In today’s digital world, investing in SEO is absolutely necessary in order to keep up with the ever-increasing competition. Investing in SEO campaign management is a long-term play that can strengthen your website’s organic SEO and bring in sales and leads for many years to come. This may sound like a no-brainer, but SEO campaign management can also be a money pit if not done correctly.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad SEO Campaign Management

Search engine optimization (SEO) campaign management is the process of planning, executing, and monitoring SEO campaigns. Managing these campaigns involves a lot of coordination and planning to meet the overall goals, which are to drive traffic and improve search engine rankings.

Upon achieving these goals, a website will appear on the top pages of search engines once a user looks for the products and services offered on the page. There are various tools and techniques used in SEO campaign management, making it important to understand clearly how they work to become successful. Here’s a closer look at this essential digital marketing strategy to determine the best practices.

What is an SEO Campaign?

SEO campaigns are designed to improve a website’s visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). They aim to boost the quantity and quality of traffic to websites from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Ultimately, users would find the website after entering keyphrases relevant to its products or services.

Successful SEO campaigns will usually involve a mix of on-page and off-page optimization techniques, such as keyword research and SEO copywriting. SEO campaigns can be complex and time-consuming, so many businesses choose to hire an SEO agency or specialist to manage their campaign for them.

However, with the right knowledge and tools, even a beginner can run an effective SEO campaign by themself. Feeling overwhelmed or confused by SEO is understandable, but don’t worry — we’re here to help. 

How to Begin an SEO Campaign

Now that we know what SEO campaigns are and what they aim to achieve, it’s time to start planning your own. Successful SEO campaigns typically involve four stages:

• Research: Any SEO campaign needs research, which includes keyword research. This strategy is to identify high-value keywords that the SEO campaign will target. Knowing the most relevant keywords related to a website will be the foundation of a campaign’s overall success. Essentially, the person is setting goals and planning an action within attainable deadlines and budgets.
• On-Page Optimization: This next step involves optimizing website content and code to make the site more search engine-friendly. Being friendly to search engines means that Google, Bing, and Yahoo can easily and efficiently crawl each page and interpret the content. In general, this stage involves applying the SEO keywords identified in the previous step to the website.
• Link Building: This stage of an SEO campaign involves actively seeking backlinks from high-quality websites. Backlinks are links in websites that direct to another website. Meanwhile, high-quality websites are authoritative pages involved in a related industry. Getting backlinks from high-quality websites will add more credibility to the SEO campaign and help improve organic search results.
• Reporting and Analysis: Finally, this step involves tracking the progress and results over time to gauge the effectiveness of the SEO campaign. Depending on the measured results, the user can adjust their approaches to increasing their website’s online visibility. This stage exposes which techniques are working according to plan and which ones need improvement.

People can customize SEO campaigns to fit the needs of any website. However, all successful SEO campaigns share one common goal: to improve visibility and organic search traffic for a website. 

SEO Campaign Strategy

An SEO campaign strategy helps keep a person on track when organizing their website’s content to boost their online presence. They will be following this process to maximize their chances of securing organic traffic from search engines. Identifying the correct strategy that works for their campaign essentially leads them to create content that people are truly searching for instead of just what they think the audience needs.

They are also boosting their website’s authority by keeping web content organized through their SEO campaign strategy. Search engine bots can index content better when it is systemized than unorganized. When indexing a website, these bots identify areas that make the website ideal for relevant keywords. Once it recognizes the authority of the website, the search engine bots rank them on top of the SERPs accordingly.

There are a couple of SEO campaign strategies a person can adopt during their planning stage. Selecting the one that suits their needs requires them to consider three factors:

• Overall Goals: This element of identifying the best strategy is the core of any campaign in keeping the person on track. What someone wants to achieve in conducting any SEO campaign is usually in line with wanting to boost their sales, improve customer engagement with their pages, or generate more leads. With that in mind, they must then focus on metrics that reveal whether they are meeting their goals. These measurable targets include analytics that concretely benefit businesses, such as clicks and web traffic. Should a person’s goals seem immeasurable, they must consider refining their targets further. Proceeding with a campaign that doesn’t suggest any progress will be pointless otherwise.
• Target Audience: Anyone running a website must know which market they want to serve. Identifying a target audience involves crafting customer profiles, which requires including basic factors associated with sample customers. Such factors include age, location, buying patterns, and economic background. These factors tend to influence their immediate concerns when purchasing products or supporting services. Thus, understanding these people helps businesses reach them better.
• Concrete Plans: Combining one’s understanding of their overall goals and target markets then calls for the creation of actionable plans to serve the people and achieve success. They must detail the steps they need to meet the objectives they set, which would focus on actions that boost awareness in their target audience and convert them to supporting their business. People must also ensure that their plans are achievable within their range of resources. Upon execution, SEO plans also require regular check-ins to monitor progress and make changes where needed.

