Search Engine Acquisition- that process which underpins all of your search engine optimisation strategy, is so significant, it warrants a closer look. How closely you check this, and what action you take next, determines whether you are building your house out of bricks or straw. Thinking back to the primary school story of the three little pigs, I know which cartload of building materials I would rather be using! In the search acquisition introduction page, I gave a brief overview of the process. Search Engine Optimisation relies so much on the acquisition process that we need to take a closer look at the mechanics of search engine acquisition here. Some of the most important tips for search engine optimisation will be found here on this page.
Identify Your Business Goals
This is the beginning of it all- the entire matrix of search engine optimisation revolves around your business goals. You cannot possibly be optimising your website for traffic and conversion if you have no idea what you are asking your visitors to do, or how to define a conversion. You won’t even know a conversion has taken place! Work out what you want as the end result, and keep this firmly in mind as you implement your search engine optimisation strategies. Do you want sales? Signups for a newsletter? Less phone based enquiries? Less people calling your business for answers to questions which could be made available online, thereby liberating your personnel from the phone- letting them sell more to customers? Know the business goals, determine the expectations of the website. More traffic? More leads? More sales?
Know what you will use to measure success.
Assess the market opportunity
You will need to answer questions for all the content which currently exists on your site, as well as all the categories and content you intend to create in the future:
- What are the business goals and conversion goals?
- Who in the target audience is most likely to convert?
- What is your target audience really searching for?
- What searches are most likely to lead to conversions?
- Which content best meets audience needs for the searches you have identified?
- What information will compel those visitors to convert?
Evaluate Your Site Pages – See How They Match Your Content Strategy
Use these guidelines to evaluate pages currently on the site as well as those that will be added, to determine:
- What are you trying to accomplish with each page on the site?
- Who are you trying to attract?
- What is the audience searching for?
- How does the page satisfy that particular search?
- Will the page compel the visitor to convert?
- What is the call to action on that page that will compel the visitor to convert?
Assess the Conversion Potential
Based on your research and business goals, assessment of competitive landscape and known searcher data, you can refine your initial list of target searches further into subsets, or secondary searches.
For example, if you are selling clothing, then the search term “clothing” might be too competitive- and too general- to aim for. If you only sell men’s clothing, there’s no point having your search engine optimisation efforts attracting someone who is searching for ladies’ clothing. Subsets of men’s clothing would be “formal men’s clothing”, “casual men’s clothing”. Don’t refine the terms too tightly, for example “men’s blue short sleeve shirts with 2 mil green stripes and red press studs” will most likely not generate a lot of interest.
Create a Tactical Plan
By now you should have identified your core set of searches, and had a thorough scout of the competitive landscape. Somewhere in the mix you would have determined the actions you would like the visitors to your site to take, and you will need to be mindful of this when developing your content strategy. Search engine optimisation brings the visitors to your site, it’s now up to the website do complete the task when the visitor arrives.
Monitor Progress- Measure the Effectiveness of All Your Hard Work
Search Engine Optimisation is something that has an effect on your critical numbers which can be measured in almost real time. Reporting software of varying complexities can track visitor behaviour and present you with a report as simple or as detailed as you want. A search engine optimisation campaign is something that’s in a constant state of evolution. You will need to monitor search metrics, and adjust your content presentation based on the search query strings you are attracting and the visitor metrics, after your reporting feature lets you know what’s working, and what’s not!
Creating Searcher Personas
In search engine optimisation, you are at a distinct advantage if you can determine the persona of your searchers. A persona is a highly detailed description of an individual who embodies the key characteristics (goals and behaviours) of your target customers. Accurately defined personas will be the driving force behind the choice of web design direction, product design, and more. The more detail your determination of searcher personas and the query categories contain, the more successful your content and strategy development will be. Couple this with outstanding search engine optimisation, and your streets could be paved with gold!