithms and advancements in ranking signals, its ability to rank sites that do this well has improved.
Consequently, it’s imperative for businesses and creators to put people first.
High-quality content marketing is the key to achieving this.
The underlying message at the heart of any strong SEO strategy is this.
As small business owners, we are here to serve our audience.
So, a strategy that will hold your target audience’s attention, and impress the search engines puts customer’s needs front and center.
In short, it’s a strategy built on blogs, emails, podcasts, videos, social posts, and ads that answer questions, soothe pain points, and fulfill desires.
So that’s what we’re going to create right now.
[Box out] What a solid SEO strategy does for your business
- Saves you time because you’re not second-guessing what content is worth your energy and budget.
- Helps you better understand your SEO competitors and how to outrank them.
- Attracts the right traffic to your site so your visitors are more likely to convert.
- Helps you understand your audience and know where they’re hanging out. [End box out]
Let’s get your SEO strategy written. Download this example
Now you’ve downloaded the example SEO plan I’ll walk you through it step by step.
You’ll see that there’s already some sample text provided.
About the sample strategy
It’s been written from the perspective of a coaching service business. If this is you, you’re in luck. You may not have to do any (or much) work at all. For everyone else, I’ll explain each pillar so you end up with a business-specific strategy.
- There are 3 pillars in the SEO plan: describe, distribute, and decide.
- You might not have an answer for every section in each pillar. That’s OK.
- Each pillar builds on the last, so try to work through them left to right. This will help you identify any gaps you may want to think more about or dig into further.
Pillar 1: Describe
Let’s get clear on the SEO-driven outcomes you want the strategy to achieve and the audience you’re trying to reach.
Goals
What are your objectives?
Be very focused here. Pick a couple of goals for this particular SEO strategy. Any more than 2 can feel overwhelming.
Your goal might be finance-based, so you want your website to contribute a specific dollar amount to your bottom line each month.
Or it might be lead-driven—you need to create a certain number of new client leads each week, month, or quarter.
Link your SEO goals to your business’ overarching goal.
What do you want visitors to think, feel, and do?
First impression. What initial impact do you want your website to make on a person? What impression will they have of your business?
Deeper dive. As someone explores your site, how should they feel as they read? Excited? Confident? Reassured? You can aim for multiple reactions.
NOTE: Nailing this bit down helps when we discuss tone in the next pillar.
Action. What do you want people to do? Link this action to your main objective for this SEO plan. You might want people to email you, sign up for something, download a thing, set up a meeting, or even phone you.
What are your audience’s primary needs?
Have you ever thought about your audience’s main pain points? If not, now is the time. Identify what’s driven them to search for a business such as yours in the first place.
Audience
Who is your target audience?
Picture your ideal client. Perhaps you’ve worked with them already? Write a description. Identify their aspirations, goals, motivations, fears, and frustrations.
This is a useful exercise, but it’s easy to overthink it and drown in detail. In my experience, overworking your audience personas can zap a lot of a business owner’s time. I also believe that for most small, single-owned businesses you’re actually marketing to someone who is just like you.
Messages
What primary messages do you want to tell your audience about?
In the document there’s space for 5 core messages. You don’t have to have that many.
Perhaps this SEO strategy can realize its primary goal if your audience walks away with just one or two core messages.
Pillar 2: Distribute
Now build on the information you’ve just provided.
Focus on your content topics, the media you’ll create, where you’ll publish your content, and how the work will be promoted.
Substance
What details or topics will your content reflect so it aligns with your goal, audience, and messages?
Your answer to the above question helps you decide what you’ll write or talk about that’s useful to your audience and fulfills your goal.
Start with the sticking points potential clients face when they find, interact, or use the products and services in your business.
This could be price, or processes (how they work with you).
It may be what they expect will change or improve as a result of engaging with your business.
Here we’re figuring out ways to alleviate the pain points you identified earlier.
Distribution channels
Once you’ve created your content how are you going to share it with the world?
I have a whole other article about choosing your channels for content distribution, but here’s the short version.
Finding the right channels means showing up where your target audience will be looking for the answers you can provide.
This might be one social media platform over another, it might be podcasting, or it might be email marketing.
It could even be through offline advertising.
Style
Writing tone
Tone of voice and brand voice falls under copywriting, and it involves summarizing how your business’ voice should sound: upbeat, playful, straight-talking, rebellious—there are a lot of choices.
Aim for a tone that reflects your brand, values, and the essence of your products and services.
If you’ve not given tone of voice a second thought, first know that you’re not alone.
But then go and check out resources by Felicity Wild’s Brand Language Lab.
Visual tone
How will your designed assets (logo, images etc.) look and feel? Will you use stock images or original images? And what sort of color palette will you have?
Top tip: When it comes to SEO, authentic images will generally outperform stock images as a source of fresh, genuine, trustworthy insight into you and your business.
Promotion
How will you boost your content’s visibility?
This may largely depend on:
- the size of your network
- your marketing budget
- your PR experience
- available time.
You can boost the reach of your content through a paid advertising campaign.
You can also get it cross-posted, by encouraging anyone you’ve featured (linked to or mentioned) or like-minded businesses to republish it.
You might even pitch the core idea of your content as an episode for a podcast.
My advice with promo is to experiment. Try a couple of methods at a time to see what gets you the most traction.
And what works one time might not work the next.
This is where tracking your efforts helps you to make informed decisions about your content’s best promotional options
Cadence
Once you’ve decided on your distribution channels, figure out how many times a week, month, or quarter you’ll show up there.
Pillar 3: Decide
The first 2 pillars give you focus and direction.
The third pillar takes care of the practicalities involved in activating your SEO plan.
Decisions need to be made. Now is the time to make them.
Governance
What resources (team, money, time, tools) are needed to realistically manage this strategy?
My experience is that most solo-owned, service-based businesses need to find the budget and the time to sign up for online software and tools that will help them create and manage their content. (You can find a list of my faves here.) Make sure you include all these as resources when mapping out your strategy.
NOTE: It’s OK if you’re not exactly sure what you’ll need. Sometimes the resources required only become apparent as you start putting the SEO strategy into practice.
Measurement
What to measure—how effectively do your calls to action prompt people to do what you want them to do?
How to measure it—which metrics can help you measure goals over time?
Answering the questions above will help you decide what you’ll track in Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Congratulations! Your SEO strategy is complete
Piecing together an SEO strategy can feel a lot like navigating a maze.
Especially if it’s the first one you’ve ever written.
But once it’s in place and you start implementing it, optimizing your content will become second nature. Say ‘goodbye’ to second-guessing what content your business needs.
Stop wasting time and energy wondering why you’re creating content, and who you’re creating it for.
Still struggling with some bits?
No problem. There are more ways I can help you get this done and implemented in your business.
If you’re struggling with defining your SEO strategy goal, use my Smart SEO Planner to get more of the answers you’re looking for.
If the thought of putting the strategy to work is giving you the creeps then joining the Small Business Sweet Spot Community can deliver the support and accountability you need.
