The SEO Process
Having an SEO process can help you build traffic growth much faster and more consistently on your website.
A lot of people just right dive into the keyword research and implementation, without understanding the full picture of SEO. Since SEO is another marketing effort that allows you to promote your business and sell more of your products/services, it is important to pay attention to the return you are getting. Jumping into keyword implementation won’t allow you to get the awareness you need to know what needs to be worked on first on your website.
As always, you can listen to the podcast version of this blog post here:
Ready to learn about the SEO process? Let’s start!
Why is the SEO process important to understand?
Like I already mentioned, seeing the overall process not only gives you clarity of where you are right now with your rankings, but also helps you take action on the areas of your site and business that will get you the most results in shortest amount of time.
How to use this with team or any SEO expert?
Maybe you’d like your team to take ownership of your SEO. Or maybe you are considering bringing on an SEO expert. You can definitely share this blog post with them but I also recommend downloading this SEO Checklist for Therapists + Counselors, since that will get them clarity on what tasks need to happen first.
There are three parts to the SEO process:
1) Audit
2) Implementation
3) Monitoring
Let’s start with the first step: auditing!
Phase 1) Audit
In the last podcast episode 135 I go into much more depth about the SEO Audit process (you can check it out here) but the auditing process is crucial to getting a clear picture of where your site is at right now with SEO Setup.
Most audits contain many different components and here is an example audit structure:
Technical: site errors, site speed, mobile usability
Keyword + Content: what keywords is the site current targeting, what is the Google Analytics data telling us, how is the site performing overall
Outreach: what PR/backlinking opportunities can we make better use of, how can we generate more backlinks
Once the audit is complete, you will have a clear idea of what actions will help you get faster results with your SEO and also have a plan for technical fixes, keywords and content for the next 3 - 6 months, as well as an outreach plan. Again, the SEO Audit Checklist goes through a detailed list of these items and helps you get clarity fast!
Recommended Timeline to complete the audit: 2 - 4 weeks
Phase 2) Implementation
Implementation is about taking action! Once the audit is complete, you can put down deadlines for each task and start making changes to your site.
Some actions that might happen during the Implementation:
Fix site errors
Add keywords to specific pages
Write new blog content with specific blog structures
Fix and optimize old blog posts around new keywords
Do specific outreach/backlink building based on goals
Again, this will impact the backend of the site for any website errors or issues, as well as building new blog posts.
I recommend the implementation of new content and all changes be done in a specific time period since it will help you judge the results better. If you drag out all the changes over months and months, it is hard to know what really made an impact on the site.
Recommended Timeline to complete the Implementation: 1 - 2 months
And the last step…
Phase 3) Monitoring
Monitoring is where the magic happens (in my opinion!). This is about checking in on your keywords month by month and judging which ones are getting traction. It is also about continuing to tweak and improve the site, as well as do outreach pitching.
Since SEO is an ongoing process, the monitoring phase allows us to continue improve the SEO on the site, without it having to be as intensive as the implementation phase.
Recommended Timelines for Monitoring: 6 months
That’s all my friends! I’d love to know - where are you in the SEO process? Tell me in the comments below.
Here are some other podcast episodes I recommend based on this topic: