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    SEO Strategy Template

    Uploaded by

    Dulce Pereira
    This document provides an 8-step SEO strategy template to benchmark current performance, analyze competitors, set goals and KPIs, audit content and technical issues, and perform off-page SEO like building backlinks. The template includes exporting reports to Google Sheets to track organic traffic, keywords, backlinks, topic clusters, pages for optimization, and more. The goal is to establish baselines, identify opportunities, and measure progress to increase organic visibility and traffic over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    SEO Strategy Template

    Uploaded by

    Dulce Pereira
    31 views9 pages
    This document provides an 8-step SEO strategy template to benchmark current performance, analyze competitors, set goals and KPIs, audit content and technical issues, and perform off-page SEO like building backlinks. The template includes exporting reports to Google Sheets to track organic traffic, keywords, backlinks, topic clusters, pages for optimization, and more. The goal is to establish baselines, identify opportunities, and measure progress to increase organic visibility and traffic over time.

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    This document provides an 8-step SEO strategy template to benchmark current performance, analyze competitors, set goals and KPIs, audit content and technical issues, and perform off-page SEO like building backlinks. The template includes exporting reports to Google Sheets to track organic traffic, keywords, backlinks, topic clusters, pages for optimization, and more. The goal is to establish baselines, identify opportunities, and measure progress to increase organic visibility and traffic over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    31 views9 pages

    SEO Strategy Template

    Uploaded by

    Dulce Pereira
    This document provides an 8-step SEO strategy template to benchmark current performance, analyze competitors, set goals and KPIs, audit content and technical issues, and perform off-page SEO like building backlinks. The template includes exporting reports to Google Sheets to track organic traffic, keywords, backlinks, topic clusters, pages for optimization, and more. The goal is to establish baselines, identify opportunities, and measure progress to increase organic visibility and traffic over time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 9
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    The key takeaways from the document are to perform an audit of your current SEO performance, analyze your competitors' strategies, set goals and track key performance indicators (KPIs), and develop an ongoing SEO strategy.

    The steps to benchmark your current SEO performance are to establish a baseline for organic search traffic and top organic keywords, and benchmark your current backlinks and referring domains.

    The steps to analyze competitors' SEO strategies are to identify top competitors, identify valuable keywords competitors currently rank for that you don't, and conduct a backlink gap analysis.

    SEO STRATEGY TEMPLATE

    This template is meant for you to use as you read Semrush’s SEO Strategy article. It’ll help you
    keep your most important information in one place.

    Step 1: Benchmark Your Current SEO Performance


    First, establish a baseline for your current SEO stats.

    Start by seeing how many visitors per month are coming to your site from organic search. You
    can easily find this number using the Domain Overview tool.

    Organic Traffic:

    Then, find and write down your top organic keywords and the position you currently hold for
    them.

    Top Five Organic Keywords: Position Volume

    1.

    2.

    3.

    4.

    5.

    We also recommend exporting the full organic keyword report as a CSV (like this), importing it
    to Google Sheets, and linking to it below:

    Top Organic Keywords (link to your


    report in Google Sheets):
    And now let’s benchmark your current backlinks to see how many websites have links pointing
    to your site.

    Referring Domains:

    Backlinks:

    Step 2. Analyze Your Competitors’ SEO Strategies


    Start by identifying your top 10 SEO competitors using the Organic Research tool.

    Competitor Domain # Common Keywords Traffic

    1.

    2.

    3.

    4.

    5.

    6.

    7.

    8.

    9.

    10.

    And now identify and write down valuable keywords that your competitors currently rank for, but
    you don’t.

    At the very least, take note of the top five keyword opportunities.

    Keyword Volume Keyword Difficulty

    1.

    2.

    3.

    4.
    5.

    We recommend exporting the full keyword gap report. Export as a CSV (like this), import it to a
    Google Sheet, and link to it below.

    Keyword Gap (link to your report in


    Google Sheets):

    And, last but not least, conduct a backlink gap to find websites linking to your competitors and
    not to you.

    You’ll find a long list of prospects you can reach out to for backlinks.

    Export the full report as a CSV (like this) and import it to a Google Sheet. Link to it below.

    Backlink Gap (link to your report in


    Google Sheets):

    Step 3. Set Your Goals and KPIs


    A goal is the end outcome you want to achieve and KPIs are measurable values that help you
    track progress against your goals.