Upon considering the above factors, businesses can more confidently proceed with an SEO campaign strategy that serves their needs. Some of these strategies include:

Local SEO Campaigns

Businesses with a local focus on crafting a digital marketing strategy can benefit from a local SEO campaign. Local SEO campaigns are designed to help businesses rank higher in search results for queries related to location. For instance, a restaurant in New York City would want to make sure its website ranks high for searches like “restaurants in NYC” or “best Italian restaurants in NYC.”

These are the kinds of keywords that people in the area are most likely going to enter in Google. Identifying these relevant keywords and focusing on them in a campaign can lead to a meaningful increase in website traffic and inquiries. These achievements will likewise lead to more customers and sales in the company’s immediate service area.

When applying steps at the beginning of an SEO campaign for a local audience, a business must tailor its research and planning according to its location. Consider the following tips in crafting a successful local SEO campaign:

• Localize Keyword Research: The business location must be the center of this type of research. It involves identifying the terms and phrases that potential customers in a particular area are using to find a business.
• Create High-Quality Local Content: The website’s content must be optimized for the identified local keywords. At the same time, it must be easy to navigate for search bots and potential customers alike.
• Focus Citation Building: Backlinks to a website in a local SEO campaign must come from high-quality websites and sources based in the same location. Websites obtaining citations from these websites help improve their authority and boost rankings in local search results.

SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, making it difficult to manage an effective campaign. However, managing a local SEO campaign tends to be an easier approach for many businesses. Unlike other types of SEO campaigns, local SEO campaigns have a clearly defined target audience and market.

These strategies are ideal for local businesses to utilize, especially if they don’t have the time or resources to invest in a more complex SEO strategy. Managing a local campaign well can easily get a local business’s website ranking well in search engines. As such, new customers looking for businesses in their area can easily find new ones to support.

Meanwhile, a successful campaign requires close attention to the behaviors of local audiences and markets. Locals have unique preferences that may match or differ entirely from what is popular in the industry as a whole. 

National SEO Campaigns

SEO campaign management on a national level can be a daunting task. There are numerous factors to consider, from keyword research to on-page optimization. However, what sets these tasks apart from other types of SEO campaigns is the ambition of breaking into the national scene. Plus, the competition can be fierce.

Launching a national SEO campaign targets customers in multiple locations. More locations mean more competitors for any given business, especially if they operate within the same industry. However, campaigning on a national level makes it easier to reach a wider audience. In addition, national SEO campaigns are customizable to target specific keywords and phrases relevant to a business.

For example, real estate companies with properties in multiple states around the country would want to run a national SEO campaign to target people searching for properties in those states. The same is true for a nationwide retailer with brick-and-mortar locations in multiple states. Their SEO campaign would target those areas as a whole.

However, it may also incorporate the tactics of local SEO campaigns when focusing on specific locations. Still, running a national SEO campaign is overall more complex than running a local SEO campaign. These strategies must consider the different search behaviors and preferences of people in different parts of the country. Without a one-size-fits-all approach, more work must be done to maintain a successful national SEO campaign management.

Businesses must plan carefully to adjust their SEO campaign strategy to meet the demands of potential customers in different parts of the country. Here are some tips for achieving such a feat:

• Expand Goals: When defining the goals of an SEO campaign, businesses must think big while considering relevant areas. For instance, they may want to increase traffic or improve search engine ranking. Expanding these goals will require research into historical data relevant to all the areas a business is targeting. This way, they can determine whether their goals are realistic.
• Widen Keyword Research: Understand what terms potential customers on a national level use when searching for specific businesses. National SEO campaign keyword research can involve identifying common high-quality key phrases across multiple locations. At the same time, it must consider the relevant keywords that are unique to a specific location to maximize the reach.
• Optimize Website Accordingly: Knowing the right keywords to target helps a business adjust its website’s content. In a national SEO campaign, optimizing a website must involve utilizing the relevant keywords in titles and meta descriptions while including all the target locations.

After applying these tactics in a national SEO campaign strategy, businesses can rest assured that the investments they made in starting a campaign were successful. They would not have wasted money on irrelevant keywords and they would reach the right audiences ahead of their competitors.

International SEO Campaigns

Further expanding from the previous SEO campaign strategies is an international SEO campaign. This strategy is an initiative that more businesses are looking to launch as the world of SEO continues to evolve. While managing an SEO campaign can be a challenge in itself, managing an international SEO campaign comes with a unique set of challenges that any business must be equipped to handle.

Unlike local and national SEO campaigns, international SEO campaigns require companies to consider several factors that they can easily skip over in the other kinds. In particular, companies face language barriers and cultural differences. Target markets in an international audience have different sensibilities and behaviors when it comes to supporting foreign businesses.

