How To Craft A Winning SEO Strategy via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

Image Credit: Lyna ™

Strategy is the astir misunderstood taxable successful the SEO satellite and apt the astir impactful one. Just hunt for “SEO strategy” and announcement that astir each nonfiction is astir tactics. I get it. Tactics are sexier.

HOWEVER, focusing connected tactics without a strategy increases your hazard of:

• Prioritizing the wrong tactics.
• Losing market stock to newcomers.
• Missing critical opportunities and threats.
• Doing what others are doing instead of doing it better.
• Not getting buy-in for SEO from decision-makers oregon clients.
• Heart disease.

Okay, the past 1 mightiness not beryllium true. But the others are. I’ve seen it galore times. It’s ugly.

In an situation of aggressive algorithm updates, less clicks owed to AI Overviews and much SERP existent property taken by forums, you cannot spend to instrumentality those risks. And yet, everyone does. I’m nary exception: After spending the past 2 years crafting SEO strategies for companies similar Ramp, Reddit, Nextdoor, and Hims, I realized the nonfiction that antecedently occupied this URL was excessively tactical – and completely rewrote it.

I’ve seen the quality betwixt nary and elegant strategy. Good SEO strategies embody a model that seizes the accidental of change, focuses connected leverage, and beautifully stacks tactics successful a logical structure.

To bring strategy to the forefront of SEO, I’m sharing with you:

• A crisp explanation of what strategy is and however it works.
• The 5-question model I’ve been utilizing to make SEO strategies.
• Countless notes from books and applicable acquisition I’ve taken implicit galore years1

What An SEO Strategy Actually Is

Short definition: An SEO strategy defines however to flooded captious challenges by leveraging competitory advantages.

After years of not truly getting it, I located the champion explanation of a concern strategy successful Richard Rummelt’s publication “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy”. He explains that the kernel of strategy holds 3 parts:

1. A diagnosis of cardinal challenges to overcome
2. Guiding policies that specify however to flooded the challenges
3. Coherent actions that instrumentality policies

A myriad of beardown examples convinced maine that this is the model to spell – and to use to SEO. I’m rewording Rummelt’s model to marque it much colorful and approachable:

1. Challenge
2. Approach
3. Actions

Long definition: An SEO strategy intelligibly defines the Challenge a institution indispensable flooded done heavy analysis. It concludes the absorption successful which the institution needs to determination to flooded that situation successful a model called the Approach. Lastly, an SEO strategy defines specific Actions that indispensable beryllium taken to instrumentality the Approach and flooded the Challenge. The Challenge remains constant, but the Approach tin adjust, and Actions tin alteration wholly based connected caller information.

In his publication “Originals”, Adam Grant adjacent mentions that flexibility towards actions tin beryllium a strength:

Teams that evaluated their strategies astatine the midpoint were 80 percent much effectual than teams that had the speech astatine the start. […] This is 1 of the reasons that halftimes tin beryllium truthful influential successful hoops and football: They let coaches to intervene erstwhile teams are astir amenable to caller strategies.

You tin archer a strategy is good thought-out based connected 4 indicators:

• Layers: elements physique connected apical of each other
• Exploit: maximization of a competitory advantage
• Simplicity: absorption connected overcoming the halfway challenge
• Change: capitalization of alteration successful technology, competitors, user behaviour and different areas

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Challenge

The Challenge stands successful the mode of achieving your goals and embodies the “why” down what you do. A strategy’s occupation is to find and lick the halfway challenge.

Defining the situation is the astir important portion of a bully SEO strategy due to the fact that it’s the basal for the absorption and aboriginal actions. If you get this wrong, you discarded a batch of clip and money. To debar failure, you request to put successful researching your marketplace position, customers and competitors to recognize the problems, their causes, and the ecosystems successful which they occur.

Example: You purpose to “win” the favored nutrient SEO abstraction but look established incumbents with much resources. After doing the research, you travel to the decision that incumbents person outsized authorization and relevance for favored nutrient merchandise names and class keywords.

Approach

The Approach is the “what” you bash to flooded the halfway challenge. It’s a model that sets the absorption of your actions by exploiting your existent advantages and exploring caller ones. Getting the attack incorrect means you suffer absorption and enactment connected actions that don’t assistance you flooded the halfway challenge.

The Approach is an unambiguous database of the areas successful which you put and which you bash not. Defining what you’re not going to bash is arsenic arsenic important arsenic what you’re going to bash due to the fact that each strategy is simply a choice. That’s wherefore my model is called the 5 Choices. Without making hard choices, you apt don’t absorption enough.

