I’ve been practicing SEO for 20 years now, and I’ve learned a great deal from my experiences about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve seen too many businesses approach SEO willy-nilly, without a strong strategy or systems to develop and adjust that strategy over time.
There are so many ways your SEO strategy can go wrong: it could be a poor strategy to begin with, it could be something that simply isn’t right for your business, or it could be executed poorly.
Here are some of the most important lessons I’ve learned that make all the difference for businesses building their SEO:
Find the right agency
One of the most common SEO mistakes is simply handing the entire process over to an SEO agency and assuming they will take care of everything. While an agency can be extremely effective—and I would know, as the owner of an agency who’s seen my own clients’ businesses skyrocket because of SEO success—it’s important to be strategic in how you choose the agency you work with because the wrong agency can cost a significant sum without giving you results.
First, you need a little bit of knowledge about SEO yourself. I promise that’s not as scary as it sounds. You simply need to do enough research to understand what makes a good SEO strategy so you can engage with your agency in a productive way and participate in the process. It will also help you choose the right agency for your business. The best choice is an agency with experience in your industry that can demonstrate the results they’ve helped their past clients achieve. A great agency will customize their approach to your business specifically based on their knowledge of your industry. Start your search by learning the basics of SEO and what makes a solid strategy, and you’ll be able to easily vet potential agencies.
Take a methodical and scientific approach
SEO is a long-term investment, and your efforts build cumulatively, so it often takes quite a while to see the results you want. And because it isn’t always clear what works and what doesn’t, you often have to test strategies, observe their effects, and adjust. I’ve developed much of my expertise through trial and error, and a methodical approach has allowed me to turn my failures into real progress rather than simply stabbing in the dark. Just like the scientific process everyone learned in grade school, discovering success begins with a hypothesis, which you test through experimentation—adjusting your SEO strategy, comparing the results of different versions of a page (also known as a/b testing), and trying new techniques.
Throughout that process, mistakes are going to happen. And in the moment, mistakes suck, because they often feel like setbacks, but if you’re not making mistakes, you’re also not learning anything. Stay patient and continue to test new hypotheses, because eventually you’ll learn what works and can replicate it over and over.
Involve your team in your strategy
SEO is a team sport—it requires a wide variety of expertise, from creatives like designers and writers to technical experts and marketing specialists. Whether you hire an agency or use your own in-house team, your team should be involved at some level in developing your strategy.
Collaboration is powerful, and it’s one of your best tools for improving your SEO. It’s necessary to develop a robust strategy because your team will be able to contribute ideas you’d never have thought of. If something isn’t working, bringing in a second opinion to present new ideas or look for the source of the problem opens new avenues.
Involving your team begins by educating them about the basics of SEO. I recommend hiring a specialist to train them in the foundational knowledge they’ll need to collaborate on your SEO strategy.
Build a strong reputation for your brand
Your SEO strategy should reach beyond your website, from link-building to brand-building. A great reputation goes a long way in boosting your SEO, because Google’s algorithm takes that reputation into account in its rankings, often represented by the acronym EEAT, which stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Here at Hennessey Digital, we’ve had great success using digital PR campaigns to win backlinks from popular and reputable sites. Those campaigns are based on the methods we’ve discovered to be effective through a methodical approach.
We’ve also put a great deal of work into promoting our brand in order to become the go-to digital marketing agency for law firms. Part of my strategy was to purchase the domain lawfirmseo.com, which has had a great effect on our SEO. Clear branding like this makes a big difference, so it’s worth evaluating the strength of your brand and incorporating it into your SEO strategy.
Don’t overlook the importance of content
Content is ultimately what your SEO strategy revolves around, and so your content strategy should be just as strong as every other aspect of your SEO strategy. There are plenty of resources available to help you create great content, but the basis of great content is that it is useful and relevant to your audience. Research your topics and keywords carefully to create content that your audience wants, study your competitors closely to learn from what they’re doing both well and poorly, and publish content regularly.
Too many businesses take a haphazard approach to SEO and never see the results they wish. But with a strong system in place to build your SEO strategy and adjust it as you grow and learn new things, you’ll set yourself up to outdo your competition and consistently achieve excellent results.
