Revivify Your SEO Campaign In 7 Easy Steps

The primary source of traffic for most of the websites in search engines. The Forrester Research report of last year clearly shows that search engines are #1 traffic source for webmasters.

SEO is the art of optimizing the website for better search engine rankings. The aim of an SEO campaign is to improve your website’s traffic reach. But yet, blatant SEO (by just building links and pumping out content) is not good. The ultimate goal is to sell your product and services and gain conversions. For doing so, you need to pay special attention to your SEO plan. You need to ensure that you have a plan that encompasses all aspects of SEO – right from audience discovery to goal conversion.

If you have been running an SEO campaign for some time and have not been seeing ROI, here are few easy tips that can help revive your SEO campaign –

1. Set A Conversion Goal

One of the primary reasons why you might not be seeing good ROI is because you do not know what you want your website visitors to do. Yes, as simple this might sound, most webmasters do not have a clearly defined conversion goal. Make sure you have one. Make sure you know what to expect of your website visitors and what you want them to do. Just getting a lot of visitors, without employing proper techniques to secure conversions, is futile.

What Is A Conversion Goal?

When a website visitor takes an extra step, besides just browsing your website, it is called a conversion. For a dental website, it could be to request an appointment. For a health supplement website, it could be to order a trial sample. For a web design website, it could be to request for a free project estimate. And so on.

A campaign without a conversion goal can never be successful. So make sure you have a valid conversion goal right from the start.

2. Re-Check Your Keywords

Are you using the keywords that get a lot of traffic? Good for you! But are they ‘buyer keywords’?

Each search term has a different intent behind it. Let’s say you have a website that sells ‘yard signs’. There can be different search terms used for reaching your website. For instance –

1. a user searching for ‘yard signs’ is looking to find websites that deal with yard signs. His intent is not clear – he may or may not buy. He may be searching for information alone.
2. a user searching for ‘yard signs reviews’ is definitely looking for information. He might be considering to buy yard signs in the future.
3. a user searching for ‘buy yard signs online’ is the buyer. He wants to buy it and he wants to buy it (comparatively) soon. This search phrase ‘buy yard signs online’ is your buyer keyword.

Case 1 and case 2 might send more traffic. But type 3 users are those who would actually buy from your website. They are the ones that would provide the conversion.

Focus on ‘buyer keywords’. The number of visitors is secondary. It is the number of conversions that matter.

3. Reverse-Lookup Your Competitors’ Keywords

A great place to start your keyword research is to identify those keywords that your competitors are using. Spyfu.com is a great resource.

It comes handy when you want to reverse-lookup your competitors to see what keywords they are using. You will be able to see your competitor’s paid as well as organic keywords.

You can then use this data to re-create your target keyword list. If you see a keyword that has buyer intent attached to it, you need to focus on those specific keywords.

4. Identify Link Sources

Use a tool like MajesticSEO or Ahrefs.com to see what websites are linking to your competitors. Make a list of domains that link to your competitors.

Also note the kind of link they have got – whether from a blog post, a comment, from a resource page or something else. Filter the websites based on the kind of links they send out. Approach each of these with appropriate content (posts, comments, resource information, etc.) and try and secure a backlink.

Attracting links from authority websites can quickly outrank your competitors. These links can help your website break into the top spots of the search engine results page. This is where most of the traffic is.

5. Increase The Size Of Your Website

One of the best ways to increase your website’s authority is to increase its size. Optimizing a single page of website content is tough. Adding relevant pages and expanding on your topic through various sub-pages is required.

I usually recommend creating several content pages per target keyword. Say if your primary keyword is ‘Buy Furniture Online’ then creating 3-4 pages that can link to and expand on the subject would help. See the graphic below –

Adding a blog section and regularly updating it is also a good strategy. Ask your SEO company to include blog post creation and submission strategy in your SEO campaign.

6. Being Social Is A Must

Social presence can generate revenue and a secondary stream of traffic. Strong social presence also correlates well with higher search engine rankings. Make sure you have a profile on at least 2-3 social media websites.

If you operate a local business website then submit your website and business details to local directories. make use of directories like Yelp, CitySearch, HotFrog, etc.

7. Improve Click-Throughs Through Schema Markup

Schema.org has collaborated with major search engines to better organize data in search engines. It can be used to highlight your business in search engine results. It can showcase your testimonials, geographic location and other features in search engine results. Schema.org has a dedicated local business section. You can find Schema markup for a variety of different businesses here – http://schema.org/LocalBusiness

Another commonly used markup is Google authorship. Implementing it is fairly easy as compared to other Schema markups. If you have a Google+ profile, you can visit Google+ Authorship page to get started.

By proper use of Schema markup in your website design, your website can stand out in search results and attract more clicks.

SEO is a long-term strategy. It does take some time before you start seeing positive and significant improvements. But yet, if you are not seeing enough improvement after 3-4 months of SEO, you definitely need to re-think your strategy. The points above should help in the revival of your SEO campaign.