To get results from an SEO campaign requires a strategic, well-rounded approach.
We see it all too often, businesses only focusing on one or two aspects of SEO, such as keyword research or on-page optimization — which leads to half-baked results. However, effective SEO requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses all the critical components. Failing to do so can severely hinder your ability to rank higher and drive more organic traffic to your website. This ultimately leads to missed opportunities for lead generation, customer acquisition, and revenue growth.
Which is why our 8-part SEO process is designed to provide a holistic solution that covers every essential aspect of search engine optimization.
Hiring an SEO agency is a big commitment for your business. That’s why, in this guide, we’re going to break down our entire SEO process we use to help Long Island businesses get top rankings and convert users to customers.
Here is what we will cover:
- Competition Research
- Website SEO Analysis & Current Health Status
- Keyword Research
- Website On-Page Optimization
- Offsite Link Building
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Setting and Tracking Goals
- Weekly Reporting
What is SEO?
Before delving into our 8-step process, let’s quickly define what SEO is — especially if your business has heard of it but is unsure what it exactly does and how it can help you.
SEO is search engine optimization, the practice of improving and promoting a website to increase the number of visitors the website receives from search engines. Generally speaking, when we refer to search engines, we’re talking about Google, which is the most popular search engine in the world, getting around 90% of all internet searches.
Search engines use algorithms to determine your position (or ranking) in their index and the overall visibility of your website. Through various SEO techniques and strategies, you can influence how Google determines the ranking of your website.
This guide will essentially give full visibility into how our firm, Long Island Web Design does this.
Why is SEO important for your business?
A well-rounded SEO strategy enhances your website’s visibility, attracts qualified traffic, and drives increased leads and sales. It will help you outrank your competitors, establish your online presence, and build the credibility of your business. When you embrace SEO over the long-term, it becomes a reliable marketing channel for your business. Whether you’re a local mom-and-pop shop, a law firm doing multi-millions in revenue, or a global brand, SEO is a game-changer when executed effectively.
With that said, let’s dive into the first step of our proven process, tailored for SEO on Long Island.
Our 8 Part SEO Campaign Process That Drives Results
1. Competition Research
Crafting a successful SEO strategy involves understanding the competitive landscape. You need to recognize your competitors, whether they are traditional industry rivals or dominant players in your niche, as well as the hidden organic search challengers. The ultimate goal is to gain a thorough understanding of your digital battleground and strategically position yourself to capitalize on the opportunities. It’s like maneuvering through the complex chessboard of online visibility.
We analyze several key factors to assess your competitors' strengths and weaknesses:
Keywords
We examine the types of keywords they're targeting, their relevance, search volume, and the total number of keywords they rank for.
Ranked Pages Popularity
We evaluate the page authority, domain authority, external link anchor text, and external links volume of their top-ranking pages.
Ranked Content
We assess the relevance, optimization, schema markup, format, and social metrics of their high-ranking content.
By conducting this thorough competition research, we can identify gaps in the market, uncover untapped opportunities, and develop a tailored strategy to help you outperform your rivals and claim a higher share of the organic search traffic.
With a clear understanding of the competitive landscape, we’ll move on to the next step: analyzing your website’s current SEO health and status.
2. Website SEO Analysis & Current Health Status
Before we can implement any meaningful changes, we need to evaluate your website’s current SEO performance and identify any potential issues that may be hindering its visibility and search engine rankings.
To start, we perform a thorough SEO analysis of your website's current status. This involves:
Site Search
Examining which pages are indexed by search engines.
Total Pages Indexed
Reviewing the total number of indexed pages.
Brand/Business
Related Searches
Searching for terms related to your business such as branded products or services to assess your current ranking.
Duplicate Content Review
Checking for duplicate content, like www vs. non-www versions, that could harm your SEO.
The next part in this process is performing a health check on your website.
This is done to see if any issues could hinder us from reaching the best possible outcomes. This involves analyzing the following:
SEO Score
Evaluating your website's SEO score which takes into account various on-page and off-page factors.
Load Time
Verifying your website's loading speed to ensure that slow loading pages do not adversely affect user experience and rankings on search engine.
Uptime:
Monitoring the amount of time your site is “up,” or “live,” ensures that it is always accessible to users and search engine crawlers.
