9 Essential Steps In Building A Winning SEO Strategy

Intro

Everyone wants to get their site on the first page of Google. But it takes more than just a good idea and some hard work to get there. It takes a strategy, and that's where we come in.

We've collected our best tips for creating an SEO strategy that will help you reach your goals—whether that's getting more traffic, growing your email list, or converting more leads—and we're here to share them with you!

In this post, we'll walk you through 9 essential steps in building a winning SEO strategy. These steps are based on years of experience working with clients in all kinds of industries. They work because they're based on proven strategies and tactics that have been tested over time.

And if you're wondering what kind of results you can expect from following these steps? We'll tell you! We've found that when companies stick to this process, they see real results: higher rankings on Google search results pages (SERPs), increased traffic to their sites, more leads coming through their doors… and even more money in their bank accounts!

You Need To Have A Goal In Mind

There are many different goals that you can have when it comes to SEO, but if you don't have one in mind then your efforts will be wasted and they won't lead anywhere. For example, if your goal is just to be better than your competitors at ranking high on search engines then this isn't going to help you much because there are millions of other businesses out there trying their best as well. However, if your goal is instead focused on generating leads for your business then this will give you something more specific which will allow you to focus more on what needs doing rather than just ranking high in Google all the time without any real benefit from doing so!

If your business is not ready to take on the task of SEO, then it's just not going to work. This means that you need to have the right people in place, including a strong marketing team, who are ready to implement an SEO strategy. If you don't have this kind of support in place, then you're going to find that it's very difficult for you to build a winning SEO strategy.

1. Study Your Competitors & The Marketplace

In order to build a winning SEO strategy, you need to understand your competitors.

What are their business goals? How do they compete against one another? What are their strengths and weaknesses, and how can you exploit those weaknesses to give yourself an advantage over them in the marketplace?

2. Choose the Right Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is the first step to SEO success. You should choose keywords that are relevant to your business and target audience so that you can achieve your desired results.

Keywords are words used by people to find information on the Internet, and they're also known as search terms, keyword phrases or search strings. As an example, if you're looking for a good pizza recipe, you would search for "pizza dough", "pizza crust" or some other variant of those terms in Google's search bar. The more popular a keyword is (and therefore how many people type it into their browsers), then the higher chance there is for people who use it when searching for something online – which means greater traffic potential for websites ranking highly in Google's organic results due to good content optimization!

3. Build Out a Solid On-Site SEO Strategy

This is the part of your SEO strategy where you’ll get some hands-on work done on your website.

• On-site SEO. The third step to building a winning SEO strategy is to optimize your website for search engines by:
• Identifying potential issues with site architecture, content, and code (e.g., robots.txt)
• Fixing those issues as they come up (and making sure they don’t come up again)
• Mobile optimization. It’s important that mobile users have a great experience on your site too; this means optimizing for mobile devices and their unique usage patterns and behavior—including voice searches!

4. Create an Awesome Website Experience for Users

(Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash)

You may have the most beautifully designed website on the planet, but if it’s difficult to use, people will bounce off of it quickly. Make sure your site is easy to navigate and understand by:

Making sure that every page has a clear navigation bar up top. This can include links back to the homepage or other pages throughout your site, along with call-to-action buttons or links (like contact information). It will also include important information like hours of operation, location, phone number and address. These are all things potential customers want to know about before they decide whether or not they want to do business with you—and you should make them easy for them! In addition, keep this information consistent across all platforms so that there aren't any surprises when someone lands on one particular page from another place in cyberspace (while only being familiar with one format).

Including contact info prominently on every page as well—again! This includes email address(es), phone numbers (landlines/mobile), faxes and social media handles where appropriate so that questions can be answered quickly using whichever method is easiest for each individual visitor at that moment in time—which might change depending upon whether they're sitting at their desk or walking while looking at their smartphone.

5. Focus on Quality Content

Quality content is key to improving your search rankings and driving traffic to your website. When we say quality, we mean content that is engaging, helpful, and relevant to the user’s needs—not just an article filled with keywords or “SEO for dummies” tips that don’t actually help someone looking for information.

There are many ways you can create high-quality content: from blog posts that encourage visitors to sign up for a newsletter or download an ebook; videos featuring product demos or tutorials; infographics explaining how a certain process works; images paired with short text posts (known as “micro-content”) — even reaching out directly via social media with questions you want answered by consumers who might be interested in what you have to offer.

As far as measuring the success of this type of content goes...you'll need a tool like Google Analytics!

6. Drive Traffic to Your Site with Paid Search Marketing

Paid search marketing is a way to drive traffic. It’s also a great way to get your brand in front of new audiences and increase the reach of your content. Paid search marketing allows you to target specific audiences, and it can help you find new leads that might be interested in what you have to offer.

Paid search marketing doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, though; there are many options for companies on all budgets. When considering paid advertising plans, remember that quality always trumps quantity when it comes down to it.

7. Measure, Monitor and Manage Your SEO Performance

(Image by Diggity Marketing from Pixabay)

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. As the old saying goes, if you don't know where you are, how do you know where to go?

The first step in measuring your SEO performance is to look at the data available through Google Analytics and search console. These two tools are free and provide a wealth of information on user behavior and site performance. The analytics dashboard will show you how many visitors have visited your website, what pages they viewed and from which geographical areas they came from as well as other important metrics like bounce rate, time spent on page, etc.. You'll also be able to see how much traffic each referring source (like Facebook) sends for referrals that came from social media sites like LinkedIn or Twitter so that can help identify what kind of content resonates best with those particular audiences.

Search console measures the number of clicks received by each URL (page) over time so it's easy to tell whether certain pages may need some additional attention when it comes to improving their rankings in SERPs . You should also compare these numbers with those displayed by Google Analytics since there may be discrepancies between them due to various factors such as tracking delays between platforms or data collection methods used by both services (such as javascript versus AJAX).

As we said, in order to really apply all these tactics, you need trained people ready to adapt to new SEO trends. Google is constantly changing the rules, so it's important to keep up to date. If you can't do everything yourself, the smartest decision is to hire an SEO agency from Sydney and enjoy the results without much stress.

8. Spread Your Content Far and Wide with Distribution Channels

Distribution channels are the places where you can get your content to go viral. The more distribution channels you use, the more people will see your content and share it with others.

Distribution channels include social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter; media outlets such as blogs or magazines; influencers that have large audiences on Instagram, YouTube or other platforms; and industry-leading publications in your field of expertise.

In addition to spreading through these channels, one of the most effective strategies for growing awareness about a brand is through word of mouth referrals from existing customers, who are often referred to as "the best marketers around.

9. Create an editorial calendar

Your content marketing strategy should be part of your overall SEO strategy, but that doesn't mean you should create content with search engines in mind from the start. Instead, put together an editorial calendar that outlines what content you'll be creating for each month or quarter so that everything flows smoothly together without any gaps in the schedule or overlap between topics that might cause confusion among readers or dilute the impact of individual pieces of content by having too much overlap between them when it comes to keywords used in titles or headings, for example).

Before you go and make any drastic changes to your website, site structure, or onsite content, be sure you have a thorough understanding of how search engine optimization works. You can't possibly succeed without it. Keep these tips in mind when approaching your SEO strategy, and you'll discover that search engine optimization is quite a bit easier under the surface.