SEO Marketing Basics
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization or SEO as it’s more commonly known, is super important for your business because it basically determines how easily people can find you online.
Why is it important?
In a world where we are seeing record numbers of Google searches each year, having a good SEO strategy means your business shows up near the top of search results, the first page being ideal. This not only helps more people learn about your brand but also gives your site more authority and trustworthiness.
SEO in Google’s Eyes
What’s likely interesting to you as a business owner or employee is how you can actually leverage SEO to help drive more relevant traffic, leads, sales, and ultimately revenue and profit for your business.
So, what works? How do search engines pick which pages to show when people are hunting for information, and how can you pull in that coveted website traffic?
Google's algorithm is extremely complex. But to give a little insight on it:
Google wants pages that are top-notch and spot-on about what the searcher is after. They seek out relevance by "crawling" or reading what's on your site, using their algorithms to decide if it lines up with what the searcher needs, mainly based on keywords. Which we will talk about later.
And when it comes to "quality," Google checks out a bunch of things, but a big factor is how many and how good the websites are that are linking to your page and your site as a whole. Simply, if you’re getting linked by some big name sites, Google will love that much more than some small random blogs who themselves, have low authority within Google. These are commonly known as backlinks. Another topic we will touch on soon.
In addition, Google is concerned with how users engage with your site. Are they spending a lot of time? Are they finding the information they need? Or are they clicking off within a few seconds and going back to the search results? Those are questions search engines like Google answer using their algorithm.
For a more in depth explanation about how search engines operate, check this link here.
There are 7 keys to SEO marketing that we'll focus on in this guide. Click any of the links below to skip around.
Key Points
- SEO is crucial for business as it determines online visibility.
- A strong SEO strategy ensures your business appears prominently in search results, enhancing brand awareness and establishing authority.
- Understanding how search engines like Google evaluate and prioritize pages based on relevance, quality, and user engagement is essential for effective SEO.
Keyword Research and Targeting
What is keyword research?
The first step in search engine optimization is to determine what you’re actually optimizing for. You need to identify keywords people are searching for that you want your website to rank for in search engines like Google. If you want your potential customers to find you, you need to optimize your content and keywords to bring them to your site.
Why is it important?
This is important because, if you make content on a topic that nobody is searching for, that content won’t receive any traffic. Keyword research helps you ensure that there is a search demand for whatever you want to write about. It might sound simple but I assure you that is not always the case. Here are a few core ideas to understand when determining keywords you want to target on your site:
Search Volume
This refers to the number of times a particular term or phrase is entered into search engines over a specific period. It provides insights into the popularity and demand for a specific keyword. Obviously you want to know how much, if at all, someone is searching for the specific term you want to rank for.
Keep an eye on search volume trends. Given that search volume is an annual average, it can sometimes lead you astray in terms of future search demand of a given search query. If some keywords have big spikes in popularity, this would inflate its average search volume while the popularity might actually decline from there.
Competition
As with many other aspects of your business you should always keep an eye on your competition. Consider the potential costs and likelihood of success. It’s important to understand the competition and likelihood you can rank for specific terms. If the keyword you’re researching is over-saturated, try a few other less popular ones to try and gain traction with.
Keyword Difficulty
As mentioned before, how difficult is your keyword to rank for? If there are a few other keywords that have a quicker and easier path to success, it might be in your best interest to focus more time and attention on those. The more popular keywords can still be ranked for, but it will just take a much longer time to achieve.
Remember, keyword difficulty is not there to deter you from targeting specific keywords. It’s there to help you understand what it will take to rank for a given query.
Relevance
Relevance seems straightforward at first, but you could possibly lose sight of what’s relevant if you focus on ranking for too many popular keywords just because they’re popular. If you’re an auto shop that specializes in only smog checks and oil changes, you don’t want to show up for searches about “check engine light” or “transmission repair”. Yes they’re keywords under the automotive umbrella, but a potential customer would have no use for your business if those keywords you rank for don’t pertain to your business.
How to Find Keyword Ideas
Wondering how to conduct keyword research? There are many methods and tools you can use for keyword research. Let's outline some of the best methods and tools below, as well as some keyword research tips, so you can pick and choose what works best for you.
