How to Create SEO SOPs to Scale Organic Traffic

Standard operating procedures marque your enactment faster, easier, and much scalable. This is peculiarly existent successful the lawsuit of SEO, wherever a batch of the tasks are elemental and repeatable.

Things similar adding meta tags, maintaining a due URL structure, adding interior links, and optimizing your images are each casual to do… but besides casual to forget.

Recording SEO tasks successful SOP documents means they volition ne'er beryllium forgotten—and, erstwhile documented, you tin easy delegate these elemental tasks to others successful your team.

If you privation to turn your integrated postulation portion moving less, you privation SEO SOPs. 

Let’s dive into it.

A modular operating process (SOP) is simply a papers that outlines however a task is done measurement by step. It often includes screenshots to visually amusement what you’re explaining, but the champion SOPs see videos as well.

I typically marque my SOPs successful a Google Doc with screenshots. Then I usage Loom to grounds my surface and make video explanations.

SEO SOPs let you to:

• Never hide important SEO steps erstwhile publishing content.
• Hire an affordable adjunct to person elemental tasks taken disconnected your plate.
• Scale your concern successful ways that aren’t imaginable without standardization.

McDonald’s was 1 of the archetypal businesses to maestro standardization. And its burger enactment was overmuch much analyzable than simply creating a document. You, too, tin harness the powerfulness of a standardized process to summation output and efficiency.

There are a batch of processes successful concern that tin payment from SOPs. However, the 5 astir captious SEO tasks that should person SOPs include:

1. Content instauration and on-page SEO.
2. Internal linking procedures.
3. Image optimization.
4. Email outreach for nexus building.
5. Tracking your rankings and making updates.

Below, I interruption down each 1 and springiness you illustration templates you tin transcript and mold to acceptable your business.

1. Content instauration and on-page SEO

Content is the backbone of immoderate bully SEO strategy. However, creating great content takes clip and effort. If you privation to chopped down connected however agelong it takes, an SOP volition do that.

At Ahrefs, our SOP for contented includes these eight steps:

1. Create a location for the station successful the shared drive
2. Fill in/update the Notion card
3. Assign the header illustration
4. Write the content outline
5. Write the draft
6. Edit the draft
7. Assign customized images and screenshot annotations
8. Prepare for editing + upload

Of course, these 8 steps are circumstantial to our systems and styles. We usage Google Drive and Notion to support way of everything, person a header illustration for each article, and person a rigorous editing process to guarantee high-quality content.

Here’s what that papers looks like:

As you tin see, it is simply a well-documented and easy-to-follow process with examples and links.

Within this document, we besides nexus to our penning guidelines SOP with adjacent much elaborate accusation connected our existent penning process.

This includes our benignant and penning guidelines with existent examples…

… arsenic good arsenic screenshots to show, not just tell.

And lastly, we person SOPs successful spot to screen on-page SEO, which includes however to decently sanction images, adhd representation alt text, and acceptable the metadata for each page.

By creating these elemental documents, you tin marque contented instauration overmuch easier and quicker.

2.  Internal linking procedures

Internal linking is important for ranking highly connected Google. Every azygous leafage connected your site, speech from possibly landing pages, should person interior links. This is particularly existent for blog content.

Your SOP tin look thing like this:

1. You should purpose to see a applicable interior nexus anytime it tin payment the reader.
2. Internal nexus anchor substance should beryllium applicable to the contented you’re penning astir and the contented you’re linking to. For example, DO nexus to “RV accessories” from “RV h2o pump buyers guide.” DO NOT nexus to “van beingness builds” from “how to support your RV chill successful the summer.” Keep it related.
3. Use Ahrefs’ Internal Link Opportunities instrumentality successful Site Audit to bash the work. Alternatively, you tin find interior links by performing a Google hunt for
   site:[yoursitehere.com] “related keyword” to spot each the contented that contains that related keyword oregon phrase.

3.  Image optimization

Optimizing your images for Google (and for users) is often overlooked. However, it’s casual to bash and besides important if you privation to scope that coveted first page.

There are 3 steps to ensuring bully representation optimization:

1. Having a due rubric that describes the representation (without keyword stuffing)
2. Adding alt text that describes the representation successful a spot much item for those who can’t download and presumption the image
3. Using the due record format and reducing the wide information size of the representation for faster load speeds

Follow our usher to representation SEO for much information.

4. Email outreach for nexus building

Link building is cardinal to a bully SEO strategy—links are 1 of the astir important Google ranking factors.

While gathering backlinks isn’t precisely easy, it does impact a batch of repeatable steps. This makes it a cleanable SOP task. In fact, you’ll astir apt privation aggregate SOPs—one for each nexus gathering strategy, including:

• Guest post and/or blog promotion outreach.
• Broken nexus building.
• Fixing unlinked mentions.
• Stealing links from inferior pages.
• Etc.

Each of these procedures is different. So either crook your existent process into a papers oregon travel 1 of the linked guides supra and make a papers for it.

5. Tracking your rankings and making updates

Finally, we person thing astir each SEOs love: watching your rankings spell up (hopefully).

While it’s casual capable to spontaneously cheque your Ahrefs relationship oregon Google Search Console relationship to spot whether oregon not your rankings are moving from your efforts, there’s a amended way.

It inactive involves checking your Ahrefs account. But alternatively of doing it with random excitement similar a kid successful a candy store, you usage a methodical attack that tracks your changes and their effects. After all, a batch of SEO is proceedings and error.

First, if you haven’t already, motion up for Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker. Our reports volition amusement you your ranking changes implicit clip with visualized information done charts and rival reports.

You tin way circumstantial keywords and pages implicit clip as well:

Once you person your account, you tin marque an SOP to cheque these connected a daily, weekly, oregon monthly basis. Keep way of immoderate changes you marque to your pages, specified arsenic metadata, adding oregon changing content, improving your interior links, etc. Then papers however these changes interaction your rankings over time.

By making a wont of performing SEO tests similar these and tracking the effects, you tin spot what works and what doesn’t—then standard up what works and halt wasting clip connected what doesn’t.

Final thoughts

By documenting your SEO processes successful the signifier of SOPs, you tin much easy standard up your concern and prosecute others to execute the easier tasks.

If you privation your concern (and your integrated traffic) to grow, having SOPs is 1 of the surest ways to bash it. Learn what works, papers the process, and standard it up. These 5 SEO tasks are conscionable the beginning—you tin person an SOP for each repeatable task successful your business.