Blog posts are the most common content type found in the top 5 Google positions, a new study has found.

Why we care. Multiple CTR studies show most organic clicks go to the top 5 positions on Google Search (around 69% to 74%). So prioritizing the types of content Google rewards with more visibility is only logical.

By the numbers. Blog posts are the most prevalent content type in the top 10 positions of Google Search, excluding home pages, according to a study by enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge. Blog posts appear:

• 511 times in the top 3 (8%).
• 1,014 times in the top 5 (23%).

BrightEdge determined content types for 23,785 of the pages analyzed in the top 10 – and 3,254 were blogs. The 19% figure excluded the homepages, which accounted for 28% of the total.

But. Blogging won’t deliver visibility or organic traffic without a strategy. The content you publish must be useful or helpful to searchers.

Dig deeper. How to write a blog post that wins in 10 steps

What BrightEdge is saying. To be successful in this new world of generative AI content creation, you will need a deep understanding of your audience, according to Jim Yu, BrightEdge founder and executive chairman.

• “The future is not just AI – it’s AI and human symbiosis. AI can inform and assist, but human creativity, expertise and skill sets are necessary to add the voice and trust of your brand. Success lies in the fusion of AI and human expertise throughout any content creation process,” he said.

About the data. The findings are based on a dataset of 10,000 keywords with various intents, across 10 industries (banking, insurance, retail, software, higher education, real estate, advertising/marketing, manufacturing, travel/hospitality and industrial machinery). Data was collected in August.

Blogs remain popular. Yes, despite all the hype around video content (which is huge) people still read blogs.

• 54% of people read a blog post at least once a week, according to a recent HubSpot survey.

Dig deeper. How to survive and thrive in a Google helpful content world

“Skate to where the puck is going.”

Simple in theory, but difficult in practice.

If next year’s SEO results come from what you’re doing (or not doing) right now, then too many SEOs want to have their cake and eat it, too.

They want long-term success. But too often, they are seduced by short-term shortcuts to get there. 

Here’s why obsessing over lagging indicators like “traffic” or “trials” is a mistake and how you can better predict future SEO success by focusing on inputs and leading indicators instead. 

Why ‘traffic’ and ‘trials’ are terrible indicators of SEO progress

Traffic, trials, leads and sales are nice. 

They’re great. Money in the bank. 

Up-and-to-the-right charts only get SEOs promoted, not demoted, at the end of the day.

And yet, it’s this exact same mindset that often sabotages your long-term ROI.

It’s like driving to a new destination while keeping your eyes fixed firmly in the rearview mirror.

You’re so focused on the output (traffic) that you’re neglecting to focus on what actually drives future performance (the inputs).

Traffic, leads, demos, opt-ins, and sales are all lagging indicators. That means they’re a byproduct of previous work. 

They’re the end result – like your weight on a scale – and not the input that actually drives your ideal future state (like calories eaten, sugar consumed, or miles walked).  

And because they lag, it often means you’re looking at old data by the time it does “work.” 

Dig deeper: SEO outcomes vs. SEO outputs: Understanding the difference

The added problem is that “traffic” or “sales” don’t just lag a few days or weeks behind publishing a new article, for instance, but more often by years.

Let me show you a simple example.

Nobody on the Internet needs an introduction to monday.com. They virtually own all of the digital “project management” space. 

And yet, it still took them over two years (plus several failed attempts) to eventually dominate the most lucrative keyword in the space, “project management software.”

This shouldn’t be a surprise.

This same phenomenon is even more extreme for more “mortal” brands that most SEOs often work across. 

So let’s bring this back down to Earth.

Take a new-ish app, coming out of beta, with some money in the bank but virtually zero organic search traffic.

That means little-to-no unbranded/nonbranded traffic and no topical authority. Google doesn’t even know this site exists at this point.

And yet, over time, the same up-and-to-the-right charts that get SEOs paid:

What does this mean? 

Does it mean that the first year of SEO was a failure, but the second year was a success?

Nope. 

Nothing at all changed. And that’s exactly why it ended up “miraculously working” after 12+ months.

Here’s why and how to replicate this same success on your own site.

You can predict SEO success by focusing on inputs, not outputs

No, you can’t guarantee SEO success. But you can 100% predict it. 

The caveat, however, is that you need to know where to focus.

And the answer, as we saw above, is not traffic or trials or demos booked.

Advanced Web Rankings CTR study shows that ~70-80% of people click on the top five results. 

In other words, only the top five ranking results are seeing the lagging indicators of traffic, leads and sales start to blow up their analytics.

SEO is a zero-sum game. Someone wins by someone else losing.

This means only a tiny, tiny fraction of the people publishing something will ever see meaningful results. 

Now, this also means the inverse is true. 

If you’re ranking in position 10, you might only see <1% of all potential traffic.

Bummer. Right?

Except, that’s OK! It’s a great sign. 

Under the surface, your SEO campaign is working. The swells and currents under the surface are slowly starting to come together, all but guaranteeing that it’s only a matter of time until your traffic explodes.

And yet, this is also the exact point when most people get antsy, lose patience, get distracted by other vanity or lagging metrics, and kill the project dead in its tracks.

Herein lies the big catch-22 of SEO that most know but ignore:

• You need a big site to rank for good keywords, yet…
• You need to rank for good keywords to build a big site.

Step 1: Identify and capitalize on what’s already showing promise

The “beachhead principle” is a simple technique to help mid-size sites compete and eventually dominate ultra-competitive categories.

It helps you balance both short and long-term results simultaneously, setting the bar high to rank long-term on a lucrative pillar keyword or page while using your supporting pages to rank faster on less competitive variations or longer-tail concepts.

The secret is that there is no secret.

You need to identify where you might already have some existing topical authority or some progress and then try to expand on that ASAP.

For instance, when we acquired Wordable, we looked at which content pieces were already working to some degree. 

We isolated for traffic from organic search only and then immediately noticed a straightforward pattern:

Some of the biggest traffic drivers in those early days were coming from articles around “Google Docs.” 

The product is related to Google Docs, which is a good sign. Albeit, most of these topics and traffic are very “top of the funnel.” So, generally speaking, there is very little buying intent, but higher volumes and less competitive (read: easier to rank).

Awesome.

Now we have our beachhead. 

Step 2: Target the right keywords at the right time

If we need to build a big site before attempting to rank for the best stuff in our space, that means we need to get busy ranking on something. Anything!

You’re managing your payback period at this point. You need to get some quick wins and short-term ROI while balancing to deliver long-term ROI years in the future.

So first, we’ll double down on scaling the quality and quantity of content around our beachhead.