Despite these challenges, successfully launching an international SEO campaign is possible with careful planning and well-timed execution. Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning and launching an international SEO campaign:

• Do Your Research: As with any SEO strategy, the first step is to do research and understand the landscape in each target market. This step would involve knowing what key search engines and platforms the location uses. Popular keywords relevant to a business could also be different in their area, making it integral to identify what they are. User habits and preferences are also critical factors to consider in developing a successful international SEO campaign.
• Develop a Plan: After researching the realities of the targeted international market, a business must identify what key phrases they want to rank for and apply that to their content. Deciding what kind of content requires intense planning because there could be lucrative platforms that potential customers use but are not as well-known in the United States. Businesses must also plan how to promote that content before launching the campaign.
• Focus on Quality: When it comes to SEO, quality is always better than quantity. Accordingly, a business’ international SEO campaign must reflect that. Promoting low-quality content will only hurt the campaign in the long run as customers will not want to engage with it. Creating well-written and researched content relevant to the target market is essential for a successful SEO campaign.
• Highlight Partnerships and Customers: In international SEO campaigns, one of the most effective ways to show potential customers that a business is credible is by highlighting well-known partners and customers. If a business has worked with or been featured on popular platforms in the target market, it would be beneficial to showcase that on their website. This act helps build trust with potential customers who may search for the business’s offers.

Considering the size and scale of target markets in an international SEO campaign, businesses must remember that SEO in itself takes time to show results. They must not expect to see an immediate boost in traffic after implementing SEO changes on their website. In addition, SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort. Maintaining and improving their site’s ranking on Google demands that they keep up with the latest SEO best practices.

Furthermore, SEO is just one part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Having SEO-rich content on a website is no longer enough as it needs other channels to be truly successful. For instance, promoting through videos is especially effective, considering the statistic that 84% of people have been convinced to purchase a product after watching that brand’s video promotion.

No matter the scope of the SEO campaign, companies must remember that the same basic principles apply. Only in an international campaign does it require further insight into the behaviors unique to those areas.

Ecommerce SEO Campaigns

An eCommerce SEO campaign is a digital marketing strategy employed to rank higher in search engine results pages for queries related to products that a company sells. For instance, if an online bookstore wants to rank higher in SERPs, they would want their website to appear when people search for “books” or “buy books online.”

While that explanation applies to SEO as a whole, eCommerce SEO is not as simple as SEO for other types of businesses. It requires a more comprehensive understanding of how search engines work to be successful. This strategy also utilizes specialized approaches that incorporate business strategies, such as positive reviews from customers.

Another specialized approach involved in eCommerce SEO campaigns is the focus on optimizing product pages for rankings and conversions. Compared to other types of SEO campaign strategies, they focus on optimizing websites as a whole for rankings. Simply put, this strategy is strictly more business-oriented.

Of course, other strategies are customizable to accommodate business goals. Likewise, the basics of any SEO campaign management apply. A few things that are essential for an eCommerce SEO campaign include:

• Commercial Keyword Research: Researching the right keywords that make sense for an eCommerce approach is just as essential as any initiative to know the right keywords to target. Companies that wish to rank well in SERPs must ensure that the keywords they target are relevant to the products and target audience.
• On-Page Optimization: This factor includes optimizing product page titles, metatags, product descriptions, and images. These elements are those that a business can control. So, they must optimize them for product pages to rank well in SERPs and eCommerce platforms that allow users to find specific products.
• Off-Page Optimization: This factor involves the elements of a website that the company may not have complete control over, such as building backlinks. Link building is just as important in eCommerce SEO campaigns as they are in any strategy. References from high-quality business partners can boost a website’s authority, especially if they operate within the same or similar industries. In addition to links, eCommerce businesses can focus on other tactics like social media mentions and online reviews from customers.

SEO campaign management for eCommerce can be a complex and time-consuming task, but it is essential for driving web traffic and sales. Well-planned and executed eCommerce SEO campaigns must ensure that the company’s website is relevant and informative, helping to convert visitors into customers.

In this strategy, businesses can tailor their SEO campaigns to specific eCommerce platforms, such as Shopify or Magneto. They can also target them in specific countries or regions. As such, this strategy can utilize the tactics from other SEO campaign strategies mentioned earlier.

One unique factor that eCommerce SEO campaigns can utilize apart from other types of strategies is visual aesthetics. While aesthetics are important for any website, they can take on new significance for an eCommerce site. For instance, a fashion company would surely need to pay close attention to how it presents its new collection online.

