In planning your SEO strategy, the first thing you want to do is to take a good look at your social-media assets (website, blog, etc.), and ensure they can work seamlessly together. Next, spend 30-45 minutes thinking about the goals and objectives for your SEO efforts. Write them down and rank them in order of priority. In order to be meaningful, these goals must be concrete, measurable and have a clear ROI (such as dollar value or brand exposure).
Here are some sample goals:
- Increase website traffic by 10 percent or by 100 unique visitors a month. (Start small and adjust accordingly)
- Increase leads by shooting for a website conversion rate of 1 percent. (Let's say that your website receives 500 visits a month and that your "free consultation" web form sends two prospects your way each month. That would be a conversion rate of 0.4 percent. Taking your conversion rate up to 1 percent would result in a monthly increase of three prospects.)
- Increase blog readerships by 10 percent. (Writing articles that resonate with your target audience will help increase the "shareability" of your content, which will allow you to reach broader audiences and grow your blog readership.)
Tip: Always go for the low-hanging fruit first by implementing quick wins (i.e., linking all your social networks to your blog and website). Then see if the most difficult and time-consuming tasks can be performed in house or if they will require third party involvement.
Here are five "must-haves" for your SEO strategy:
1. Start a blog. It's a great way to build a community and increase your brand exposure. Blogging is a great way to increase your website ranking in the search engines and increase your brand exposure. It will also generate real customers in the long run; numerous surveys show how blog frequency and customer acquisition are related. Start by brainstorming topics of interest, then write down blog-post ideas and titles and come up with a release schedule that you can commit to. Commitment and persistence are two key components.
2. Go local. Consider optimizing your site for local search. Local-search marketing is the way to go if you are looking to increase your web exposure as a "brick and mortar" business. Remember to leverage your blog and post geo-specific articles such as upcoming events, local breaking news, etc.
