When I work on growth marketing efforts, I often find search engine optimization (SEO) programs have become lethargic and forgotten. SEO has been mothballed and overlooked as a strategy that must be followed.
This problem starts early in the SEO process. Marketers begin with an initial set of keywords based on what they know about the business – terms that come from the organization’s lexicon. Teams may bring little or no keyword and competitor research to the project.
When these keywords go to the development team, anticipated outcomes are murky at best. SEO turns into a waiting game for organic search engine magic and referrals.
If this scenario sounds familiar, you are guaranteed poor channel performance.
To expect better search engine traffic results, I recommend reviving your keyword focus with the following five tips:
1. Demand Measurable Results
Have your team design reports that show keyword rankings along with traffic coming from organic search. Compare data with prior periods. It’s important to have a consistent reporting process with reviews and recommendations. Press to understand trends and channel performance.
2. Analyze Your Current Content
Create a content inventory and conduct an SEO audit. Examine what content is being found and what is not. My clients are always surprised at how random Google can be, favoring inconsequential pages while ignoring important ones. Identify what ranks and what doesn’t.
3. Rally Your Content Marketing Team
Are your writers making SEO a priority? With insights from your audit, see how keyword-focused your content efforts have been since site launch. Do your writers know that one product is driving traffic from Google while another is nonexistent? Have your team respond to performance gaps by planning and writing accordingly.
4. Insist on a Keyword Redux
Dust off your initial keyword list and assess it from top to bottom. You won’t need to discard your original work; however, finding the best traffic-generating keywords requires work and testing. If you are in a highly competitive space, the challenge is that much greater. Look at your current performance and plan ahead with keyword research tools like Moz Keyword Explorer and Google Keyword Planner. You may be surprised at what opportunities you are missing.
5. Reboot Your Strategy
Learn from your mistakes. If your initial SEO strategy just fizzled, then attack the problem again with rigor and make it a priority in your content marketing efforts. Come to know how SEO really works and communicate openly and clearly with your team about it.
Search engine referrals can bring your best website traffic. People trust their search results. Rebuild trust with your team by reviving your keywords and SEO strategy.
I am passionate about helping clients take charge of their digital marketing programs in order to accelerate growth quickly and affordably. If you want to discuss reviving your SEO strategy, please contact me.