With reports indicating that over 90% of all internet marketing fails, SEO marketing can feel like rocket science sometimes. While there s a lot of blame to go around, one common culprit across the board is a poorly worked SEO marketing strategy. Once you put a foot amiss here, it can undermine the rest of the process and undo all your hard work. To ensure you’re off to a flying start, I’ll advise you on how to build the most vital SEO Marketing Strategy 2024 has seen so far. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty, with an exact step-by-step approach that will show you all the secrets to success so you can beat the odds. Let’s count it up.
1. Set your SEO Goals
What do you hope to achieve with your marketing strategy? Be it more sales for your eCommerce business, or growing marketing share within an industry, it s important to be clear from the get-go.
Also, it’s prudent to be specific with your goals. If bumping up traffic is the endgame, be clear on just how much you want to achieve, perhaps even for a specific landing page.
2. Figure out your Customers
The success of your SEO strategy depends on how well you understand your market in terms of their motivations, concerns as well as their needs. Here are a few ways you can get a better picture of your customers:
- Analyze the competition
- Create a buyer persona
- Gather feedback
3. Consider SEO Scalability
If you are to make an enduring SEO strategy in 2024, SEO scalability should be one of the first things to keep in mind. Your in-house team may be able to handle your SEO needs at the moment, but what happens when your content production needs grow as your website and reach expand?
It might also be important to spare a thought for outsourcing and software solutions that can help you scale your SEO Marketing Strategy with ease.
4. Put in the Work with Keyword Research
For your SEO Marketing Strategy to truly take off, you need to get your keyword research ducks in a row first. The low-hanging fruit is always the way to go if you’re a fairly new website, so shoot for popular keywords with low keyword difficulties. Nothing more than 30 preferably.
Take a look at what keywords your competitors are ranking for as well, to also unlock more ideas on what to prioritize.
5. Create a content calendar
With your keywords mapped out, it’s time to craft your content calendar. Luckily, there are many templates available online so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. A few tips to keep in mind:
- Always go for evergreen content whenever possible
- Set realistic publishing timelines & frequency
- Schedule content for all your channels
6. Spare a thought for your off-page SEO strategy
Off-page SEO takes place outside your website. It entails guest posting, social media marketing, and other tactics along the same line. It can be hard to be taken seriously by big brands when pitching for backlinks as a newbie. If you’re just starting out, tapping into the established networks of experienced SEO services can fast-track your off-page SEO presence.
7. Bump up user engagement
User engagement is the new SEO. It tells Google and other search engines that leads are finding your website useful, so the algorithms will want to show your page to more people by ranking you higher. A few ways to improve user engagement on your website include:
- Live chat
- Gamification
- Personalization communication channels
- Interactive content creation
8. Do your homework on SEO
The SEO landscape never holds still. Google’s search algorithm alone receives over 500 updates a year. You, therefore, need to have your ear firmly pressed on the door of SEO updates to avoid ranking drops and to capitalize on opportunities to cut ahead.
Fortunately, you can save yourself all the leg work by configuring Google alerts for algorithm shifts. Or, you can rely on software solutions such as Knucklepuck and Rank Math to keep you informed.
9. Create a GMB profile
A Google Business Profile is great for improving your local SEO. It can overall boost engagement and visibility for your brand and help you get found locally if you do have a geographical presence. To get your GMB profile off the mark, be sure to:
- Draft a compelling description
- Use HD imagery
- Include videos as well
10. Create high-quality content
For over 70% of marketers, content marketing is the ticket to success. To follow in their footsteps, your content must be the best it can be in terms of quality.
That entails using compelling and informative headlines, being original, including statistical backings, and delving into great detail. Also, as a rule of thumb, if 20% of your content is promotional, 80% ought to be purely educational or entertaining.
11. Draft metadata as well
Good metadata allows search engines and users to understand your page. It can seriously catapult clickthrough when done right so add metadata to all your pages. A few tips for stellar metadata encompass:
- Closely match search intent (use long-tail keywords)
- Keep metadata brief
- Answer user questions
- Mention a pain point and solve it
12. Review your web page URLs
The average length of most URLs is about 62 characters. Your URLs also shouldn’t t exceed that length if you want to perform well on SERPs.
Beyond keeping them short and sweet, you also want to include your important keywords in your URLs. Doing so can improve user-friendliness as well as SEO visibility for the web page.
13. Measure your performance
You can’t know it’s working if you don’t measure it. Some important SEO metrics that most SEO services track include:
- Organic traffic (down to web pages)
- CTRs
- Bounce rates
- Website authority
- Page speed
- Backlinks
14. Bolster the user experience
UX today is a non-negotiable ranking factor to prioritize if you’d like to be successful with your SEO Marketing Strategy in 2024. Ask for customer feedback to know where you’re falling short and ensure excellent web performance across devices.
You might want to also consider getting professional assistance, to better understand if your website’s structure is up to snuff.
15. Shore it up with external expertise
Don’t be afraid to seek out the services of professional SEO services and experts. They can prove highly valuable sources of expertise. When picking out the right partners, be sure to look for the following qualities
- Transparency and punctuality
- Established resume (think client references or case studies)
- Marketing savviness
- Company culture fit
- Avoid working with individuals who use black hat techniques or promise overnight success.
It’s all about playing the long game
One of the top reasons why SEO fails is impatience. You have to understand that SEO takes time, which could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months depending on the competitiveness of your niche. So don’t pull the plug too soon. Give it time to all simmer and keep on observing best practices, and measuring and improving your efforts.
Exploring Opportunities as Everything Goes Online