And then only later will we start targeting more competitive and commercial terms that will eventually deliver seven-to-eight-figure returns.

How do you know if you’re picking the right keywords at the right time? Look at time to rank.

If you publish a page that goes from “not indexed” to ranking number four within a week or two, you’re doing it right!

Easy peasy.

Now, extrapolate this same effect out over the course of another year, and that’s when you start seeing the lagging indicators finally kick in.

This very simple yet practical approach drove a 360% monthly traffic increase in only a year.

Not bad!

But it’s also not great.

It starts to put us on the map. However, it won’t drive the big ROI that will ultimately add another zero or two to our P&L.

So here’s how to take the next step.

Step 3: Drive long-term ROI with patience and process

Not indexed to the fourth position in about a week?

The last example is a best-case scenario involving years of SEO sniper experience.

So let’s look at another more common example.

You publish a piece of content. It ranks within positions 10 to 20 within a week or two. That’s excellent news!

Over a decade of experience across potentially thousands of sites at this point has proven to me that “no index” to page two within a few weeks will correlate highly with future top SERP rankings.

It just will take more time. So keep doubling down on the same process!

Here’s how this looks in practice.

Notice the ~six-month “wilderness” period in the yellow box below, where the page bounces around for a bit in obscurity. 

Nobody sees it. No one (other than you and Google) even knows it exists.

Now, fast forward to current day, and the green box shows a consistent, sticky top 5 position.

This is despite several SERP shakeups, like a proliferation of AI crap content, as well as algorithm updates, like helpful content.

The catch? It took a little over two years!

So, you need to continue trusting the process:

• Focus on inputs rather than outputs.
• Remain patient while the swells continue to form across the horizon. 

Here’s a final example that shows this delicate balancing act. 

The beachhead principle below is starting to bear fruit, with some smaller, less competitive queries starting to rank really well, while at the same time, we’re waiting for the bigger ones to catch up. 

• The stuff in green is your less competitive, supporting posts or top-of-funnel stuff, starting to rank in the top five.
• The stuff in yellow, more lucrative or even higher volume, is still just stuck outside the strike zone.

So, if you’re only looking at lagging indicators, the former looks like a “success” while the latter seems like a “failure.”

Except, as you’ve now seen, this is either misguided or simply incorrect. 

The only true SEO success, measured in dolla’ dolla’ billz y’all, happens over years of consistently executing. 

The ROI of SEO is a marathon that lasts years. This is the opposite of a few ephemeral sprints like referral or ad traffic, resulting in spikes of arbitrage that disappear almost as quickly as they originated. 

Dig deeper: How long SEO takes to work

Your SEO is working – you just need to ignore ‘traffic’ and ‘trials’

You can and should go for quick SEO wins. You need them! They give you confidence and, better yet, your bosses or clients peace of mind that you know what you’re doing.

But stop obsessing over traffic and trials because those are lagging indicators, only confirming what you should have known over a year ago before setting down that path.

Instead, focus more on the inputs and leading indicators that help you better predict when your campaigns are showing promise.

To the untrained eye, it might look like failure initially. 

But the real failure only happens when you pull the plug too early, before all those lagging indicators finally reveal themselves. 

While some search marketers may face challenges when collaborating with developers unfamiliar with SEO, it’s not a universal experience.

In my decade-plus in SEO, I’ve worked with some of the most enthusiastic front- and back-end developers about implementing “SEO” tickets. 

Some SEOs seem to have fallen prey to survivor bias by focusing on problems rather than solutions.

In reality, SEOs and developers share a desire for respect and expertise acknowledgment rather than quick internet solutions. My past frustrations with developers were often my own shortcomings, not theirs.

In this article, I’ll go through with you a few things on how to collaborate well with developers, including: 

• My now standard operating procedure with developers, which could/should be your new baseline expectation.
• A few less common situations where you’re able to build trust with developers.

Working with developers: The bare minimum

My bare minimum for working with developers requires: 

• Going in with a desired end state rather than a specific solution.
• Being curious rather than accusatory.
• Following their process and providing all the information they need to get the job done or tell me why they can’t do it.
• Speak well about them behind their back, and share their success up and out.

Montse Cano summarizes this beautifully and expands on where she felt these issues originated: 

• “[in] the notion that engineering teams exist to do what you wanted them to do, and that they did so by simply pressing a button that would take them 2 minutes.”
• “In other words, no one understood what they did and I could tell they didn’t understand/ know what marketing and digital truly do either.” 

Part of our job, then, as SEOs, is to break down those walls and work towards understanding each other, rather than each of us assuming what we’re asking for or requesting to be implemented is entirely obvious. 

Going in with a desired end state should include examples and thoroughness. If you want a specific schema markup implemented, show what the end state of that schema should look like for your website. 

If you know there’s a weird requirement, take time to explain the why behind it. 

Being curious and going in with a desired end state means being an active listener and not dictating to your team members.

Unless you are in the code day-in-day-out as much as they are (and few, if any, SEOs can say that), they know the code better than you. Respect that. 

And once you’re able to work together and get good things done, share it with the metrics that matter to your business – revenue or otherwise.

Speak nicely about them when they aren’t a part of the conversation and when they are. 

Dig deeper: Learn to think like an SEO developer

Building trust when working with developers

If the new bare minimum I described above is still leaving you short when it comes to mutual respect and the ability to get stuff done with developers, here are a few less common ways to consider building up that rapport with developers.

Start with an ‘SEO task’ that shares their KPIs

This is an important one because it serves multiple purposes. It will get your job done, and it will make them look good, potentially pushing through their bonus for the year. 

In the current environment, you’ll find many developers have a KPI around site speed. This is fantastic because refactoring scripts, debugging them, windowing them or otherwise editing them is not for the faint of heart and usually takes dedicated teams a long period of time to execute.

So jump on the bandwagon and speak to their product (or project) owner about what their pipeline looks like for addressing site speed. If they have one, add your revenue or impact projections into the ticket, and include your two cents on the impact on the business.

If a part of the site speed or page weight management is around third-party snippets, they may not know who “owns” the snippet they’re making changes to, so be prepared to help out and do some legwork, asking around who does.  

Finally, if there are missing tickets, add them to the queue and do it properly. Continue to add clear and specific examples and documentation.  

20% time projects

Let’s all be honest here. We all want to work on the fun stuff. Assuming you aren’t completely slammed and have time to work on these projects, work closely with your developers to do so.

This could be something like a: 

• Product wizard.
• Interactive article (like the one on F1 car design from The New York Times).
• Wishlist creator.