Seed Keyword Brainstorming
Seed keywords are the starting point of your keyword research process. It defines your niche and helps you identify your competitors. Keyword research tools will ask you for a seed keyword, which it then uses to generate a huge list of keyword ideas.
Coming up with seed keywords is easy if you already have your niche defined. Just think about what people would type into Google to find you and what you offer. For example, if you sell furniture your seed keywords could be: furniture, home furnishings, modern furniture, traditional furniture, designer furniture. And from there, you would expand your keywords to other rooms: bedroom, living room, dining room, office, etc.
Seed keywords themselves won’t necessarily be worth targeting with pages on your website. Remember, these are broad and general terms related to your business, industry, or products. You’ll use them as “seeds” for the next steps in this process. This should only take a few minutes. As soon as you have a handful of broad ideas related to your website’s topic, move on to the next step.
Check your competitors keyword rankings
Checking on your competitors' keyword rankings is a great way to get an idea of what keywords are popular and not popular for their business. This in turn could give you opportunities to target some less popular keywords that they aren't getting high traffic for. Obviously you want to focus on the most important keywords within your industry, but don't neglect certain keywords just because they aren't at the top. There's opportunities to get a leg up on the competition, you just need to find it.
Use keyword research tools
Examining the keywords that are already driving traffic to your competitors is often the most effective method in expediting your keyword research. However, the initial step involves identifying these competitors. This is where the list of keywords you've brainstormed becomes important. You’ll want to conduct a Google search using one of your seed keywords and observe the websites ranking on the front page. If none of the top-ranking websites for your seed keywords align with your site, or the direction you aim to take it, it's advisable to refine your search by looking for slightly more specific terms.
Target Keywords
Keyword targeting is a strategic process used for effective SEO, involving several key steps. It begins with research to identify relevant terms and phrases aligned with the interests and search behavior of your target audience. Once identified, these keywords are strategically integrated into various elements of your content, such as titles, headings, and meta tags, signaling to search engines the relevance of your content to specific queries. Understanding user intent is important, ensuring that your content not only includes the chosen keywords but also satisfies the underlying needs of users conducting those searches.
Identify Parent Topic
The idea of a parent topic is to identify the central theme or category that guides your content creation and keyword targeting efforts. It's about understanding the broader context in which your business or website operates and tailoring your content to meet the diverse needs of your audience within that context. Comparing the search results for similarly related keywords is a great way to understand how closely related they are and if you should target them with one page or multiple pages. It is a pretty time consuming task, but luckily, there are keyword explorer tools you can use to compare multiple keywords at a time.
Prioritize Keywords
Get a list of your most desired keywords that you want to rank for first and prioritize them over less important ones. You can rank for thousands of keywords depending on your niche, but to get the desired attention you want, let the least important ones take a backseat. When prioritizing keywords consider these this:
What is the estimated traffic potential of this keyword?
What’s the ranking difficulty? Who are you competing against?
What does it take to create a perfect page? Or could you improve on one you already have?
What’s the value of this keyword? What would your business get from ranking for it?
Answer those questions by putting yourself in your potential customer’s shoes. You may have heard the terms “buyer’s journey” or “life-cycle marketing”. Well here at Open World Digital we take the time to focus on the full marketing journey of you and your customers, from the beginning to success!
Keyword research tools
Some keyword tools have free options but a lot of them are a paid monthly service. This is why a marketing professional can be so valuable to you. We have access to these tools that can give your business valuable insights. Some of the best keyword research tools that we recommend are:
Google Keyword Planner - Free
Google Trends - Free
Moz - Paid
SEMrush - Paid
Ubersuggest - Limited Free with paid features
Key Points
- Keyword research is the foundation of effective SEO and involves identifying terms people search for to optimize website content.
- Maintaining relevance is vital in keyword selection; focusing on keywords that align with your business offerings avoids attracting irrelevant traffic.
- Search volume is an important metric to understand the popularity of a given keyword. But if you want to predict how much search traffic you may get from ranking for it, you need to look at the Traffic Potential.
- Monitoring trends, assessing competition, and understanding the effort required to rank for a specific keyword help refine the selection process.
