If you plan the cycles of SEO properly, there is no reason to battle with your competition for keywords or market share. Instead, rankings and their corresponding search engine results become a mere byproduct of proper planning and promotion.
Organic SEO, Cause / Effect and The Cycles of Growth
In order to topple relevant keywords and acquire top 5 rankings (which is where most consumers that convert click anyway), you need to have a clear vision regarding which nodes of authority you would like your site to dominate.
For example, is your SEO campaign targeting the most competitive two word / “most popular” keyword queries, the one word root word alone, or are you interested in dominating traffic from using tactful keyword modifiers, GEO targeting or long tail queries?
Depending on your approach (not to say that all cannot be done simultaneously) dictates which causes are set in motion and when and the amount of time or optimization are required in order to attain the results.
After you have established the hierarchy of which keywords are important, then you need to put the necessary components in place to facilitate relevance. These components involve:
1) Template creation and the incorporation of optimized site architecture.
2) Corresponding semantic content that reinforce your site structure.
3) The proper percentage of internal and external links per page.
4) The chrysalis phase – the amount of time before the entire range of elements fuse as a synergy.
We cover a variety of search engine optimization tactics to zero in on competitive keywords or provide tactics to promote keyword stemming and devour a niche whole. However, these are just outward manifestations organic search cycles which are all part of a larger momentum.
Beyond mere SEO techniques, you will need to create an overall game plan with time lines and key performance indicators to track and measure performance.
Here are a few resources to start:
- Should you Target Competitive Keywords or the Long-Tail?
- Exact Match Keywords or Broad Match Keywords?
- How to Use Thematic Modifiers
- Targeting Keywords within Your Reach
- Keywords and Co-Occurrence
- Optimizing the Most Searched Keywords
- Leveraging Keywords from the Past
- How to Extend your Keyword Empire
- How to Evaluate Competitive Keywords
Regardless of the technique, you will still need to map out conversion optimization tactics to capitalize on post-click traffic once it arrives. There is no reason to drive traffic to a page, if there is no intent on conversion.
One thing is certain, just as organic SEO is that, “organic” it takes time to see the fruit of your labors. So, before you go and start pulling up roots to see if it is growing, set benchmarks along the way and target multiple keywords to increase the relevance and traffic your website receives.
Thanks for the great post. I look forward to more such posts.
Danny