Succeeding in the digital market can become more achievable when you possess a well-defined plan to navigate it. For certain individuals, they may discontinue their efforts within this market due to a lack of clarity on how to proceed and attain favorable results for their enterprises.
Are you aware of the pivotal factor guaranteeing success in digital marketing? It lies in the formulation of a structured SEO plan, which unfortunately eludes the grasp of many individuals. The initial step you embark upon is, in fact, the most crucial one on the path to success
Many experts make mistakes in this area and often achieve minimal or no results. If you’re unsure about the first step of an SEO plan, keep reading this guide. In this blog, we’ll explain what the initial step of a well-structured SEO plan should be.
What is the First Step of an SEO Plan?
As a quick note, the primary step in developing a well-structured SEO plan is conducting keyword research. Without thorough keyword research, progress towards your goals becomes challenging. It’s crucial to identify the keywords, phrases, or queries that people are actively searching for and reading blogs about.
Typically, newcomers to SEO tend to discover keywords and immediately dive into working with them. However, they often fall short of achieving the anticipated results because they struggle to gain visibility among their target audience. Additionally, these keywords can be problematic due to their low search volume, rendering them less valuable in the market.
In the upcoming section, we will provide guidance on various facets of a well-organized SEO plan. You will also gain insights into the factors that should be taken into account when conducting keyword research for your digital marketing venture, blog, website, or e-commerce store
What Steps Should Be Included in an SEO Plan?
Prior to everything, it’s essential to grasp the other crucial steps that should be integrated into your SEO plan. Relying solely on keyword research won’t suffice, as various other factors can significantly influence the ranking of your digital assets.
Within your SEO plan, it’s imperative to incorporate the following factors or steps:
- Keyword Research
- Scheduled Posting
- Proper Optimization of Content
- Internal Linking of Related Blogs
- Backlink Creation
- Avoid Plagiarism
- Competitor Research
- Social Media Sharing
- Technical Audit
- Website Responsiveness
These steps are integral components that must be included in your SEO plan. It’s accurate to state that your plan would remain incomplete without them. While you can certainly include additional steps, these are universally recognized as some of the most critical ones.
The reason for including these steps is that they help build your digital presence from the start to full growth. So, it’s crucial to keep them in mind and shape your SEO execution accordingly.
Why Keyword Research Should Be the First Step of an SEO Plan?
Many SEO beginners, who are currently learning and putting their knowledge into practice, often wonder about the importance of placing keyword research as a top priority in their SEO plans. They seek this clarification from their instructors to better understand its significance.
There are significant reasons why prioritizing keyword research is crucial for achieving better SEO results for your business. Firstly, thorough and effective keyword research helps confirm the presence of an audience interested in your business or blog.
Put simply, discovering profitable keywords with a high search volume ensures that you’ll have visibility among a larger audience. Conversely, if the keyword’s ranking competition is intense, it can be challenging to achieve higher rankings and attract readers to your website.
Therefore, you might receive impressions based on the keyword searches, but the actual number of clicks may remain lower because people aren’t reaching your website.
Additionally, keyword research is often regarded as the cornerstone of success for any digital endeavor. This is because it provides assurance regarding whether your website or blog will indeed reach your intended audience. Without identifying profitable keywords through research, achieving the anticipated results becomes highly unlikely.
What Factors Should Be Kept in Mind While Finding The Right Keywords?
Undoubtedly, keyword research stands as the initial step in a well-structured SEO plan. However, selecting the appropriate set of keywords for your website or digital business can be a challenging task. During keyword research, it’s crucial to filter phrases or keywords based on certain factors.
Some of these factors are discussed below:
Search Volume
To begin with, it’s essential to assess the search volume for a particular keyword to ensure its suitability. Search volume represents the estimated number of searches conducted for a specific keyword within a single month.
Search volume reflects the number of individuals searching online for a specific phrase in their quest for answers. During keyword research, it’s advisable to select keywords with a higher search volume. This choice enhances the likelihood of attracting a larger number of visitors to your website.
Occasionally, you might need to opt for low-volume keywords for your blog. However, in such cases, it’s crucial to assess the keyword’s potential by conducting a manual evaluation of the websites associated with it.
Keyword Difficulty
The second key factor to contemplate during keyword research is the keyword’s difficulty. Keyword difficulty indicates the level of challenge associated with achieving a high ranking for a particular keyword in search engine results.
To put it simply, keyword difficulty represents the effort needed to rank well for a keyword. When choosing keywords for your website, it’s wise to give preference to those with a combination of high search volume and low difficulty. This approach enhances your chances of reaching top search results and drawing in a larger audience.
Avoid Plagiarism
There’s a common misconception that merely rephrasing words or ideas from another source is sufficient to avoid plagiarism, with the belief that using different wording makes it one’s own original work.
However, this is not accurate. Even if you rewrite content from an original source without appropriate attribution, it is still considered plagiarism.
It’s crucial to provide proper attribution when utilizing a paraphrase tool. Whether you’re simplifying a complex idea, summarizing a lengthy quote, or altering the language to suit your document, acknowledging the original source is essential.
Paraphrasing is an acceptable practice, but it’s crucial to adhere to correct referencing guidelines. Including a citation at the conclusion of the paraphrased content is essential.
SERP Results
A common approach for many is to use tools to discover and filter keywords, which is indeed a straightforward method. However, it’s important not to solely depend on these tools and also engage in manual research.
To accomplish this, you should enter your keyword into Google and assess the search engine results pages (SERP). During this process, it’s essential to examine the content provided by those websites. This evaluation will help you determine whether the content meets the required quality standards.
This process will also provide insights into how you can create content about that keyword or topic that surpasses the existing results. As a result, search engines are more likely to consider your content as more valuable, leading to higher rankings in SERP results and attracting a larger audience for that specific keyword.
Backlink Profiles
Finally, it’s essential to conduct manual research or use a tool to examine the backlink profiles of websites ranking for that specific keyword. In simpler terms, search for the keyword and review the backlinks associated with the websites that rank for it.
If you cannot find a backlink profile that meets the necessary criteria, it’s recommended to acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable and authoritative sources.
This approach aids in estimating the budget and time needed to surpass the rankings of those websites. It also provides an indication of the level of difficulty you’ll encounter in achieving a higher ranking for that keyword.
Final Wrapping
After reading the preceding blog, you now have the answer to the question: “What should be the initial step in a well-structured SEO plan?” We have provided a concise explanation of this first step and also delved into the key factors to contemplate when selecting keywords.
We trust that you now have a clear understanding of how to develop a well-organized SEO plan and the essential factors to take into account. With this knowledge, you can begin the process of selecting the most appropriate keywords to drive success for your website.