How to Create an Effective SEO Roadmap in 12 Steps

The Foolproof SEO Roadmap Strategy

Getting your SEO (search engine optimization) right is critical. Without an effective SEO strategy, your website will be lost among the many millions in your niche. SEO is the difference between a shining web presence and disappearing down a black hole.

You don’t need to be bamboozled by SEO. Yes, much of the terminology is confusing to those without SEO expertise. But don’t be put off by this. With a methodical approach, you can polish your SEO and keep your web pages in the spotlight of your target audience. The methodical approach we recommend is an SEO roadmap strategy.

What is an SEO roadmap?

An SEO roadmap is a visual representation of the process that you will go through to rank higher on Google and other search engines. It’s a strategic plan that includes a set of goals, strategies, and tactics that will help you prioritize your SEO efforts to achieve your content marketing goals.

An effective SEO roadmap template provides a way to organize your work by listing all the tasks required for success in order of importance. The roadmap is an ongoing process that changes as the latest information becomes available and new opportunities arise.

Why you need an SEO roadmap strategy

A plan for your SEO strategy and an SEO roadmap helps you to visualize the steps you need to take and the order in which they should be taken. It’s going to help you make decisions that will help your website rank higher in online searches ─ helping you know where you are going and how to get there. 

There are many situations in which an SEO roadmap template will prove invaluable, including:

• A website re-design

• A new product or service launch

• A new marketing campaign

• An upcoming event, etc.

Specifically, an effective SEO roadmap strategy will help you to:

• Align your digital SEO efforts with your business goals.

• Get team members on the same page.

• Organize and streamline all your SEO projects.

• Help answer questions from other project stakeholders regarding the strategy. 

• Future-proof your SEO strategy. Any major change within the organization — hiring new people to expand the SEO team or losing key stakeholders — will affect the strategy.

What are the elements of an SEO roadmap?

Your SEO roadmap should include a detailed strategy, keyword research, and competitor analysis. It should also have a list of SEO goals and objectives that need to be achieved in order to increase rankings and outline the technical aspects of the campaign such as on-page optimization, off-page optimization, link-building strategies, etc. It needs to provide a timeline for when these strategies will be executed and what resources are required to execute them.

Typically, your roadmap will focus on the following aspects of SEO strategy:

• The current state of your SEO efforts

• Quick wins (little effort/meaningful results)

• Topic and keyword research

• Audit results (content and technical)

• Upcoming SEO initiatives

• SOPs and workflows

How to build an SEO roadmap in 12 steps

The SEO roadmap template should be created before starting any SEO campaign. This will help keep your focus on the big picture and not get lost in the details. Here’s the process to follow.

Step #1: Explore your SEO needs

The first step is to define your SEO goals and ensure they align with your business goals. Defining these goals will help in determining the content strategy for the given period. This also helps in identifying gaps that need to be filled or things that need improvement. The elements you must focus on are:

• Technical SEO

• Usability and site performance SEO

• Link building 

• SEO content marketing

• Other digital channels

• Local SEO 

• International SEO

• New products or service launches

• New (or under-served) target audience targeting

• PR needs

Step #2: Evaluate your competitors

What is their rank on Google for the keywords that you want ranking for? What keywords are they ranking for that you don’t want to rank for? Where do they rank before the first page of Google search results, and where do they rank after the first page of Google search results?

You’ll need to consider:

• Backlink profile

• Keyword gap

• Pricing and promotion

• Site performance

• UX comparison

• E-A-T comparison (Expertise, Authority, and Trust)

Step #3: Define core tactics and break them into SOPs and workflows

The plan should also include workflows for all the SEO tasks so that you can see what steps need to be taken at any given time. You’ll need to define your core tactics and break them into SOPs (standard operating procedures) and workflows. Examples of SOPs include:

• Optimizing new blog posts

• Adding a new page

• Removing old content

Workflows detail those people or teams involved in the project, and their responsibilities, as well as timelines for completion. Examples of workflows include:

• Analyzing SEO performance

• Fixing searchability issues

• Updating content

Step #4: Prioritize tasks and define the level of effort (LOE)

The level of effort (LOE) is an indication of how much time, money, or resources it takes to complete a task. Low-level effort tasks are tasks that are quick and easy to complete, while high-level effort tasks take a lot more time and resources.

Step #5: Find quick wins

SEO is a long-term investment. It takes time to see results, and you need to be patient. However, you can find quick wins by focusing on the basics like title tags and meta descriptions. These quick wins will help you to rank higher more quickly, and give your SEO strategy momentum.

Step #6: Create a timeline and break it down into phases

A good SEO strategy should be built on a timeline. This way you can break it down into phases and create milestones to measure your progress. This will help to maintain forward motion in the execution of your strategy, and allow you to adapt if necessary.

