SEO Strategy and why you should have one

With Google updating its algorithm hundreds of times each year how can you ensure that your SEO strategy will still be relevant a day, month, or year from now?

The key is to define your strategy based on the purpose of your website in the first place. It’s all very well tracking keyphrases and traffic to your site, but if it doesn’t create leads or sales then it really can’t be classed as successful.

So start with working out the purpose of your website and then work to ensure that it lives up to that purpose. So think about why your website exists, it usually falls into one of the following areas:

• To sell products or services
• Entertainment
• Social Sharing
• Informative sites such as Wiki
• Forums for discussion on particular subjects
• File sharing or storing

For the majority of businesses reading this post it will no doubt be the sale of products or services that is the purpose. But once you understand that, how does that translate into your SEO strategy? 

Deciding your SEO Strategy

Start with your website content, is it purpose driven? Does it help your objective and that of your users? You need to connect with your audience, almost reverse engineer what you are trying to achieve right back to the very beginning.

Deciding what to write about can be challenging but start with brand centric phrases to leverage those people that already know you. Using a tool like Google Trends or Answer the public will give you an idea of the things people are interested in from a Search point of view.

Research those keyphrases and then create your content around them. Now that doesn’t mean stuffing a page full of the same keyphrase over and over again, but instead write naturally about that topic. Google is very good at identifying related words so don’t worry about repeating the same phrase too many times. If you get your content write for your users then it’s also right for Google.

Link Building for 2016

Link Building is still an integral part of SEO success, but gaining links is a lot more difficult than ever before. I’m not talking about spammy paid links either, Google is very good at identifying spammy links.

If you have the right content then reach out to relevant sites to link to it, it’s unlikely that initially the links will just flow. Offer to write a piece for a suppliers website that is relevant to their audience, leverage your existing network to gain traction and then reach out to other relevant sites in your industry.

It’s hard, it takes time but the benefits should make up for the hard slog.

What Next?

Making your users the centre of your website’s purpose is key to your SEO strategy. Don’t lose focus and ensure you put in the relevant work up front to ensure your SEO efforts create the results that you are looking for.