- The process begins with seed keyword brainstorming, defining the niche and identifying competitors. These seed keywords serve as the foundation for expanding into more specific terms.
- Studying the search intent of each keyword will help you better understand what kind of page you’ll need to create in order to best satisfy searchers.
SEO Content
What is SEO Content and Why is it Important?
So you’ve researched your keywords, you’ve picked some out with high traffic and ranking potential, the next step is actually implementing your targeted keywords into your site’s content.
Content is king! The actual content of your page is of course, very important. Different pages on your site will have different types of functions for your business. Not all content ranks and gets traffic from organic search. Only content created specifically for searchers about topics they’re searching for does, unless you get lucky of course. But we want you to be good and not just lucky. So let’s talk about what SEO content is all about.
Robust Content
There’s no magic number in terms of word count, but the general consensus is to have close to 1000 words on your homepage. The homepage is the most important page of your site and usually serves as your landing page. The more information the user can find about your site on your homepage the better. But, this doesn’t mean you should keyword stuff or add a bunch of content filler. Keep your content unique, relevant, and robust. Also, if you have a few pages of content on your site with a couple hundred words you Google won’t penalize you, but in general, recent updates favor longer, unique content. Look at your site, are a large percentage of your pages thin, duplicated and low value? If so, find ways to add more to them without being repetitive. In some cases, you could eliminate some under-performing pages with low word counts and add that info elsewhere on your site.
Keep it Evergreen
Simply put, evergreen content retains relevance, it's not time sensitive and continues to drive traffic long after it is first published. Think of informational guides, like the one you’re reading right now. An article or video about the latest news in your niche might be relevant at the time, but it’s also good to create content that can be linked back to and viewed for years to come. Some common ways to create evergreen content are to answer frequently asked questions from your users. Provide industry tips and "how to" explanations or advice. Explain common industry concepts that may be confusing for readers.
Engagement and Shareability
As with making robust and fulfilling content, you want it to be shareable. If you create a piece of content that isn’t related to your niche, the odds of it getting linked back to your site are low. You could have perfect SEO on each page of your site but if the content isn’t relevant you won’t get the engagement you desire and sites won’t link back to your site.
Key Points
- SEO content is content designed to rank in search engines like Google.
- Unless you do this, your content probably won’t rank.
- Evergreen content, which remains relevant over time, contributes to sustained traffic.
On-Page Optimization
What is On-Page Optimization?
If you want to show up higher on Google, the first thing you need to do is understand what goes into the algorithm. Obviously content plays a huge part, these are the pages, words, and photos that appear on your website. However, not all content is created equal. If you’re not using the right title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, using internal and external linking, your content likely won’t rank as well.
Why is it important?
Each page on your site should be targeting a core term and a group of related terms. Your main content that you want lots of users to link to needs to be very different from your support content. On-page SEO is so important because without it, all the great products, services, and content you have won’t be seen by your target audience. Let’s look at a few critical concepts that are vital to achieving on-page SEO success.
Title Tags
Title tags are the first element of on-page SEO that we will be looking at. The title tag is the title of a link that you see on Google(it’s usually blue). The purpose of it is to tell users what your page will be about. It also tells search engines like Google what that page is about. A good title tag will increase the clickthrough rate which will bring more people to your website and sends signals to Google that your link is better than the other links you’re competing against.
The title tag should exist for each page on your site and shouldn’t be longer than 70 characters. Anything after 70 will get cut off and people won’t be able to see it. You want to make sure you’re using whatever the main keyword is at the beginning of your title tag. Because, including your keyword at the start of your title tag is telling people and search engines what the page is about which in turn helps you rank better. We want you to rank better!
Meta Descriptions
As is the case with your title tags, the purpose of the meta description is to increase your clickthrough rate for your page. This isn’t going to directly impact your SEO but it will impact your clickthrough rate, therefore indirectly impacting your SEO. This is because Google often uses them for the descriptive snippet in the search results. Your meta description should be 160 characters max. Expand on your title tag, include USPs that you couldn’t fit in there. Use an active voice and remember to address the searcher directly. And of course, you want to be as detailed as possible, using your target keyword and a call to action that draws in the user.
