A ready-made website structure based on the identified demand

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What happened to traditional SEO promotion?
SEO is back in trend: those who have been burying the “outdated” method of promotion for the last ten years and relying on various types of targets are forced to return to their roots.


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Agencies are seeing an increase in requests for SEO services - see the request trend.



After the departure of foreign companies, movement uruguay consumer email list began in Russian production. Manufacturers of furniture, decor, clothing, home and garden goods began to expand their activities. For promotion and sales, they need search positions, new sites and landings.

Significant advertising budgets and market space have been freed up, but demand has shrunk. Inflation is rising, and consumer purchasing power is falling. The task of survival and cost optimization has become a priority.

It is difficult to say which of these two counter trends will grow. Everything depends on the situation in geopolitics and economics, and the chosen niche also has an impact.



Who needs SEO promotion in 2022
SEO can be safely recommended to companies whose business is sustainable in the current realities, namely:

demand for the company's products remained;
the company does not directly depend on foreign supplies and services;
the company can replace foreign analogues that have become unavailable in Russia;
many clients came from Google advertising;
The company did not resort to SEO only because direct advertising paid off faster.


Marketing approach to SEO allows not only to multiply organic traffic, but also to increase conversion from the channel up to 30%. How SEO promotion will help your business: you can ask for advice on the Completo website .


Advantages and Features of SEO in the Age of Change
Let's highlight several characteristic properties of SEO that acquire additional value during periods of turbulence.

Low cost of traffic and leads.
SEO was and remains a relatively free way of promotion. Small businesses can get traffic by paying money only for a domain and hosting. If an entrepreneur plans to work with optimization independently, it will take time to learn basic optimization using a tool built into a website management system or constructor.

The average business can no longer do without hiring an optimizer, but the relatively low price of traffic implies or is directly included in the specialist's KPI. Now, when businesses are cutting costs, the price of traffic is not the least important.

Long-term effect.
Optimization work has been stopped, but the target traffic and site visibility in search results continue to grow. This is due to the inertia of search engines. There is nothing like this in paid channels, where advertising disappears from the target audience's field of view immediately after payment stops.

During changes, it is critical to predict the stability of demand. For example, the surge in interest in sugar in March 2022 quickly died down. The screenshot shows the dynamics of the query "buy sugar" in Yandex.Wordstat.


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The screenshot shows the dynamics of the query “buy sugar” in Yandex.Wordstat.



But the increased demand for spare parts for foreign cars is clearly a long-term trend.


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See the dynamics of the query "buy foreign car parts".



Despite inertia, search engines in highly competitive niches can change their results quite quickly. The site e-katalog.ru, which was in the top 10 search results along with Ozon, Wildberries, M.Video, closed on March 3, 2022 and dropped to the hundredth positions in a couple of weeks. The place of e-katalog in the segment of large household appliances was taken by Holodilnik.ru, Technopark, SberMegaMarket.

Inertia will continue to occur, but it is better not to abandon SEO. Stopping promotion today may result in a loss of positions in search results in the future.



SEO is about competition, not about setting records.
In SEO, you "just" need to get ahead of your competitors. If your competitors in a niche are weak, it's easy to get around them. This is often the case in local search, where restaurants, beauty salons, medical clinics, and auto repair shops compete for local customers.

SEO does not require super efforts with one caveat - unless we are talking about highly competitive niches. As a rule, victory comes with necessary and sufficient efforts.



Payment for SEO services is increasingly tied to KPIs.
That is, to the result, not to the volume of work. The cost of SEO does not depend on the exchange rate and is fixed in the contract.



SEO is a safe investment.
Even if top positions are not achieved, SEO is likely to bring progress. Pages will rise in search results and will be able to bypass their closest competitors.

The website is the property of the company, which is protected from the risks of blocking. This is a controlled and calm area. In times of crisis, entrepreneurs tend to direct the budget to work with proven tools that provide a clear and measurable result.



SEO is the only way to get traffic from Google.
The disappearance of advertising from Google search results has led to an increase in CTR and traffic, since clicks are now distributed exclusively between organic sites and so-called sorcerers - special blocks in search results.

Sorcerers answer the query directly in the search results, saving the user from having to search for information via links. It is possible to get into some Google sorcerers with quality content by making micro-markup.



Wide coverage of requests.
Professional demand analysis allows you to identify tens and hundreds of thousands of requests and promote pages for each of them. In PPC (pay-per-click advertising), it is impossible to process such a volume of demand.

Most pages of the semantic core are always tailored for low-frequency queries. And this has its advantages: firstly, in total they can provide a significant share of traffic. Secondly, a site gets to the top more easily and quickly for low-frequency queries.

When they say that the effect of SEO should be expected at least 3-4 months, they mean mid-frequency queries (MF). For LF queries (low-frequency), a resource can be in the top 10 search results in a month. This is enough time for Yandex and Google to index and rank pages. Sites that were properly created or optimized in early March 2022 are already receiving small but targeted traffic in April.