Projects like these are great opportunities to work together more frequently and have more creative brainstorming sessions, which allow each of you to see the other’s expertise.

Plus, as The New York Times said in their leaked digital strategy way back in 2014: 

“‘We have a tendency to pour resources into big one-time projects and work through the one-time fixes needed to create them and overlook the less glamorous work of creating tools, templates and permanent fixes that cumulatively can have a bigger impact by saving our digital journalists time and elevating the whole report. We greatly undervalue replicability’”

These 20% projects might also be the internal tools or the internal framework to make either or both of your lives easier. Something like a Python script that hooks into Google Sheets and the Knowledge Graph API to classify article topics or another bit of code to make analysis on either or both sides easier.

Intrinsically, then, many times, these 20% projects will highlight the hard work of the person who built it and give the company the ability to replicate that work more than it gives credit and kudos to the person who came up with the idea (which is what you, as the person who came up with the idea, wants). 

Uplift your developers and give them credit for their hard work, just as you would expect for yourself. 

Learn together

The more time you spend with developers, the more likely you are to be able to find ways of working. If you aren’t an SEO lucky enough to be placed within the development team, you will have to manufacture some of this time together.

Enter: learning. 

Often, corporate learning, even post-COVID, involves in-person half-day or day-long workshops. It’s manufactured closeness, yes, but more often than not, it leads to genuinely getting along and understanding folks a bit better. 

To get SEOs and developers in the same room, an easy workshop would be user experience, in my opinion. 

Both teams will benefit from the training (and again, both teams may have personal “learning” KPIs – I know I did at my last enterprise-level job), and you’ll both be able to learn from each other because you’ll be coming at the concept with different perspectives and areas of expertise. 

Dig deeper: How to use SEO education for stakeholder management

What it takes to work well with developers

Working well with developers is about going in with a truly agile mindset: 

• Be willing to learn and be flexible. 
• Acknowledge and listen to their expertise and suggestions.
• Thorough documentation and patience with communication and expectation-setting.

Living in Australia, when struggling to connect with developers or colleagues, I prefer meeting them at the nearest bar, sitting in the sun, and talking it out. 

Who knows, they might be having a bad day or dealing with something in their personal lives. At the end of the day, everyone deserves to be treated like their own person rather than a means to an end. 

SEO is a vast and complex practice, part art and part science. Managing an SEO team usually means that you’re taking on the world with some talented people.

So, how can you lead an SEO team effectively, helping to grow their skill sets in the right direction?

And, critically, how can you keep your team motivated in a world (wide web) of smoke and mirrors?

Focus on the big picture

Legacy SEO metrics, like ranking positions, are often overly emphasized due to SEO’s historical legacy. Yet, Google’s dynamic search algorithms render them outdated.

Focusing on minute ranking shifts can demotivate your team and divert energy from results-driven work in the evolving landscape.

In SEO, small questions can drain resources as they involve numerous variables. Investing in positive actions like content creation and on-site improvements is often wiser. Redirect practical-minded SEO experts toward results-driven tasks. 

While some may enjoy deep analysis, your top performers can’t generate results while dissecting minor ranking changes. Consider a separate role if such analysis is necessary, and budget accordingly.

You can still set SEO KPIs and meet targets without fixating on rankings. Assess organic traffic to specific pages and which keywords are driving them. Identify successful pages and optimize by expanding on top-performing keywords.

Work with Google’s algorithms, don’t fight them.

Set traffic goals. Identify high-traffic keywords and fill content gaps with new pages or posts. Increase relevant SEO traffic, revenue, and conversions. Prioritize growth over chasing highly competitive keywords for vanity ranking positions.

Ranking KPIs are impractical and limiting. Get those conversions in, whichever way is easiest.

The path to success in business (outside of SEO, even outside of marketing) is the path of least resistance.

Dig deeper: How to determine the SEO metrics that matter

Don’t pigeonhole your staff

SEO is a diverse field. Content production, CMS tweaks, analytics setups, reporting, coding – it’s all there.

As such, particularly with your junior staff members, don’t pigeonhole them. Create a diverse portfolio of advancement options.

Maybe some of these bright young minds have the gift of the gab and will advance toward a digital PR or networking specialization. 

Some may love to write. Some members of your team may develop a highly technical aptitude and may evolve beyond the basics of data, such as Microsoft Excel. These people will help you automate processes and drive efficiencies, so if they want to learn SQL or Python, foster that learning experience. 

You never know when you might need your custom Python-based crawlers for specific use cases (information retrieval isn’t dead yet). You never know when you might need a structured interior data warehouse to store that data. Data is your lifeblood.

This doesn’t mean you can just let people do whatever they like. The core competencies of SEO must be covered. However, if a staff member demonstrates a strong passion for knowledge, which may bolster the efficiency of your department, look to encourage that thirst for learning.

You can also leverage your team’s expertise to benefit other departments. Share your team’s knowledge and skills to aid in various tasks, making them invaluable assets. 

Show the wider organization just how valuable and adaptable your team can be. Very few teams or departments can match an SEO team in terms of simultaneous techno-creative breadth and depth of talent. This is something to champion.

Dig deeper: How to use SEO education for stakeholder management

Don’t get trapped in the messy data format loop

Picture this: You’ve harnessed crawl data and AI content generation to address missing content. Traditional checklists no longer suffice for your ambitious projects. You’ve linked multiple spreadsheets to create a robust activity tracker, saving your company significant database management costs.

Two months later, everything is in tatters. Somehow, certain formulas have come out of alignment.

The rows and columns of your intertwined sheets are fundamentally misaligned. The wrong snippets have been uploaded to the wrong pages. Everything is a mess.

Stop!

This hasn’t happened because your SEO team is incompetent. This has happened because you are using the wrong tools for the job.

SEOs are so adept at ninja-bashing solutions together on a shoestring budget. It’s an Achilles heel to look out for.

Spreadsheets are great for isolated data interrogation projects, but they’re very poor to utilize as an ongoing structure and warehouse for your work and data.

Though useful for ad hoc analysis, spreadsheets lack robust data controls, which can be problematic when creating dedicated processes.

Know when to transition from spreadsheets to databases to avoid complexity that’s hard to reverse-engineer. Failure to do so can risk client satisfaction and potential product sales.

Prioritize your team’s sanity and invest in technical education when needed to prevent costly mistakes.

Dig deeper: How to build a winning SEO tool stack

Showcase your team’s success

This is common to teams that provide an invisible or interior-only facing service. Similar advice holds for project management teams streamlining processes. While developers and designers can visually display success, it’s challenging for SEO teams.

