#SEOWeek: Creating an SEO Strategy 2017 & Beyond [Recap]

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What a great final day of #SEOWeek! Today we learned all about creating a winning SEO strategy. We covered a lot, so here are the basics!

Getting Started

Before creating a SEO strategy, you have to understand the SEO path. What can SEO do for you? Your strategy must be based on brand voice and corporate culture. Determine the type of traffic you want. Do you want to focus on keyword based SEO strategies that increase rankings in the SERP or increase traffic with brand awareness and the quality of the website? You should consider questions like this before creating a custom strategy.

Keep in mind that having a high-quality site with strong brand awareness improves click-through rate directly and indirectly. The direct impact is consumer interaction with your website. The indirect effect emerges from search engines providing better rankings to the brand website and creating a social network.

What should you focus on when creating a SEO strategy?

Rank of Keywords

• Search terms should be chosen for their value to your business. (i.e. CTR, ROI)
• Identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that sets you apart from competitors.

Brand Voice

• Research has shown that when consumers are actively searching for a specific shopping product, they’re  more likely to focus on brand-related searches.
• Create a positive brand voice for the consumer.

Demographic Understanding

• It’s essential to know your audience’s search habits and speak to them in the right voice.
• Tailor your strategy in a way that when the paid ad is clicked, the user goes to a specific landing page that speaks to that specific age demographic.

When conducting a technical SEO audit, the following need to be addressed:  

• Citation and Trust Flow: Look at your competitors and see where they’re getting their good links from. Try to get them too!

• Backlink Analysis: Manually remove toxic backlinks and potentially harmful links. Create a disavow file and upload it in Google and Bing Webmaster consoles.

• Organic Traffic: All technical issues with the website must be fixed. Refresh on-page content while implementing your strategy.

• Mobile Audit: Focus on mobile users and create a mobile-first design. Improve mobile speed and performance.

For stronger results in SEO this year, focus on the user experience – not search engines – on mobile and desktop. Use your analytics to see how users interact with your website to further tailor the experience. Don’t be afraid to use Facebook, or related social platforms, to gain traffic and conversions.

For even more helpful information, watch the webinar recording here. We’re already looking forward to next year’s #SEOWeek, so we hope to see you there!