Search Engine Marketing: How To Create a Strategic SEO Plan

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you have likely learned the importance of developing a strategic marketing plan. However, do you have a Strategic SEO Plan? This is critical to your online success!Creating a Strategic SEO Plan is not difficult, but it will require some time on your part! However, the time you put into your Strategic SEO Plan will substantially benefit your business.The Secret to a Successful Strategic SEO PlanSetting goals is the secret to creating an effective Strategic SEO Plan. Establishing “absolute” goals is critical to your success. Once you learn the basic processes for SEO, you will be able to set these goals.Tips for Setting Goals• Be as detailed as possible with your goals by including a date that a specific task should be completed.
• Be realistic with your goal dates. Be sure to allow enough time to get the task complete, but do not allow too much time, as well.
• Keep on track and update your goals, as needed.
• Determine what you want to achieve by completing a SEO program.Setting goals is the first step to creating a successful and powerful SEO campaign. Without goals, it is literally impossible to build a successful and effective SEO campaign.How is your Competition Marketing?Conducting a website and competitors analysis is a critical step in your SEO Strategic Plan. In order to determine what you need to do for a successful SEO campaign, you must first know where you and your competitor’s stand in the realm of current SEO techniques. Conduct a thorough search on what your competitor’s are doing. Are they successful in their SEO campaign or could they improve in certain areas? How about your website? What is working and what is not?Establishing a SEO BudgetThis is an essential step and must be determined before you begin your SEO Strategic Plan. You must determine how much you can spend in order to determine if you will be able to complete an aggressive SEO campaign or whether you need to modify your plan. Here are just a few of the fees you may incur:• Niche Directory Submissions
• Search Engine Friendly Submissions
• Search Engine Submissions
• RSS Feed Directory Submissions
• Competition/Keyword Analysis
• Newsletter Template Branded
• Social Bookmarking Setup Fees
• Social Networking Setup Fees
• Article Marketing
• Blogging
• Press Releases
• Newsletters
• Web Content
• SEO Consulting Fees
• Web Design and Development
• Web Analytics
• Link Building
• Traffic Ranking
• Conversion AnalysisNow it’s Time to PrioritizeWhile you may have every intention of moving forward with an aggressive SEO campaign, your budget may be saying otherwise. If you do not stick with your budget, serious problems can arise. It is imperative that you determine how much you can spend and then plan your SEO campaign accordingly. You may have to eliminate some of the steps. Knowing this in advance will ensure a successful campaign.Moving forward without paying attention to your budget could literally stop your SEO campaign literally “in its tracks”! This is because you will have spent all your money in the beginning stages of your SEO campaign, and then will have to quit cold turkey when the money has all run out. If you plan accordingly, you will be able to select the most important SEO techniques first, and then move on to others, as the money is available.You must prioritize in order to make the right decisions on which steps to eliminate or postpone and which ones must be implemented. Some of the tasks that must be implemented are:• Keyword Research
• Content Development
• Website Revisions/UpdatesRemember, if you do make changes due to your budget, you must go back to your goals and adjust them accordingly, as well.Creating a SEO Strategic Plan Project ScheduleIt is important to create a schedule for your plan. This will ensure your SEO project moves forward without serious delays. Once you have made the adjustments to your goals due to the budget process, you can utilize this goal list to help you with your schedule.Without a schedule, you will likely spend more time than you expected on a task, which can cost you more money in the long run.A Final Note about the Strategic SEO PlanIt is important that you develop your plan and implement it in a specific order. All business processes require planning, initiation, and implementation. A plan must be developed to define the goal and complete the task. HOWEVER, it is important to understand that in order to have a successful SEO campaign; these tasks are not one time tasks. They must be implemented over and over again to produce positive results!While this is an important plan, it is equally vital that you recognize you can and should make changes in your plan. It is a work in process that must be updated continually, in order to create success!

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