The Approach outlines your strategy risks, i.e., wherever the execution of your attack could spell wrong. Every prime bears risk. By getting up of them, you minimize your chances of failing.

Critical: the attack needs to beryllium differentiated. You request to bash things otherwise (competitive advantage or asymmetry). You cannot expect to bash the aforesaid things arsenic your competitors and bushed them. That’s conscionable a mode to extremity up successful attrition warfare and obsession with operational efficiency. Differentiation creates greater value, prices and margins.

Sources of competitory advantages tin be:

• Focus.
• Reputation.
• Network effects.
• Stronger tools/automation/systems.
• Being the archetypal to bash oregon announcement something.
• A assets your competitors don’t person entree to.

Example: To flooded the halfway situation successful the favored nutrient space, you determine to leverage your spot of inhouse experts (say, you person a clump of vets connected staff). You put successful penning favored nutrient guides alternatively of focusing connected class and merchandise landing pages. Traffic to the guides is funneled to landing pages wherever you merchantability your product.

Actions

Actions are “how” you instrumentality the attack to flooded the halfway challenge. This is wherever it gets much tactical. But alternatively of picking “cool tricks” oregon “shiny objects”, your actions request to align with the attack and challenge. You cognize you’re determination erstwhile your actions reenforce each other.

Example: Actions you could instrumentality to absorption connected favored nutrient guides are publishing 100 pieces of contented with elaborate contented briefs implicit the adjacent 3 months, specify a regular contented refresh cadence and syndication to 10 manufacture magazines. You besides make a video for each usher and presumption your tract arsenic a root of adept guidance from tract practitioners.

Notice however you could person taken a antithetic attack to solving the halfway challenge, similar focusing connected class and merchandise landing pages. However, this attack would’ve apt not solved your halfway situation due to the fact that you cognize that beardown incumbents already person a stronghold successful that area. So, you request to bash thing antithetic that plays into your strengths.

SEO Strategy Examples From Instacart, Substack, And Adobe

Instacart is a marketplace aggregator connecting buyers with supermarkets (read the full case study). Even though the institution has been astir since 2012, it encountered a defining infinitesimal erstwhile the COVID-19 pandemic broke retired and consumers ordered groceries online.

• Challenge: Win the market marketplace during the pandemic amid beardown competition
• Approach: Target market and near-me keywords
• Actions: Build dedicated landing pages with affluent snippet enhancements

Instacart’s attack was to capitalize connected the inclination arsenic an aggregator alternatively of a supermarket chain. They tried to differentiate with inspirational editorial contented but missed an accidental to summation much visibility with recipes. Competitor Kroger regained the pb successful 2022, and incumbent Costco is inactive acold ahead.

Substack is a newsletter and blog hosting level (read the case study) for journalists and writers.

• Challenge: Host a captious wide of high-quality writers connected its platform.
• Approach: Drive much postulation to publications by making the level much Search-friendly.
• Actions: Indexable illustration pages, optimized URLs, interior nexus modules and topical landing pages that service arsenic find hubs for newsletters to users and hunt engines.

Substack was capable to drawback up to WordPress successful 2024 but is inactive acold down Medium, which had beardown postulation declines betwixt aboriginal 2021 and mid-2023.

Adobe is a legendary bundle solution for designers and marketers (read the case study). After galore years of beardown maturation from editorial contented and lead-gen tools, integrated postulation plateaued, and rival Canva grabbed much postulation share.

• Challenge: Break done the postulation plateau.
• Approach: Launch a banal photograph level to code a caller idiosyncratic intent.
• Actions: Optimize banal photos and landing pages.

Adobe was capable to recapture the apical spot successful integrated postulation successful 2024 aft years of falling behind.

Non-SEO Example: Tesla

Tesla famously entered and captured the EV marketplace with a luxury car alternatively of an affordable mass-market model. https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me Why?

• Tesla needed to physique less cars and was capable to refine its EV attack by targeting the luxury segment.
• Premium cars made it easier to concern R&D.

• Tesla established its marque and got galore eyeballs by tapping into scarcity. Additional stunts, similar designing the Roadster “to bushed a gasoline sports car similar a Porsche oregon Ferrari successful a caput to caput showdown”, helped to physique desire.

From there, the institution ever planned to spell down-market and physique cheaper models. Today, Tesla has 50% marketplace share.2

Simple and effective.

Don’t Mistake Tactics For Strategy

In my enactment arsenic an inhouse person and outer advisor, I consistently travel crossed 4 misunderstandings of SEO strategy:

1/ A strategy is not a acceptable of tactics. As I explicate successful my escaped course Crafting a Winning SEO Strategy, “tactics are not defensible due to the fact that they tin beryllium copied.” But for immoderate reason, astir each nonfiction connected the web astir SEO strategy is each tactics and nary strategy. Tactics are part of a strategy, but they are not the strategy.

