From developing new web properties to posting a blog article, SEO can be your team’s MVP if you use it correctly. So, how do you do that? Well, it takes the right mix of players, analytics, a well-orchestrated process and, of course, game-time decisions.
Before you jump in though, we recommend warming up with our introduction to the SEO game. From there, you can start game planning with these 6 go-to plays (or projects) we use to help clients score SEO success.
1. Annual planning
Our in-house experts include an SEO specialist and team of writers that work together to create a dedicated support plan for the year. Part of that planning process includes identifying SEO opportunities like new content, existing content/page optimizations or so forth. If a content calendar is needed, the SEO specialist can help identify key search topics (what potential customers are looking for) and current site trends to inform topic ideation.
2. New pages
Just like a website or blog content calendar, new landing pages should account for all the same factors mentioned in our SEO overview—just on a smaller scale. The biggest thing you want to keep in mind is the purpose of a landing page and the user intent it should be satisfying. When writing the copy and designing the experience, be sure you’re providing and prioritizing the right information (or keywords) to answer or engage users. For example, if it’s a product page, product names and categories should be prioritized. Other types of new pages include:
- Homepage redesigns
- “About us” pages
- Tools like calculators, product selectors, quizzes
- Offer pages or specials
- Forms and/or gated content
- Downloads/resources
- Search/display/social ad campaign landing pages
3. New websites
SEO should be a consideration from the start for any website project. Content should be planned, developed and organized in a way that satisfies user intent. And don’t forget a mobile-first approach when designing and including key technical factors like page titles, meta descriptions, internal linking, H1s/H2s, etc.
Something else to keep in mind too is that new websites require all hands-on deck. We’re talking coordination between SEO specialists, programmers, designers and content creators to make it a slam dunk.
4. Updated pages/sites
Whether it’s a complete redesign or swapping content, consider if SEO elements need to be changed to better align with your user’s needs. Also, consider where else on the site you can place links to this new page or website so that crawlers can more clearly understand the site.
5. New or updated URLs
Any new site, post or page requires a new URL(s). As one of the first things a search engine sees, it’s important to stick to certain guidelines when creating. Lucky for you, we’ve got them here:
- Be concise without losing meaning (fewer than 75 characters when possible)
- No numbers, spaces, underscores, capital letters or special characters
- No filler words (and, the, or, but, an, etc.)
- Use hyphens to separate words
- Include target keywords but avoid repetition
6. Blog posts
It never hurts to have an SEO specialist looped into blog post assignments from the very beginning. That way they can offer any insights or builds on a topic based on the latest research or their ongoing work. Beyond writing the posts, copywriters should also include meta descriptions, H1s, H2s, etc. in the copy. From there, the SEO specialist should review the post in the CMS to ensure all SEO elements are properly accounted for before pushing live. This is also a final chance for the SEO specialist to suggest alternate titles or headlines to pump up the article.
Ready to put these plays into action?
Chances are, you already have some sort of basic SEO strategy in place as a part of your overall marketing efforts. But if you have questions or want to chat about ways to up your game, just drop us a line!
