How to develop a strong SEO campaign for search engine success

Search engines have revolutionized how people seek products and services — and they’re crucial to helping consumers discover your business. 

No matter how much attention your team puts into initiatives like research, product development, and sales, you can’t achieve maximum market integration if your site doesn't appear near the top of Google's leaderboards. Few people scroll to page two on a search engine results page (SERP), so you need to prioritize your rankings for online visibility. 

To make it to the top of the SERPs, marketers turn to a tactic known as search engine optimization (SEO). A rock-solid SEO campaign enables you to compete with other brands on search engines, monitor your web traffic, and tweak online content strategies for the highest rate of success. 

An SEO campaign encompasses all the tasks and techniques teams use to increase their web page's ranking on search engines like Google and Bing. The goal of any SEO campaign is to drive more organic traffic to your website by getting close to — or nabbing — the number one spot on multiple SERPs. 

While there are dozens of brand-specific components in an SEO campaign, the core strategies include researching search traffic, identifying relevant keywords, and analyzing competitors. These steps help teams develop consistent, high-quality, and high-converting content.

The difference between an SEO campaign and SEO campaign management is that the former defines your strategy for success, while the latter serves as a management process as teams action the campaign. Through SEO campaign management, you can review metrics related to new content optimization plans — such as average organic traffic, click-through rates (CTRs), and backlinking on authoritative sites — to see if a campaign has a positive impact.

If SEO strategies don't appear to influence SERP performance, it's time to collect more data and develop new tactics for successful rankings. And SEO campaign management also includes monitoring algorithm adjustments on search engines and assessing how these changes affect the efficacy of an SEO plan.

The primary goal of creating customized SEO campaigns is to reach the coveted first page on multiple search engines. But there are plenty of additional benefits associated with robust SEO management. For instance, solid SEO strategies amplify ad revenue and online credibility while keeping your team one step ahead of the competition.

Here are a few more benefits of creating and actioning custom SEO strategies:

• Builds credibility on search engines — search engines like Google rank high-quality, helpful, and authoritative content highest. The more consistently you rank at the top of multiple SERPs, the stronger your reputation grows as an authority figure in your market. Heightened credibility boosts your brand's image with clients and consumers. This often triggers a positive feedback loop, causing algorithms to recognize you as a trustworthy source and rank you higher. 

• Supports advertising and marketing strategies — strong SEO campaigns complement advertising efforts by improving the visibility of your online content, including blog articles, social media posts, and videos. Greater visibility from a high SEO score also directly impacts the potential revenue from marketing tactics like pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

• Keeps competitors at bay — rival companies know the significance of SEO, so it's safe to assume they're spending resources studying ways to outwit your team. To keep competitors from kicking you off your SERP perch, run an SEO competitor analysis to spot strengths and weaknesses.

• Keeps you updated on algorithm changes — developers are constantly tweaking the algorithms in their search engines, which influences how each site screens your content and assigns it a place on their results pages. An SEO campaign keeps your team informed on algorithm upgrades and how to adapt your strategy to changing circumstances. 

SEO analysts pore over quantitative metrics to get an objective read on your website's performance and measure the impact of various content optimization techniques. By closely monitoring these categories, your team gleans actionable insights into SEO successes and sore spots, contributing to a more effective, data-driven SERP strategy. 

Here are a few more components of an effective optimization-based content strategy:

• Organic traffic — any time a visitor lands on your website through a search engine, it’s considered organic traffic. SEO strategies are laser-focused on driving up a website's organic traffic by working with search engine algorithms to boost rankings. High organic traffic helps companies cut their advertisement spending and connect with customers who are actively searching for relevant products, services, and information. 

• Keywords — keywords are the specific words or phrases people type into a search engine. SEO strategies involve identifying highly relevant keywords for your company's target audience — as well as your competitors’ — and using this information to craft content with strategically placed phrases. 

• Bounce rate — a site's bounce rate measures how many visitors end up on your site and quickly leave (or "bounce"). If a webpage has abnormally high bounce rates, it suggests there are problems such as poor content quality, slow loading speeds, or a clunky page layout. 

• CTR — unlike bounce rates, CTRs focus on the number of search engine users who click your website versus competing options for a specific keyword. High CTRs plus a long average time spent on a site (or the user retention rate) are the gold standards for successful SEO content strategies.

• Backlinks — sometimes called inbound links, backlinks are hyperlink tabs to your webpage from other sites. Backlinks matter because they alert search engine algorithms that you're providing high-quality information, which often strengthens your credibility and site visibility on SERPs. 

Because SEO campaigns focus on predicting the preferences of advanced algorithms, creating an effective strategy might seem complicated. But you don't need expert coding chops to craft an actionable plan. All you need when creating an SEO content campaign are actionable data points to develop your strategy and measure results. 

Here’s a four-step guide to crafting an effective strategy. 

Before brainstorming content ideas, get a clear picture of your target demographic. Use any relevant data you have on file — including consumer personas, user stories, and current search trends — to identify the people most likely to search for optimal keywords. 

Also imagine the type of online content your readers expect, including the ideal tone of voice and average length per post. And consider any common interests or pain points across your audience to tailor your content for superior engagement. 

After establishing your target audience, run an analysis on relevant and high-traffic keywords in your niche and identify the dominant competing pages. Use this information to understand what other sites get right, and analyze potential keyword trends or knowledge gaps to seize. For optimal organization, consider using templates designed for competitive analysis or keyword tracking to keep tabs on competitor strategies and develop content generation ideas.

After you gather insights into high-ranking keywords and competitor strategies, implement an effective content strategy across your company's online presence. Optimize blogs, social media posts, and landing pages for target keywords, and set a consistent publishing schedule to ensure there's a constant stream of fresh content. Then research strategies to increase backlinks, such as leveraging guest blog opportunities, fixing broken links, and spotlighting customer testimonials. 

Once your content optimization plan is in full swing, pay attention to metrics like your webpage's CTR, bounce rate, and organic traffic, and assess how different SEO tactics work. Note significant algorithm changes at major search engines, and determine whether these updates affect your site's competitiveness. If site traffic is flat or declining, return to the drawing board and determine your next strategic move.

Notion makes managing and monitoring search engine performance simple with user-friendly SEO templates. From funnel trackers and management frameworks to SEO audit checklists and mobile app monitors, Notion has dozens of templates and tools to design, evaluate, and share info on SEO campaigns. Start today to find out how Notion's templates can help send your sites soaring on SERPs.