How Do You Do SEO Step-By-Step?

When you do SEO, fundamentals based on years of testing, confirmation, and research help you achieve higher rankings. These fundamentals include content, links, and technical SEO. It doesn’t matter what type of SEO you do, some parts of these fundamentals will always be a part of your SEO strategy. Smaller tweaks have a bearing on the results you achieve.

These tweaks vary from industry to industry and from SERP to SERP (search engine results page). Algorithm updates throw a wrench in the works as well, forcing you to leapfrog and play catchup after a steady game of “capture the rankings”. Building a process to help you perform SEO step-by-step is no easy task. Luckily, our staff here at Hennessey Digital put together a template you can use right here.

We cut through the years of learning the misinformation that exists on the web today, and through this sample framework, you too can begin to reap the benefits of higher rankings. Maybe those results will not come today, and maybe not tomorrow, but they will come in the near future as you work on improving your newfound skills.

To perform successful SEO, you must concentrate on publishing high-quality content. This content allows you to develop a quality link profile via link earning. Then, as you optimize the technical side of your project, your site becomes easier to crawl. If your site is easier to crawl, it will also be easier to index. Easier crawling and indexing makes for a site that performs better overall.

As you publish and promote your content on social media, you get more eyes on your content. Promoting your written work on social networks can result in links, because other influencers in your space will want to share your content, assuming it’s good. This, in turn, allows you to connect to influencers, who will link to your content from their own blogs.

If you have read our other pages, you may be aware of our recommendations to focus on content, links, and technical SEO. Here, we break down the process of optimization to a few steps. True technical SEO can consist of steps numbering into the hundreds, but this serves as a simple example of good practices.

Steps You Must Take for Successful SEO

First, you must perform keyword research. Finding the right keywords is an essential fundamental, according to Moz’s Ultimate SEO Guide: “The power of keyword research lies in better understanding your target market and how they are searching for your content, services, or products.” Without targeted keywords as part of your marketing mix, you lose out on consumers who otherwise may buy your services. Using a keyword tool like Mangools, SEMRush, or Spyfu, it is possible to build a basic keyword list. Refine this list based on search volume and user intent. Next, prioritize keywords from most desirable to least desirable. Then, do one more round of prioritization: think about how you will map these keywords to your website’s architecture.

After keyword research comes mind-mapping your website architecture. A solid website architecture is foundational to successful SEO. There are a few ways to create an effective website structure. One way that is popular in the SEO field is flat architecture. The benefits of this site architecture are numerous: you create a great UX (User Experience) by having most of your pages within 2-3 clicks of the homepage. A flatter site architecture makes your site easier to use, in theory. It is also more easily crawled than more complex structures on unoptimized websites.

There is another site structure called siloing. If done right, this structure can be more beneficial to your site than a flat architecture. Siloing zeroes in on topic clusters, grouping related pages under the main topical heading in a tight navigational silo. The benefit of this structure is that it reinforces topical focus while emphasizing Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

After you have your keywords and site architecture planned out, then you can get to work on content. During the course of writing your content, you may come across the axiom “just create great content”. This is inaccurate. Just writing great content by itself is nothing without a complementary promotion and link acquisition strategy.