An online retailer was referred to me by a good friend of mine. I then flew down to Vegas last month for the project kickoff meeting and gave a keynote presentation including a SEO proposal. To really get straight to the point, I tried to keep the proposal short. No longterm side-wide technical issues, such as duplicate content, indexability, mobile, or UX mentioned; only actionable tasks specifically planned to deliver quick wins for them. Below is a template based on the proposal I made. Feel free to use it in your own project and share feedbacks if you have any. Happy SEO-ing!!
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Client: [Your client’s name]
Product: [What your client sells]
Domain: [Your client’s domain]
Proposal: Actionable SEO Recommendations to Implement Today
Date: [Date]
INTROUDUCITON
There hasn’t been a more a crucial time for a small business to secure and maximize its online presence in the most effective and scalable way possible. We believe [Your client’s name] have high potential for growth especially through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Below please find 7 actionable SEO items that can be implemented straight away without you tackling any side-wide technical issues (duplicate content, indexability, mobile, UX etc.).
SUMMARY
We will first target ‘low-hanging fruit’ keywords currently ranked #5-#20. For keywords between #5-#10, we aim to move them up 2 positions; for those between #11 and #20, we aim to bring them up to the bottom of page one (#10) so they can start sending visits. We will also conduct Competitive Analysis to generate new keywords and link opportunities from your top competitors (keywords they rank but you don’t). We will schedule on-page content rewrite (re-visit) and internal link-building to boost Long Tail and low-ranking keywords. Primary keywords, such as [sample keywords] will be used to conduct a more comprehensive keyword research and be grouped/mapped to proper landing pages. Both on-site SEO and off-site link-building will accordingly be applied during the actual content creation process.
METRICS & ANALYSIS
Our SEO success will be directly tied to your business goals and measured by brand awareness (new visits via what keywords), product consideration & comparison (return visited through a conversion funnel) as well as site conversion (direct sales via SEO keywords). Following metrics will be also provided for a better SEO tracking.
- Keyword ranking report (YoY, MoM, WoW, DoD)
- Buyer Journey through SEO traffic report
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- What keyword sending first time visits (Awareness). ex. [sample keywords]
- What keyword sending return visits (Consideration & Comparison). ex [sample keywords]
- What keyword generating direct sales (Conversion)
- General SEO report
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- SEO traffic (by new/return visits, by devices etc.)
- Number of pages received traffic
- Traffic share report (SEO vs other traffic source)
- Link profile report
OPPORTUNITY & IMPLEMENTATION
There are 317 keywords currently ranked between #5 and #10. We aim to move them up 2 positions by addressing the 3 major SEO issues. For example, ‘sample keyword’ is current ranked #10 (avg. CTR: 1%) with 9900 monthly SV. The CTR will be doubled (2%) with the keyword moving up 2 positions, which is 50% increase on traffic. [see tab 3: #5-20]
1. Content Creation & Marketing:
Query: [sample keyword]
SERP: #6 [followed by a list of competitors]
Page: [sample url]
Issue: landing page missing
Solution: Create a proper landing for the keyword with users’ search intent in mind. Onpage and offsite will be applied as well.
2. Keyword Opportunity:
Query: [sample keyword]
SERP: #6 [followed by a list of competitors]
Page: [sample url]
Issue: Keyword missing on the landing page
Solutions: Add targeted keywords in the page title or actual page such as [sample keyword]
3. Keyword Cannibalism & Landing Page Consolidation:
Query: [sample keyword]
SERP: #5 [followed by a list of competitors]
Page 1: [sample url]
Page 2: [sample url]
Issue: Multiple landing pages for the same keyword
Solution: Consolidate ranking opportunity and point search engines to just one landing page by internal linking one to the other and creating content with related keywords.
4. Content Rewrites & Creation
There are 288 keywords ranked between #11 and #20 such as [sample keywords]. We aim to move them up to the bottom of the first page so these keywords can start sending visits. [see tab 3: #5-20]
Query: [sample keyword]
SERP: #20 [see Google Search.png]
Page: [sample url]
Issue: Keyword is not sending any SEO visits
Solutions: Redo keyword map with better keyword search. Create content with both onsite and offsite tasks scheduled.
Keyword research example: 20 relevant keywords (with commerciality and search volume) found via keyword search (Adwords, Google Suggest, Moz tools, Amazon etc.): [sample keywords] [see tab 2: Keyword Map Example]
5. Competitive Analysis
There are three major online competitors identified during the competitive analysis (based on SERP, keywords, links etc.). For example, [Competitors A and B] both rank for the same 228 keywords, however [Competitors C] also ranks other 7080 keyword that [Your client’s name] don’t. These are potential keywords to add to the store or possible product ideas that can be added to [Your client’s name].
Top 3 Competitors:
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- [Competitor A]: 7080
- [Competitor B]: 2022
- [Competitor C]: 505
New keywords: [sample keywords]
Action: adding keywords and mapping them out to exiting landing pages. If a landing page is not found, create one with proper onsite and offsite optimization.
6. Long Tail & low-ranking keywords
There are 1,265 keywords that rank outside of top 20. Most of them are long tails with low Keyword Difficulty (competition).
Issue: Keyword is not sending SEO visits
Solution:
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- User Generated Content (UGC): Adding reviews to each product page
- Internal linking
- Content Creation
- Site-wide SEO Improvements
7. Primary Keywords and longterm SEO strategy
There are 32 primary keywords. Even with relatively higher completions, certain SEO effort still needs to allocated to them for their high commerciality and long term SEO benefits.
Keyword Research
Keyword Grouping & Mapping [see tab 1: Primary Keywords]
Onsite SEO: meta data, on page SEO, internal linking etc.
Offsite link-building: discover link opportunities via referral traffic, go after competitors’ link targets etc.
Others: Social media, Influencer marketing
Data sources: AdWord Keyword tool, Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer, Ahref, SEMRush, WordStream, CTR Study, Advanced Google search operators, ScreamingFrog