The previous SEO strategy, crafted by an external contractor—a common practice in our industry—fell short of delivering the desired results. External partners often lack insight into our project prioritization roadmap and team bandwidth constraints. Taking these factors into account, I collaborated with our Sr. Content Manager to devise a strategy that not only aligned with our team's capacity to deliver but also prioritized data-driven decision-making at every stage of the project.
Previous SEO Strategy
Main issues with previous strategy:
1. Lack of ongoing data analysis and adjustments to strategy
2. Lack of budget and bandwidth for technical SEO improvements
3. No significant results
New SEO Strategy Plan
Main changes:
1. Partnership with SEM team for keyword alignment and identified 10 marquee keywords we wanted to rank for
2. Ongoing data analysis and optimization of monthly deliverables according to data
3. Technical SEO built into monthly releases
4. Consistent deliverables for at least 6 months before pivoting the strategy
Establishing an SEO Philosophy
A foundational SEO philosophy is vital because it emphasizes a sustainable, ongoing operational process rather than a quick campaign push. This approach ensures that our SEO strategy focuses on areas where our team can consistently deliver results, fostering long-term growth and stability.
Results
First three months
9
9 out of 10 marquee keywords
ranking in search results
27%
YoY organic traffic growth
First five months
• All 10 marquee keywords ranking in search results
• 4 keywords ranking in top 5 results
• 1 keyword as a featured snippet