Standing out in research is not easy.
The search environment is hyper-competitive. It’s possible to post great content and still see it not rank.
Competition is everywhere in search. You’re competing with ads, SERP features, and soon built-in generative AI in the form of Search Generative Experience (SGE).
To succeed in this environment, you need a clear and actionable SEO strategy that ensures your content does something different, stands out and deserves a high position.
What is an SEO strategy?
Strategy is a complicated term to define sometimes.
A quick Google search for “SEO strategy” offers no shortage of articles.
However, in reviewing these articles, I realized that something was missing. Top SEO strategy articles focus mostly on planning rather than strategy. SEO planning is certainly important, but planning does not make a strategy.
SEO planning usually looks like this:
Keyword Research: Build a list of target keywords. Search and Review: Review SERPs and document content type. Content Plan: Create a content plan to target your top keywords.
If mentioned, the only tip of the hat to the strategy is to create something better. I don’t find it helpful as best is often subjective. What does better mean? Better is not the only way to stand out. Sometimes, different is better.
All too often, however, the actual strategy is left aside and replaced by just planning, which alone will not yield the desired result.
Strategy development should answer the question of how to create something better (rather than create something better).
3-step strategic SEO process
To develop an effective SEO strategy, we need three different steps:
Step 1: SEO research – Keywords, competitors, current ranking content.
Step 2: SEO strategy – How to do something different or unique to stand out.
Step 3: SEO planning – The execution plan to deliver your strategy.
The key here is inserting an SEO strategy between the research and planning stages.
Step 1 is SEO research. This is the first step in understanding your situation and environment to inform your strategic decisions.
You must:
This step is critical to developing an effective SEO strategy because you can’t create something uniquely valuable if you don’t understand what’s already out there.
You’ll be surprised how many ideas come up if you carefully review everything that ranks high in the SERPs for your dream keywords.
Step 3 is creating an SEO action plan. This plan should provide the tactical components of the strategy. This can be as simple as a content calendar detailing what needs to be created each month.
Between this research and planning is the development of the SEO strategy itself. Research informs strategy and itself informs planning.
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Introduction to SEO strategy development
Unfortunately, there is no fixed framework for developing an SEO strategy – too many variables exist. However, at my agency we have found that we can use many tried and true strategic business approaches to get us thinking strategically about SEO.
A solid starting point is to look at traditional competitive strategies and reuse them to develop an SEO strategy. Each of them takes the form of a question that we can ask ourselves.
price
Be the cost leader. Now, from an SEO perspective, the cost to the user is often time, a very precious commodity. One potential strategy is to review what’s out there and look for ways to do something different to save the reader time. How can we provide the same (or more) value but save the reader time?
niche
Targeting a niche or customer segment is a potential strategy. For example, I could write about SEO strategy for web design agencies instead of writing about SEO strategy. I’m narrowing it down to make it more specific and relevant to a segment of my target audience. Are there gaps in the information out there? Can we focus on targeting keywords with reasonable volume?
differentiation
You’re likely to spot opportunities to do something different if you’ve researched and thoroughly reviewed everything for a target keyword. It can be a single angle, including some kind of guide or tool, video if it’s all text, text if it’s all video. You are trying to find something that will help you stand out and build something not just as good or better, but uniquely different. Different formats Unique insights and white papers Recent research Expert examples Improved UX downloads (checklists, worksheets, etc.) How do we do something different than what’s out there today?
value
Your research is key here. Identifying patterns in what is available will give you opportunities to add value. Can you provide a tool, a download, some more examples and a different perspective? What are the gaps? How do you add something beyond what’s there to add value to the reader? More comprehensive coverage of the topic. Original research and data. Expert opinions and quotes. Actionable insights. Downloads (checklists, worksheets). How do we add unique or additional value beyond what is currently there?
blue ocean
A blue ocean strategy aims to create something completely new by combining two of our existing strategies: reduce cost (time) and add value. If you can create something completely unique to what’s out there that makes the reader’s life that much easier and saves them time, you’re onto a real winner. Can we reduce the cost of time and add value at the same time?
Interspersed knowledge
The most interesting people often seem to have detailed knowledge in multiple areas; the intersection of this knowledge creates something entirely new. This is similar to a niche strategy, but creates a new variant by combining the knowledge of two subjects. For example, there are many articles on marketing, but not many that approach marketing from an evolutionary psychology perspective. By combining two areas of knowledge (SEO and why people do what they do), we can create something completely new and add value to existing content (something I try to do on my own blog). Can you combine the knowledge of two subjects to create something new and uniquely valuable?
All you can EEAT SEO strategy
Beyond leveraging traditional business strategies, there’s another way to look at SEO strategy development: through the lens of the EEAT framework that Google’s human evaluators use to review the quality of search results .
As you review content for your target keywords, you can ask EEAT questions to identify gaps you can target.
expertise: Does the content demonstrate clear subject matter expertise? Is this evidenced? Is there any information about the author?
experience: Does the content show real experience with the topic? Are there pictures? Examples of historical work? Customer reviews? Experience and knowledge are closely linked, but you should try to show both clearly.
authority: Does the content there demonstrate true authority on the subject? Can you show authority in a way that replaces what is outside?
trust: Is the content there reliable? Can you do more to demonstrate trust?
Using EEAT for SEO strategy
Google offers a list of questions which are incredibly helpful in reviewing your competitor’s content and your approach, which if answered honestly will help you spot gaps and identify SEO strategies for your content.
EEAT has been well covered, so if you need a summary, this SEO guide for EEAT is a good place to start, and each of these areas gives you a potential strategic avenue to explore.
Just remember that EEAT will become more important as SGE rolls out so you can show up and offer something an AI can’t!
Why strategy matters
Joe Rogan’s experience is a perfect example of a killer strategy.
There was no shortage of podcasts when the show launched, but this podcast brought something new. Where other podcasts were short and TV and radio interviews were often minutes long, the podcast introduced 3 hour long discussions. No editing. No filter. Nothing was off the table.
Nobody was doing that. This created a blue ocean. An undisputed market that made competition irrelevant and went beyond existing demand to create a new audience.
Whether you like Joe Rogan or not, you can’t argue with the numbers or the nearly half a million dollars he’s received from Spotify for his two deals.
On the other side of the strategic fence, we recently worked with a website that had lost considerable traffic after updating useful content.
The content they created, while not problematic and of reasonable to high quality, was so varied in subject matter that they had no demonstrable expertise in any of the areas covered.
There is no SEO solution to this problem, only a strategic one. Today’s strategy, in the age of EEAT, AI and helpful content updates, has had its day, and the overall SEO and content strategy needs to be overhauled.
Strategy is important and can make the difference between world-dominating success and a gradual, painful decline.
First the strategy
My strategy for this article was to make it unique and valuable compared to what already exists and ranks for “SEO strategy”. I felt there was a clear void in these articles because even though they were titled around strategy, they talked little about the strategy itself and were much more focused on SEO planning and tactics.
SEO tactics run forward, but strategy runs marathons. To get results in business and marketing, you need to inform your tactical approach with a clear strategy.
By following this three-step approach of research, strategy, and planning, you can attack your competitors’ content weaknesses to get ahead of the competition.
As AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini make it exponentially easier to create written content, the strategic thinking that feeds into your SEO content strategy will make all the difference.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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