Get the most detailed instructions on website optimization! We will send you a useful SEO manual in the telegram channel .


Where will the advertising from SEO promotion go?
Like many marketers, we are impressed by the dynamics with which Yandex and VK are capturing the empty PPC and SMM markets, how Telegram, VK Video, Yandex.Zen, Pulse Mail, marketplaces, Avito, and new networks like TenChat are developing.

The redistribution of advertising market shares will take several months, and businesses are faced with the task of squeezing the maximum out of digital during this time. No matter how events develop, people will not stop needing goods and services and will look for them on the Internet. Therefore, SEO will take and already takes an important place in new marketing mixes.

To miss the present moment is to steal your own business realization.

Moreover, SEO itself is changing. Now it is more correct to talk about search engine marketing and develop an SEO strategy for a business.



Myths around SEO promotion + instructions for working with a client
Myths surrounding SEO often concern future clients. If you work in marketing or have your own department in your company, you have probably heard about them:

SEO is only needed by agencies: the client does not understand what is being done at this or that stage and why;
We are wasting time: the client does not want to wait 6-12 months even in niches where SEO objectively cannot give quick results;
Budget down the drain: the client is tired of sitting on the needle of monthly payments;
For local businesses, SEO sometimes becomes unprofitable: local demand does not cover the costs of search engine promotion, even when the client's site occupies the top results for important queries.
SEO for SEO's sake has long been outdated. This is the main difference between classic promotion and search engine marketing. The approach when specialists launch promotion without thinking about its effectiveness for business is outdated.

Hence the question: how to dispel myths and offer SEO promotion to clients in the new reality?

First , restructure your approach to business. Show the company how certain optimization efforts will affect not only traffic, but also measurable business results:

lead price;
CTR;
turnover;
profit;
market share;
ROI;
LTV;
and others depending on business goals.


Secondly , analyze the site content and make improvements.

Search engines partially help with this. First Google, then Yandex, when ranking pages, began to take into account the authority, reliability, authenticity of the content, the author's expertise, as well as the integrity of the business as a whole.

They also indirectly assess the quality of the business behind the sites. Changes in the company's activities - product range, service, communication with clients - can affect the visibility of its site in search results.

For example, poor service at an offline location generates negative reviews on Yandex.Maps, which results in the site's visibility in searches deteriorating.

High positions in search results are no longer just a consequence of good optimization, but a demonstration of the health of the business. A page in the top? Most likely, it is a trustworthy business.



Third , build an SEO strategy in search engine marketing.

We will tell you how to do this correctly below.



SEO Strategy in Search Engine Marketing: What is it?
Physically, an SEO strategy is a document, a Gantt chart (a work schedule with reference to deadlines), which describes a step-by-step plan of action for website development and KPIs at each stage. The planning horizon is from a year or more.

In action, SEO strategy is the process of analyzing, formulating, and implementing a company's goals through search engine marketing.

Work on SEO strategy includes:

analysis of target audience and demand;
formation or correction of the website structure;
analysis of top search results and competitors;
selection of types and formation of page structure;
website audits and optimization;
formation of a link profile;
work with vertical search (local search, marketplaces, catalogs);
search engine reputation management (SERM);
formation of KPIs;
analytics.


In practice, most clients order strategy from agencies because:

expertise is concentrated in agencies - they work in different niches and look at the client’s business in the context of the market;
agencies constantly monitor ranking algorithm updates and SEO trends;
small and medium-sized businesses do not always have trained specialists;
developing a strategy is the work of a whole team of experts;
It is more profitable to delegate a complex task to outsourcing.


Once the SEO strategy is ready, the only thing left to do is implement it. The following options are possible here:

the company is implementing the strategy on its own - it is worth following a detailed guide and checking the KPI at each stage;
do some of the work yourself, and outsource some to contractors;
Entrust all work on implementing the SEO strategy to the development agency.


What is needed to build an SEO strategy?
In addition to the team of specialists and the planned deadline, you need to understand what tools will be needed to create a strategy from scratch.

In our opinion, the main ones in search engine marketing can be:

Target audience
Semantic core and site structure
Competitive analysis (page type and structure)
Technical optimization
Vertical Search
SERM
Branded traffic
Link building
KPI stages
We decided to talk about each instrument in detail.



Target Audience in Search Engine Marketing
We pay the closest attention to the brand's target audience. In classic SEO, the target audience is a fairly impersonal mass. All that is expected from it is to go to the site and click on the Call To Action buttons.

When developing an SEO strategy, we study the target audience in much greater detail. Compare:

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
We take into account socio-demographic factors: age, gender, occupation, income level.
We analyze the available information about the target audience: CRM data, social media profiles, data about customers from the sales department.
Castdev: we conduct interviews with clients, learn about their experience interacting with the product.
We monitor customer behavior using analytics systems and webvisor.
Personal experience: put yourself in the client’s shoes and go through his path to purchase.
Questionnaire: we give the client the opportunity to test the product and receive detailed feedback.
Participants in decision making: we look at who initiates the purchase, who influences it, who makes the decision.
Geo: in which region the product is most often purchased, where the product is best represented, what are the limitations for scaling the business.
We formulate the product's USP.