By identifying and addressing any current issues or deficiencies, we can lay a solid foundation for our subsequent SEO efforts and maximize their effectiveness.
With a clear understanding of your website’s current status, we’ll proceed to the next critical step: keyword research.
3. Keyword Research
Keyword research is the backbone of any successful SEO campaign. We need to determine the keywords that will give you the highest return on your investment when ranked at the top within search engine results. Keywords are the specific words and phrases that your potential customers and clients will probably type in when looking for the services or products that your business provides.
We will conduct thorough keyword research and analyze the top-ranking websites in your industry on Google to uncover the keywords they are focusing on. After carefully reviewing all the information, we select the most relevant keywords for your SEO strategy. You will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the desired keywords prior to the start of the campaign.
We analyze the following factors to generate a final keyword list:
Strategy
Your overall business goals and marketing objectives.
Conversion Potential
The likelihood of each keyword driving conversions and generating leads or sales.
Budget
Your available budget and resources.
Keyword Data
Search volume, competition levels, and other relevant keyword metrics.
Competition Level
The degree of competitiveness of each keyword based on the strength of the top-ranking websites.
Traffic Level
Potential traffic each keyword could drive to your website.
Geo-targeting
Your target geographic location or region.
Legal Issues
Ensure that the keywords do not violate any legal or ethical guidelines.
By targeting the most relevant and profitable keywords, allows us to drive highly qualified traffic to your website and increase your chances of converting those visitors into leads and eventually customers.
With the keyword research completed, we’ll move on to the next critical step: on-page optimization.
4. Website On-Page Optimization
Now that you’ve chosen the best keywords to target, we need to optimize your website’s on-page elements to be more relevant to those keywords and make it easier for search engine bots to understand and rank your content.
It’s important to understand the difference between how humans and search engines understand a website’s content. While humans consume a website based on its visual content, search engines rely on the underlying code, structure, and various behind the scenes signals to assess the relevance and quality of a website.
How Humans View A Website:
How Search Engines View A Website:
Let’s illustrate this with an example of basic on-page SEO done correctly for the keyword “divorce attorneys long island”:
Examples of Good On-Page SEO
In addition to optimizing these fundamental on-page elements, we'll also focus on the following areas:
Usability Review
- Website load time
- Home page layout
- Quality and frequency of call-to-action (CTA) elements
- User experience optimization
Content Review
- Content quality and relevance
- Content length and depth
- Readability and human-focused writing
Page Structure
- Search-friendly URL structure
- Relevant and optimized title tags
- Unique and compelling meta-descriptions
- Optimized header tags:
(H1, H2, H3, H4) - Internal link structure optimization
- Image names, sizes, and alt text optimization
- Semantic HTML markup review
- Keyword density optimization
Full On-Site Analysis
- Google Analytics and Search Console setup
- Social media integration
- Google Schema markup implementation
- Website crawlability improvement
- Sitemap generation and submission
- Page speed optimization
- Robots.txt file optimization
- Favicon implementation
- Webpage caching optimization
- HTTPS implementation
- Responsive design testing
- No-index tag checker
By optimizing these on-page elements, we’ll improve your website’s relevance, usability, and search engine visibility, setting the stage for higher rankings and increased organic traffic.
With the on-page optimization complete, we’ll move on to the next crucial step: off-site link building.
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See how I can help build your Long Island business a website that ranks on top of Google and wows your customers.
5. Offsite Link Building
While on-page optimization is essential, your website also requires high-quality backlinks to achieve and maintain top search engine rankings. Backlinks are simply links to your website from other websites, and they play a crucial factor in signaling your website’s authority, relevance, and popularity to search engines.
For a backlink to be most effective, it must be from a webpage that is relevant to your website’s content, topic or industry — and ideally the website linking to your page should be considered a trusted source. That’s why we prioritize obtaining backlinks for you from websites that are relevant to your content.
To improve your backlink profile, we will conduct outreach activities by connecting with relevant journalists, bloggers, and publishers in your industry. We’ll offer to write guest blog posts or contribute content for their websites in exchange for a contextual link back to your website. The website owner receives free content for their website and we secure a backlink for you. It’s a win-win for both parties involved.