To boost your SEO team’s morale, showcase their achievements in meetings and through micro-showcases directly to team members.

Often, an SEO person will release an audit or some internal analysis, which helps shape and drive success. But it’s usually the account managers and account directors (sometimes even sales staff) who receive the positive outcome feedback. 

Don’t forget to feed that positivity back to the individual team member. Show them the results of their work directly, one-to-one. Help them understand that the invisible service they provide, while somewhat intangible, holds intrinsic value to your organization. 

This is hugely overlooked and is usually more effective than buying people the odd pizza as a work-late incentive. Bring the success home to the root, and no one will be disappointed.

Dig deeper: 12 strategies to scale your SEO team without losing your culture

Take time to teach

If you are a ground-up manager with relevant skills, don’t hesitate to pass these on.

As a manager, your duty is no longer to be the sole shooting star but to ensure your team operates as effectively as possible. This means giving up the rockstar boots and leading your team by example.

Spread your unique learnings and sensibilities through your team. Bring them the knowledge they thirst for and invest in their learning.

Ideally, your goal should be that your team technically surpasses you, at which point you can pass the torch to the next generation.

Your value is now the smooth operation of your SEO team. Your team won’t operate with maximum competitive effect unless you are willing to pass on your learnings.

Dig deeper: How to train entry-level SEO hires so they can contribute right away

Lead via influence rather than hierarchical downforce

This point is raised specifically with regard to my own career. I have found that being seen as a senior peer rather than a “boss” is an extremely effective way to operate within SEO teams.

If you can avoid the hammer of authority, you should do so. Being a boss isn’t all about making demands. It’s about inspiring your team, and often that’s easier to do on a level playing field.

SEO teams are comprised of multi-talented individuals, often very technically capable. If you can help to show them the ropes and direct them via influence, that will go a long way.

Avoid applying hierarchical downforce, as it will cause egos to flare. Lead your team to success rather than stipulating your commandments.

SEO thrives on collaboration, not silos. You must work with your team openly to succeed.

In teams with such diverse skill sets, this is of supreme importance. It’s easy for technical individuals to feel they are worth more than those on the creative side.

By contrast, the reverse is also true. Discipline-diverse teams can be tricky to manage. However, if you strike the right balance, the rewards are unparalleled.

Dig deeper: The SEO career path: What it may look like and how to level up

Nurturing talent and motivation in your SEO team

Effective leadership and management of an SEO team require a shift in focus from outdated ranking metrics to meaningful KPIs and fostering a diverse range of talents. 

You can enhance team efficiency and client satisfaction by recognizing the potential for individual growth within the team and providing the right tools for the job. 

This article builds on my previous one, emphasizing the importance of aligning SEO with the customer journey, specifically for companies that provide software as a service (SaaS) that market to other businesses (B2B). 

Crafting relevant content through a deep understanding of the customer experience is vital for enhancing SEO and fostering brand loyalty. Utilizing the customer journey map, which provides insights into user emotions and motivations, is a crucial tool in this process. 

Harmonizing SEO with the customer journey map and optimizing it across six key stages empowers users to make well-informed purchase decisions.

This article will focus more on marketing for each stage and the step-by-step process of aligning SEO with the customer journey. 

Understanding SEO and content for a smooth customer journey

1. Awareness of need 

Customers become aware of a pressing issue that requires resolution in the initial stage. They assess the severity of the problem, allowing brands to capture their interest. 

Marketing strategies should incorporate problem-related keywords, informative blog articles, engaging social media narratives, and instructional videos. 

Additionally, events can be a powerful tool to deepen the audience’s understanding of the issue, showcasing the brand’s viable solutions.

• Use social media posts and public relations for brand and product awareness, linking to the website for SEO link building.
• Employ traditional offline marketing methods, including event booths, networking events, television, radio, and print ads.
• Implement content marketing through blog posts focusing on SEO for broad terms and questions.
• Use guest articles/posts that include links to the site for SEO link building.
• Create whitepapers and customer stories to connect with customers facing the problem.
• The goal is to attract users unaware of their needs, utilizing the content they consume for retargeting in the next stage. Keep marketing messaging light and non-invasive, allowing customers to come to you without pushing for sales.

2. Investigate options 

During this phase, users conduct broad searches to gather information, read reviews, and define criteria for potential solutions. They outline outcomes, stakeholders, metrics, budgets, and more. 

To assist users in their research, marketers should optimize blog posts, create informative website pages, share empathetic social media posts addressing pain points, and produce videos guiding users in selecting the best product or service.

• Employ SEO, SEM, and paid social media marketing to attract potential customers and solidify your brand or product in their minds.
• Leverage tags from the previous stage’s content for retargeting with resonant messaging.
• Collaborate with partners and influencers to feature your brand or product on “Best solutions for…” lists.
• Create videos addressing pain points and explaining why your brand/product is the best solution.
• Messaging should be customer-centric, focusing on solving their problems without pushing for sales.

3. Committing to change 

In this stage, users commit to their goals, narrow their choices, and dive deeper into research. Sales engagements become more prominent, and stakeholders participate in the decision-making process. 

Marketing strategies should focus on content that addresses doubts or objections, such as comparison pages that validate the company’s credibility. Influencers, email campaigns, and retargeting efforts can reinforce the commitment made by users.

• Focus on website pages, especially product pages, as a digital brochure with SEO and SEM targeting brand and product keywords.
• Launch email and social media retargeting campaigns that link to customer testimonials or downloadable PDFs.
• Use messaging that appeals to various stakeholders and challenges objections.
• Offer opportunities for potential customers to engage with sales, such as scheduling meetings or initiating chat conversations.

4. Solution selection 

As users seek buy-in from decision-makers, they require content that justifies their expenditure, often emphasizing pricing, ROI, and overall value. 

B2B marketing should speak the language of the C-suite, highlighting ROI and efficiency improvements. For ecommerce, testimonials and reviews play a crucial role in influencing selection.

• Create content targeting the C-suite, including the COO, CFO, and CEO.
• Optimize solution pages and pricing pages with SEO for brand and cost-related keywords.
• Develop an ROI calculator with SEO targeting finance-related terms.
• Produce PDF downloads with customer stories focused on messaging for these executive roles.
• Utilize email invites from the sales team to schedule meetings.
• Messaging should focus on ROI, efficiency improvements, and cost savings.

5. Validate choice 

Users validate their choice in this stage by seeking management support and evaluating implementation logistics, costs, and ongoing support. 

Brands should optimize for brand-related searches, leverage testimonials and reviews to showcase successful experiences and highlight exceptional customer service.

