How I Created an SEO Strategy That Increased a Client’s Search Visibility by 375%

Organic visibility is nether pressure. Many websites are losing postulation and rankings owed to volatile SERPs, AI hunt features, and changeless algorithm updates.

Despite that, my squad and I built an SEO strategy that boosted a client’s hunt visibility by 375%. It’s a repeatable process grounded successful method SEO, targeted keywords, and focused execution.

In this article, I’ll stock the six-step model we utilized truthful you tin use it to your hunt strategy.

But first, a fewer essentials to laic the foundation…

Before rubbing immoderate SEO tactic, I commencement pinch the acquisition costs exemplary because it’s the astir effective measurement to link SEO to revenue.

Most teams attraction connected driving traffic aliases expanding MQLs, but fewer necktie their efforts backmost to metrics that turn the business. The CAC exemplary breaks that down by showing which levers I tin power and those I can’t.

In this model, marketplace size equals the full number of searches crossed my target keywords. Traffic reflects really overmuch of that marketplace I’m capturing, and conversion complaint shows really good postulation turns into inquiries, signups, aliases sales.

Once I person those three, I tin reverse-engineer marketplace penetration and spot wherever my strategy needs to improve.

One of the astir captious steps successful creating an SEO strategy is knowing wherever to compete.

Many businesses neglect because they deficiency a clear strategy for what to do and, much importantly, what not to do.

I return a Sun Tzu attack to SEO and take battles I tin win. I don’t person an unlimited budget, and competing for broad, ultra-competitive keywords without a scheme isn’t the champion usage of resources. Instead, I nonstop my efforts toward opportunities pinch a statistical probability of success.

Like an finance portfolio, I don’t spot each my hopes connected a azygous stock.

I build a diversified keyword portfolio and attraction on improving the group's performance. Some position will execute amended than others, but the aggregate effect grows steadily complete time. That’s really I assistance visibility without relying connected outliers aliases unrealistic wins.

One illustration is Bond Global, a mini recruitment patient operating successful the UK and the US. They came to america pinch a Domain Authority of conscionable nine. 

Most group would opportunity that’s excessively debased to make an impact, but we didn’t discarded clip chasing high-volume, high-competition terms. Instead, we focused connected strategic, lower-friction opportunities, resulting successful a 493% summation successful marketplace penetration.

That’s the worth of conflict selection, wherever mini wins crossed galore fronts compound complete time.

Keyword action starts pinch knowing the business. Here’s the process I travel when conducting keyword research:

Use workshop-style investigation to stitchery a wide database of keywords

I ever commencement pinch a shop to get cross-functional input connected products, services, and immoderate word a imaginable customer mightiness usage to find my client.

We build combinations for illustration a tube lock, rotating done features, location, and usage lawsuit to representation the market.

Use Moz devices and competitor investigation to build your keyword list

I usage Moz’s keyword investigation tool to create this database without committing to a Campaign. It lets maine research broadly without cluttering the database pinch low-value terms.

Build seed lists astir your halfway products aliases services

To build seed lists, commencement by identifying the business’s superior services. For Bond Global, that was executive hunt and recruitment crossed cleanable and heavy tech sectors.

I download the keyword database into a spreadsheet and group them into logical sets by theme, product, aliases assemblage type. 

Use measurement and hunt intent scoring to constrictive the list

Once the agelong database is successful place, it’s clip to cut. Start by sorting your keyword database by hunt measurement (highest to lowest) to get a consciousness of marketplace size, but don't fto measurement beryllium the only filter. A smaller keyword successful the apical 3 is much valuable than a high-volume keyword buried astatine the bottommost of page one.

Next, select keywords based on intent to convert. Ask yourself: Is personification searching this word apt to go a lead, signup, aliases customer?

For example, present astatine Plug and Play, we’re looking for group who self-identify arsenic looking for a web creation agency alternatively than a ‘web designer’. They cognize that they request a business alternatively than an individual to thief them, and they are much apt to person into caller business by being much aligned pinch our halfway offering.

Score each keyword for intent based connected low, medium, aliases high, and purpose to prioritize position that pull qualified traffic.

Analyze the SERPs to measure trouble and specificity gaps

Search measurement and intent springiness you the “what,” but SERP study gives you the “how.”

Use Moz’s SERP Analysis and Domain Overview devices to check:

• Domain Authority (DA)
• Page Authority (PA)
• On-page Optimization Score

These metrics show really competitory a keyword is. Compare them to your tract stats and look for SERPs wherever competitors person akin aliases weaker authority, aliases wherever their contented is poorly optimized.

For Bond Global, our DA was only 11, but we classed for high-intent keywords because different results pinch higher authority had weaker optimization aliases broader pages.

Sometimes, you’ll spot a page ranking because the keyword appears successful the domain name. That’s useful context, but not unbeatable. Specificity and optimization still win.

Export your keyword database and annotate pinch the pursuing arsenic a guide:

• Add notes connected competitor metrics
• Mark high-potential opportunities
• Flag keywords that are “maybe later” targets

Assign 1 superior and 1 secondary keyword per page

After trimming the list, delegate each keyword to a page, but debar keyword stuffing aliases overloading.

