Goal setting is an important part of SEO – find out more about the method behind the madness.
Setting SEO goals for your website is one of the hardest things to do especially when you have just launched a new site or you are operating in a new and unfamiliar market. An SEO consultant will work with you on achievable benchmarks for your individual business. Unfortunately, not all websites are SEO-friendly – these are just some of the factors you may take into consideration when setting realistic SEO goals.
Age of the domain
The age of your domain is an important factor when setting SEO goals for your website. An established website may have acquired more back links over time and may be seen to be more credible and authoritative due to its longevity and may rank higher in Search Engines like Google . A website that has just been launched will take a few months to get up on its feet – this needs to be taken into account when setting benchmarks.
Internal structure
The technical platform and ‘bones’ of your website also has an impact on the success of SEO. Search Engines have improved Flash indexing but most SEO experts would still recommend building a website on an HTML platform. An SEO consultant would also need to look at the navigation structure, the use of meta data and the relevance to page content as well as other technical aspects of your site.
Business model
The SEO goals you set will be largely determined by the purpose of your website. If your company’s aim is to inform people about a particular service or build brand awareness, you may be focused on the time on site, page views, and the number of new versus returning visitors. However an e-commerce site which is selling products may be more focused on tracking sales leads, goals and funnels and conversion rates.
Choice of keywords
Keyword selection has an impact on your SEO goals. Some phrases are easier to rank for as there is simply less competition. Companies who want to rank on page one for ‘trophy’ keywords or highly competitive phrases may have to tone down their expectations. An SEO consultant will work with you to find a workable blend of short tail and long tail keywords to drive pre-qualified traffic to your website.
Content
The existing content on a website will also influence an SEO campaign and goal setting. Search Engines have a preference for websites with quality content that are continually refreshed and updated. If you only have a few pages existing on your website, the consultant will have to set initial tasks to create the additional pages with keyword-rich quality content before they even start monitoring your rankings.
Size of the site
In general, the bigger your website, the more phrases it can rank for. This is a double-edged sword as you have more keyword opportunities but it also requires more work on the behalf of the SEO consultant. In this instance when setting SEO goals, you need to drill down and find out the most important pages/keyword phrases and then as they start ranking, look to expanding your keyword portfolio.
Analyzing the competition
This is particularly relevant to companies who are launching a new website or diversifying into a new category. Analyzing competitor’s websites will help you to set realistic and attainable benchmarks for your own website. You can find out metrics such as the number of keywords they are targeting, the number of back links and citations, how many pages they have and so forth to help you set SEO goals for your own website.
Budget and resources
It stands to reason that the more keywords you can implement on your site, the more landing pages you can optimize and the more people you have working on your SEO campaigns, the easier it will be to achieve your SEO goals. However, most companies are limited by a budget and time constraints. An SEO company may offer different levels of packages to suit different budgets.
If you do not set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your site and understand why they are set, it will be harder to measure whether your SEO Company is doing a good job. seoWorks is a leading service provider who will help you set realistic, attainable and measurable SEO goals for your website, implement campaigns and measure results – why not contact us today to speak to one of our consultants.
