If you want to rank higher than your competitors on search engines, you need a solid SEO action plan. An SEO action plan is a strategic roadmap that guides your SEO efforts and helps you achieve your goals. But how can you create an SEO action plan that beats your competitors? Here are some steps to follow.
The first step is to identify and analyze your main competitors. You can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to find out who is ranking for your target keywords, what kind of content they are producing, how they are optimizing their pages, and what kind of backlinks they are acquiring. You can also look at their social media presence, user reviews, and online reputation. This will help you understand their strengths and weaknesses, and how you can differentiate yourself from them.
Utilise a structured SEO competitor analysis template to compare your website's organic performance against key competitors. This allows for effective benchmarking and strategic SEO optimisation.. Here's a sample SEO Competitor template I use in my business, for reference: https://rdar.li/seo-competitor-analysis
A personal tip that has consistently been a game-changer for me is focusing on long-tail keywords where competitors may have overlooked opportunities. By targeting these unique and sometimes less competitive search terms, I've been able to carve out a niche that has allowed me to surpass even larger competitors in specific areas.
Start with the Google chrome search console inspect tool. Start with the lighthouse audits and Run this test for your website and your main competitors. Make sure your outscoring your competition in all metrics. Pay particular attention to load speed as this metric alone will make the biggest difference in ranking potential
I think the Headline should be something like, best SEO Strategy that beats your Competitor out, instead of how can you make an Action Plan. Because the way article is written it it looks more like a working strategy than an Action Plan.
It’s also important to get clear on what phraseology are you targeting. Finding a handful of keywords and phrases allows you to apply your focus and energy in a more effective way then trying to rank on dozens of phrases.
The next step is to define your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your SEO action plan. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, you might want to increase your organic traffic by 20% in six months, or improve your conversion rate by 10% in a year. Your KPIs should be the metrics that help you track and measure your progress towards your goals. For example, you might use KPIs like keyword rankings, organic traffic, bounce rate, click-through rate, or conversions.
The third step is to audit your website and find out how it performs in terms of SEO. You can use tools like Screaming Frog, Google Analytics, or Google Search Console to crawl your website and identify any issues or errors that might affect your SEO. You should check for things like broken links, duplicate content, slow loading speed, mobile-friendliness, site structure, meta tags, schema markup, and security. You should also analyze your content quality, relevance, and freshness, and see how it matches your user intent and keyword strategy.
The key of a great SEO audit is in the comparison; understanding not just where we stand but where we excel or fall short compared to our rivals. From there, I prioritize improvements that can make the most significant impact. One personal tip that has consistently served me well is to never underestimate the power of user experience in SEO. Enhancing site navigation and content readability has often given us that extra edge in rankings, making the difference in overtaking competitors.
Auditing a site with a well-thought-out checklist of key issues is a good way to start work on a new SEO project. To see the quickest wins, the trick is to prioritise which areas to fix first. 1. On-Page SEO, namely meta tag optimisation is a low hanging opportunity that never fails to show some early results 2. Next, is fixing Crawling and Indexation issues. These are crucial to serve your page results in Google and other Search Engines. 3. Finally, Content optimisation and everything else. Note: User experience optimisation or Conversion optimisation comes much later than SEO. Aim to get ranked first. Once you're ranking and have reasonable traffic stats, then optimise for user experience.
The fourth step is to create and implement your SEO strategy based on your goals, KPIs, and audit results. Your SEO strategy should include three main components: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. On-page SEO refers to the optimization of your content and meta tags for your target keywords and user experience. Off-page SEO refers to the promotion of your website through link building, social media, and other external factors. Technical SEO refers to the optimization of your website's code, speed, structure, and security for search engines.
Technical SEO: Ensure your website is technically sound: Optimize site structure and navigation. Make your site mobile-friendly and responsive. Eliminate duplicate content issues. Create and submit a sitemap to search engines. Improve website security (HTTPS).
On-Page SEO Optimization: Ensure your website is well-optimized for search engines: Optimize meta titles and descriptions. Create high-quality, keyword-rich content. Improve page load speed. Use header tags (H1, H2, etc.) effectively. Implement schema markup for rich snippets. Optimize images and use descriptive alt tags.
The fifth step is to monitor and measure your results and see how your SEO action plan is working. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or other SEO tools to track and analyze your KPIs and see how they change over time. You should also keep an eye on your competitors and see how they are performing and what they are doing differently. You should also conduct regular SEO audits and update your strategy as needed.
1. Set up a bi-weekly or monthly cadence to measure key SEO metrics. This helps measure data trends – improvements or drops, early on – and apply fixes, as necessary. 2. A Google sheet template, capturing the target metrics is the simplest way to organise this.
What gets measured, gets changed. Ezio ranking is like watching a stock in the market. On a daily level you might noticed some traffic ups and downs but what you’re looking for here is a long-term trends, is it positive and going in the direction you desire?
The sixth and final step is to test and improve your SEO action plan based on your results and feedback. You can use tools like Google Optimize, Hotjar, or Crazy Egg to run experiments and tests on your website and see what works and what doesn't. You can also use tools like SurveyMonkey, UserTesting, or Feedbackify to collect user feedback and suggestions on how to improve your website and content. You should always be looking for ways to optimize your SEO action plan and beat your competitors.
I feel this article is missing a key element, the RACI. During the KPI defining and action plan implement stages there are points of collaboration and buy-in. I would build a step that talks about building a RACI and garnering buy-in for key stakeholders. These are key steps I find on a daily basis that can hinder any action plan if not taken into consideration throughout the process.