10 Step SEO Plan for Improved Search Rankings in 2020 and Beyond

Marketers are planning their content marketing strategy for the year 2020 and SEO is their major concern in this regard. The advanced marketers on the other hand, have drafted an SEO plan and best practices with the list of relevant keywords for their blog posts and websites.

You have created both an on-page and off-page SEO tips and plan. You will be able to evaluate the SEO campaign progress with dashboards available from Google Analytics. You should also consider ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz. This will organise the results and evaluate the rankings on the search engines. Go through this blog post to know the 10 steps you should follow when creating an SEO plan for improved search rankings in 2020 and beyond.

Know SEO in a simple way - 

You should be aware of all SEO tactics and understand what and why you are doing a particular thing as well as be aware of what Google expects from you. By conducting a search online, you can get the most appropriate answer, detail, item, image, date, definition or address. You can get your answer in just a few seconds.

• First step: Conduct a Google search query with the relevant keywords and common questions that would be asked from a customer that is looking for what you have to offer. Write a note of the keywords that rank on the first page in the search results. You will not find the same organisations appearing in the prime spots. Make a note of your direct competitors who claim to rank on top. It is quite important to know what the prospects experience.
• Quick trick: Spend at least three minutes on the explanation of Matt Cutts when conducting a web search. You can join the 2.5 million viewers who have invested their three minutes.
• Advanced tactic: You will get an inner view of how the biggest search engine, Google will determine its ranking and algorithm changes from the professionals of Google, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Software Engineer.

Listen how customers speak to know their language –

It is important to understand the questions that they will ask, how they ask, what their requirements are and what will keep them interested. Your company must be able to solve the problem and fulfill the requirements of the customers or else, you will not be able to get much business.

• First step: Make sure you know your customers and their exact needs by preparing a list which is a vital step. You cannot concentrate on improving the rankings unless you are aware of what your customers and prospects are looking for. After this, transfer the knowledge to your website for translating products and services that make your business successful using natural language that is understood by the industry. Google will reward you when you turn into a valuable resource for the clients.
• Quick trick: If you want to know about the most popular search terms, type relevant keywords and probable questions in the search bar. Google will show the list of all related searches which will help you to identify the topics on which you need to write content for.
• Advanced strategy: Use SEO tools to conduct research on appropriate keywords and search volume. You can get some suggestions on keywords and their monthly search volume. Choose the mostly searched terms to use in your copy. This will make your content shareable everywhere.

Provide informative content –

SEO consultants in London have said that producing quality content is about writing a good blog post with videos, live chat, webinars, lists, how-to-guides and lots more. You should provide content on your website and across the web on different channels where the prospects usually hang out. Try using the different kinds of content for answering questions of clients and know their problems so that you can offer suitable solutions to them.

• First step: Search for the leaders in your industry and try to be friends with them. They may be there in the executive suite working remotely in the lab. If they can give answers to industry questions, then sit with them and ask all the questions you have. Then record the answers and make it a post.
• Quick trick: Ask the internal leaders to forward their emails that show different kinds of questions they receive from customers and prospects with their helpful responses. You can use that to formulate new and original content.
• Advanced tactic: You can share your expertise through a high quality & informative video presentation.

Check your website thoroughly –

If you do not have page titles, alt tags, meta descriptions and URLs, then you are causing damage to your SEO. When you want to have a look at how it will appear in Google, you may discover your options while writing them with SERP snippet optimisation tools provided by Google. These are some on-page factors for SEO that can affect your page rank in the search results.

• First step: Find the most popular web pages in the search results and then review their meta description so that you can compare them to the competitors. Check if the title describes the web page content in the most accurate way and if the description encourages clicks. You may upgrade meta content with the best practices.
• Quick trick: With HubSpot’s Marketing Grader, you will get a quick snapshot of your site.
• Advanced tactic: Download and run ScreamingFrog on your website as this free tool can scan almost 500 pages. If your website is large, then a paid version will be available. The tool scans your website thoroughly and shows the on-page data that requires your attention.

Check who is linking back to you –

Backlinks are the links that come from other websites to your site. There are links that Google considers as blackhat which have a negative impact on the search engine rankings. There seems to be a direct relationship between the Google search rankings and quality of backlinks. The higher the quality of your backlinks is, the better your search rankings will be.

• First step: Go through the backlinks as you may run a report easily with SEMrush Backlink Checker. After this, download the data and see who refers to your website.
• Quick Trick: Maintain a track of your social reputation and track your brand by using social monitoring tools. You can obtain mentions of your brand for building good relationships.
• Advanced tactic: Check the backlinks of competitors to know who is linking to them and then find other opportunities to backlinks. Hence, backlinking is a tactic that is only covered through off-page SEO.