I volition ne'er hide an enforcement astatine a renowned institution saying, “This looks similar we’re doing a clump of worldly to me,” erstwhile I presented my “strategy”. The problem: I didn’t contiguous the discourse (Challenge & Approach) successful which the tactics marque sense. And they didn’t. After taking a mates steps back, I re-evaluated my attack and presented a strategy that got america to win.

2/ A strategy is not a roadmap. A roadmap is simply a program that defines which tactics are prioritized erstwhile and who executes them. Strategies laic retired the playing tract and however to win.

The pursuing artifacts are plans, not strategies:

• Topic roadmaps
• Editorial calendars
• Content requirements
• Technical audits
• Annual goals
• etc.

3/ A strategy is not a goal. The strategy explains however to execute a goal, but it doesn’t halt there. And a strategy is surely not a number. Strategies laic retired the decisions that person to beryllium made to execute a extremity and however to marque them.

4/ A strategy is not operational efficiency. Tactics, roadmaps and goals tin beryllium portion of a strategy, but operational ratio is simply a mode to tally an organization. I get the excitement to enactment connected operational ratio due to the fact that it’s impactful and actionable.

When you confuse operational ratio with strategy, you yet extremity up successful an attrition crippled due to the fact that you effort to bash what everyone other does better. The occupation is that you won’t beryllium capable to drawback up to incumbents who are lightyears ahead. The mode retired is simply a differentiated strategy.

The 5 Choices Of An SEO Strategy

So galore SEOs autumn backmost to tactics due to the fact that determination is nary bully SEO strategy model connected the web. My extremity with this nonfiction is to springiness you a model that’s casual to recognize and instrumentality truthful you tin physique your ain strategy. I telephone it The 5 Choices.

The 5 choices are a acceptable of captious decisions you indispensable marque to onshore astatine a differentiated SEO strategy by carving retired your Challenge, Approach and Actions.

1/ How Impactful Can Seo Be At Our Company?

A strategy isn’t worthy its bits if it ends up successful a Dropbox folder. It indispensable beryllium applied. And to beryllium applied, it indispensable marque an impact. If SEO cannot interaction the institution meaningfully, you apt won’t get capable buy-in and backing to execute a differentiated strategy. Potential interaction determines your Challenge.

Measure interaction successful revenue. For example, the imaginable oregon existent gross publication from SEO oregon the quality of incremental gross from SEO with little advertisement budgets.

To diagnose the (potential) interaction of SEO, spot if projected postulation and revenue over the adjacent 6-36 months are meaningful to the company.

Key questions:

• Are we a B2B oregon B2C company?
• Are we competing successful a nett caller oregon established market?
• Which transmission drives astir revenue?

Examples: High interaction is erstwhile SEO accounts for 20% of the company’s revenue. Low interaction is erstwhile hunt measurement for cardinal presumption doesn’t construe into a meaningful opportunity.

2/ Integrator Or Aggregator?

The adjacent question is whether the institution is an SEO Integrator oregon Aggregator, based connected who creates the content. If a institution tin standard SEO with user-generated contented (UGC) oregon an inventory (e-commerce products, locations, oregon integer products), it’s an SEO aggregator. If a institution creates the contented “itself” with inhouse oregon freelance writers, it’s an SEO Integrator.

The quality is captious due to the fact that each type scales SEO successful its ain mode and has antithetic levers successful its arsenal, starring to chiseled competitory advantages and approaches. Your benignant defines your Approach.

Key questions:

• Who creates the content?
• What JTBD does our merchandise solve?
• Can we standard into aggregator plays arsenic an Integrator oregon vice versa?

Examples: Instacart aggregates supermarkets and groceries, portion Substack aggregates articles. Adobe is an integrator that built an aggregator limb with banal photos.

3/ What Key Intents And Topics Do We Focus On?

Early on, each institution needs to absorption connected a fewer cardinal idiosyncratic intents and topics to win successful SEO. Over time, companies thin to neglect successful SEO erstwhile their domain carries excessively overmuch contented for topics they’re not yet known oregon an authorization for. Topics and idiosyncratic intents tin lone grow with caller products oregon features. Knowing which ones to absorption connected is simply a captious constraint for your Challenge and Approach.

Key questions:

• What topics align with our product(s), and which bash we request to win?
• How does our people assemblage search?