Step #7: Assign tasks to teams or individuals

This can be done by looking at each team’s expertise and skillset and then assigning them tasks accordingly. Delegating to the best people for the job will always yield the best results.

Step #8: Align your tactics with goals and strategies

It is important to align your tactics with your goals and strategies so that you are not doing things just because they are easy, but because they are the right thing to do.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What are the goals of my SEO strategy?

• What are my SEO strategies?

• What is the best way to measure SEO success?

• How can I measure success in a single metric or across multiple metrics?

As you answer each question, ensure that:

• You keep the big picture in mind

• Make sure your tasks and SEO strategy support each other

• Eliminate any tasks that may be a distraction from your goals

• Set deadlines and benchmarks to track progress in the process

Step #9: Perform a technical SEO audit

A technical SEO audit will help you identify any issues that need to be fixed on your site for it to rank better in search results. This can include things like duplicate content, broken links, or outdated code. The technical SEO audit will include checking the following:

• Site speed and load times

• Mobile optimization

• The site’s content quality, relevancy, and depth

• The site’s architecture and navigation

• Indexing status of the site’s pages

Step #10: Perform keyword research

To rank high in search results, it’s important that your site has strong SEO fundamentals. You need to make sure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and has high-quality content that’s relevant for users searching on search engines. This is where keyword research comes in.

You need to know what keywords are trending to create content that will rank well on search engines. You also need to know the keywords that are already ranking well so that you can create content around them.

Step #11: Create strategic SEO content

Your target audience will be attracted by quality content that answers their questions. It must also entertain as well as inform. Don’t overuse the keywords you have identified (Google penalizes those who ‘keyword stuff’). Instead, augment your articles and online content with LSI keywords.

You should also include internal links to direct readers to other useful information on your website (as we’ve done in this article) ─ this also helps search engines to crawl for content on your site.

A great tip is to make your content ‘evergreen’ ─ this way it will remain relevant and encourage users to return. And snappy headlines will encourage people to read your articles (but avoid clickbait titles, which are starting to get a bad name).

Finally, work to win backlinks from other reputable websites. This helps to increase your perceived subject authority.

Step #12: Execute an SEO roadmap follow-up

Building an SEO roadmap is not enough. You need to maintain it and follow up to make sure it’s working.

When working with our clients, we conduct SEO strategy reviews continuously, with monthly or quarterly meetings to discuss these reviews and agree on any changes that need to be made. A similar schedule will help you improve your site’s performance and stay on top of the latest trends in the industry.

The following are some items that should be included in follow-up reports:

• Check-in with the status and progress of tasks/projects

• Verify resources are being used to their full potential

• Measure key SEO benchmarks

• Target keyword(s) ranking

• Organic impressions

• Organic traffic (especially non-branded organic traffic)

• New links

• Organic conversions + conversion value

Tips to maintain an effective SEO roadmap

Keeping your SEO roadmap strategy updated is a challenging task. There are many factors that can affect your rankings and traffic; for example, Google’s algorithm changes, social media content, or your website’s structure.

To maintain an effective SEO strategy, you’ll need to regularly check for any updates from Google and adjust accordingly, track changes in the structure of your website, and make necessary adjustments.

SEO is ever-changing, so you need to continuously:

• Adapt

Search engine optimization is a skill that requires constant adaptation. If you don’t regularly update your SEO strategy, your website will start to rank lower on the search engine results pages.

The SEO industry is always changing and evolving, which means that you must constantly stay up to date with the latest changes and updates. Changes in the search engine algorithms, new ranking factors, and the latest content strategies are just a few of the things you should be aware of as an SEO professional.

• Iterate

The most effective way to do this is by utilizing analytics and data. This can be done through marketing automation software like HubSpot, Google Analytics, or Kissmetrics. We use many such tools, ensuring that our clients have access to best-of-breed and we follow SEO industry best practices always.

You should also be prepared to continuously iterate your SEO strategy based on what works best for your audience. This includes making sure that you’re using the latest SEO tools and understanding the newest trends in SEO as you:

• Improve

Every day, new updates are being released. It’s important to stay up to date with these changes so that you can continue to provide the best service for your clients and attract new followers from your target audience.

Building an SEO roadmap is not a one-time event. It’s a process that takes time, patience, and persistence. Where do you start crafting an effective SEO strategy that will help you achieve the results your business deserves?

We use an SEO roadmap with all our clients, and we’re making this available to you to use, too. It’s free to download now. And if you require any help or guidance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

To get your free SEO Roadmap, click on the following link:

Download our free SEO Roadmap Template Today.

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