6 Steps to Creating an SEO Strategy & Tips for Growing Website Traffic Organically

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It refers tohow high your website ranks on search engines when a user enters aparticular word or phrase into the search bar.


Learn more about SEO in our blog post on 7 SEO Tips for Business Owners, Professional Practices, and Entrepreneurs

How to Create an SEO Strategy

It'simportant to create a plan before starting any sort of SEO. The more you knowbeforehand, the better it will be implemented and thus, provide a better result. There arefour different aspects of SEO:

• technical:How well your content can be read and tagged by search engines
  
• content: Havingthe most relevant answers to a searchers questions
  
• on-site:Having all content, titles, and pages of your website optimized for your targetkeywords
  
• off-site:Having a large number of reputable websites link back to your website
  

Together, these four aspects of SEO can help increase yourpages visibility and traffic. To create an effective SEO strategy, you willneed to have access to the back end of your website so you can edit andinput new content, titles, and pages that are connected to your relevant tags.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Current Standing

Chances are your website has been up and running for awhile, but it’s not getting the traffic you want, or it's not providing a high turnover for newclients. Starting at the Home page, look through each page and read each pieceof content. Your website should have a consistent flow that brings a user to the answer for their question (within 2 clicks). If your website is takingtoo long to answer these questions, you will likely have a high bounce rate - andyour website will start to be downgraded on Google and other search engines.Search engines want to find online searchers the right information right away.When the search engine crawlers see that a user is quickly bouncing back from your website,it indicates that there is unnecessary, or wrong information, on your page –taking away all credibility.


Ask Yourself: Do I even have any SEO Strategiesimplemented on my website? What is my bounce rate? Can I find the answer tocommon questions within 2 clicks? If your answer is no to any of these, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Find Your Topics

Now, we are going to begin creating your new SEO Strategy. The first thing you need to do is to create your idealclient. Decide on their:

• Age
  
• Education
  
• Job
  
• Annual income
  
• Likes
  
• Hobbies
  
• Family life
  
• Location

Once you've created your ideal client, you can then do abit of role play. Have them come to you for services. Put yourself in yourideal clients' shoes, and think about the topics that you may discuss and anyquestions they may have. From this, you should be able to decide on common topics. If you're a dentist, those common questions may include topics around: Pediatric Dentistry, EmergencyDental Care, & Insurance Policy, just to name a few. Compile your common topicsinto a list and don’t forget about your ideal client!

Ask Yourself: What are the main issues my target audiencefaces? What questions do they have?

Step 3: Find Your Keywords

From your list of common topics in Step 2, you are nowgoing to go through and find about 10 keywords for each topic. For example, forour topic of Pediatric Dentistry, some of our keywords would be:

• Pediatric Dentistry near me
  
• Pediatric Dentistry forchildren with Autism
  
• Pediatric Dentistry in "city"
  
• Pediatric Dentistry
  
• Pediatric Dentist
  
• When to take my child to the dentist
  
• Children’s Dentist
  
• Kids Dentist
  
• Children’s Dentist Near Me
  
• Kids Dentist No Insurance
  

Your list can get very long, but a good place to stop is10. You may or may not even use all 10 keywords if they don’t organically fitonto your website’s pages. The easiest way to find your keywords is simply bysearching. A great free tool is Keyword Tool.io.

Ask Yourself: What are the 10 best keywords associatedwith each topic & with each service you offer?

Step 4: Build Your Pages

Now that you’ve got your topics and keywords selected, all that’sleft is to build your website's pages. Each topic you created will be its own page, unless it has a topic that is directly related to it - you can then merge the topics into one page. Don’t forget that less ismore.

Now, remember those keywords we listed, you want to usethem organically in your content. Be sure to also include your location in the content and keywords of your website. Your content should be created with the user in mind, not thesearch engine.

Ask Yourself: Is this relevant information that is goingto help solve the problem that I have defined?

Step 5: Create a Reputation Building Plan

Google and online reviews are crucial in the modern world- They can essentially make or break your business. To keep your businessahead, it’s important to take control of your online reputation. If you haven’talready, register your business for the free online reviewplatforms/directories.

Check out this post for the FULL List of Free OnlineDirectories

Once you’ve registered and updated all accurateinformation, start to ask your clients to leave you a review. Search enginesconsider reviews when boosting websites to the top of the search query. Basically,think of a review as someone saying to Google “Yes, this website is legit, andthis business does what they say”.


Ask Yourself: When was the last time a client left me areview?

Step 6: Reevaluate & Analyze

Every month or so, take a look at how your websiteperformed. You should be able to see where your users are coming from (socialmedia, Google, etc.) and which words they are using to find you. You can take alook at your list of keywords that you previously made, and swap some ofthe less popular ones. Every day, the way people search online changes, to keepyour business relevant, you need to stay on top of your content and keywords. Keeping your websitemodernized and accurate is one of the best ways to ensure steady growth.

Ask Yourself: What worked for me, and what didn’t?

How to Grow Your Website Traffic Organically

Aim for the Right Keywords

Go through the content on your website page by page. Justlike you organize your offices' files, you organize your website's content bythe following headings:

• Keep
  
• Improve
  
• Merge
  
• Delete
  

If your website has a lot of text and large chunks ofcontent, chances are you are going to have a lot to eliminate and merge. Don’tforget to answer only the basic questions that clients have, and save the morein-depth questions for phone call or in-person visit.

Start Checking Analytics

Depending on your service provider, you may already have access to your website's analytics. The data found on your analytics page is crucial – it can tell you exactly what is working for you and what is causing users to leave your page and go back to searching. Check your analytics monthly, your website should have a steady monthly growth. If not, it's time to make some changes. The best place to start is by checking page behavior, and the time spent on pages. If the time spent on a page is low, then you need to go through the elimination process listed above.

Google Analytics is a free tool for users who don’t have access to their website's analytics. Dr. Marketing also offers monthly data reports right to your inbox, as well as access to the analytics page for your website. You are able to track & observe the performance of your website. 

Other Free Tools

There are other online free tools you can use totrack the performance of your website. One of our favorites is SEMrush – this pagehelps you see how your website’s SEO strategy is performing. You can see whereyour website is ranking on search engines with a particular keyword – as wellas which keywords are connected to each page and how that page ranks. You can find hundreds of online tools to help improve the SEO and ranking of your website - but the key is how you use them. Keeping track of your analytics and setting goals is the best way to ensure the growth of your business!

Optimize for Users

When implementing any SEO strategies, be sure to usetactics that are organic to users, not search engines. The thing about organictraffic is that it needs to be organic. Users need to be stumbling upon yourwebsite because your content matches the criteria they are searching for. When writing your websites content, take a quick look at your keywords list and your topics - be sure to refer back and see how you can implement them in your writing. Don't forget the simple rule of less is more.

Search engine optimization is a process – and it takes time and effort to get it right. There are small quick action moves that you can take today to improve your website. However, if you're looking to improve the lifetime usability, you need to create a strategy. Start by downloading our free SEO Strategy Worksheet (found above). As you work through it, you will strategically and successfully update your website to reach more potential clients and to increase your website's traffic.

Of course, if you don't have time to do this yourself, you can always hire someone else to do it for you... preferably someone who specializes in your industry. We are your online marketing specialists. Dr. Marketing offers custom websites, domain names & transfers, directory listing management, custom & secure webmail, SEO, and more. We specialize in working with dental, legal, and finance firms. For a free 1-hour consultation, please schedule an appointment by calling our office with the call now button below. We look forward to taking your business to a new level.