To find cardinal topics, look for which usage cases champion picture your product. Follow the jobs-to-be-done your merchandise solves to find which idiosyncratic intents you tin satisfy.

Examples: Airbnb targets radical who hunt for activities and stays successful cities (user intent) crossed halfway topics, specified as short-term rentals, trips, and experiences. Adobe started arsenic web plan bundle and branched retired into video and audio engineering, documents, selling and e-commerce.

4/ What Unique Advantage(s) Do We Have?

Knowing your vantage is captious truthful you tin afloat thin into it. Sometimes hard to find, each institution has astatine slightest 1 vantage based connected its positioning, resources and product/market acceptable that determines however a institution could combat a occupation (Approach).

One portion of leaning into your strengths is being wide astir what you won’t do. Boundaries make absorption and tin beryllium turned into strengths. Companies triumph by leveraging strengths, not fixing weaknesses.

From Jim Collins’ publication “Good to Great”:

The good-to-great companies did not absorption principally connected what to bash to go great; they focused arsenic connected what not to bash and what to stop doing.

Key questions:

• Where bash we person an advantage?
• Do we person an established brand, much people/money, oregon faster execution?
• What bash we accidental nary to? What are we not doing?

To find advantages, look for inflexible structures competitors person to defend. Every strategical prime is simply a committedness that a rival tin presumption themselves against.

Examples: In my heavy dive into the company Course Hero, I picture however its main competitor, Studocu, chose to vie by focusing connected planetary markets earlier tackling the US. That is simply a precise chiseled strategical prime based connected Studocu’s competitory advantage, the information that Course Hero has established itself successful the US, and

5/ How Can We Scale SEO?

There is nary sustained interaction without scale, whether you physique much landing pages oregon prosecute much writers. Good strategies person unit multipliers that compound returns implicit clip with synergetic Actions.

Key questions:

• Programmatic oregon editorial?
• Product-led SEO?
• How tin we make a superior experience?

To find standard mechanics, look for ways to make much high-quality pages connected your domain and optimize your existing pages.

Examples: Local services aggregator Angi, for example, scales by consolidating its acquired companies into 1 domain and expanding editorial contented with a ample team.

How To Build An SEO Strategy Step By Step

Building your strategy is simply a 3 measurement process:

1. Research/analyze.
2. Document.
3. Communicate.

Research/analyze

Your extremity is to make a razor-sharp knowing of the problem(s) you’re facing and to determine which 1 is the cardinal occupation based connected thorough research:

• Audit your customers, marketplace and competitors.
• Compare your assets, resources, and maturation with competitors.
• Identify the spread betwixt your existent show and goal.
• Use the 5x Why method for basal origin analysis.

Document

Your strategy tin beryllium a written papers oregon descent deck. The format itself is little important than compressing each the probe and investigation into cardinal paragraphs oregon slides.

Explain your reasoning successful item successful the appendix oregon a abstracted papers truthful that cardinal partners recognize wherever you’re coming from and wherefore you travel to your conclusions.

Communicate

The close mode to pass your strategy is with cardinal partners first, ideally successful idiosyncratic oregon virtually, and past with the broader company. Beat the drum connected your strategy arsenic often arsenic you tin with radical astatine the forefront of execution. It takes a batch of repetition for the strategy to descend in, particularly with larger companies.

Your strategy indispensable beryllium casual to understand. If it takes you 30 minutes and 100 slides to recognize what the strategy is, you’re connected the incorrect track. Equally, if not each 1 of your employees tin accidental what the strategy is, it’s apt not broad enough.

First, you need clarity of the strategy for yourself, past you request to pass it. – Bob Iger

The cardinal to getting determination is not to prime a elemental strategy but to compress the hard enactment into its essence. A bully illustration is however CEO Bob Iger simplified his strategy:

1. Invest astir of Disney’s resources into creativity
2. Use exertion to archer stories and scope people
3. Grow globally

Conclusion: Strategy Is The Key To Powerful Tactics

In Growth Memo Premium, I dissect the strategies of Nike, The New York Times, Redfin, IBM and different palmy companies. Each succeeds with a differentiated SEO strategy that leads them to either predominate their manufacture oregon situation incumbents.

A beardown strategy aligns the full enactment toward a halfway challenge. It puts tactics into discourse and creates synergies betwixt them, which means you’re getting much interaction retired of them than if you started with tactics and backed up into strategy.

I’ll permission you with these provocative questions:

• What is simply a alteration you could leverage?
• Which spot person you underplayed?
• Do you person beardown alignment betwixt actions and approach?
• Do you cognize what the halfway situation is you’re facing?
• Is your attack antithetic from what others are doing?