Create an SEO strategy in 3 steps

Can you explain your SEO strategy in less than 1 minute? Advanced SEO only makes a difference when the basics are in order. Many companies make their online marketing unnecessarily complex, causing many projects or initiatives to quietly fail. So they opt for another trade show booth. But in practice, 90% of companies do just fine with a simple 3-step SEO strategy. We explain which 3 steps ensure that you invest in future success.

You can make SEO as complicated as you want; Structural Data, Search Intent, Link profiles, and so on. All terms that only matter once 80% of the success is already achieved. For many companies, a 3-step SEO strategy is more than enough to make a difference:

1. Keyword Research
2. Technical SEO
3. Content Marketing

By following these three steps, you get ahead of 95% of the market and invest in your future online marketing success. Without large investments or difficult technical projects. We are happy to explain the three steps to you.

Top of Google with Search Engine Optimization

By Search Engine Optimization, we mean optimizing your website so it can be optimally indexed by search engines.

And we say search engines, but we simply mean Google. According to Statcounter, Google is by far the market leader with about 95% of search traffic. Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo follow with 2.5% and 0.75% respectively. So only Google is – in almost all cases – worth the effort.

SEO therefore means: Optimizing our website so that Google finds it well, indexes it, and gives it a high position in its search results.

Technical SEO optimization: Crawl and Indexing by Google

It is good to first consider what that means: finding well and indexing.

Finding well means that Google knows your website exists and which pages there are. Only then can the search engine send its automatic crawler to map your site. The easiest way to achieve this is by uploading a so-called sitemap in Google’s Search Console. This way, Google knows exactly which pages your website has and how they relate to each other. Very convenient for a little robot that has to map the internet.

Next, Google must index the information on your pages, giving it a place in its own database. This database is what Google then uses to perform searches. By making it as easy as possible for Google to index your pages, you take the first, crucial step towards optimization. This is often called technical SEO.

SEO strategy starts with keyword research

Technical SEO is crucial, but before inviting Google, you first need to find out which keywords are important to you. This is called keyword research.

Keyword research is the foundation of every SEO strategy. With it, you find the most important words your target audience enters into Google and on which you want to be found. You research the competition and use Google Ads Planner to write down as many keywords as possible. Then you decide which keywords you will focus on.

Analyzing keywords: practical example

That sounds simpler than it is. Our client Apex Dynamics, for example, supplies a product that is referred to as a gearbox, gear unit, and reducer. Which do you choose? Many different factors come into play, but basically, we look at:

• Competition – how likely is it that I can rank for this
• Volume – how many people search with this keyword
• Intent – what is my target audience searching for

Especially the last one adds complexity: intent. In the case of Apex Dynamics, it is not difficult to assess the value of the search terms ‘buy gearbox’ or ‘sell gearbox’. But what is someone searching for who enters ‘quality gearbox’ and what is that person looking for on my site? And what do I gain from that?

Fortunately, we have many tools to answer these questions, not least Google itself. By entering a keyword, you see the current winners. Check these competitors and determine which actual question(s) they answer. These sites rank highest because they – according to Google – provide the best answer to the real question of the searcher. Is your product or service the answer to that question? Then you have found a winner.

Result of keyword research

From the keyword research, in the case of a new campaign, somewhere between 5 and 25 keywords with associated search volumes and intent emerge. These are the keywords that will be central in the implementation in the coming weeks or months.

Combining keyword research and technical SEO

So far, you have worked on the foundation; you have determined the most important keywords and ensured that Google can find your site. Now you need to make sure Google associates your site with the most important keywords. We do this by combining keyword research and technical SEO.

You can make technical SEO as complex as you want. But the basics are actually quite simple: make sure Google can quickly and easily determine what your page is about. That means:

• Provide a clear title (with your keyword in it)
• Write readable text and provide Google with a short summary
• Use clear subheadings to indicate what paragraphs are about
• Use the correct technical tags: title, h1, h2

Advanced: Want to take the next step immediately? Then make sure your internal (link) structure clearly shows how your site thinks about the hierarchy between the different keywords.

So review all pages and articles on your site and ensure you apply the above on every page. Chances are you will already see the first results of your efforts.

Content marketing is crucial in Search Engine Optimization

Your foundation is now in order. You know which keywords are important, and you have set up the technology so Google understands that your website is about those keywords. But you don’t yet appear on the first page, let alone the top 3. What is still missing?

What is content marketing

Content marketing is creating and distributing valuable and relevant content with the ultimate goal of attracting or retaining a clear target audience.

And since we are talking about SEO in this article, it should be clear how we want to distribute the content: Google.

You are going to create content where your keywords take center stage.

This can be anything; videos, articles, podcasts, illustrations, infographics, photos, or whatever. As long as you build it so Google can effortlessly understand which keywords it concerns.

By regularly publishing content around your most important keywords, Google will associate your website with those topics. This builds authority and shows Google that there is a good chance people will find the answer they are looking for on your website.

What is good content marketing

We could easily write ten articles about good content marketing. But the basics of good content for SEO are:

• Come up with a catchy title (with your keyword in it)
• Write at least 500 words
• Include at least one internal and one external link
• Include an image
• Avoid huge blocks of text but use headings and formatting to break it up

That’s it! If you regularly publish content that meets these relatively simple requirements, you have an advantage over 95% of the market.

SEO Strategy for the long term

Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy, and the winner is often the one with the longest breath. Almost every company can publish two articles around a keyword in a month, but winners publish 60 articles over five years.

And that makes sense. A company starting with SEO often only sees the first results of their efforts after several months. And only after a year or even longer do they realize: this is a really good investment! For many companies, it is therefore much easier to just stand at a trade show again.

But this causes companies to leave important assets unused. Does your website (domain name) exist for more than 10 years, or do you have hundreds (or even thousands) of pages with product information and articles on the shelf? Then the chance that you can start an SEO strategy cost-effectively is enormous. By following the steps in this article, you can lay the foundation for future success yourself.