Header Tags
Header tags are the codes that we put around things that we would consider titles on our page. Header tags are numbered one to six. Here’s an example of how they would look:
<h1>keyword</h1>
<h2>sub keyword</h2>
<h3>sub sub keyword</h3>
<h4>list keyword</h4>
<h5>another keyword</h5>
<h6>fringe keyword</h6>
An H1 tag should be the biggest concept of your page. This is usually the title of your page. It should also include the most important keyword that you’re trying to rank for in SEO. Each page should only have one H1 tag.
For every sub concept off of that should then be wrapped in an H2 tag. H2 tags have no limit, but your page should flow in a natural way. After using an H2 tag if there’s another smaller title contained within your H2 you would make that title an H3 and so on.
It's important to remember that H2 tags should guide your users through the content on your page. This should be covering every big sub concept within your main concept that’s wrapped in your H1. For example, if you have a website selling furniture, your H1 tag would contain furniture in it. Your H2’s might be broken into: living room furniture, bedroom furniture, dining room furniture, office furniture. It sends a clean and clear signal to Google and more importantly your users about what you offer. And as said earlier, don’t jump hierarchies. Don’t jump from an H2 to an H4 and then back to an H3.
Good URL Structure
A good URL structure is important from both a tracking and shareability standpoint. Shorter, descriptive URLs are easier to copy and paste and tend to get less mixed up. For example, instead of yoursite.com/SEO-Marketing-Business-Site3/?2345sc45fg keep it simple, yoursite.com/SEO. It looks cleaner and makes it easier to index for Google.
But, if you don’t feel as though your URLs are negatively impacting users and your business in general, don’t change them. You don’t need your URLs to be more keyword focused for better SEO. If you do have to change your URL structure, make sure to use the proper 301 permanent type of redirect.
Optimizing Images and Add Alt Text to Images
For every image on your site you need to be adding what’s called alt text. It’s a text that is attached to the image file telling search engine’s what your photos are about. Additionally, your image file names should be labeled properly. picture001.png is not an acceptable file name! If your photo is showing a caramel colored luxury couch, label it as such. It’s an all too common mistake that will affect your ranking within Google.
Install an SEO plugin
Most website platforms handle basic SEO functionality out of the box. But if you’re using WordPress, install an SEO plugin. It’s hard to put even basic SEO best practices in place without one. Yoast is my plugin of choice but there are many to choose from.
What is the difference between on-page SEO and off-page SEO?
They aim at two different sets of factors. On-page SEO focuses on impacting SEO factors occurring on a page, while off-page focuses on factors outside of a page. In other words, on-page SEO is about the things you can fully control, while you can’t fully control off-page SEO.
Key Points
- On-page SEO is anything you can do on the page itself to improve its rankings and visibility.
- Do NOT keyword stuff!
- The goal is helping Google and searchers better understand and digest your content.
- A clean, descriptive URL structure enhances tracking and shareability.
- Each page should target a core term and related terms, distinguishing main content from support content.
Information Architecture
What is information architecture?
Information architecture refers to how you organize the pages on your website. The way that you organize your website and interlink between your pages can impact how various content on your site ranks in response to searches.
Why is it important?
Search engines mostly see links as a means to help understand both what a page is about, how important it is, and how trusted it should be. They also look at the actual text you use to link to pages, called anchor text. Use descriptive text to link to a page on your site that will help Google understand what that page is about.
Create a Logical Site Structure
A logical and well-planned structure is ideal for user experience. The two most common types of site structures are hierarchical and linear.
A hierarchical structure is the most popular and versatile type of structure applicable to websites of any size. It follows a hierarchical arrangement of categories, moving from general pages to more specific ones. It allows for efficient content management for the addition of new pages/subcategories without disrupting the overall structure. The hierarchical structure also benefits search engine optimization efforts by providing clear pathways for search algorithms to crawl and index the website’s content. The hierarchical structure is the only viable option for large scale businesses.
