A guide to SEO Planning

Planning

To make a strong SEO strategy it takes a lot of effort. One of the most important aspects of SEO is SEO Planning.  Planning ensures you have an effective method of reaching your target audience. It also influences the best web traffic. Companies would be wise to develop a strong game plan and road map for their website development. Moz.com outlines an 8 step process for proper planning that will help guide companies on who are trying to improve their web presence.

Moz.com

The Moz.com article explains the first and perhaps the most important step in SEO strategy development.  The step is  defining your target audience.  Developers and SEO teams need to know this is a SEO marketing plan. When they know they will treat it as important as other marketing plans.  When a marketer is creating content it is imperative they understand their target market. Furthermore, they should develop content that applies, it is not any different for a SEO content developer.  Many SEO experts would agree the next step in a successful plan is to perform targeted keyword discovery.

Keyword Discovery

Website optimization starts with a strong keyword discovery.  In this discovery process one can utilize Keyword planners to ensure their keywords fit their target audience. Doing so can  truly optimize website promotion.   Taking full advantage of their website keywords developers can utilize a strong plan. This plan will attract their target audience.  Bringing in the right audience will show improvement in search engine rankings.  The 8 step process for SEO strategy is a great guide for understanding a basic frame work for getting the most out of an SEO plan.   One would be wise to utilize multiple avenues to uncover the best process for developing SEO strategy.

Ultimate SEO planning Checklist

One great piece of advice the Content Marketing Institute laid out in The Ultimate SEO Checklist is that SEO and Content marketing partners need to see each other as a team not as competitors.  When developing and creating SEO strategy and SEO plans the partnership of the content marketers is essential.  If in the SEO planning a company doesn’t include the SEO team or Content Marketers they risk an unified message. Not having a unified message can fail to to capture target audiences.   Also they could miss out on perfecting their keyword optimization.  Considering the target audience and how to use keyword optimization is vital to driving web traffic.   Once the teams are working together on the SEO Plan it is time to optimize content.

Target Audiences

Optimizing content or optimizing keywords is a never ending battle and is explained by Kevin Cain in “How to Optimize Content When you Don’t Know Jack About SEO”.  Target Audiences and Keywords are moving targets.  It takes never ending SEO planning and auditing. This ensures a SEO team is producing relevant content.   Cain had the following to say about optimizing content through keyword optimization.

“At its most basic, SEO is about tinkering with your content to make it attractive to search engines. One way of doing this is by selecting the right keyword… and then using it throughout what you write.”

SEO Planning

SEO Planning

In short, SEO planning is never ending but a crucial aspect of content marketing. If a company is developing content properly they will take full advantage of keyword planning.  Additionally companies will ensure those keywords attract their target audience.  Success all comes down to SEO planning and sticking to the plan.

SEO planning issues can be summed up in a great phrase from SEOWorks.com, are you failing to plan or planning to fail?  This question helps with introspection for any company struggling with SEO planning.  Many companies think they are doing a great job with SEO planning, but it may not be the case.  Hiring a developer is not always the answer.

Can you trust your developers?

SEO developers can easily miss important issues when trying to implement an SEO plan.  Not being able to fully trust a website developer means  Danger. Companies need to know simple things to look for when auditing their website’s optimization. When Performing website audits to ensure the SEO planning is working there are tools companies may utilize. These tools give a quick view of website optimization.  One tool developers may find useful when SEO planning could be SEOquake.  SEOquake  gives quick views of website analysis, most importantly it shows weaknesses that need to be addressed. Finding the right tool can assist any SEO planning team to identify mistakes and content development errors.

SEOworks.com offers seven steps to effectively executing SEO planning strategy.  The first step they recommend in SEO planning is to have a strong initial analysis.  Additionally, one can find the other steps in the link provided.

 SEO planning consultants and Keyword Optimization:

“During an analysis… the consultant can see firsthand the strengths and weaknesses of the current technical infrastructure… What keywords have been targeted previously, the on-page content, the link building profile and competitor analysis.”

There are numerous things to look for in SEO planning.  The key is the company has to take the time to look.  SEO planning is a wise investment. In time marketing teams will come to realize this fact.

The following is about the second step of the SEO planning recommendations from SEOworks.com. It says that developers and SEO planning teams need to give their recommendation on improvement.  These recommendations suggest opportunities for improvement, for instance keyword optimization, and how to target new traffic.

SEO planning never stops

After receiving the recommendations from the developers the SEO planning team should improve keywords and implement changes on the site.  The changes implemented will be bench marked if a strong SEO plan is in place. The SEO planning team is the team to benchmarks their starting position. Bench-marking allows the team to  track their Progress. Bench-marking shows how well the changes have been impacting site traffic.  Lastly, SEO planning teams need to continually review their sites. Constant auditing ensures readiness to adapt. Teams are adapting to the ever changing demand of the consumers.  The development of an SEO plan does not mean the hard work is complete.  What this means is Development of plans indicates SEO planners are on the right track.

Did I mention, SEO never ends?

SEO planning is a never ending battle, Never neglected it!  The SEO planning team and the content marketing team Are responsible for plan fulfillment. When companies stays focused on their SEO plan they will potentially to see increase in web visibility and bottom line.

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