• Create content in the form of feature pages with SEO targeting brand-related terms.
• Use emails and social media to include testimonials from happy customers.
• Address implementation logistics and highlight ongoing support.

6. Purchase 

After a thorough assessment, customers are on the verge of making their final purchasing decision. Discussions regarding pricing, terms, and implementation details may occur. 

To facilitate this phase, brands can employ SEO and email marketing strategies, offering resources like user guides, setup manuals, and answers to frequently asked questions. 

Leveraging influencers to create engaging unboxing videos can vividly illustrate the product or service.

• Provide content in the form of customer support, “Help,” and “FAQ” topics with SEO targeting keywords related to onboarding and getting started.
• Use influencer marketing to create unboxing videos and articles that reassure customers during the purchase stage.
• Offer resources like user guides and FAQs to support customers during buying.

7. Post-purchase 

In this stage, it’s essential to keep customers engaged and satisfied. Content marketing and informative emails will make their everyday work easier. Additionally, utilize SEO to capture competitors’ customers searching for post-purchase help topics. 

Content should include blog posts and help topics on your website with SEO for relevant post-purchase keywords. Emails and social media retargeting can focus on helping customers find customer service or answers to frequently asked questions to maintain their satisfaction and potentially attract competitors’ customers seeking assistance.

Connecting SEO to the customer journey

The keyword analysis

You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to gather as many words and phrases as possible that searchers use to find what they need on search engines. 

• Choose Discover new words in the Keyword Planner tool in Google Ads if you want keyword suggestions.
• Enter up to 10 phrases related to what your users might be searching for.
• Click Get results to view data for the specified keywords and a list of suggested keywords.
• You can download your keyword ideas as a spreadsheet. In this example, we use Google Sheets.

From here, you’ll want to clean up the data into a spreadsheet that is easy to work with. I usually remove the currency, bid, competition, and forecasting columns (as described in the document), leaving just the keywords and search volume. 

You can also pull in data from Google Search Console, Keylime, or Moz to get current impressions, clicks, and average position so you can calculate where your gaps are. 

Next, we’ll do keyword tagging, which is where aligning SEO with your customer journey will come into play. 

Tagging keywords with the customer journey

You’ll want to fully grasp your customer’s journey and get inside their head as you tag your keywords. 

For this step-by-step guide on tagging your keywords, I will use Excel as my tool, though you can use Google Sheets or any other spreadsheet program. 

Your spreadsheet should look something like this:

The ‘Stage’ tab and data validation

From here, I add a tab that holds my guide for the stages of the customer journey and use that guide as a data validation drop-down to select from. 

This is especially useful if you’re working with other teams within the organization so that they can see the process and guidance for each stage. 

Using the “Stages” tab as a data validation dropdown in your spreadsheet makes for each tagging. 

Tagging your keywords

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to start tagging your keywords. This may seem like it’s a daunting task, especially when you have thousands of keywords to work with, but it can go quickly as you start to recognize words in phrases that fall under specific stages.

For instance, when selecting keywords for a company offering supply chain software, warehouse management software, and a digital logistics platform, terms like “software,” “tool,” or “system” in the keyword phrase belong to the “Committing to change” stage since they have already identified the problem, considering options for the solution and are now committing to change. 

Set up a “Filter” in your spreadsheet program, and start sorting.

Filter by “Contains” and type the common word (in this case “software”).

Tag all of the keywords with the stage (in this case, “Committing to change”).

Identifying the unknown

If you are still determining a stage, you can always search for the keyword in Google and see what type of results are displayed. 

For these “supply chain” keywords, envision we’re picking terms for a company providing SaaS solutions like supply chain software and warehouse management software; a broad keyword like “bill of lading” could be confusing. 

Broad terms will often show results as if the user is asking what it is since Google doesn’t know the user’s intent to search such a broad term. So, Google displays the definition, a snippet of the Wikipedia explanation, and People Also Ask results in their knowledge graph. 

This content is clearly at the “Awareness of Need” stage as a user doesn’t know the problem or may not quite identify a problem, and there could be a solution.

Eliminating the irrelevant keywords

There will be times that the keywords you have exported from Google’s Keyword Planner. You can use this opportunity to cull out any irrelevant keywords. 

For “supply chain” keywords, imagine selecting terms for a company providing SaaS solutions. A phrase like “track my container” may not be relevant since the person using this phrase is more likely to be a shipper’s customer, and we would want to focus on the shipper providing the service to that customer. 

Simply highlight the entire row and delete the keyword from your list.

Narrow down your audience with more tagging

You can tag your keywords with more options as you go through this exercise. I usually like to include “Content Type” and tag it with: 

• “Blog Post” 
• “Product Page”
• “Solutions Page”
• “Home Page”
• “Customer Story”
• “FAQ – Help”
• And more.

In addition, tagging with the lead type such as “Influencer,” “Decision Maker,” or “Neigh Sayer” and even industry, company size, or other focuses will help you keep your SEO and your content focused.

Using the data from your stage tagging

When you finish tagging all of your keywords, your “Stage” column should be void of any blank cells and a mix of all of the stages you have identified. 

You can use a simple pivot table to identify where the most estimated monthly searches fall.

In this context, picking keywords for a company that offers Software as a Service (SaaS) and not including any brand product, solution, or feature keywords that might be relevant to a specific company, we can see that most searches fall in the “Investigate Options.” 

At the same time, “Awareness of Need” is second, and “Committing to Change” is third. We don’t see a lot of searches in the higher intent searches like “Solution Selection” or “Validate Choice” and no searches in the “Purchase” stage. 

A complete analysis of a specific company, including its brand or product, solution, and/or feature terms, would need to be completed to see if those numbers change. 

Defining your strategy

Using your data, you can now define a high-level strategy and list priorities based on the level of effort to impact. The impact is the estimated monthly searches or the gaps you found when pulling in your current search impressions, clicks, and positions for these keywords. 

In the context of these “supply chain” keywords, let’s consider this is for a company offering Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, including supply chain software, warehouse management software, and a digital logistics platform. I would recommend that the company include the following pages:

• Home Page
• Supply Chain Software (Product Page)
• Warehouse Management Software (Product Page)
• Digital logistics platform (Product Page)
• Blog
  • Blog posts
• Customer Stories
  • Customer Stories posts
• Helpful Resources (FAQs)
  • Pages for common questions

As the company works on blog post topics, product pages, and supporting content (customer stories and helpful resources), the keyword analysis with tagging should guide the keywords to optimize for and where that content lies within the customer journey. 

Marketing strategies around those topics align with where those customers can be reached and the messaging in that content. 

