How to Build a Successful Long-term SEO Strategy

How to Build a Search Engine Optimization Strategy that Lasts

Creating an SEO strategy can feel overwhelming. It’s like the opening scenes in Bridgerton, with all the young debutantes being presented to the Queen, hoping to win her favor during the social season in the ’Ton. Only in this case, your website is the debutante and the Queen is Google. So how do you create a strategy that is simply flawless, my dear?

You can take the approach of Lady Featherington, always scheming and looking for the quickest and most advantageous marriage. Sure, you’ll have some wins, but ultimately your strategy will leave you empty-handed and you’ll spend most of your time scheming to get back to the top of the search engine result pages. Instead, take a page from Daphne Bridgerton and look for love, take matters into your own hands, and do the work to create a marriage that will go down in the Netflix history books.

There is no single action that will consistently keep your website content optimized or automatically put you on the first page of Google. In order to get results that help you increase your search engine visibility and reach your website goals, you need to put in the work and create a sustainable strategy.

Here’s How to Build a Successful Long-term SEO Strategy:

Develop Common Goals ✅

Would you date someone who has completely different values and goals in life? A relationship typically isn’t going to work if your dream is to have five children when your partner would rather have none. You need to be on the same page.

When it comes to your website, you and your team need to align your goals. Doing this will help you identify what is most important and how to focus your efforts. Some of the most common SEO goals are:

• Increase organic traffic to your website
• Rank on page one for specific keywords
• Increase brand recognition
• Increase lead generation

If you, your team, and your stakeholders aren’t aligned toward a common goal, then your strategy isn’t going to last and you won’t see consistent results.

Put in the Work 💪

You aren’t going to have a strong relationship if you aren’t spending time together, paying for your share or being there for your significant other. You have to show up. Relationships fall apart if you aren’t putting in the work to make each other happy.

The same is to be said about your SEO strategy. You have to actually do keyword and competitive research, optimize your title tags, provide fresh and original content, and continuously review your work in order to see results.

Knowing where to start can be part of the battle. Don’t try to implement everything at once, you won’t be able to identify which strategy is impacting your search visibility the most. Instead, we recommend a phased approach when executing your SEO strategy.

And most importantly? Don’t ghost your SEO strategy. Good things take time, so continue to put in the work and you’ll see results.

Communication is Key 🔑

We know communication is important. Communicating with your significant other is crucial to solving problems, knowing that you’re on the same page, and feeling connected. The same can be said about your SEO strategy.

I’m not suggesting that you sit down and have a one-on-one with your computer monitor about feelings. But your website can talk to you through the use of Google Analytics, Search Console, and SEO tools like Moz or SEMRush.

Here are four common things to keep track of:

• How much time are users spending on the website?
• How many pages on average are they visiting?
• What pages are attracting the most organic traffic?
• What keywords are you ranking for?

Keep the Romance Alive 💐

It’s easy to fall into a routine once you’ve gotten comfortable with your partner, but you still need to keep the romance alive by having date nights or surprising them with their favorite food.

Just like you need to set time aside for your better half, you also need to set aside time to evaluate what’s happening to your website and to determine if you’re actually reaching your goals. We recommend reviewing your website and analytics monthly to determine what’s working and where you need to adjust your strategy.

Feeling connected will allow you to tie your efforts back to your overall goal.