SEO is content marketing’s oldest and most adored darling. SEO is everywhere, and it seems to be a stable buzzword for marketers and business owners alike.
Brands and companies expect some thorough SEO work to be included in any marketing campaign, so much so that it is not even explicitly stated anymore. It just goes without saying. However, developing an SEO strategy for a new website can be a daunting task.
There is so much hype around SEO that you get panicked and nauseated even at the sound of it. But is SEO really all that jazz? And if so, how can you meet the rising expectations? You are not an SEO guru, so how can you possibly develop an SEO strategy?
Well, worry not because an SEO strategy is not that hard to do. And here are the basic steps you need to follow.
1. Know Your Keywords
Ok, so the first thing you need to do when you embark on the SEO journey is to know your keywords. If you don’t know what keywords your target market is using, how will you incorporate them into your website?
It would help if you researched what keywords your competitive businesses are using to attract their customers and take it from there. This requires a little research, but it is not that hard to do. You can start by putting yourself in your buyer’s shoes.
What are their problems, and how will your products or services help them solve these problems? Think of your buyer’s pain points and needs and try to verbalize these into simple keywords.
Suppose that you are selling organic and biological food products for children. Then your ideal target audience is young parents of infants and toddlers. Why would these parents choose organic food for their children? Is it because they are worried about their children’s health? Do the children have allergies? What about additives, preservatives, and other potentially harmful substances found in alternative non-biological products? Is sugar something that worries parents of already hyper-active and roaming toddlers? In this case, you can start searching these keywords and see what sites pop up. Take a note of the words that appear in the snippets and write them down. These are a clear indicator of the keywords that other businesses within your industry are using.
Another way is to use google’s predictive search to see what keywords relate to your products or services. So, for example, you can type “organic food for toddlers that…” and let google do the job for you.
Write down all these keywords and make sure that you use them interchangeably throughout your content.
2. Write Compelling Content
Finding the right keywords is the first step, but you cannot just throw them out there and expect to increase your traffic and have your website rank high in SERPs. Writing compelling content is crucial, and keywords aside, your readers are searching for websites that will answer their questions, ease their pain points and offer solutions to their problems.
Do not keyword stuff in the expectation to inflate your site’s ranking. Adding the same keywords over and over will make your content seem forced and unnatural, and it would harm your ranking instead of boosting it. (Google’s newest algorithms are focusing on search intent rather than pure SEO, and unnatural content will have no value to the reader, thus pushing the website further down the results page).
Content is king, but try not to overthrow your king and ruin all your painstaking efforts with too many closely packed keywords. Keep it simple, authentic, and natural. Nobody wants to read content that says, “Young children need organic food. If you are looking for the best organic food, your search is over. Why risk your children’s health with anything that is not organic food?” and so on. You get the picture.
3. Don’t Forget Your Website Page URLs
Your SEO strategy does not stop with compelling content (which should be natural, not forced, and definitely not keyword-stuffed!). You should not forget that your website page’s URL should also include a keyword. If you are torn between two keywords (organic food Vs. biological food products), do a keyword search on google and see which one of the two yields the most results and which one is, therefore, the most popular.
Fortunately, there are a couple of free tools you can use to check search ranking. One of them is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, where you can search how popular your keywords have been in the past and recent google searches. Another tool you can use is SemRush (although not free, you can have a free trial) which will easily find the right keywords for you.
4. Grab Your Reader’s Attention With Riveting Titles (And Throw A Keyword In There If You Can)
It is crucial that you create engaging and riveting titles to grab your reader’s attention. Excellent SEO work has brought viewers to your website, but if you want to turn viewers into readers, you’d better have some compelling titles in place.
Try to pose a question like “Do you want your children to be healthy,” or a controversial statement like “Organic Foods, too much fuss about nothing. Yes or no?” or show your readers how they can benefit from the get-go “If you want healthier children, organic food is a must.”
5. Invest In The User Experience
An SEO strategy is crucial for any website, but you should not ignore your user’s overall experience while navigating your page. Go over your website and assess whether there are any glitches that should be corrected. Your customer’s experience is the ultimate test of your websites’ success.
What are your page’s response times? Is the content too long? Do you need to break it down into smaller, easier-to-read (and digest) chunks? Do you need some emojis? Pictures? Infographics? Are the fonts and colors inviting and relaxing to the eyes? Are you meeting your audience where their eyes at? In other words, is your website optimized for mobile phone and tablet use?
Review your website for ease of navigation and while you are at it, check whether there are some other places you can (naturally) add your keywords without overdoing it.
Are You Ready To Develop Your SEO Strategy For Your New Website?
Yes, I am sure you are. It takes some practice, diligent work, and expert research skills. However, if you are not comfortable doing so, maybe you should invest in a writing course like the one offered by Iris-Writing Academy. SEO is all that jazz, and you certainly do not want to be left behind. So if you want to hop on the SEO wagon and reap its rewards, you’d better get very skilled very quickly.
On the other hand, if you are a business creating a new website, do not just leave your company’s future in the hands of inexperienced marketers. Instead, please find out how we can help you build your brands’ name and increase your organic traffic while boosting your sales here.
I have had my own website for over 2 years. But its popularity stopped growing at a certain point, I think it was because of the competitors. Could you record a video lesson on how to set up keywords for your site?
You can learn about free screen recorder on windows on the internet or on yt.
Really looking forward to the video from you!