I hope this helps companies understand the vital synergy between SEO and the customer journey for B2B SaaS companies. You can create a roadmap to optimize the user experience by mapping and tagging keywords to their respective stages. 

This meticulous process will empower companies to influence their audience strategically, ensuring their digital presence resonates across each journey stage. This approach enhances brand loyalty and makes informed, impactful purchase decisions.

If you rely solely on ChatGPT, albeit a powerful tool, you are missing a largely impactful opportunity in SEO – getting recommendations directly from the source. 

Enter Bard, Google’s answer to the AI chatbot revolution. It’s trained on a vast dataset that includes Google Search. Think of it as having a direct line to the source, gaining insights from Google as it crawls, indexes and ranks webpages. 

Further, unlike ChatGPT, Bard has native access to the live web. It can provide real-time information on search trends and adapt to Google’s algorithm updates for better recommendations. 

Here are four distinct areas where Bard surges ahead in the AI chatbot competition for SEOs:

• Schema markup generation
• On-page optimization
• Competitive analysis
• Technical SEO guidance

Important reminder: Use your brain! Bard is experimental – so don’t ever rely on Bard blindly for SEO advice. You’ll see why if you look closely at some of Bard’s answers in this article.

Demystifying schema markup

Schema markup is structured data that search engines, like Google, can use to better interpret your website and present your information in search results.

With the impending “threat” of Google’s Search Generative Experience (or SGE), SEOs are scrambling to do anything that can give them an edge in the SERP.

While schema markup isn’t a necessity, it does help Google better understand the context of your website. This can lead to search engines displaying your site in rich snippets – giving you broader exposure to searchers. 

Bard’s schema superpower

What sets Bard apart is its precision. It doesn’t offer cookie-cutter schema markup templates. Instead, it customizes the markup to suit your unique content and requirements. 

Whether you operate an ecommerce platform, a local business, a news site, or a blog, Bard can analyze your content and recommend schema markup that precisely matches your content type.

With Bard’s up-to-date knowledge of Schema.org standards and Google’s expectations, the schema markup generated by Bard is accurate and ready to implement. 

Generating schema markup with Bard

Simply enter this prompt to receive accurate, current schema markup for your webpage. 

• Prompt: “Generate schema markup for: [INSERT URL]”

Receive the output schema for accuracy. Occasionally, Bard cannot crawl specific information and may fill in dummy data. In the example from Yeti.com below, all information was pulled as expected. 

Let Google optimize your website

On-page optimization remains a cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy.

With the help of Bard, you can take your optimization efforts to new heights. What better tool to use than Google itself for optimizing your site to rank better in SERPs? 

Start by asking Bard to analyze the on-page optimization of your webpage. Then, continue with prompts for individual pieces and tactics as outlined below. 

Analyze your webpage

With an analysis prompt, Bard will generate insightful suggestions to enhance the on-page optimization of the specified page, aiming to boost its rankings for the identified keyword.

• Prompt: “Analyze the on-page optimization of [INSERT WEBPAGE URL] for the keyword [“KEYWORD”] with the goal of increasing the page’s ranking in the SERP for this keyword.” 

Bard will provide various feedback that may include titles, descriptions, header tags, content, and more. We can use the prompts outlined below to dive deeper into any of these items. 

Craft a compelling title and description

One of the most critical aspects of on-page optimization is creating compelling titles and meta descriptions that entice users to click on your page in search engine results. 

Bard can help you perfect these elements by generating creative, keyword-rich suggestions. Simply provide Bard with your target keyword, and it will generate catchy titles and meta descriptions that include your keyword and captivate your audience.

• Prompt: “Craft a captivating title and meta description for [INSERT WEBPAGE URL] optimized for the keyword [“KEYWORD”] with the goal of increasing the page’s ranking in the SERP for this keyword. Title should be no more than 60 characters. Meta description should be no more than 160 characters.”

Build a header tag strategy

The overall analysis by Bard does provide a high-level review of the header tags on your webpage. 

With an individual prompt, you can dig deeper and reveal specific recommendations for this important piece of on-page optimization. 

• Prompt: “Create a detailed header tag analysis of [INSERT WEBPAGE URL] for the keyword [“KEYWORD”] with the goal of increasing the page’s ranking in the SERP for this keyword.”

Harnessing competitive analysis with Bard

Consider Bard your competitive research companion, guiding you through the labyrinth of SEO strategies employed by your rivals. 

From identifying your SEO competitors to dissecting their content strategies, analyzing backlinks, and uncovering content gaps, Bard provides guidance at every phase of your competitive research campaign. 

Identify your competitors

The first step in a competitive analysis is identifying your SEO competitors. These are the websites that rank for similar keywords as your own.

Bard can help you compile a list of your top SEO competitors by analyzing the search results for your target keywords.

• Prompt: “Identify the top SEO competitors for my website in the “KEYWORD OR NICHE NAME” niche.”

Analyze competitor content

Once you’ve identified your competitors, you can analyze their content strategies.

Bard can assist you by scrutinizing their blog posts, articles, and landing pages. It will help you uncover the keywords they are targeting, their content structure, their backlink profile, and any gaps you can exploit.

Competitor research can be done individually for each keyword or as a group. 

• Individual prompt: “Analyze [INSERT COMPETITOR URL] as my competitor in the “KEYWORD OR NICHE NAME” niche and provide insights on their keyword usage, content structure, content gaps, and other insights.”

• Group prompt: “Analyze my competitors’ content in the “KEYWORD OR NICHE NAME” niche and provide insights on their keyword usage, content structure, content gaps, and other insights.”

Get general technical SEO guidance

Technical SEO issues can be elusive, hiding beneath the surface and undermining your website’s performance. But, navigating this complex landscape of technical SEO is a  challenge that Bard continues to grapple with.

This is one area where ChatGPT (powered by GPT-4) and its plugins have a clear advantage. Plugins enable ChatGPT to utilize external resources to identify key technical SEO challenges, like broken links and duplicate content. 

While Bard has ventured into technical SEO, its capabilities are still evolving and not yet fully refined for high-stakes SEO tasks.

Better suited for general guidance

When addressing technical SEO recommendations, Bard distinguishes itself as a robust resource, offering foundational knowledge and strategic insights pertaining to Google’s best practices. Bard can highlight the impact and potential resolution options for slow page load speeds, broken links, duplicate content, and more. 

Conducting live audits of websites to pinpoint these technical issues is a separate challenge. SEOs may find more precise assistance through ChatGPT plugins or by utilizing time-tested resources like Screaming Frog and Google Lighthouse. 

