Wondering how to choose the right SEO approach for your business? I get it – search engine optimization seems complicated with so many potential strategies.
But boosting your search visibility doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In this post, I’ll go over the key types of SEO strategies and help you identify the best fit for your specific business situation. Sound good? Let’s dig in!
Weighing Your Business Goals
Before determining SEO strategy, you need clarity on what you want to accomplish through search.
Do you mainly want to…
- Get more traffic to your website?
- Generate more qualified sales leads?
- Build awareness for your brand?
- Establish thought leadership in your niche?
Defining your core SEO goals guides which strategy will deliver the results that matter most.
For example, if you run an ecommerce site, bringing in traffic and conversions is probably top priority. That points to tactics like keyword targeting and optimizing product pages.
On the other hand, if you offer B2B consulting services, you might prioritize lead generation and positioning your brand as an authority. So thought leadership content would take center stage.
Think through the outcomes that will contribute most to business growth – then match SEO efforts to driving those results.
Evaluating Your Resources
Now consider what resources you can allocate to SEO. This determines how extensive your strategy can be.
Ask questions like:
- Who on our team can contribute to SEO execution and content creation?
- What’s our budget for SEO software, tools, freelancers or agencies?
- How much time can we devote to initiatives like content production and link building outreach?
If resources are tight, you’ll need to focus on SEO essentials that deliver the most bang for buck. I’ll cover some of those shortly.
With ample resources, you can implement a broader strategy – like producing different content formats, pursuing advanced link building tactics, and integrating conversion optimizations.
Bottom line – scope your strategy to match the people, budget and time available to execute successfully long-term.
Your Current SEO Situation
What’s going on with your SEO currently? Getting clear on your starting point helps determine where to focus first.
Gather insights on:
- Your current organic traffic and search rankings – where you rank for target keywords
- Any technical issues flagged in Google Search Console like site errors or security warnings
- If your website follows SEO best practices for site architecture, URL structure, page speed, etc.
- Your existing website content – quantity, topics covered, optimization
Assessing strengths, gaps and pain points guides priority needs. For example, if you see pages dropping in rankings, fixing technical problems becomes crucial.
Start with your website’s SEO status quo before layering on new strategies.
Choosing SEO Strategies Based on Business Profile
The specifics of your business model also impact the ideal SEO approach. Let’s explore strategies suited for different company types.
Local Businesses
Brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants, professional services, etc. benefit from a local SEO focus:
- Target keywords by adding your city like “Indian restaurant Denver”
- Build local links from directories, sponsors, neighborhood sites
- Get customers posting reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp
- Ensure your NAP (name, address, phone) details are consistent across directories
- Produce content about your local community
Optimizing for search visibility in your geographic area brings in nearby customers.
Ecommerce Sites
Driving conversions makes or breaks ecommerce SEO:
- Research buyer keywords around products, comparisons, discounts, etc.
- Craft optimized product detail pages showcasing your items
- Produce shopping guides, gift ideas, how-to content to attract shoppers
- Sync up Google Shopping listings with your product inventory
- Follow ecommerce technical best practices for site speed, UX, etc.
Focus on delivering shoppers ready to purchase to your virtual shelves.
Service Businesses
Lead generation is key for consultants, agencies, accountants and the like:
- Target informational keywords around expertise like “incorporate as an LLC” for legal services
- Blog extensively about addressing client needs and overcoming problems
- Highlight credentials and client case studies to build authority
- Gate gated assets like ebooks and checklists with lead forms
- Publish videos that potential customers would find helpful
Position your know-how and add value to nurture lucrative leads.
Enterprise Companies
Major corporations need to manage complex SEO at scale:
- Conduct technical and content audits to identify priority needs
- Build internal SEO teams or partner with SEO agencies
- Develop extensive content strategies with different formats and funnel stages
- Implement structured optimization and linking workflows across divisions
- Connect SEO KPIs to lead generation and pipeline to demonstrate ROI
Robust processes, governance and resources allow maximizing search visibility.
This overview shows how SEO strategies align with specific business models and goals. Let’s now get into some of the tactics and best practices.
SEO Quick Wins for Early Results
Want to jumpstart your SEO while establishing long-term strategies? These high-impact quick wins provide initial traction:
🏆 Fix technical issues flagged by Google Search Console like crawl errors, broken links or security warnings. Technical problems severely impact performance.
🏆 Improve site speed through optimizations like compressed images, caching, lazy loading. Faster websites rank better and engage visitors.
🏆 Boost your backlink profile by creating resources worth linking to, like online tools and research content. More referral links signal authority.
🏆 Produce pillar content that targets buyer keywords and answers core questions to become a resource. Lengthy, comprehensive content tends to perform well.
🏆 Prune low-quality pages like thin blog posts or pages with little traffic. Consolidate authority into fewer quality pages.
Chasing quick wins generates momentum while also laying the foundation for long-term results.
Sustained SEO Success Strategies
Once you’ve grabbed some short-term gains, executing more advanced SEO strategies sustains growth over months and years.
Holistic Technical SEO
Tighten up overall website architecture and performance.
- Ensure 100% mobile responsiveness
- Enable secured HTTPS URLs
- Improve page speed times under 3 seconds
- Fix broken links and steer clear of penalties
Building a technically sound site prevents major pitfalls.
Authoritative Content
Publish content that establishes expertise and solves problems:
- Target informational keywords that attract qualified prospects
- Demonstrate deep domain knowledge with statistics, expert perspectives, research
- Address common pain points and questions from different buyer journey stages
- Update evergreen content consistently over time
Valuable content earns trust, engagement and backlinks.
Conversion Optimization
Remove friction in user journeys to maximize conversions:
- Simplify navigation to make key pages easy to find
- Improve page loading speeds – under 2 seconds is best
- Ensure forms are short, simple and mobile friendly
- Include credible social proof like ratings, reviews and trust badges
Smoothing on-site experiences improves conversion rate optimization (CRO).
Advanced Link Building
Diversifying backlink sources boosts rankings:
- Create linkable assets like tools, datasets and research reports
- Reach out to industry influencers for backlinks
- Publish on niche sites and aggregate sites like Medium
- Participate in relevant online communities to build network
Securing links from diverse authoritative sites increases domain authority.
Rinse and repeat these strategies, measuring what drives impact. Now let’s discuss how to track efforts.
Monitoring SEO Performance
Analytics provide the crucial feedback loop to refine efforts over time. Key metrics to track include:
- Ranking movements for core keywords
- Search referral traffic
- Click-through rates on search listings
- Pages indexed in search engines
- Backlinks gained and new referring domains
- Site speed and mobile responsiveness scores
- Lead and sale conversion rates
Leverage tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and SEMRush to collect data, then course correct based on insights.
Let’s Recap – Choosing the Right SEO Strategy
The key steps to picking an effective SEO strategy are:
- Define your business goals – what you want SEO to achieve
- Realistically scope strategy to your budget and resources
- Assess your current SEO situation and identify gaps
- Align tactics with your business model – ecommerce, service, etc.
- Quickly pursue some “quick win” activities for early momentum
- Implement long-term strategies like content and conversion optimization
- Track quantitative metrics to continuously refine efforts
Adapting SEO to your unique business context is crucial. I hope these tips give you clarity for getting started!
And remember – improving search visibility takes sustained execution. Be patient and focus on providing real value to searchers. The results will come.
Now go show those search engines what you’re made of! Wishing you SEO success.