Out of the Box Aspects That Should Be Included in an SEO Strategy

When you think of your SEO strategy there are a few staples that come to mind; backlinks and content creation are probably two of the biggest. But that doesn’t mean you skip the very basics. At its core SEO is marketing and helping to improve your sales and visibility in the online world.

With this is mind you need to take a step back and think about SEO from a wider perspective and come up with some out of the box aspects that you should incorporate. In conjunction with your typical SEO tactics, your overall strategy should be more effective and you should see a bigger impact on results.

It is important to note that every SEO strategy should be different; to suit the individual needs of each business. So, take a read below at some of the out of the box aspects and feel free to implement them in your strategy if you feel as though they are suitable for your business.

1. Visual Depiction

According to SEO Shark you need to be able to visualise your plan. By putting it on paper it forces you to ask the tough questions and produce a suitable answer. If nothing is actually written down it can all get a bit wishy-washy with you and your team not actually knowing what is going on.

Think about what actually encompasses a strategy — it’s a plan. This means specific goals and tasks need to be put into place in order to ensure your business has proper direction. It is recommended that you create a simple (and short) document outlining the goals for a certain amount of time.

You should have a long term (3–5 years) strategy as well as short term (1 year) and break it down further (3 months) to give as much clarity to your team as to what is expected during this time. It is important to ensure that all invested parties understand the strategy and you clear up any issues before starting.

2. Mind Map

To assist in the creation of a strategy, a good place to start is a mind map. This will help you put any goals or tasks into the right category and assist in finding the type of direction your business will take in the future.

The mind map you create shouldn’t really be presented to the wider team, but it does offer you some assistance in your own understanding to start with. You will be unable to successfully present a plan if you don’t understand the plan for yourself.

Mind maps help you combine ideas and establish what is important and what tasks can be let go. By putting everything down onto a mind map, it really helps your structure in the long term, and this is something you will need for SEO, as it is a long term strategy.

3. Understand Target Market

If you aren’t targeting the correct people then your business will not be very successful. This is why market research needs to be done to establish the best way to target the right type of people. Now, this doesn’t just mean find out what keywords you think they will be searching for.

There are a few things to keep in mind when targeting your audience:

• Level of knowledge — how much do they actually know about the industry you are in? This will determine the type of language you use.
• Accepting of upselling — are they drawn to the advertising or marketing, or does it have the opposite impact and they are put off by it?
• Closeness to industry — are you B2B or B2C? Sometimes clients are more interested in understanding the industry, while others only want products and/ or services that will benefit them.

4. Detailed Goals

Your goals make up such an important part of your SEO strategy as well as your overall marketing/ business strategy. Therefore a lot of time needs to be spent here, really getting down to the nitty gritty. Leave no stone unturned when putting pen to paper on your goals.

This is where you need to think about the direction you want your business to take. Where do you want to see your business in 3 months time, or 2 years time? How are you going to get from where you are today to where you want to be?

Your goals also need to be highly detailed to ensure other members of the team properly understand what the business wants, as well as what their individual part is to ensure the goals are accomplished.

With these four aspects in mind when taking a focus onto your SEO strategy, it is hoped that you will have more clarity in this area as well. Don’t be afraid to take your time, developing this type of strategy should not be rushed.

Strategic Optimisation + Growth consultant for lean start-ups and change-making entrepreneurs enabling them to grow their business in a sustainable and profitable way. My super-powers are business optimisation, CX, SEO, and leveraging data insights for business growth. #fuelledbycoffee

Originally published at optimiseandgrowonline.com.au on September 12, 2018.