Creating revenue with a small amount of resources and the
unlimited number of tasks associated with running a business are challenges
every entrepreneur faces – and they aren’t likely to change. You are likely
short on time as you try to get your brand off the ground, create
findability, and build an organization – which means you lack the bandwidth to
learn and execute the daily tasks associated with every role.
When it comes to SEO, a few important basics can greatly improve your
presence in the increasingly crowded online space.
Since SEO has evolve to include a content-centric view of
rankings and incorporate social media and local engagements, there are fewer
shortcuts and a larger focus on quality. While it sounds time-consuming,
quality content has benefits that reach beyond SEO, as good content is useful
across all marketing mediums, and forces you to think through messaging from a
topic and keyword perspective – ensuring you’re honing in on what actually
matters.
Below are a few things I think are important:
Know Your Audience(s)
and What They’re Looking For
This is a helpful exercise regardless of whether or not
you care about SEO. You’ve got to know who would buy your products or services,
and what they’re looking for, in order to find them. Your initial assumptions
may be accurate, but you may also be missing things that could drive additional
traffic, potential messaging opportunities, or new market segments.
You’ll want to do some research up front (if you haven’t
already) and map an audience to the keywords, topics, and phrases they’re using
in and around your industry. It’s also helpful to map the keywords and topics
back to your content and the ways people are sharing it so you’ll know what
types of content perform best on each channel.
If you don’t have the time to go through that exercise in
its entirety, a look at how people are currently finding your content using
your analytics provider (like Google Analytics) is a good start.
Map Competitor Content
If you’re looking for increased traffic, and not just any
traffic but relevant traffic, you need to know what you’re up against. Mapping
out your competitors’ content will help you understand what’s already out
there, what’s missing, and how similar products and services are being
messaged.
To get started, create a spreadsheet with the following
information:
- The competitor name (e.g.
Acme)
- The keywords / topics
that you’re targeting that they are also ranking for (e.g. “anvils”)
- The content they’ve
created that is currently ranking above yours or in the top 10 on search
engines (e.g. “how to trap a roadrunner” – be sure to include the title of
the content as well as the URL.)
- Note any key elements of
the content such as videos, images, long-form content, lots of discussion
on the post, etc.
Armed with this information, you can better allocate the
limited time and resources you have to create content that truly stands out
against the competition.
Certain tools will
do this for you automatically, and will also highlight things like search and
CPC data, which can be a great option if you have a highly competitive or
volatile market.
Create a
Content Repository
Creating increased traffic and revenue comes from having
the most useful content for your audience to consume. Whether that’s in the
form of landing pages, blogs, email, social media, ads, or other assets –
you’ll need to focus on the findability of your specific content. Having a
content idea repository will ensure you’ve always got a list of topics and
fresh information for your audience.
Once you’ve done this, map keywords and topics back to
each content topic to ensure you’re writing with those in mind when it comes
time to create the content.
Set Keyword
Expectations and Manage Them Accordingly
You’re going to want to run your keywords and topics
through a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to make sure the topics
and keywords you have chosen have enough search volume and potential traffic to
warrant time spent. Be sure to take into account the relevance of the search to
your audience. The narrower the topic focus, the lower the traffic typically,
but this is often offset by the accuracy and interest of the audience.
For example, a broad search might be “running shoes”
which has a very high volume and competition for space. You may not want to
create content just for “running shoes”. Instead, consider a focus that maps
back to your content ideas and create keywords and topics such as “women’s
trail running shoes.”
Set Up Your
Site & Content Structure for Success
As you create content, you’ll want to make sure each page
is optimized for crawlability, page speed, mobile friendliness, and overall
findability. Initial investment in a site audit or recommendations for
establishing a few initial best practices will pay out results ten-fold.
Depending on your budget and how much site content you’ve
already created, you may want to conduct a site audit of your current content
or use a recommendations tool that will highlight current issues and help you
update them.
Track Progress
You’re going to want to keep an eye on the keywords and
content you’re creating and to track competitor movement in the space. A lot of
sudden movement by a competitor on a group of keywords could signify intent to
increase marketing efforts in that area, add additional products that competes
with yours, or other issues to be aware of in your space.
Make Time for
Adjustments & Optimizations
As you track progress and release new content, you should
start to see what works well for your audience, whether it’s specific channels,
content types, or messaging (or a combination of the three.) From there, dive
back into the keywords and topics and get specific about each keyword list for
your updated audience groups, marketing channels, etc.
The more you can narrow down your marketing efforts, the
better your conversions will be. For example, if you have a younger audience
segment that uses Twitter and Instagram – look at what topics and keywords
relate to that audience and then match your Instagram content to those. If you
have another audience segment that focuses on Pinterest or Slideshare, see what
their specific needs and topics are and focus the content you create for those
mediums on those keywords.
This is especially important when considering mobile
content consumption, as people are often accessing apps and sites, and asking
different questions when searching on a mobile device versus a tablet or
desktop.