Linear site structure is the second most common site type. In this structure, pages are connected in a linear manner following a logical path of actions. Linear-style sites are a simple website structure, and sometimes that basic website structure is just what your business needs. Not every site will be as straightforward and able to use this type, but sites with fewer pages can benefit from this low-maintenance option. These sites are without subcategories or child pages. This is the opposite of a hierarchical structure. You can create this layout by having a main page, homepage or landing page to arrive on and then a number of other basic parent pages to visit that appear in a straight line below the homepage when viewed from a visual sitemap. In other words, they take a visitor through a predefined sequence.
Finding and Submitting Your Sitemap
If your website isn’t ranking on Google it’s probably because you haven’t submitted a sitemap. To find your sitemap go to yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Then login to Google Search Console (which is free). Visit the sitemaps tab on the left side and that’s where you will paste your sitemap URL.
Submitting a sitemap tells Google about all the pages on your website and anytime you publish a new article or a new page Google knows about it right away.
Internal Links
Simply, internal linking refers to any links from one page on a domain which lead to another page on that same domain. Internal links are one of the few methods site owners can use to tell Google and visitors that a particular page of content is important. It’s your best and most complete content about the core of your business. It’s the content you want people to find when searching for topics or products you specialize in.
You need to add a lot of links to existing content that points to other relevant content. This can be easily done to blog articles and that evergreen content we talked about earlier. Another great way to utilize internal linking is to link your pages to each other. If you have hierarchical pages on your website, parent pages can link to their child pages and vice versa. A great way to keep users engaged is adding a more services section on each service page which will give the user an option to click those links without navigating back to the top of the page.
External Links and How to Find Them
External links are the opposite of internal links. Internal links are hyperlinks that point to another page on the same website. Whereas external links are hyperlinks on a website that point to a different domain. They help search engines and users understand the topic and niche of a site, and provide additional value and resources.
If you want to see which links and how many are pointing back to your site, you can use a tool from SEMrush.
Key Points
- Search engines rely on links to understand page relevance and importance.
- Using descriptive anchor text and creating a logical site structure helps user experience and benefits search engine optimization efforts.
- Submitting a sitemap to Google ensures proper indexing, and internal linking emphasizes content importance for both search engines and users.
Technical SEO
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website to help search engines like Google find, crawl, understand, and index your pages. The goal is to be found and improve rankings. You don’t need to have a deep technical understanding of these concepts, but it is important to grasp what they do so that you can know when something isn’t quite right with your site.
Why is it important?
Technical SEO is important because it optimizes the fundamental aspects of a website, ensuring efficient crawling and indexing by search engines, leading to improved visibility and higher rankings in search results. It also contributes to a positive user experience by enhancing site performance, mobile responsiveness, and overall accessibility.
Page Speed
Having a quick loading site is good not only for your visitors but for search engines too. Google has put a lot more of an emphasis on this as of late so it’s something you shouldn’t ignore. Between 0-2 seconds is the optimal speed for which your site should be loading.
Mobile Friendly
Having a mobile friendly site is a must when it comes to domain authority. With 63% of searches happening on mobile, that’s potential site traffic you need to optimize for. In some niches, mobile traffic already outweighs desktop traffic by a large amount. Optimizing for mobile is a fairly simple process that will instantly give you a bigger presence within Google.
Security
HTTPS is a must for your site because search engines and users will not have access to your site if you still have HTTP URLs. They will get 4xx and 5xx HTTP status codes instead of your content. To do this, you need an SSL certificate. There are many ways to get one, but your web provider should offer it as an automatic option. If not, HubSpot offers SSL.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content dilutes link equity between two pages instead of focusing it on one page. This will give you less of a chance to rank for competitive phrases with sites. Having large quantities of duplicated content makes your site look like it is cluttered with lower-quality content in the eyes of search engines. And don’t keyword stuff! Google will catch it and it will punish your site for it. Copyscape is a great tool to find duplicate content on the internet.
Robot.txt File
If you notice that some of your pages aren’t being indexed, the first place to look is your robots.txt file. Sometimes, site owners will accidentally block pages from search engine crawling. This makes auditing your robots.txt file a must. If you see disallow you need to allow it to be indexed.
