SEO strategies can be quite complex and multifaceted. There are different aspects to the strategy, such as content planning, content creation/publishing, link building, content promotion, etc. All of these various steps have to be taken according to the rules and guidelines of your organization.
It is important to save all of these rules and guidelines in one place, where they can be easily viewed and perused by the team members.
In this post, we’re going to guide you on how to do so effectively.
Here are some of the benefits that you can enjoy once your SEO strategy is methodically saved in a central repository.
Consistency across the various SEO activities: With a shared SEO strategy, your various team members will be able to perform the SEO activities consistently across the various platforms. You won’t have to worry about certain activities being left out, since they will all be carefully documented in the strategy.
No confusion among the team members: There are no second opinions or guesses when the SEO strategy is saved in a central platform. Everyone follows the guidelines without any confusion.
Faster onboarding for new members: New members joining your team won’t have to wait for a guided orientation, nor will they have to shadow someone until they learn everything. They can just read and follow the guidelines as they are mentioned for everyone.
Better productivity: Following instructions from a centralized repository helps you save time. You don’t have to wait for others to tell you what to do and how to do it.
Quality control and management: When all the various SEO-related activities are done according to a set standard, you can expect them to have consistent good quality.
Here are the steps that you can follow:
The first thing that you need to do is identify the various SEO-related processes that your team needs to perform. Here are some examples of the most common ones:
Keyword research, i.e., the practice of finding, analyzing, and selecting the keywords that are to be followed in the SEO campaign.
On-page optimization, i.e., the practice of optimizing on-page elements, including the meta title, meta description, headings, images, internal links, etc.
Content creation, i.e., the creation of content for blogs, landing pages, product descriptions, service pages, etc.
Link building, i.e., the practice of acquiring backlinks for the website by collaborating with other platforms on the internet.
And so forth.
Once you have these processes noted down, you can move on to creating the guidelines for each one.
After you have identified the various steps involved in the SEO campaign, create templates for the repetitive processes.
Creating templates for repetitive processes helps in saving time and improving your team’s productivity.
Here are some examples of how you can create templates for repetitive tasks:
For content creation, you can create an outline or brief with replaceable areas that can be repeatedly used as a guide.
For link building, you can create templates that your team can use when communicating with web masters and website owners.
Reporting and analytics are also frequently required in an SEO campaign. You can create template worksheets that your team can fill with data instead of making a new one every time.
And so on.
The exact type and number of templates that you will need to make depend on the activities that are included in your SEO campaign.
There are many processes that are not repetitive and thus cannot be simplified with the use of existing templates. For those, you can create and publish guidelines and checklists.
For example,
For keyword research, you can create guidelines on how the keywords should be discovered, how their metrics should be checked, and how they should be categorized and saved.
In the same way, for on-page optimization, you can create a checklist that details the various steps that should be taken for each page.
The exact type and number of guidelines that you need to create depend on the steps included in your strategy.
Once you have the information and templates, etc., all done and ready, the next step is to bring them to a place where they can be accessed and viewed by everyone in your team.
For that, you need to make use of a knowledge base.
What exactly is a knowledge base? It is a centralized digital space where multiple users can access and peruse informational content. It is used to share knowledge amongst a specific group of people.
To build a knowledge base, you need to use a knowledge base software. By using such software, you can create articles using the native text editor, publish them, set custom permissions, and perform a number of other actions.
The primary function that exists universally in all knowledge base software is its ability to let you put articles in one place and allow specific users to view them.
Once you use a knowledge base software to create the KB, the next thing you need to do is put all of your informational content on it.
Use the provided options to upload the files and categorize them into folders for easy access.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when uploading the information to the knowledge base in the form of articles:
Give each of the articles clear and descriptive titles.
When creating the articles on the knowledge base, use the provided options to properly format and style them. This makes the articles easier to read.
Add images and visuals in the articles so that the content is easy to follow.
If available, use interactive elements like decision trees to make the articles more valuable.
After the content is all uploaded, use your KB software’s settings to grant access to your team, while keeping it closed off to the public.
At this juncture, we should mention the various types of knowledge bases, which differ with regard to their access permissions.
Internal knowledge base: An internal knowledge base refers to one that is accessed by members of an organization and is not available to the general public. Access is restricted to specific users.
External knowledge base: On the other hand, an external knowledge base is available to the public and can be accessed by everyone. These types of knowledge bases are used in the form of customer support centers.
When making a knowledge base for your team’s SEO guidance, you need to make sure it is internal.
Once you have created the knowledge base, go ahead and share it with your team. This is usually done using a link. You can share the link with everyone in the central channel of your communication platform.
After the knowledge base is shared, you need to keep it open for feedback. Encourage your team members to tell you how helpful they find it, and if there are any problems that should be fixed.
In many knowledge bases, there is an option to enable comments and ratings on each individual article. The users can leave their thoughts below it.
By tracking and addressing the feedback on the articles, you will be able to adjust the guidelines and improve them for the betterment of your team.
The good thing about saving your SEO strategy using a knowledge base is that you can easily share it with both on-site and remote members in your organization.
Saving the strategy on a physical medium makes it accessible to the on-site members, but not to your remote employees.
With a knowledge base, however, you can simply grant access to your entire organization, and they can access it from wherever they want.
There are many benefits in standardizing and saving your SEO strategy using a knowledge base. You can improve the productivity of your team, make your SEO efforts consistent, and ensure easy access for every member, regardless of whether they work on-site or remotely.