Bard’s technical SEO claims and reality

On several technical SEO prompts, the tool claimed to have access to a variety of paid SEO tools – Sitebulb, Semrush, and Screaming Frog. It’s important to address the elephant in the room. Given the paid nature of these platforms, Bard’s access is in question.

It is more likely that Bard is sourcing content that references these tools, rather than accessing these tools itself. 

Rather than leveraging Bard to identify technical SEO issues on your site, stick with your tried and true methods for running a tech audit. Then, consult Bard to gain actionable insights on how to rectify them. 

Bard’s strategic advantage for SEOs – with some caveats

AI-powered tools have emerged as game changers in the SEO industry, carving new pathways to optimization and success. While ChatGPT often steals the spotlight, dismissing Bard’s potential contributions would be short-sighted.

Bard’s direct line to Google’s algorithms and the live web is invaluable, as it enables you to fine-tune your SEO strategies in a way that resonates with the search engine giant. This can enhance your content optimization and competitive audit workflows, leading to improved rankings and visibility. 

Yet, it’s crucial to remember that Bard is an emerging technology that is continuously evolving and refining its capabilities. As with any tool in its infancy, a careful approach is recommended. Test its boundaries. See what it can do. But, rely on your SEO knowledge as the foundation for any strategies you implement.

Dig deeper: Where traditional search and AI chatbots excel: A closer look

For the past several days there has been a significant increase in the number of complaints about a Google Search Console error that reads “failed hostload exceeded.” This error is happening within Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool after a user tries to use the “request indexing” feature.

It seems based on early communication from Google that this error is being caused by abuse by spammers that are overloading the request indexing feature within Google Search Console. Google has not officially posted a root cause or when this issue will be resolved but Google is aware of the issue.

What the error looks like. Here is a screenshot I posted, but you can find many screenshots within the Google Webmaster Help Forums.

Where is this issue. This issue only occurs after you click on “request indexing” within the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console. And it does not happen for all users of Search Console. To be clear, if you get this error, it does not mean Google thinks you are a spammer or trying to abuse the tool. It seems like some bad actors are causing this feature to be overloaded causes some users to see this “failed: hostload exceeded” error.

Normal indexing is fine. To be clear, normal crawling and indexing works just fine for Google. Google is crawling the web and indexing content that it normally does without any issues. This issue is only when you try to push Google to index a page using Search Console. You do not need to do that, Google can find your content through normal internal or external links, via your XML Sitemap file or other methods.

What is Google saying. John Mueller, a Google Search represented, posted on X over the weekend:

On Friday afternoon, he wrote, “We’ve been looking more at this and the other similar reports in the forum, and I don’t have a conclusive answer. It doesn’t feel as definitive as it usually is with this error, sorry … I’ll update here once we know more.”

On Sunday, he wrote, “People are spamming the Inspect URL / Submit to Indexing tool – normal indexing works fine.” “I wouldn’t worry about it – normal crawling and indexing is generally fine.,” he added.

Why we care. I wouldn’t worry about this error, in fact, I’d use this as an opportunity to step away from the “request indexing” feature and work on maybe more important SEO tasks. Such tasks can include writing new or improved content for your sites or client sites, working on improving the site’s user experience and features and looking for other content ideas for the site in the long run.

This hostload exceeded error is something Google will need to address and nothing you can fix on your end right now.

Every year, we are delighted to celebrate the best of search marketing by rewarding the individuals, agencies and in-house teams around the world that deliver exceptional results.

On behalf of Search Engine Land and everyone at Third Door Media, we’re excited to announce all 19 winners of the ninth annual Search Engine Land Awards.

Here are the 2023 Search Engine Land Awards winners:

Best use of AI technology in search marketing

• Closed Loop – How Google’s AI Powered Bidding Drove International Growth for Calendly

Best overall PPC initiative – Small business

• From Awareness to Sales Surge: Filament Marketing’s Strategy Delivers 23.08% ROAS Boost for Udder Tech

Best overall PPC initiative – Enterprise

• Mad Fish Digital Increases Revenue by 71.44% with Google Search Ads for Park City Lodging

Best commerce search marketing initiative – PPC

• How Thrive helped Branch Basics drive a 102% increase in YoY ROAS through strategic restructures, creative testing, and optimized media mix.

Best local search marketing initiative – PPC

• DAC & The Fresh Market – The anti-inflation recipe that brought customers back into the stores

Best B2B search marketing initiative – PPC

• Stella Rising & Optimizely – Driving DXP Globally

Best integration of search into omnichannel marketing

• Tombras & Orangetheory Fitness – Revolutionizing Reach: Full-Funnel Success with Innovative Funding

Best overall SEO initiative – Small business

• Mickey Llew & Uniquely Creative – Getting Crafty with a Small Budget Leaves a Big Mark

Best overall SEO initiative – Enterprise

• Rendering a leader in digital 3D solutions. How NP Digital increased Adobe Substance 3D non-branded traffic by 494%.

Best commerce search marketing initiative – SEO

• How LOCALiQ Helped Ultimate Gaming Paradise Achieve 600% YOY Revenue Growth with SEO

Best local search marketing initiative – SEO

• Amsive – Transforming Trust: A Journey from Doubt to Triumph in Local SEO for American Savings Bank

Best B2B search marketing initiative – SEO

• Menerva Digital Increased Proofpoint’s B2B Sales Pipeline by +$40.7 Million Via SEO

Agency of the year – PPC

• How Wpromote transformed REEF’s paid search strategy to embrace PMax and increase revenue by 131%

Agency of the year – SEO

• How Wpromote helped Peacock build a dynamic search strategy to win big with The Traitors

In-house team of the year – PPC

• ServiceMaster Brands In-House Digital Ads team focuses on the ABCs to improve performance for their franchisees.

In-house team of the year – SEO

• REA Group – High-performing SEO team keeps Australia’s market-leading property brands at the top of Google

Search Marketer of the Year

• Erin Rooney Doland (Amsive)

Small agency of the year – PPC

• How Adcetera Reduced CPA by 71.9% — and Saved a Multi-Location Business

Small agency of the year – SEO

• How Conifr Surpassed Traffic Forecasts by 950% Within 10 Months

“I’m going to SMX Next!”

Select winners of the 2023 Search Engine Land Awards will be invited to speak live at SMX Next during our two ask-me-anything-style sessions. Bring your burning SEO and PPC questions to ask this award-winning panel of search marketers!

Register here for SMX Next (it’s free) if you haven’t yet.

Congrats again to all the winners. And huge thank yous to everyone who entered the 2023 Search Engine Land Awards and our fantastic panel of judges for this year’s awards.