Try to get listed –

Company listings known as citations on local, national and niche directory websites will enable Google and your prospects to know where to search for you. Authoritative, consistent and up-to-date citations form greater exposure for business and thus, improve rankings on Google.

SEO tips for 2020 is vital for the local business and Google will provide results in a different way based on your location. With proper growth of mobile engagement, getting found means mobile searchers will become your buyers soon. In order to affect the Google rankings positively in your area, essential steps should be taken to outrank your competitors.

• First step: You need to see if Google My Business profile is complete. Do not submit it if you have put minimal effort into it. Google is searching for images, hours of operation and much more.
• Quick trick: You can create a local landing page for the physical location of your organisation. Make sure you optimise the page with your city, state and postal code.
• Advanced tactic: Directory listings of good quality have an impact on your score. Some tools such as Yext and BrightLocal can be used as they are recommended directories at an affordable price.

Proper care of business:

• SSL certificate: Google wants everything to travel over a secure channel (https). So, your browser will flag unencrypted sites as unsecure in the future. The good news is that it only requires a few hours to get an SSL Certificate for your website.
• Page speed: The webpages should be able to load within 3 seconds. If your site loads slowly, then visitors will not visit your website again. Google uses this information in their algorithm to check the loading speed.

Promote more and create less –

Experts working in an SEO agency state that organic SEO is often not enough and you should focus on spreading the word for your content.

• First step: It should be easy for visitors to share content with social sharing icons on your posts. Besides that, add the most relevant social channels for your industry. Post your content on your social channels continuously. When you remain active in social communities, you will surely pick up some shares and respond to their comments.
• Quick trick: You can save time with social media management tools that can manage your postings. There are both paid and free versions available so search for a social media tool that will work the best for you. By using a marketing automation tool like HubSpot, you will have this covered already.
• Advanced tactic: Organise the internal team and then ask to share the content within their social networks. Your development team will feel pleased to spread the word.

Keep a track of your progress –

By keeping track of your progress, you will be able to clearly identify if your SEO & marketing tactics/strategy are working and if they require any tweaking. Here are some relevant metrics that specifically point to search engine optimisation:

• Tracking Quick Tip – The Search Console Basics dashboard denotes web pages that are mostly visible on SERPs and the ones which drive organic traffic.
• Keyword rankings – Check rankings for the relevant keywords related to your business as you target them with each blog post.
• Organic search traffic – This is usually measured with Google Analytics or your CMS to track the organic search traffic with a few clicks.
• Page visits from organic search – It is important to understand the blog posts that are mostly viewed to provide a better insights and proper direction for blog posts and topics in the future.
• Time on page – Content engagement that is measured by the time spent on web page is considered to be a key metric with Google Analytics.
• Backlinks – Backlinks can affect search engine rankings and track the domains that link back to your website for a certain time period.
• Visit web pages per session – Add internal links to your content for encouraging visitors to know more and increase their time spent on your website.
• Returning users – If the visitors do not return to your website, then you are either not providing relevant contact or you are reaching out to the wrong audience. Make sure that you deliver what visitors crave for so that you can become the authority for it.
• Page load speed score – This is important for Google as quality is always preferred over quantity. Your website should be able to display information appropriately and quickly.
• Mobile bounce rate – Your web pages should load quickly on mobile devices as you provide visitors with all the information that they look for. After this, you need to keep an eye on mobile bounce rate to ensure that you do not miss out on any business.
• Conversions – Increased conversions means that your SEO strategy is working properly. You will find quality visitors and deliver the right content that encouraged them to move to the next step successfully.
• Keyword rankings – By knowing which keywords are relevant to your business, maintaining a track of SERP rankings will enable you to know where you stand with your competitors.
• Blog visits from organic search – Understanding which blog topics are mostly viewed offer direction and insights for future blogs and topics.
• Domain Authority and Page Authority – Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are scores that can increase by improving your overall SEO.
• Social likes and shares – Your customers and prospects will inform you what they like by sharing your content with their networks. Select the right topics and keywords to resonate with the audience.
• ROI: It is necessary to assess which strategies convert to marketing qualified leads and then to sales qualified leads.
• Customer retention rate – Marketing has an important role in customer retention and your overall work will be significantly harder if you constantly need to change your team.

Do not waste time –

Improvements do not happen at once and so, the sooner you begin, the better you will be. Use SEO Checklist and SEO Tracking Spreadsheets to create a path for success in your business.

You may get in touch with DubSEO experts who can help you to formulate an effective SEO plan and boost the search rankings in 2020 and beyond.