    What is your goal? (for example: increase organic revenue by $1000


    over the next year)

    What KPIs will you track? (for example: organic impressions, organic traffic,
    and rankings)

    What is your average CTR?

    How many coverage errors do you


    have?

    Step 4. Audit Your Content


    This step helps identify pages that aren’t performing well, why they aren’t, and how to fix that.
    Run an audit using the Organic Research tool, and evaluate your content based on traffic.
    Export the full list as a CSV (like this), import it to a Google Sheet, and link to it below.

    (replace this screenshot with a screenshot of your site’s Organic Overview)

    Top Organic Pages (link to your


    report in Google Sheets):

    Step 5. Build Topic Clusters


    The key for this step is to start thinking in terms of topics and not keywords.

    1. Pick Topics
    Find topic ideas that have informational search intent, search traffic potential, and are broad
    enough to generate tons of subtopics.

    Use the Topic Research tool, export the full report (like this) for topics that you find interesting,
    and link to them below.

    Topic Research (link to your report


    in Google Sheets):

    2. Get Ideas For Different Content Formats


    Use the Keyword Magic tool to drill down and find specific content formats like: tips, benefits,
    best, reviews, and examples.

    Export a CSV (like this) of the full list of keywords and link to them below.

    Keyword + Modifiers (link to your


    report in Google Sheets):
    3. Find High Volume Question Keywords
    Build a list of question-based keywords with a minimum search volume for you to target.

    Select Broad Match in the Keyword Magic tool and set a minimum volume. The “minimum”
    volume varies by industry, but you can set it to something like 100+ searches to start.

    Export a CSV of the reports (like this) and link to them below.

    High Volume Question Keywords


    (link to your report in Google
    Sheets):

    4. Find Keywords With Featured Snippet Opportunities


    This is a great way to uncover keywords that work well as informational content.

    In the Keyword Magic tool, select Phrase Match, and in Advanced filters, select SERP Features.
    You can select any SERP feature you want, but we recommend selecting all 22 features for this
    step.

    Export a CSV of the report (like this) and link to it below.

    Featured Snippet Keywords (link to


    your report in Google Sheets):

    5. Map Out Your Pillars and Clusters


    After researching keywords, you’ll need to actually outline what your pillar and topic clusters will
    look like.

    Make a big circle with all your topics (pillars) and smaller circles around it with all the subtopics
    you’ve uncovered.

    It should look something like this:


    Start by leveraging your existing content, and then fill in the blanks.

    Step 6. Run an On-Page SEO Audit


    On-page SEO is all about optimizing your web for search engines and users.

    Common on-page SEO practices include revising:


    ● Title tags
    ● Meta descriptions
    ● Headings
    ● Internal links
    ● URLs

    Run an audit using the On-Page SEO Checker. The Overview page will give you a list of the top
    five pages to optimize, but we suggest exporting a report of the full list (like this).

    Link to it below.

    (replace this screenshot with a screenshot of your site’s On-Page SEO health)

    On-Page SEO Audit (link to your


    report in Google Sheets):

    Step 7. Find and Fix Technical SEO Issues


    The easier you make it for search engines to access your content, the better your chances of
    ranking.

    To improve your site’s technical optimization, you need to take into account:

    ● Javascript
    ● XML sitemaps
    ● Site architecture
    ● URL structure
    ● Structured data
    ● Thin content
    ● Duplicate content
    ● Hreflang
    ● Canonical tags
    ● 404 pages
    ● 301 redirects

    Run an audit using the Site Audit tool and scan your website for 140+ technical and SEO
    issues.

    (replace this screenshot with a screenshot of your site’s Technical SEO health)

    Export the full report as a CSV (like this), import it to a Google Sheet, and link to it below.

    Technical SEO Issues (link to your


    report in Google Sheets):

    Start with the errors (issues with the highest severity) and then move on to the warnings and
    notices.

    Step 8. Work on Your Off-Page SEO


    Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your site to impact your rankings in search
    results.

    Building backlinks is at the heart of off-page SEO so we’ll focus on creating and earning
    backlinks for this step.

    Similar to what we did in step 2 to find your competitors’ backlinks, we’ll now use the Link
    Building tool to get an even longer list of prospects.

    You have two options for this step:

    1. Export the report as a CSV (like this)


    2. Use the tool’s management interface to run your outreach campaign

    We recommend managing your campaign with the tool, but if you opt for exporting the report,
    link to it below.
    Link Building Prospects (link to your
    report in Google Sheets):

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