Right now, marketers are navigating the vast digital marketing landscape, competing in a sea of content and yearning for a strategy that boosts rankings and seamlessly translates them into tangible revenue. Finding an approach that incorporates all of this is vital.

Join search marketing experts and learn the process of creating a conversion-oriented strategy into an SEO and digital PR campaign that will lead to conversions and revenue.

Learn more by registering and attending “From Zero to Hero: Apply Pillar-Based Marketing to Your SEO and Digital Campaigns to Drive Revenue,” presented by DemandJump.

Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.

It’s all too easy to get caught in the web of metrics, algorithm updates, and new SERP features. But what if we’re chasing shadows? 

The real purpose and benefit of SEO isn’t just increasing pageviews or optimizing keywords – it’s about aligning with the true north of business goals and helping to achieve them through search. 

A myopic focus on inputs, outputs, and details that may or may not move the needle often leads SEOs to miss the forest for the trees.

A simple mindset shift can make a massive impact on your work as an SEO. Focusing your SEO program on outcomes vs. outputs while effectively communicating those outcomes to the right stakeholders can drastically improve your ability to drive results. 

SEO outputs vs. SEO outcomes: How do they differ?

Outputs refer to the tangible and measurable deliverables produced from SEO efforts. 

The outcomes are the effects of those outputs as they relate to a business goal, such as increasing new customers. These desired outcomes could include:

• Increased brand visibility online.
• Higher conversion rates from visitors to customers.
• Better user experience on a website.
• Ultimately, more revenue for a business. 

Another way of thinking about outcomes is considering the problems to be solved: will solving the problems ultimately achieve the goals set forth by the business?

When building an SEO strategy, it is critical to focus first on the desired outcomes and then on the outputs needed to achieve those outcomes.

Merely tracking outputs, without an eye on the larger business objectives, can sometimes miss the mark in achieving company goals.

Dig deeper: SEO KPIs to track and measure SEO success

Examples of SEO outputs

With any SEO effort, it’s important to understand the work that needs to be done in a quantifiable way and then to implement early channel signal indicators so as to understand that efforts are having an impact.

For example, if we work on an ecommerce site that sells socks with 100 pages:

• Optimizing 50 of those pages in a first pass is a measure of input. 
• The ranking increases for those pages are an output.
• The new customer growth resulting from those improvements is an outcome. 

Here are examples of common SEO outputs:

Traffic metrics

• The growth of organic visitors to a site, as measured through metrics like page views and sessions, serves as a primary indicator of the website’s visibility in search. 
• Tools like Google Analytics can provide a detailed view of these metrics, shedding light on user behavior and interest.

Ranking

• The positions your keywords have in the search engine result pages (SERPs) directly correlate to your site’s potential to attract organic traffic. 
• Tools like Semrush or Moz can help track and analyze these rankings.

Backlinks

• The number and quality of backlinks pointing to a site reflect its perceived value and authority in the digital ecosystem. 
• Tools like Ahrefs can aid in monitoring backlink profile, ensuring a healthy, growing link portfolio.

Technical SEO metrics

• Metrics like site speed, numbers of 404/301 errors, pages without canonical tags and other technical scorecard metrics play a role in user experience and search engine ranking. However, reducing these numbers is not always correlated with performance increases. 

Examples of SEO outcomes

SEO outputs are the stepping stones – SEO outcomes are the destination. 

Outcomes mirror the long-term value and impact that our SEO strategies imprint on the business landscape.

Organic conversions

• Conversions generated via organic traffic are a direct indicator of the effectiveness of SEO efforts. 
• Conversions can be the primary KPI for lead generation businesses, and often is a secondary goal for ecommerce.

Customer retention

• Retaining customers over a period of time signifies the enduring value that the website offers. 
• Retention can be measured through analyzing repeat purchasers and LTV.

Brand awareness

• Organic search efforts contributing to brand recognition are a significant SEO outcome, but also difficult to measure.

Market share

• Assessing our share of organic traffic in relation to competitors provides a reality check on our market standing as well as the total market opportunity. 

Revenue growth

• The revenue growth attributable to organic traffic is perhaps the most important outcome and should be the primary focus for most campaigns.

Measuring and reporting on what matters

While “measure everything” is a great credo to live by, “report on everything” is not.

As a channel expert, you live in the data, but the stakeholders whose favor you need do not.

Stakeholders are busy with many other things, with their time and priorities in demand. Your initiatives will get lost if you do not report on what matters. 

Critical attention from decision-makers is why it is so important to measure and report on what really matters to organizations. 

The table below shows the KPIs and OKRs that people at each level of an organization may be interested in learning about from an SEO. 

These are general KPIs and OKRs for each role, and they can vary based on the specific nature of the business, industry, and organizational goals. 

Ultimately, at each level of the organization KPIs and OKRs support those of the CEO.

Dig deeper: How to determine the SEO metrics that matter

Mapping your SEO work to outcomes that support organizational OKRs

One of the best things you can do to enrich any client relationship or interdepartmental, internal-stakeholder relationship is to ask questions that drive at the heart of your partner’s or colleagues’ goals.

Your mission is to help them achieve their mission. If you can clarify that while asking the right questions, opportunity and growth unlock. 

Ask your colleagues or partners what objectives are on their roadmap. Ask the same for the CEO and the leadership team. Understand the goals for the year and the quarter. Then, in planning your SEO efforts, ensure you align with those goals. 

Outcome-driven SEO gets bigger results, sometimes faster than SEO focused on a volume of outputs and checking boxes.

Ultimately, SEO roadmaps that are outcome-driven and align with organizational goals tend to be the ones that get executed and fully implemented, thus delivering the full benefit of the work. 

The more you align your SEO roadmap to the shared vision of the team you are a part of, the more partners you can get on board to help you. 

Dig deeper: How to create SMART SEO goals (with examples)

Putting this into action

Identifying outputs from outcomes is critical for SEOs to align their strategies with overarching business objectives.

While channel metrics like keyword rankings, impressions, and even clicks are all measurable impacts and outputs of SEO, it is ultimately outcomes that businesses are after.

By shifting the focus of your work from output-focused to holistic and impact-oriented, you will align your work with the business objectives.

An outcome-driven approach to SEO prioritizes what matters to an organization while ensuring that the work that gets prioritized is robust and focused. Meaningful results will follow!

By intertwining SEO roadmaps and efforts with organizational goals and meticulously mapping them to desired outcomes, SEO can demonstrate its true potential as a tool that holistically propels businesses toward achieving their true north goals.