SEO content strategy

What an SEO content strategy is

An SEO content strategy is a written plan that names the searches your business can win, the page that will answer each one, the order in which those pages get built or fixed, and the three or four numbers that will judge the work at 90 days. It is short: ten to fifteen pages, of which the working part is a two-page table.

It is not the general content strategy plan, which covers every channel and every purpose. This one is narrower and more mechanical: it deals only with pages meant to be found by a search, and it treats email, social and print as places to point at those pages, not as subjects in themselves. It is also not the research itself; it uses the keyword and topic research and turns it into decisions.

Who this is for

A business that has been told it needs "more content for SEO" and has no idea which content, how much, or in what order. A business with a keyword list from a tool or an agency and no way to act on it. Or a business that has published for years and now has 200 pages competing with each other for the same dozen searches.

It is not for a business with no services page and no home page worth landing on. Fix the service pages first; a strategy that sends searchers to a page that cannot sell is wasted. It is also not for a business selling in one town with one service, where a set of local SEO pages is the whole strategy and does not need a document.

What it contains

Six sections, each answering one question, each as short as it can be.

1. Which searches. The list of searches worth winning, taken from the research and cut hard. A typical plan keeps 20 to 40 searches from a research sheet of 100 or more, and says why the rest were dropped.
2. Which pages. One page per search, or one page per small group of searches that want the same answer. Each is marked new, refresh, merge or remove, because most sites already have half the pages they need in poor condition.
3. What each page must contain. For every page, a one-paragraph brief: the question it answers, the answer in one sentence, the details a searcher expects to find, and what is shown on the results page now that the page must match or beat.
4. The order. Buying searches first, comparison searches second, learning searches last, and within each group the ones with the weakest existing competition first. Ordered against the hours or the budget you actually have.
5. How the pages connect. Which page is the pillar for each subject, which pages support it, and which links go where, so the structure is built once rather than patched later.
6. How it is judged. Three or four numbers, chosen now. Inquiries that mention the website is always one. Visits from search to the pages in the plan is another. Rankings are recorded but are not a goal, because a ranking with no inquiry behind it is not worth having.

Appended to it is a dated 90-day schedule: which page is written, refreshed or removed in which week, and by whom.

What you get

The plan. Ten to fifteen pages as an editable document, with the two-page table at the front so the person running it never needs to read past page three on a working day.

The page briefs. One document, one brief per page, 20 to 40 briefs. Each can be handed to any competent writer, including me, and produce the intended page.

The 90-day schedule. One spreadsheet, one row per week, with the page, the action and the owner.

The walkthrough. Sixty minutes on video with whoever will run it. If a brief will not work in your business, it is changed on the call.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A regional flooring supplier has 160 pages: 40 product pages, 15 service pages and 105 blog posts. The research finds 118 searches; the plan keeps 31. Eleven are buying searches such as "engineered hardwood installation Kamloops" and "vinyl plank supplier near me", none of which has a page. Fourteen are comparison searches, "laminate versus vinyl plank for basements" and the like, which nine of the blog posts cover, all of them thinly and four of them twice.

The plan says: write eleven new pages, one per buying search, at one a week; merge the nine comparison posts into five and refresh each with current prices and a comparison table; mark 60 old posts about décor trends for removal; and make the "which flooring for which room" page the pillar, linked from every product page. The 90-day schedule puts the installation pages in weeks one to eleven and the merges in weeks twelve and thirteen. The numbers chosen are quote requests that mention a flooring type and search visits to the eleven new pages.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you sell, where, who buys it, and what you have already been told about your search presence. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope and number agreed before anything starts, including whether research or an audit is needed first.
3. Research and review. Two weeks. Keyword and topic research if not already done, a read of every existing page against the searches, and a look at the competitors' winning pages.
4. The draft. You read it. We talk. Anything that will not work with your team or your budget is changed.
5. The final plan, briefs and schedule. Delivered with the walkthrough call.

Three to five weeks from first call to final plan is typical.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on whether keyword research already exists, how many pages the site has to be reviewed, and how many service lines or regions the plan must cover. A strategy that follows a research project or an audit sits at the lower end, because the reading is already done. The pricing page shows how fixed pricing works here and the published band for the general 90-day plan, which this service resembles in shape.

What happens next

You run the schedule, or your writer runs it with coaching, or I run it as content production management. The briefs are written so that any of the three works. The first pages built are usually the pillar page for the main subject and the landing pages for the buying searches. At 90 days we look at the numbers chosen in section six and adjust.