Stick to:

• One superior keyword
• One secondary keyword
• Supporting variants, only wherever they adhd value

This keeps the page tightly focused. If you effort to screen excessively galore topics, the page becomes generic, and generic doesn’t rank.

Once the keyword representation is successful place, the adjacent measurement is optimizing existing pages for your chosen keywords.

I usage Moz’s on-page SEO tool to guideline the optimization process. It provides a page optimization people and highlights what’s missing aliases needs improvement.

For Bond Global, we saw results from improving alignment betwixt keywords and on-page elements. Even pinch a Domain Authority of 11, a precocious on-page people helped america outrank much charismatic competitors.

Further reading 

A guideline to on-page optimization

Start pinch crawl diagnostics utilizing Moz and Screaming Frog

I trust connected a operation of devices here, but Moz’s SEO audit tool is 1 of the astir useful. It provides a top-level position of codification quality, speed, sitemap coverage, and crawlability. It besides flags little evident issues for illustration missing schema markup.

In summation to crawl tools, I use Google Search Console to position outer links pointing to a site, moreover erstwhile they onshore connected 404s that I'm not linking to internally. It gives maine an opportunity to 301 redirect those broken links to the astir applicable unrecorded page and retrieve the authority.

Further reading:

Technical SEO audit checklist

Keyword cannibalization is simply a superior issue, particularly connected endeavor aliases content-heavy sites. When aggregate pages compete for the aforesaid keyword, it weakens your chances of ranking. You won’t ever debar it, but you tin find and hole it pinch the correct devices and strategy.

Use Google hunt and Moz to aboveground keyword conflicts

Start pinch a speedy manual cheque successful Google:

site:yourdomain.com "target keyword"

It surfaces each indexed pages mentioning the keyword. It’s not perfect, but it gives you a shortlist to review.

Next, navigate to the Moz Ranking Keywords tool. 

If 2 pages rank (home page and careers page) but service different purposes, that’s fine, but if there’s overlap, you should hole it.

Consolidate, canonicalize, aliases redirect overlapping pages

When keyword overlap shows up, you’ve sewage 3 options:

• Merge contented into the stronger page and 301 redirect the weaker one
• Canonicalize if the contented must enactment unrecorded but shouldn’t rank
• Leave both live if they service different intents aliases chimney stages

In 1 case, we recovered pages ranking astatine positions 12 and 35 for the aforesaid keyword. Neither was connected page one, truthful we merged them and redirected the lower-performing page to consolidate authority and amended the wide ranking.

Avoid the enticement to deoptimize contented because it weakens some pages. Instead, put that mixed firepower to amended use.

Build a cleanable redirect strategy

Redirects are a cardinal portion of the fix, particularly during migrations aliases CMS changes.

For example, successful Shopify, URLs often default to /products,/pages, aliases /collections. When we move clients to headless setups aliases rebuild their URL structure, we group up 301s to sphere authority.

Best practices include:

• Use 301 redirects for imperishable changes
• Use 302 redirects for impermanent updates (e.g., seasonal tests)
• Use Screaming Frog to find and flatten redirect chains
• Manually reappraisal each redirect rules earlier launch

I’m not talking astir contented marketing, PPC, aliases lead gen assets here. These are SEO landing pages connected your site, built astir circumstantial keywords and designed to thrust integrated traffic. They usually unrecorded successful the main navigation, a submenu, aliases are linked from cardinal assemblage content.

Use cleanable URLs and 1 keyword attraction per page

Each landing page should target 1 superior and 1 secondary keyword. Avoid cluttering it pinch unrelated position because specificity wins.

Think of each page arsenic a mini-homepage for its topic. If personification lands location from search, it should guidelines independently, present value, and convert.

The best-performing pages are:

• Cleanly structured: /deep-tech-recruitment aliases /cleantech-talent
• Highly circumstantial to a user’s search
• Consistent pinch intent and messaging

Whether you're targeting cities aliases full countries, localized SEO is basal for success. The cardinal is combining localized keyword targeting pinch the due method setup.

Start pinch keyword investigation for each region

Like everything else, it starts pinch the keyword list. What personification searches for successful London will not beryllium identical to what they hunt for successful New York, moreover for the aforesaid service.

For location-based terms, build local landing pages around:

• Service + metropolis (e.g, executive hunt London)
• Product + region (e.g., wallpaper UK, wallpaper US)
• Local intent (e.g. recruiters adjacent me, wellness nine Soho)

Use schema to reenforce location relevance

Schema markup clarifies the relationship betwixt a business and its beingness presence. For Bond Global, 1 of the first fixes was adding reside markup using Schema.org. 

The agency location was visible connected the page, but not structured. Adding LocalBusiness and PostalAddress schema gave Google discourse and helped aboveground the listing much reliably.

Depending connected your business, attraction connected adding:

• Organization  or LocalBusiness schema
• PostalAddress for beingness locations
• BreadcrumbList for navigational clarity
• Article, Product, aliases Service schema for contented aliases offerings
• GeoCoordinates wherever possible
• Verified Google Maps listing that matches the on-page info 

Use Google’s Rich Results Test to verify your markup is valid and detectable.

Implement hreflang for world SEO

For multi-country targeting, usage hreflang tags to nexus balanced pages crossed territories. You don’t request to replicate the full tract for each country. Start pinch 1 maestro territory and rotation retired localized variants of cardinal pages.