The SEO industry has matured a lot over the last decade, but there is still a lot of confusion as to what it is (or should be) and how to manage it effectively. How to start an SEO strategy for a new company site? When to expect results? What is a doable budget? Let’s try and cover some of the most popular SEO from scratch questions here.
Where to Start?
SEO starts with setting up your site. A lot will rely on which platform (or content management platform) you choose. It also all comes down to your needs. If your business is going to be in an e-commerce business (enabling people to buy something from your site), you will likely need some e-commerce set up help. In this case, contact an agency that will help you with both set-up and SEO fundamentals.
If your website’s goal is to inform your future customers of your expertise or services, it is a good idea to set up a blog because there are a few powerful blog management platforms that will allow you to easily handle most of your content and SEO needs from home. Plus, you may even be able to set up the site yourself. Starting a blog is pretty easy these days, so you may be able to handle it yourself.
The next step would be creating content for your first landing pages. These should inform the potential customers of what you do and how it can help them solve their problems. These can be services pages, product pages, as well as pages explaining your business terms as well as talking about your team and brand story. These are all important for sending positive signals to both people and search engines.
When figuring out which pages to create first, use Text Optimizer which will analyze your target query and use semantic analysis to identify the most popular concepts and questions behind it:
What Does SEO Entail and Is It Doable In-House?
Fundamentally, search engine optimization consists of three major areas:
Fixing (and/or monitoring) technical issues (e.g. making sure there are no broken links, unnecessary redirects, etc.)
Content creation that matches relevant search queries (so this task also includes keyword research)
Link building (which is – sadly – a never-ending, ever-evolving task). Link building in itself can include dozens of tasks involving content creation, graphic design, PR / outreach, influencer marketing, etc., etc.
Depending on the size and needs of your business, you may be able to handle much of this at home. For example, content is something many businesses choose to manage in-house. You are likely to need help with technical SEO and link acquisition.