SEO Campaign Costs

SEO campaigns are costly to develop and managing them is equally expensive. SEO campaign management is tricky and time-consuming, requiring experts to research the right keywords, track competitor rankings, and constantly monitor website SEO health. All these tasks take effort and expertise to ensure success, justifying the expensiveness of the overall SEO management job.

Regardless of the costs involved, the ROI of a successful SEO campaign can be significant, making it an essential part of any marketing strategy. Balancing the potential benefits with the necessary investment is important when considering SEO campaign management costs. If this strategy ends up improving a website’s organic search ranking and drives more traffic to it in the long run, then efforts would not have been wasted.

SEO Campaign Mistakes 

Making mistakes in an SEO campaign can be very costly and can jeopardize the success of the entire strategy. As such, it is important to avoid making common mistakes when planning and executing an SEO campaign.

Understanding the basics of SEO is the main strategy against making SEO campaign mistakes. Most mistakes that a business can make when it comes to SEO campaigns are employing an SEO agency that makes convincing promises to improve operations.

Of course, such events are not entirely the company’s fault. SEO scams exist to take advantage of naïve entrepreneurs and managers, unfortunately. So, knowing what kinds of tactics these predators employ is critical. Avoid SEO campaign management mistakes by watching out for:

• Guaranteed Top Google Ranking: Google algorithms constantly change, making it impossible to guarantee the #1 spot on the search engine. Stay away from any SEO marketing firm claiming to have the power to bring websites to the top of the SERPs.
• Mass Link Buying and Selling: SEO scammers still believe that more links equate to higher rankings despite Google’s updated algorithms. Google now considers the quality of the links included in websites to determine whether it is suited for high SERP rankings. Avoid SEO agencies that offer services that can allegedly increase the number of links on a website.
• Private Blog Network Supporters: Most PBNs only exist to promote poor-quality data and content, which may have been scraped or plagiarized. These kinds of content aim to boost authority without Google noticing. However, Google maintains its stance on promoting good-quality websites. Be sure to pay to consider the quality of content that SEO agencies offer.
• Dead-End Doorway Pages: These types of web pages exist to rank high for unique search queries while redirecting users to the website of the agency’s client. While it may seem like a win for any business, this tactic is harmful. Doorway pages overload searches with websites that appear similar, confusing search engine crawlers. Essentially, the client website naturally gets affected in the process, lowering its ranking in the long run. Watch out for agencies offering more doors, claiming to give businesses more access.
• Profile Password Hoarders: These detrimental scams involve keeping passwords associated with the final marketing strategies, including the domain host, website design, and even social media accounts. Any business person would expect to get control over these assets after spending a significant amount on an SEO campaign. Ideally, SEO agencies must grant administrative access to their clients after setting up and launching a website. As much as possible, avoid companies that claim they need to maintain ownership of any URL or data.
• Hiding Content Within Pages: Scammers use this tactic to trick search engine crawlers into believing that websites contain more text and links than what users can see. They simply insert the relevant keywords anywhere without considering the strategic ways to incorporate them into the website. Essentially, they forego the main goal of helping target audiences find the answer to their problems and become greedy with reaching the top SERPs. However, Google is keen on this tactic now, leaving victims of such tactics at a complete loss.
• Surprise Site Redirection: This sneaky tactic brings users who click on a website to another location. Likewise, search engine crawlers would associate the client’s site with whatever content exists on the source page before redirecting. Scammers sell this tactic of creating fake partnerships by convincing businesses that it boosts authority by connecting their websites with good ones. However, even users who get redirected to those sites would not trust a website they did not intend to visit in the first place.
• Shadow Domains and Phantom Pages: Once again, scammers developed a tactic to deceive search engine crawlers into believing that a website has more quality than it truly offers. These domains and pages do not appear on a user’s end. So, anyone who would search for relevant keywords that those hidden pages contain but discover that there is nothing would leave short-handed.

As it appears, SEO campaign management mistakes only happen because of SEO crooks, not so much because of a business’s lapses. Staying updated on the different kinds of scams that fake SEO agencies pull is critical to success, as any busy company owner would want to put their complete trust in a reliable SEO campaign expert. Be sure to assess the trustworthiness of an SEO provider before dealing with them to ensure a positive ROI.

SEO Campaigns with Flyrise

Maximizing the effectiveness of any SEO campaign demands a business to work with an experienced and honest SEO agency that specializes in its desired strategy. Whether it is to improve rankings for eCommerce or in local areas, these specialists can effectively manage an SEO campaign to meet established business goals.

Consider discussing your SEO goals with our specialists at Flyrise. Our dedicated SEO team is prepared to help you fulfill the comprehensive and complex demands of managing an SEO campaign. We aim to ensure you remain confident in pursuing your goals while resting assured that your efforts will make significant returns. Get in touch with our experts today to begin your successful SEO campaign management!