Here’s an overview of our link-building process:
High Domain Authority Contextual Links
We'll secure backlinks from high-authority microsites and niche-relevant websites.
Citations & Directory Listings
We'll list your business in relevant online directories and citation sources, boosting your online presence and local SEO.
Portfolio & PDF Links
We'll pursue opportunities to have your website linked from online portfolios, case studies, and PDF documents.
Social Bookmarks
We'll leverage social bookmarking sites to generate additional backlinks and social signals.
Article Creation & Submission
We'll create high-quality articles and submit them to authoritative article directories and publishing platforms.
Search Engine Submissions
We'll submit your website to other major search engines other than Google, ensuring they discover and index your content more efficiently.
Link building is an ongoing process, and we’ll continue to implement our link-building program by seeking out high-quality backlinks on a until your website reaches the first page of Google search results.
While we continue on with off-site link-building phase, we’ll begin working on to the next critical step: conversion rate optimization.
Sample Business Citation Links
| Citation Site | Domain Authority | Free / Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Maps | 100 | Free |
| Google Business Profile | 100 | Free |
| 96 | Free | |
| Bing | 93 | Free |
| Yelp | 93 | Free |
| Foursquare | 92 | Free / Paid |
| Waze | 91 | Paid |
| Snapchat | 91 | Free / Paid |
| Here Maps | 86 | Free |
| TomTom | 86 | Free |
Sample Dofollow Web Links
| Dofollow Site | Domain Authority | Free / Paid |
|---|---|---|
| https://sites.google.com | 98 | Free |
| https://www.medium.com | 95 | Free |
| https://www.wix.com | 94 | Free |
| https://www.quora.com | 93 | Free |
| https://www.livejournal.com | 92 | Free |
| https://www.bloglovin.com | 91 | Free / Paid |
| https://www.tumblr.com | 87 | Paid |
| https://www.blogger.com | 86 | Free / Paid |
| https://www.linkedin.com | 97 | Free |
| https://www.storeboard.com | 50 | Free |
Sample Guest Blogging Posting Links
| Website | Industry | Example Articles |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Techish | Home Services | Bestware Faucet: Pioneering Excellence in Commercial Stainless-Steel Faucets |
| Guest Blogging Pro | Dentistry | All About Overbite Teeth and How to Fix it? |
| Bigger Pockets | Real Estate | The Housing Shortage Will Only Get Worse – Here’s What You Need to Know? |
| Attorney At Work | Law | Embrace Constraints to Build Your Legal Practice |
| Well-Being Secrets | Health and Fitness | How to Gain Weight Fast and Naturally (The Ultimate Guide) |
| Room Home | Landscaping | How is Artificial Grass Installed? |
6. Conversion Rate Optimization
While driving more traffic to your website is essential, it’s equally important to ensure that those visitors convert into leads or customers. This is where conversion rate optimization comes into play.
When it comes to enhancing your website for conversions, it is common to concentrate solely on tweaking design elements such as buttons, forms, and other page level components. While that can be beneficial, we concentrate on getting the right visitors to your site in the first place, which is where our SEO efforts play such a pivotal role.
When you start thinking about conversion rate optimization, it’s tempting to fiddle around with buttons and forms and other low-in-the-funnel design elements that might make or break the sale. But remember that part of optimizing conversions is getting the right visitors to your site in the first place by having proper landing page and using the best techniques.
Our Website Conversion Rate Optimization Strategy
By targeting the most relevant keywords and optimizing your website’s content and structure, we ensure that your site attracts highly qualified visitors who are more likely to convert. Additionally, we’ll optimize your landing pages and implement proven conversion rate optimization techniques, such as:
Clear and Compelling Value Proposition
Clearly communicate the unique value your business offers and why visitors should choose you over competitors.
Intuitive Navigation and User Experience
Ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience that guides visitors effortlessly through your conversion funnel.
Persuasive Copy and Messaging
Craft compelling copy and messaging that resonates with your target audience and addresses their pain points and desires.
Prominent and Effective Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Use strategically placed and well-designed CTAs to encourage visitors to take the desired action, whether it's making a purchase, requesting a quote, or signing up for a service.
