Did you know that 93% of all online experiences start with a search engine? That’s why it’s critical you have a search engine optimization (SEO) plan in place. SEO is the process of optimizing your site to improve your ranking so you can drive more valuable traffic.

If you don’t have an SEO strategy in place, you’re likely to fall short of driving the results you desire.

On this page, we’ll share what an SEO marketing strategy is, what’s part of it, and nine SEO strategy examples that you can include as part of your results-driven SEO plan.

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What is an SEO strategy?

An SEO website strategy is the process of planning, optimizing, and organizing your website to help it rank better in search results. A good SEO strategy will enable you to match search intent better, so you drive more credible traffic and leads for your company.

What’s part of an SEO strategy?

Now that we’ve answered, “What is an SEO strategy?” let’s review the three main components that make up one before diving into SEO strategy examples:

1. On-page SEO: On-page SEO involves optimizations you do on your site. You make changes to elements that appear on the different pages of your website so you can appear in more relevant search results.
2. Off-page SEO: Off-page SEO involves elements that aren’t directly on your site but affect your ranking. The most well-known ones are backlinks. These elements, while not on your website, impact where you rank in search results.
3. Technical SEO: The last component of SEO is technical SEO. Technical SEO involves elements on the backend of your site that impact how users experience the front-end of your website, like your site’s speed.

SEO strategy examples: 9 examples of what a good SEO strategy includes

So, you’re ready to dive into finding the right search engine optimization strategies for your business.

To learn how to do SEO, check out these nine SEO strategy examples to develop a successful plan!

1. Keyword optimization

First is keyword optimization. Keyword optimization is one of the most critical elements of an SEO marketing strategy because keywords help determine where your site appears in search results.

If you want relevant leads to find your information, you need to optimize your site for the right keywords.

So, how do you find relevant keywords for your page?

First, start by conducting keyword research.

You can use numerous keyword research tools, like KeywordsFX, to find relevant terms for your site.

When you look at your list of generated keywords, you want to stick to long-tail keywords. These are keywords that contain three or more words. Long-tail keywords are great for your site because they drive more qualified traffic for your business due to their specificity.

Once you find relevant keywords, you’ll want to integrate them into your site. Integrate your keywords often, but not too often, as it can lead to keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing negatively impacts your ranking, so you want to ensure you don’t overuse your keywords.

2. Optimizing on-page elements

One of the most critical SEO techniques is optimizing on-page elements. On-page elements impact your site’s ranking because they serve as signals to Google as to whether your page is relevant to someone’s search.

Here are some on-page elements you’ll want to optimize:

Title tags

Title tags are the first things users see when they search. These tags tell them about the context of your page. People get a glimpse into what to expect from your page.

Search engines also use your title tag to determine if your page is relevant to search results, so you must optimize it to reach the right people.

When you create your title tag, you’ll want to use your keyword as close to the front of the title tag as possible. It will help you show both visitors and search engines that your page is relevant.

Second, you want to ensure you stay within the limit for your title tag. Title tags should be less than 60 characters to ensure they don’t get cut off in search results, which is another reason to use your keyword near the beginning versus end of your title tag.

Finally, you’ll want to ensure you create a title tag that’s engaging and catches your audience’s attention. A title tag like “10 Photo-Worthy Vacation Spots to Visit This Summer” will catch more attention than a title tag like “10 Vacation Spots to Visit.”

Meta description

Along with your title tag, your meta description is another critical element in search results. The meta description is a short blurb that tells searchers what to expect on your page. Think of it like a sneak peek of your content.

Your meta description tells search engines what to expect too. It helps them determine if your page is relevant to search results.

When writing your meta description, you want to ensure you’re staying within the 150-character limit, while also providing as much relevant information as possible. Be sure to include your core keyword too!

URLs

The last element we’ll mention for on-page optimization are URLs. URLs are a critical component of your on-page optimizations. You want to optimize this element to ensure it’s memorable, so your audience can remember the URL better and return to your page later.

It’s also essential to optimize your URLs so search engines can read them and further understand how your page is relevant to search results.

