Long-term
SEO Strategy.
90 Days
SEO results can take months
A Long-Term SEO strategy is only as effective as the reporting and analysis behind it. In the last section, we discussed the best practices for Tactical SEO Implementation. The first article in our SEO Best Practices series was on SEO Strategy Development. Once you feel satisfied with the technical and creative on-page SEO implementation, as well as the domain strategy behind your website, you can start tracking the results.
Long-term SEO Strategy Implementation
If this is your first optimization of the site, you should see improvement in the keywords relevant to your business, your overall site health, and the ability for users to navigate to the information they want (UX). Once google understands what your business is about, you should create a follow up strategy to build upon those improvements. The results and corresponding improvements should run in tandem to your on-going content creation strategy. To give google time to crawl and understand your business, we recommend this kickoff to start anywhere between one to three months after your site redesign.
According to the Search Engine Journal, A 2014 case study found that across 3 different niches, total incubation time from zero unique visitors to over 100/day took a total of 4-5 months with regular, quality content creation. The article substantiates our findings, but we suspect the google algorithm has improved, therefore we suggest the shorter turnaround time. The coming paragraphs will outline the results and analysis of your long-term SEO strategy.
Analytical Tools Can Help
Your website might have built-in analytical tools, but we have found that they often lack the depth and breadth needed to understand how your website is performing organically. We often field questions about Shopify and the analytics provided with their e-commerce platform. Shopify has useful metrics to track sales and various aspects of the e-commerce purchasing process, but we have found that there are several issues with their SEO analytics.
Alexandra of Little Data has this useful article with 6 of the top ‘pitfalls’ of Shopify Analytics. One major issue is that many Shopify users are struggling with is linking the Shopify platform with Google, PayPal and other common Analytics tracking tools. Other website platforms, such as Weebly, are suspected of inaccuracies and basic reports without additional paid “Apps.”
Google Analytics should be the SEO foundation for tracking your audience, traffic, and behavior for your site visitors. Some popular metrics include bounce rate, conversions, page load times and visitor devices. Chase Reiner provides a helpful overview of Google Analytics in this YouTube video. The next step is syncing the Google Search Console, previously known as Webmaster Tools.
The Search Console can be a great tool for data highlighting, i.e. structuring your website content data to focus on SEO. The Search Console helps you understand how Google Search sees your site, and is crucial for monitoring web traffic, page rank and the content on your site. Google Trends and Google AdWords are two other google products that can be integrated with Google Analytics and the Google Search Console.
Trends provides insights for what google users are searching for while AdWords will enable you to run paid ads to attract them. At SunCity Advising, we use many other content tools, like SEMRush, to better analyze on-page SEO results. But, if you are looking for AdWords or other internet advertising help, we encourage you to look into our paid digital advertising services.
Keyword Analysis is Critical
If you have done your SEO planning and implementation right, you should start to see irrelevant keywords drop off and relevant keywords start to gain traction. If you are using Google Search Console, this will look like an S curve with a generally upward trending slope.
The number of relevant keywords ranking will depend on the amount of work you did in the implementation stage as well as your product catalog or services offered i.e. the volume of your website. Additional factors that affect these keyword rankings are search volume, competition (keyword difficulty) and the strength of your website. Google will reward a site for strong back-links, overall domain authority and a strong technical health score, so it is important to spend time improving your site speed and your domain strategy.
SEO Analysis Summary
Once you start ranking and driving traffic for keywords in or close to the top 10, it is a good idea to review your on-page SEO. A follow up strategy will allow you to take the data you have acquired during the first three months, and start making changes to your content and start linking between pages. You are likely attracting site visitors from various pages so make sure your user experience and your content can drive conversions.
Also, you will want to make sure your pages hall have a call to action to capture leads and begin the customer acquisition process. At SunCity Advising, we cater to a variety of clients with different levels of involvement for SEO Strategy Review and Analysis. Take a look at how our team can help you master your national and local San Diego SEO strategy. If you have questions about your long-term SEO Strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us!
Ivan Reed, CEO
Ivan Reed is the CEO of SunCity Advising. His client portfolio includes successful partnerships with startups, small businesses, medium-sized firms & large corporations. SunCity Advising specializes in developing high performing websites, including services in SEO, paid media advertising, social media, email marketing and other digital marketing solutions.
