6 Steps to a Successful SEO Process

Many people believe that if you simply create and structure a successful website with great designs, simplicity of use, and good graphics, you’ll have it made in terms of search engine optimization. #FAIL.

I’m not saying they’re formally claiming it’s SEO, but I get the impression they do. “Place the lovely website on a reputable hosting service, and you’re ready to go.”

Sure, a user-friendly, easy-to-use website is a good start, but it will not help you rank higher in search engines. It’s similar to building a house: you need a solid foundation (design, development, hosting) and then you can continue to grow the site with keywords, content, value-based offers, and useful information.

There’s a lot more to it. A technical (IT) person and a website designer/developer working together is also not a good idea.

It all starts with the (business) fundamentals. A more formal approach is required, and marketing must take ownership of the initiative (s).

What is the business process of SEO to consider aside from technical specifics such as servers, networks, and code?

The procedure is critical in determining how you will make money with SEO. What matters is the bottom line. Your network administrator or web designer will be unaware of this (typically). Yes, your material must be relevant to the buyer’s buying cycle, yes, the site must be user-friendly, yes, the site must be social media-enabled, and so on. Those are, if you will, “given.”

Here is a lucrative route to SEO success:

Validate and understand the marketplace

Is the market going to be easy to enter if you’re just starting out, or will it be too competitive? What does it look like when you use your search keywords? A simple test is to see if there are a lot of sponsored ads for the keyword phrase when you type it into Google.

Resources and capabilities

In general, how much time and resources do you have? Do you have folks who can assist you with anything from the technological to the written word? If necessary, look for resources on elance.com or odesk.com.

Create your goals and objectives

Make certain that you understand this. What should your website and individual pages accomplish? If you have an e-commerce site, this is probably self-evident – but even then, measurements are required. What isn’t measured doesn’t get tracked. Make sure your keyword research is good and that it is mapped to each page, and that you have a conversion strategy in place.

Planning

Make sure you have (business) plan options accessible and available at all times. Is there a plan “B” if plan “A” doesn’t work, takes too long, or doesn’t produce the desired results? And, what will be the precipitating event(s) for a change in plans?

Progress tracking

Keep track of your progress as your project progresses. Your ROI is more essential than your ranking (return on investment). Are you able to monetize while avoiding a negative cash flow? Also, make sure to track this over time – 3, 6, 12 months in comparison to earlier times. A 30-day period may be too short, forcing you to be overly reactive. Budgets, whether large and little, must be tracked.

Consider using a tool like Linked to see how backlinks and the link ecosystem are evolving and perhaps influencing your sites.

Adjustments

While plan “B” may be a different strategy, monitoring and fine-tuning/adjusting your campaigns over time will be critical. Traffic is a factor, but are you on track to meet your objectives? You may (or should) elect to include a PPC component in your SEO efforts as well. You can reveal crucial metrics and user data more quickly and adjust your SEO accordingly.

To summarise, do you understand the competitive nature of your market, and are you adapting to changes brought about by search engines, marketplaces, and competitors? Make a method for it, and your SEO efforts will pay off. If done correctly, SEO has the best return on clicks! Carry on.