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Today, organic or natural search results/referencing drive more than 50% of the website’s traffic. This is why more and more businesses are returning to search engine optimization or SEO and SEO management to grow their revenue and business. SEO management is an area of corporate marketing strategy. It is up to the digital marketing manager to set it up in this regard; it is also sometimes a mission entrusted to external agencies specializing in SEO.
Whether familiar with or new to SEO, this article provides all the information you need to build an SEO strategy or invest in professional SEO management services. Keep reading to learn more about SEO and SEO management!
What is SEO?
SEO, also known as SEO, improves your visibility in applicable search engine results pages (SERPs) on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It uses a set of strategies and techniques to boost your visibility, which can lead to increased traffic to your website.
SEO doesn't deliver results overnight compared to other digital marketing strategies, such as paid search, email marketing, or social media advertising. It can take several months for SEO to show results. These results, however, are often worth the wait.
Digital marketing for retail and e-commerce
For example, our clients have made tens of millions of euros from our strategies. We have also used SEO to generate thousands of leads, phone calls, and transactions for our clients over the past five years.
What is SEO Management?
SEO management can refer to how your company or agency manages your SEO strategy. Under SEO management, your team or agency has designed, directed, and modified your strategy to maximize your results and achieve your marketing, sales, and business goals.
Many in-house marketing departments have multiple responsibilities and lack SEO training. It is, therefore, common for companies to invest in professional SEO management services. A recent study, for example, found that 55% of businesses partnered with an SEO agency.
With SEO management, your team or agency has designed, directed and modifies your strategy to optimize your results and achieve your marketing, sales and business objectives.
Overall, whether your business partners with an agency or manages your strategy in-house, it's essential to understand what SEO management includes. This way, you can lay the foundation for a competitive revenue-generating strategy for your business.
Four steps to successful SEO management
To create a successful SEO strategy, you must be successful in SEO management. Even if you're partnering with an experienced SEO agency, such as WebFX, it helps to understand how SEO management works.
The four steps to successful SEO management include:
1. AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Companies that excel in SEO have a deep understanding of their audience. They have researched and understand what their target market wants from their business, product or service. These companies also know the common questions and problems of their target audience.
To succeed in SEO management, you must understand your target market at this level. Invest your time in researching your target market and answering the following questions:
- What problems does my product or service solve for users?
- What issues does my target market have with other vendors?
- What demographics does my target audience generate?
- Where does my target market go when they have problems or questions?
Even if you have developed marketing personas for your target audience, it is worth reassessing your past research. Consumers can change over time. If you use outdated marketing personas, your SEO strategy may fall apart, which doesn't help you and your business. Once your audience is researched, you can take the next step of launching your plan.
2. COMPETITION ANALYSIS
A competitor analysis can offer extremely interesting information. This is why it is at the heart of SEO management. Whether you partner with an SEO agency or lead the initiative in-house, incorporate competitor analysis into your plan. Look at direct and indirect competitors during a competitive analysis.
For competitor analysis, it is useful to consider the following types of competitors:
- Direct Competitors: These are businesses that have asked you to compete offline and online. You probably already have a list of direct competitors to reference. Now you want to look at their online presence and their investment in SEO.
- Indirect Competitors: These are companies you compete with in search results. For example, two manufacturing companies may compete for the "local manufacturing companies" search term despite producing different products.
As part of the analysis of your competitors, you will then determine the SEO strategy of these companies. In some cases, you may find that a direct competitor does not have an SEO strategy. This is where indirect competitors can help, as most of them owe their rankings in search results to SEO.
If you are new to SEO, this one introduced several aspects of SEO techniques. This is where the know-how of an SEO agency like WebFX becomes invaluable. Thanks to the experience of our team, we can quickly assess the status of your direct and indirect competitors.
Additionally, we have access to various tools to streamline this process. In comparison, in-house SEO management (and departmental budgets) can limit your team. These limitations can directly impact the quality and results of your competitors' analysis, which can influence your SEO strategy.
3. WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
With your target market and key competitors researched, your business can begin optimizing your website for search. This process can take time. So approach this task with checkpoints or realistic goals.
For example, if you have 25 pages on your site, it's probably impossible for your team to optimize them in a month. You have additional responsibilities, although some companies solve this problem by using website SEO services.
This service, offered by WebFX, provides your business with SEO-optimized text specific to your brand. Even if your business uses this service, it's important to remember that results still take time. However, publishing your optimized content sooner can help you see those results sooner.
If you're optimizing your content internally, focus on using your targeted keyword in several places:
A Checklist for Optimizing SEO Management H3
- Title tag: A title tag appears in search results. This is the title of your page and should tie readers into clicking on your website. Your title tag should also use your targeted keyword.
- Meta description: A meta description also appears in search results. This is your page description, and expand your title to motivate users to visit your site. Like your title tag, your meta description should include your targeted and related keywords.
- Headings: Your headings display on your page, dividing your content into organized sections. For best results, you should use your keywords in your headings. In some cases, however, you cannot for readability reasons.
- Images: a page should contain useful images for users. Images can improve your page's readability and the reader's understanding of complex topics. The image filename and the image alt text should use your keyword if that makes sense.
- Content: Your page content provides readers with what they're looking for, whether it's answers to product questions or general views on services. It is crucial to use your keywords naturally within your paragraphs for better readability.
When optimizing your content, it's essential that your team follow SEO best practices. This means avoiding, for example, keyword stuffing and other “black hat” tactics that can prevent your business from appearing at the top of search results.
MONTHLY REPORT
Like other digital marketing strategies, SEO uses data. With your website data, you can measure the success and performance of your SEO strategy. Plus, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions on your next action.
If you partner with an SEO agency, such as WebFX, you can expect to receive monthly reports from your dedicated account manager. Sometimes, you may need to monitor your SEO strategy once a week, which you can do with our team.
Even if you decide to outsource your SEO management in-house, you want to establish a routine program to check and measure the performance of your strategy. A monthly or weekly basis is the industry standard. This is why many companies follow this schedule.
Regardless of your approach to reporting, whether with the expertise of an agency like WebFX or the resources of your internal team, integrate reporting into your SEO management. It can inform and improve your strategy and add value to business decision-makers.
Final Words
Having an SEO manager is always a good idea, but you need to know what tasks to delegate. We looked at that in this article. If you have experience in this area, let us know. You can also choose Monovm for many services and consultations.
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I'm fascinated by the IT world and how the 1's and 0's work. While I venture into the world of Technology, I try to share what I know in the simplest way with you. Not a fan of coffee, a travel addict, and a self-accredited 'master chef'.