To create an optimized URL, integrate the keyword of your page into it. Don’t use random numbers and letters, as search engines and humans won’t understand or remember them. Keep your URL simple, but also ensure it provides your audience with insight into your page.

3. Improving the backend of your site

Next on our list of SEO strategy examples is improving the backend of your site.

The backend of your website, while not visible, is critical to determining your site’s ranking. You need to have a website that’s functional and operates properly to ensure your audience has a positive experience.

Here are two search engine optimization strategies you can use to improve the backend of your site:

Speed up your site

The first step to improving the backend of your site is to speed up your site’s load time. Users hate to wait for pages to load — 83% of users expect your website to load in three seconds or less.

Since users expect sites to load fast, Google wants to deliver websites at the top of the search results that load quickly. If you don’t optimize your site’s load time, you’ll miss the opportunity to rank higher in search results.

To start improving your site’s load time, use Google PageSpeed Insights to gain insight into your site’s current load time.

Google will then provide you with helpful tips on how you can improve your site’s load time. If you’re familiar with working on the backend of your website, you can make these changes to improve your website.

For people who aren’t familiar with backend coding, there’s always page speed optimization services from a digital marketing company. You can have professionals, like those at WebFX, optimize your site to help improve load times and increase your rankings in search results.

Make your site mobile-friendly

More people are using mobile devices, so you need a site that delivers a proper mobile experience. If you don’t, you’re neglecting over 50% of the Internet traffic that comes from mobile users.

Additionally, Google uses a mobile-first indexing system, which means that your mobile-friendliness influences your site’s ranking.

So, how do you make your site mobile-friendly?

The best way to create a mobile-friendly website is to integrate responsive design into your site. Responsive design ensures that your site adapts to whatever device someone uses by scaling it to the device.

4. Creating user-friendly pages

Next, our list of SEO techniques focuses on user-friendly pages.

This element is one of the essential elements of an SEO strategy because it impacts how your audience interacts with your site. If you don’t have a user-friendly website, your audience will leave your site.

Creating user-friendly pages will help you rank better in search results because users will spend more time engaging on your pages. When people spend more time on your site, it sends a positive signal to search engines that your page is relevant, which helps you earn higher rankings.

To help improve the user experience, follow these best practices:

1. Break up the text on your pages into small paragraphs of 2-3 sentences. Having shorter paragraphs of text helps increase readability and makes it easier for your audience to skim your content.
2. Avoid jargon. Many people believe jargon is a great way to show they’re knowledgeable, but it often does more harm than good. Your audience may not know what the terms mean, which can become overwhelming. The best thing to do is to avoid using any slang.
3. Add visuals. While your information is critical, your audience can easily get overwhelmed if they see blocks of text. Adding visuals, like photos and videos, can help break up text and make it easier to skim through your pages.

5. Creating content

Next on our list of SEO strategy examples is creating SEO content. Content creation is a critical component of an SEO website strategy because it helps you drive traffic to your site and keep people on your site longer.

You can create numerous types of content, including:

1. Blogs
2. Videos
3. Infographics
4. Guides
5. Ebooks
6. And more

You’ll want to use a mixture of these content formats to keep your strategy fresh for your audience.

When you create SEO content, ensure its high-quality and informative.

It’s better to create 10 in-depth and high-quality articles than 100 short and low-quality articles. Creating educational and high-quality content will help you keep leads engaged and help your site rank higher in search results.

If you want to learn how to do SEO effectively, you need to focus on creating high-quality and informative content. Better content will lead to more traffic, higher engagement, and better rankings for your business.

6. Building links

As you learn how to do SEO, you’ll learn the importance of building links.

Both backlinks and internal links are critical elements of an SEO strategy.

1. Backlinks are links to your site from other websites. These links help build your site’s credibility and trustworthiness, as well as drive valuable traffic to your page.
2. Internal links are links to other pages on your site from your site. These links help keep traffic on your site longer, as well as help Google find and index pages on your website.

So, how can you get started with these two links?

