What is your optimisation process?
What approach do you currently have in place to help SEO generate you more traffic?
I ask this because I want you to avoid a pitfall that I see clients often get themselves into.
It’s the mistake of viewing SEO as a check-box – something that’s done on a site right before new pages are launched.
This is a common misconception people have about SEO – that it’s ‘something’ that’s done before the launch of pages.
The typical approach when publishing new pages, is to have SEO come in right at the end of the production phase to ‘optimise’ the pages right before they’re published.
I tend to smile at this way of thinking about SEO because it clearly indicates that the awareness of SEO within the business is quite low, needs improvement, needs to be optimised.
I find that some non-SEOs think of SEO in a linear sense.
They view SEO as a bolt-on and simply attach it to the end of their optimisation process.
This is a mistake you’ll want to avoid.
When SEO is attached to the end of the production process, the areas where improvements can be made are limited to just the website.
But wait, you may say. The website is what we’re optimising. SEO is being carried out for the website.
Yes – SEO is carried out for the website.
However, the optimisation doesn’t begin with the website.
It begins well before pages are published on your site.
You wouldn’t create pages on your site without thoroughly planning the pages you want to create, would you?
You would, of course, know the template you’ll be using for the pages, you’ll know the audience the pages are for, you’ll know the Copy that should be written for the pages. You’ll know a lot of things about the pages a long way away from when the pages are published.
This level of thinking, consideration, must be given to SEO.
And must be given with sufficient time in place – i.e. from the moment other channels/departments are briefed.
Rather than having SEO added-in right before the publication of pages, think of SEO as a channel that must be incorporated within your existing process.
So, for example, if your current process is as follows:
- Project brief, content creation, wireframes design, build, SEO, and then publication
You’ll want to update this so you have SEO within the different stages. So, you would have:
- Project brief with SEO in the room – don’t leave SEO out. Content creation with SEO. Wireframes design with SEO. Build with SEO. And indeed, publication with SEO
SEO is required throughout your production process, not towards the end of it.
This will allow the various departments to have SEO integrated so the optimisation is streamlined.
This integration is SEO. It’s improving your website by planning its success with the most important channel you can invest in to acquire you traffic. S. E. O.
You see…?
If you viewed SEO as just a final stop before publication – think again.
This could be the reason why you’re struggling with the channel.
The way you’re wielding it needs an update. It needs improvement. It needs optimisation.
You see, there are levels to this here SEO thing.
Carrying out SEO for your site is one level.
And this is a good level. You can accomplish a lot with this level of improvement.
When you really want to have SEO going, you optimise your assets, people, your teams. You optimise the way non-SEOs engage with SEOs.
You have this in place to plan and streamline the way you succeed with your website.
This is, afterall, marketing. Digital Marketing. Isn’t it?
A mistake clients make with their digital marketing, is they don’t consider how best to market with SEO.
SEO is still seen as a mystic art.
Heck, marketers still barely knows what it stands for, yet alone, how to use it.
It’s convenient to have SEO as a line item and isolated, and/or treated as a bolt-on.
I can assure you this…
In 2022, the better you can integrate SEO with other departments – marketing and non-marketing – the better you’ll be able to succeed with the channel.
SEOs know how to optimise a site to attain traffic via the organic channel.
Non-SEOs tend to be unaware of how this is accomplished. This is understandable. They’re non-SEOs, right?
But here’s the thing…
It takes more than SEOs to make SEO work.
It takes your entire web team – and more, in fact!
Have a look at anyone in your webteam.
If they are unfamiliar with SEO, you may not have a streamlined optimisation process in place.
Succeeding with SEO, in this state, is going to be a constant challenge.
A challenge that really needn’t be a challenge.
If most of the optimisation you have going on is on a website level, this is a problem you’ll want to tackle.
The sooner you address and tackle this problem, the better your website can perform.
There is a state of SEO where you can rank highly, and quickly, for whatever keyword you choose to target.
There is a state of SEO where you can publish a page and within a short period of time, it’s seen as an authoritative page within your chosen topic area.
There is a state of SEO where you can dominate in the SERPs in a seemingly easy approach.
When you have an SEO-first Digital Marketing team, with an awareness of SEO spread throughout your business, this state of SEO, across your business, can easily be attained.