Redirects
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect instruction that leads website traffic to your desired URL. Improperly implementing redirects on your site can have a serious impact on search results. Whenever you can avoid it, you want to keep from moving your site’s content from one URL to another. If you do need to move content, you want to make sure that you implement permanent redirects for content that is moving permanently.
Canonicalization
Canonicalization happens when there are multiple versions of the same page and Google selects one to store in its index. The URL selected as the canonical will be the one Google shows in search results. The easiest way to see how Google has indexed a page is to use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console.
Key Points
- If your content isn’t indexed, then it won’t be found in search engines.
- Optimal loading speed is between 0-2 seconds.
- 63% of searches are on mobile, having a mobile-friendly site is essential.
- HTTPS is necessary for site access, and having an SSL certificate is crucial to ensure secure and uninterrupted user access.
- Not fixing broken links can impact search traffic, so you can make it a priority to fix them. But for most sites, you can focus time on content and links.
Link Building
What is link building?
Link building is an SEO practice that increases your search engine ranking. Links are one of the primary ways that search engine algorithms determine the relevance of a page. A link is a vote of confidence from one website to another. Each link creates a positive connection and develops a relationship.
Why is it important?
Securing a link on another website gives another audience direct access to your website, and can pass referral traffic. Links are important to increasing traffic online. A website without links isn't going to get any traffic from search, or other websites.
How to build links?
Google’s algorithm is still largely based on links, so having high-quality links going to your site is incredibly important in driving search traffic. There’s four ways to acquire links for your site. Let’s take a look.
Adding
This is when you go to a website that isn’t yours and manually place your link there.
Link placement on external websites through manual efforts, such as creating social profiles, submitting to business directories, listing on review sites, and participating in forums and communities, falls under a category of link-building tactics.
While these methods are easy to implement, links acquired this way often lack value in the eyes of search engines like Google and provide minimal competitive advantage. Despite their limitations, some link builders refer to these as "foundational links" and choose to incorporate them, especially when establishing a new website.
With that said, don’t overdo it when listing your website on every imaginable social network and business directory. Only post where it is natural for your business to be listed.
Asking
You can request links from other website owners which is known as link outreach. This process involves identifying suitable websites for outreach to persuade website owners to link to their pages and vice versa. Building industry relationships in advance is recommended. Otherwise the likelihood of successful link requests could be pretty tough to get. But, as familiarity increases between you and other site owners, they will be more inclined to link to you. Go into this process understanding that it might take significant time to build a network for link building. Even if you can get a couple links out of a few hundred emails sent, consider that a small win.
Buying
This is by far the easiest way to build links. Obviously, most website owners would be happy to link to you if you pay them for it. But, if you’re a business with a bit of a tighter budget, then this option might not be good for you in large amounts. You can find link buying services with a simple search if that is a route you would like to take.
Earning
Creating high quality content that other sites want to link too is how you can earn links. This is the dream. Having others link to your site gives you free exposure, and most of the time, it’s within your niche. These are potential customers for your business!
But, people can’t link to things that they don’t know exist. You need to promote it. The more people see your resource, the higher the chance that some of them will end up linking to it.
More Link Building Strategies
Guest Posting
A guest post written for someone else’s site is a fantastic way to get your business some exposure and it can show off your knowledge/expertise about your niche. When writing a guest post remember these things:
The website or blog is relevant to your business
Don’t brag about how great you are.
Keep it informative and hook the reader in initially so they read it in full.
DO NOT use AI to write your guest posts! Your reputation is on the line with this post. If you give a bad impression, your reputation will take a hit. Be creative and be yourself!
Turn Mentions Into Backlinks
One of the easiest ways to gain some new backlinks is using something somebody wrote about you and turning it into a backlink. Was your brand or product mentioned? Contact the person for that backlink that you’re looking for!
Link Building Tool
MOZ has a good tool that helps you quickly evaluate the Power and Trust of a domain when you are searching for potential link partners.
Key Points
- Links serve as votes of confidence, creating relationships and enhancing a page's relevance according to search algorithms.
- Acquiring links from other websites provides direct access to a broader audience and can drive referral traffic.
- Websites lacking links may struggle to attract traffic from search engines and other online sources.