For backlinks… Start by creating valuable and relevant content. If you have content that’s informative and helpful, you have more opportunities to earn backlinks for your content because it’s high-quality and in-depth. You can reach out to industry authorities and invite them to check out your content.

For internal links… Use your current content to link to other pages on your website. So, for example, if you were writing a page about the top places to travel in Pennsylvania and you mention Gettysburg, you could link to your other page, “Why Visit Gettysburg, PA?” in the relevant section.

7. Analyzing your competition

As you gather up a list of SEO techniques, don’t forget to add competitor analysis to your list! When you’re trying to earn better rankings in the search results, it’s critical to know who you’re competing against and how you can outrank them.

Whenever you want to rank for a keyword, search for that keyword on Google and see what results come up. Look at who ranks for that keyword. Check out their pages and see what kind of information they cover on the topic.

When you look at a competitors’ pages, answer these questions:

1. How do they structure their page?
2. Does the page include multimedia?
3. How long is their content?
4. What does the page do well?
5. What is the page missing?
6. What could I do better?

It’s critical to answer these questions so you can get an idea of how to approach your content. You don’t want to copy your competition word-for-word, but you can look at their articles for inspiration.

So, for example, let’s say you’re a traveling company, and you’ve decided to write an article about the top 10 places to visit on the East Coast of the United States. You check the search results to see what other companies write and answer these questions:

• How do they structure their page?

Most of my competition’s pages are structured with numbered lists with large paragraphs for each number.

• Does the page include multimedia?

Every page has photos of people traveling, but they do not look destination specific.

• How long is their content?

Most of the content pages are around 1500 words.

• What does the page do well?

The pages cover a lot of good locations, and the number structure makes it easy to find the different destinations. They also have bright visuals that are eye-catching.

• What is the page missing?

The page lacks some personalization. The photos are a little generic and not relevant to the locations listed.

• What could I do better?

For my page, I could use a numbered list, but create smaller paragraphs that make it easier for readers to skim. I could also introduce videos, as none of my competitors have videos in their articles.

Additionally, I could add destination-specific photos to make my audience feel more connected to the locations.

As you can see here, answering these questions helps you gain a better understanding of what your competition does, what you can mimic, and where you can improve your content to help it stand out.

8. Optimizing for voice search

Did you know that more than one billion voice searches happen each month?

If you don’t include voice search optimization as part of your SEO strategies, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to help your business reach more users.

Voice search optimization enables you to optimize your website for verbal searches.

When it comes to optimizing for verbal searches, you need to ensure that you optimize for the way people search verbally.

Verbal searching and typed searching are different — people search longer and more grammatically proper queries with voice search. When users search verbally, they also phrase their queries as questions.

So, for example, if someone wanted to find the best places to hike in Pennsylvania, they may type “best places to hike in PA.” On a voice search device, however, they would likely search, “Where are the best places to hike in Pennsylvania?”

When you’re optimizing for voice search devices, you want to ensure you’re optimizing for the way people search verbally. From the query format to the use of slang, you must keep this information in mind when you’re optimizing your site.

9. Monitoring and optimizing

Another one of our SEO strategy examples involves monitoring and optimizing your page. When you invest the time and effort to maximize your SEO strategies, you don’t want it to go to waste. You must track your strategy’s performance so you can optimize and adjust to get the best results.

Monitoring and optimizing are critical elements of an SEO strategy. They help you maximize your budget by adjusting your plan to ensure you’re getting the most from your strategy.

When you monitor your SEO strategy, you want to ensure you’re checking metrics like:

1. Traffic
2. Bounce rate
3. Pages per session
4. Click-through rate (CTR)
5. And more

By including monitoring as part of your SEO marketing strategies, you can adjust to help your campaign perform better.

Create your SEO strategy today

After looking at these SEO strategy examples, you can get ideas for how to create a strategy that drives results for your business.

If you aren’t sure which SEO marketing strategies are right for you, WebFX can help. We’re a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in SEO. We can help you create a campaign that enables you to drive results for your business.

In the past five years, we’ve driven over $2.4 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients.

Are you ready to help your business grow with SEO?

Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services!