We all love free traffic! REFERencing leads to incomes that go straight to the point. However, many companies do not have dedicated SEO resources and the task lies with marketers, who have many ways to worry, including paid search, e-mail, networks display advertising, affiliate marketing, etc. Time is precious in this environment and must be carefully allocated.
In order to protect and develop SEO traffic, devoting a structured set of tasks of only 90 minutes per week can ensure that SEO receives the attention it needs and that free traffic continues to grow. The key is to plan the time, sign up for your calendar and methodically do all the tasks I’m going to present here.
With the help of free tools and just a little time, you can advance the SEO initiative.
Google Analytics – 15 minutes
Google Analytics is a great starting point for SEO information. It’s free, easy to use and provides a powerful insight into how users get to your site and what they do while they’re staying.
On Monday morning, log in to Google Analytics to check organic traffic trends. A weekly review of this data not only allows you to familiarize yourself with the overall health of your website, but also quickly identify potential problems before they get worse. The first step is to browse Google Analytics to see only organic traffic (Acquiring All Traffic at Channels to Organic to Select “Destination Page” as “Main Dimension”).
This report contains valuable information about how users access your site, including identifying the most important landing pages. Spend 15 minutes checking trends, patterns and changes in these key areas. In particular, look for changes and the monthly pace from week to week. Dig into the performance metrics at the page level. You should be able to spot which pages work well and others that could be targeted for optimization. If your company has run a targeted campaign or a major campaign, check the impact of these efforts on site traffic.
Another option to further streamline this step is to set up automated reports in Google Analytics. To do this, go to the organic traffic page in Google Analytics and in the top right corner of the page, click on the “Share” link. From there, you can set up weekly reports for a set period of time. For example, it would be helpful to get an overview of organic traffic trends week after week and year after year.
These reports are a useful tool but should serve as a starting point. Google Analytics may seem overwhelming to someone who isnot used to using it. It is therefore essential to log in weekly to keep your skills up to date and search for more in-depth information about SEO.
Google search console – 15 minutes
The Google search console (formerly Tools for webmasters) is one of the best tools to determine how organic traffic ends on your website. Check search analytics (under Search Traffic) to find out which keywords generate natural traffic to your site.
With this information, marketers can determine whether their content is aligned with the search intent and whether the content is classified for priority keywords. Identify five underperforming pages and determine if optimizations can be made to METa HTML tags (HTML titles, meta description) and content on the page to better align the page with search results and/or key phrases priority.
In addition, you can identify keywords that you want to see better perform and look for ways to improve ranking with the development of new content or optimization of existing content.
Site optimizations – 15 minutes
Then it’s time to make adjustments on the spot. By combining the landing pages identified in Google Analytics with keyword information from Search Console, make the necessary changes to the content of your site or pages. Save optimizations via Google Analytics’ annotation feature to monitor SEO effects.
If marketers have a little more budget and/or time, there are many SEO tools on the market that can help you optimize your site. For example, SEMrush analyzes your site and determines keyword opportunities that can be translated into content marketing efforts. SEORadar, a SEO monitoring tool, provides alerts for changes in SEO elements (title tags, cross links, metadata, etc.). Screaming Frog can explore your site and identify serious errors and broken links. Other tools, such as Moz or BuzzSumo, offer information that can inform other site optimizations. Take advantage of free trials or downloads to determine if a tool would make a difference on your site.
Google and HARO alerts – 15 minutes
So far, we have mainly discussed on-site referencing. The next two steps, for a total of about 30 minutes, are the optimization of off-site referencing: link creation, brand mentions and distribution. The two easiest tools to use are Google Alerts and the Help to The Reporter (HARO) program.
It only takes a few minutes to set up Google alerts for your brand name, as well as for any other proprietary or trademarked term, or for the name of a key executive. Once set up, Google sends you an email at any time when the term or phrase is mentioned on the web. Check to see if a link to your website is included. If not, contact the publication, thank it for mentioning it, offer additional resources, if any, and indicate if it is willing to add a link. It’s a simple way to stay on top of your brand’s reputation and proactively create quality relationships.
HARO is a crowdsourcing tool used by journalists, public relations professionals and marketers. Journalists send queries for specific sources and/or expertise. They briefly summarize the article and what they are looking for from a potential source, as well as a deadline. Anyone who meets the criteria can meet. Some require telephone interviews, while others are only e-mailed.
Set up emails once a day and scan them every day (you can even search quickly with CTRL-F to search for key terms related to your business, such as healthcare, green technologies or to see if there are any queries that apply to your business. / or expertise of the organization. If the reporter responds and finds that you bring value to their work, ask them if it’s possible to include a link to your company’s website.
Reconnect awareness – 15 minutes
Creating quality links is a key goal of off-site referencing; the more quality links a site contains, the more your website is perceived by search engines, authoritative and more trustworthy search engines.
In addition to monitoring Google Alerts and HARO, identify a list of reputable publications and/or websites offering link opportunities. Each week, eliminate the list by addressing the publication. Submit a guest blog contribution, share an item of relevant content, or participate in social media with the post via the brand’s page/page or directly with publishers.
Communicating on SEO SEO – 15 minutes
Information from your REFERencing efforts can influence and guide other areas of your organization. Therefore, share the highlights in a weekly email or staff meeting. Public relations colleagues, editors, social media and even sales can use the data to inform their strategies. For example, content editors may use keyword information to develop new blog posts or relevant reference pages. Or your public relations team may have an existing relationship with a publication that could be exploited for an opportunity to create a link.
In addition, keeping your SEO efforts secret – and explaining its value – is an essential part of the success of your SEO. Websites have many contributors and even a small organization can have multiple people, or even teams, simultaneously making changes to the website. It is imperative that marketers form and maintain close relationships with all these people and processes in order to avoid any negative impact on REFERencing. The more key staff know and know the SEO, the better the site in the long run.
Latest thoughts
In today’s business world, there are always urgent requests, endless meetings and emails. Experienced marketers should make SEO a priority by committing to at least 90 minutes per week. Block it on your calendar and don’t let anything fly. Devoting a fraction of your week to SEO is like putting money in the bank; results may not be immediately apparent, but small, consistent efforts will bear fruit in the long run.
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