How To Set the Right SEO Goals for Your Business In 2022?
Introduction
There is no denying the fact that when it comes to SEO, there is a lot that is beyond our control. This makes even the most experienced marketers and agencies proclaim- ‘we cannot guarantee or promise results!’
But if we cannot have a plan of action or direction about what we want to do, should we even do SEO in the first place? Results are an expectation, and they should be addressed and answered to the best of our abilities.
Setting goals for your SEO plans, strategies, and campaigns is very important. In very simple words, SEO goals are objectives that your strategies will seek to accomplish over a defined period of time.
Every step of the way or goal should be directed towards increasing organic performance in the form of metrics, traffic, sales, and revenues for the business.
How to Set SEO Goals for your Business in 2022
If you are someone that is setting an SEO goal of increasing traffic, then you have begun on the wrong foot.
According to leading SEO experts at Digitrio, these goals need to be SMART or Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based.
So, let us give goal setting a try based on a SMART approach. In place of saying that the SEO goal would be to increase traffic, say the following-
‘Accomplish Top 5 Ranking Positions for 10 Related Keywords in the Next 6 Months.’
As you can see, this goal is specific, can be measured with the help of tools, gives you a defined timeframe, and most importantly, achievable, since you have already assessed the Keyword Difficulty and know that with your plan and strategy, six months will be enough to get there.
One more thing- if you achieve this, you will automatically be driving more traffic!
SEO is as much science as it is an art. Since it is all about understanding numbers and data, you can break up everything and force it to help you out in terms of information.
This is an approach that some of the best SEO agencies and professionals take when they pitch for new projects.
Three Different Types of SEO Goals you should be aware of
In this section, we are going to list down three different types of SEO goals that you should be set in 2022-
Process Goals-
First things first, Process Goals are 100% under our control. Taking the example we discussed in the last section, let us say that it will take us 60 backlinks to rank for a specific keyword in the Top 5. So now, you know that you need to break up the 60 backlinks across 6 months.
You need the following- content articles, high-quality guest posting sites, outreach experts, and more. Process goals mean that there are multiple ones that you can set for each area of your strategy.
Performance Goals-
You need to understand Performance Goals as short terms win for your SEO strategy. This means that if you need to build 10 links for each keyword, that means you need 100 backlinks in a month for the client.
Once you do that for the month, you have achieved one of your performance goals. These performance goals help you with tracking results, analyzing success or failure, and offering opportunities for course correction in the event you have gone wrong.
Outcome Goals-
Outcome goals lie right at the top of the pyramid. This is your goalpost as far as SEO strategies are concerned. This is the achievement of the goal that we had mentioned in the last section in the form of an example.
Once you have achieved this, you can show it to your client or CEO and ensure that you now move on to the next set of outcome goals.
Try to ensure that you do not set outcome goals that are more than 6 months in duration, since you need to do a lot more.
The Final Word
Every sound SEO strategy needs to have a goal in place. Without the same, you will not be able to formulate and execute workable SEO strategies that will lead to well-defined and probable results for your brand.
If you have any more questions, you would like us to address on SEO goal setting, please let us know in the comments below. We will request our friends at Digitrio to help you with all your queries.