Trust and Social Proof Elements
Incorporate trust signals, customer testimonials, and social proof elements to build credibility and confidence in your brand.
A/B Testing and Data-Driven Optimization
Continuously test and refine your website's elements based on data-driven insights to optimize for maximum conversions.
By combining our SEO efforts with proven Conversion Rate Optimization techniques, we’ll not only help you drive more qualified traffic to your website but also ensure that a higher percentage of those visitors convert into leads or customers, maximizing your return on investment.
At this point, we covered all the heavy lifting of your SEO campaign website on-page optimization, link building, and conversion rate optimization phase, but what good is all this strategy and implementation without knowing if what we are doing is working? So now, we move on to analytics and tracking your campaign’s progress.
7. Setting and Tracking Goals
Effective SEO requires clear goals and a robust tracking system to measure progress and success. It’s about paying attention to all the little details of your website that most business owners don’t
By setting specific and measurable goals, you can track the progress of our SEO efforts and monitor the performance of your key success drivers, such as specific services pages, product sales, or landing pages.
We’ll work closely with you to establish realistic and achievable goals aligned with your overall business objectives.
Your SEO Goals Might Include:
Growing Organic Traffic
Increasing the number of visitors coming to your website through organic search results.
Enhancing Keyword Rankings
Pinpoint certain key keywords and work towards boosting their rankings on the first page of search engine results.
Boosting Lead Generation:
If you're looking to generate more leads, we will focus on driving quality traffic to your lead generation forms and enhancing their conversion rates.
Improving Sales
For e-commerce businesses, we will work on enhancing the visibility of product pages, increasing add-to-cart rates, and optimizing the checkout process.
Broadening Local Visibility
Improving your visibility in local search results and attracting more customers to your physical location.
Once the goals are established, we’ll integrate tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other industry-standard tools. This will allow us to monitor metrics such as
Traffic
Amount of people coming to your website organically from Google
Bounce and
Dwell Rates
How quickly people are leaving/staying on the site once they get there.
Conversion rates:
If users are converting into leads
Revenue generated
How many sales are made from people coming from Google.
By setting clear goals and tracking progress, we can continuously tweak our SEO strategy and identify areas for improvement, ensuring that we are moving towards delivering real results.
What could be better?
8. Weekly Reporting
We recognize by choosing to partner with us over the long-term, you are putting the growth of your business in our hands — and we don’t take that lightly. So we understand the importance of transparency and communication during the process.
To keep you informed on our efforts, every week we will email you a status report on your SEO campaign. It will highlight the campaign’s progress and outline the work we have been focusing on during that week.
Your SEO Report Will Cover:
1. Overview of On-Page SEO Enhancements
Summarize the changes and improvements made to your website's on-page elements, such as content updates, meta tag enhancements, and structured data implementations.
2. Keyword Rankings:
Monitor the rankings of your chosen keywords and present the latest updates, emphasizing any notable changes or advancements.
3. Website Traffic:
Detailed analytics on your website's organic traffic will be shared, including visitor numbers, page views, and other essential metrics.
4. Fresh Blog Content:
If content creation is part of our plan, we will showcase the new blog posts or web pages added to your site, along with their targeted keywords and optimization strategies.
5. Backlinks Acquired:
A detailed list of the high-quality backlinks obtained for your website in the past week, including the domains they originate from and the context of the links.
6. Conversion Rate Optimization Progress:
If we are working on improving conversion rates, we will share insights and data on the performance of your landing pages, forms, and other conversion elements.
7. Future Recommendations:
Based on our analysis, we will offer suggestions and lay out the next steps in our SEO strategy to ensure continuous growth and success.
By providing these weekly reports, we are aiming for transparency, to build trust, and keep you informed on the value we’re working to bring to your business.
View A Sample Basic SEO Report
Next Steps
With our proven 8-part SEO process, we can help your local business achieve sustainable online success. From in-depth competition research and keyword analysis to comprehensive on-page optimization, strategic link building, conversion rate optimization, and data-driven tracking – we leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of driving more qualified traffic, leads, and sales to your website.
Don’t let your local business leave leads on the table. Take the first step towards dominating organic search and maximizing your online visibility and revenue potential. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation, and let’s discuss how our results-driven SEO services can propel your business to new heights.
