A Comprehensive Guide to SEO Process: Step by Step

This article provides a step-by-step guide to generating meaningful business results through an evidence-based, empathy-based SEO and content process. Learn how to optimize your website for search engines with keyword research tools.

A Comprehensive Guide to SEO Process: Step by Step
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process of improving a website's ranking in organic search results. It requires a holistic approach to address all elements that can affect SEO performance. A successful SEO process involves keyword research, technical audit, content audit, page optimization, and content marketing. This article provides a step-by-step guide to generating meaningful business results through an evidence-based, empathy-based SEO and content process.

The SEO process in digital marketing begins with a two-way interview, a question and answer session to address account setup and administrative procedures, and most importantly, identify the key players in your digital marketing team. It's always a bit of a back-and-forth communication process between the SEO professional (business owner) and the webmaster or web development staff.

Defining relevant keywords is the first step to creating web content optimized for search engines. Keyword research tools reveal how many users are searching for a particular term, how difficult it is to rank for that term, and what related terms people use to find information online. Keyword research helps you discover which keywords are most valuable to you and also helps you discover location-specific keywords to help you locate your SEO strategy.

After keyword selection, it's time to start thinking about your content. Make sure it has an SEO friendly URL, uses navigation paths, and is more complete than any other page on the subject (be sure to check out competitor pages in the top 10 positions). You want to write content that people interact with and share (and that Google indexes and rewards with excellent rankings). If you haven't already, be sure to read Ron Lieback's 47 tips for mastering SEO writing.

After adding new, high-quality content, we tackled page optimization. See our article on Page Optimization Basics for more information on this topic. A technical audit should be thorough and take weeks to complete, depending on what is wrong with the site. A technical audit analyzes absolutely every element of the site that can affect your SEO performance.

Improving your technical SEO requires a holistic approach; addressing just one item on this list won't really move the needle. Technical SEO optimizations not only involve the correct use of relevant SEO tags, such as title tags, meta descriptions and header tags, but also include improved page loading speed and the use of structured data. In addition, it should include verification that search engines can index all relevant pages.

If you have a large website with thousands of pages of content, it's definitely worth doing a content audit. A content audit will help you identify which pages are performing well and which are performing poorly. By auditing your content, you can “delete” content that generates non-relevant traffic, and then focus on optimizing the content that is likely to deliver the best results for your business.

Content marketing is a crucial component of an SEO strategy. Users will easily share and link to high-quality content. After correcting all errors, this company experienced a 1.100% increase in traffic.

You can't control Google or any search engine ranking. However, by going through the process of a technical audit, a content audit, or both, you will have a full understanding of everything that needs to be solved to position yourself well in organic search. Then, you can celebrate success at each milestone, improve your approach over time and, above all, enjoy the SEO process for the life of your business.

Before starting an SEO project, it's important to understand the process involved in an effective SEO campaign. Find out how to rank on google by hiring an expert or learning more about SEO yourself.