- Purchasing links is the easiest but may not be budget-friendly for all businesses.
- Familiarity with other site owners increases the likelihood of successful link requests.
Tracking and Measuring SEO
So you’ve created some great content and you’ve been putting these SEO tactics into practice, now it’s time to track your SEO efforts.
Keyword Rankings
In order to see where your keywords rank in comparison to your competitors, you need to track your keywords. There are several tools available for tracking keywords. Some popular ones include SEMrush, Moz, Serpstat, and Google Search Console. Select a tool that aligns with your budget and requirements.
Keyword Tracking Tool Capabilities
Select Target Search Engines
Choose the search engines you want to track your rankings on like Google, Bing, etc.
Configure Location Settings
Specify the geographical locations you want to track. This is important for businesses targeting specific regions.
Set Up Tracking Frequency
Decide how often you want the tool to check your keyword rankings. Weekly or bi-weekly is common, but it depends on your needs.
Review Reports
Regularly review the reports generated by the tool. Look for changes in rankings, identify trends, and assess the impact of your SEO efforts.
Analyze Competitor Rankings
Some tools provide insights into your competitors' rankings. Analyzing this data can help you understand your competitive landscape.
Track Conversions
It's not just about rankings; track the actual impact on your business. Monitor conversions, click-through rates, and other relevant metrics to assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
By following these steps, you'll have a systematic approach to tracking the keywords you want to rank for and optimizing your SEO strategy over time.
Potential Analysis Challenges
Through all the metrics and analytics, the primary way to measure your search engine optimization results should be actual leads, sales, revenue and profit. Are my efforts “moving the needle”?
Google Analytics is an extremely useful tool for tracking leads, conversions and such. You can monitor organic traffic, goals, and e-commerce of different pages on your site, where people are visiting from, and your conversion rates among the people who are landing on your site from an organic search versus PPC leads.
Although, web-based analytics aren’t always perfect. Keep an eye out for a few things that could affect analytics accuracy.
Data Quality Issues
If the data collected is incomplete or missing certain key information, it can lead to inaccurate analysis. Errors in data collection, entry, or processing can result in inaccurate analytics.
For example: In an email marketing campaign, incomplete data on customer email addresses results in inaccurate open and click-through rates. If a significant portion of emails is undelivered or not opened, it may skew the campaign's perceived effectiveness.
Data Silos
Marketing data often comes from various sources such as social media, email campaigns, website analytics, and more. If these sources are not integrated, it can lead to fragmented insights and an incomplete picture.
For example: A company has separate databases for online and offline sales. Without integrating these data sources, marketers may miss out on understanding the full customer journey, leading to incomplete attribution and misguided optimization efforts.
Attribution Challenges
Determining the impact of each marketing channel on customer conversion can be challenging. It's often difficult to attribute a sale or conversion to a specific marketing touch-point accurately.
For example: A customer sees a Facebook ad, later clicks on a Google ad, and finally makes a purchase after a direct visit to the website. Without a robust multi-channel attribution model, it's challenging to assign appropriate credit to each touch-point, leading to misinformed budget allocation.
Time Lag
Marketing efforts may not show immediate results. There can be a time lag between implementing a marketing strategy and seeing the desired outcomes.
For example: A content marketing strategy is implemented, but positive SEO results and increased organic traffic take several months to materialize. Short-term analytics may not reflect the long-term benefits, potentially leading to premature conclusions about the campaign's effectiveness.
To Summarize
Focusing on detailed SEO strategies such as, understanding the keywords you want to target and rank for, having a strategy for getting your site’s pages linked to and shared, and your site’s structure and layout is really all you need to know about SEO. And it’s important to remember that SEO does take time, success doesn’t happen overnight. But with patience and the right plan you can have your site ranking amongst the the top of search results and bringing in more traffic, leads, and sales to help you and your business thrive.
Always remember that the ultimate objective with any search engine optimization efforts is to get more exposure and traffic for your business or your site’s content. And if you’ve put a lot of these practices in place and you’re still struggling a bit to generate traffic and leads, Open World Digital has proven plans in place to help your business with all of your goals, big or small. And the most important thing to remember with SEO, don’t give up!
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