Having the data in hand, we close all identified objections, problems, and needs of target visitors on the site.



Semantic core and site structure
Collection and clustering of the semantic core is the basis of SEO, and this work has not changed. When developing a strategy, we turn to a larger number of semantic sources and analyze the collected array of words and phrases more deeply.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
We form the semantic core: we collect, clean, cluster.
We form the semantic core: we collect, clean, and cluster using special tools.
We take into account queries from Yandex.Metrica and GA, search suggestions, voice search, site search logs, chats in social networks and messengers, and niche slang.
We analyze the semantics of close competitors.
We form a list of LSI words.
We segment demand into brand, informational, commercial (by style, manufacturer, season, geo).
We determine the intents of site visitors.


The main questions when collecting the core are: does the site meet the demand of the target audience, do we hit the intent of consumers?

It is better to transfer the semantic core to the client in the form of a mind map - a ready-made site structure. Experience shows that the semantic core in the form of tables is not clear to clients, and it is difficult to agree on the core in this form.

When you work with an old site, we recommend changing the structure to suit current demand. You will have to change the URL system and resort to redirects - redirect users from one link to another. But without the right structure, it is difficult to achieve top results.

It is easier to interact with a new business or startup - you can immediately create a structure close to the ideal. However, there is no demand for the new product yet, so the problem will be solved by using SMM, media advertising and content marketing.



Want to improve your SMM metrics? Don't know the current platforms and are working according to the old content plan? We will individually analyze your case and help you adapt your marketing.


Competitive Analysis: Page Type, Page Structure
Classic SEO mainly involves text analysis of competitors' websites. When preparing an SEO strategy, it is better to focus on the composition and structure of competing pages. Usability, commercial and behavioral ranking factors depend on this, which Google and especially Yandex attach great weight to.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
We analyze competitors' texts: what keys, key density, Title, Description, H1-H3, Alt, text volume, uniqueness.
We analyze competitors' texts. We write our own no worse.
We check snippets. We edit the text to achieve clickable Title and Description (if they have been replaced by search engines).
We analyze the structure of competing pages: we record the presence and location of different content formats (lists, tables, graphics, videos), comment blocks, FAQs, similar pages blocks, payment methods, delivery information, guarantees, links to social networks, EAT factors, etc. We add missing blocks to the client's website. We perform on-page optimization.
We find the reasons for failures. We eliminate them.
We record the types of competing pages: category page, product card, information page.


If you do a proper competitive analysis, it will be easier for the client to explain the relationship between a group of queries and a particular type of page - this is what competitors do, and we need to get around them.

Competitive analysis allows you to save significant resources. For example, if competitors in the top have non-unique product descriptions in the cards, then the company will not have to spend money and time on uniqueness.



Technical Optimization in Search Engine Marketing
Technical optimization is perhaps the only area of ​​work that has not undergone significant changes with the mutation of SEO into search engine marketing.

You could say that technical optimization (plus collection of semantic core and SEO copywriting) is classic SEO.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
We analyze the site for technical errors: we eliminate duplicate pages, indexing errors, set up redirects, check the site map, server response codes, broken links, set up friendly URLs, check page loading speed, etc.
We analyze the site for technical errors, including adaptation of the site for mobile and the correctness of micro-markup.


When you send a list of technical errors after an audit, it is of no value to the business. The business needs an action plan. Therefore, create a checklist of edits and indicate the importance of each item for positions and conversion.



What action plan does a traffic specialist need now? What about advertising and what promotion options are there? Read the article in the Completo blog!


Vertical Search
For many high-frequency queries, the top results are occupied by aggregators, marketplaces, and large online stores. It is almost impossible for small and medium businesses to compete with them for high positions.

However, there are opportunities for growth: narrow specialization and promotion in vertical search. The idea is to get traffic on other people's sites. Small businesses should not try to compete with aggregators. They should register with them, rank, and get search traffic.

It is not necessary to direct traffic to your website. A company profile on a marketplace, in otzovik, Yandex.Business allows you to trade and accept orders directly on the site.

Let's list the main types of search verticals.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
Classic SEO principles apply to vertical search, but they don't take into account the specifics of each vertical. The exception is good old image search.
Image search: simplify graphics, strive to use original photos, write Alt.
Organic search on marketplaces, bulletin boards, and thematic aggregators: we define keys, write titles, descriptions, product characteristics, paying special attention to photographs, and answer questions and reviews.
Local search and search on maps and navigators: we completely fill out the company card in Yandex.Business, Google Company Profile, 2GIS, upload photos, add company news, answer questions and reviews.
Catalogs: we optimize the card according to the classics, we drive traffic to the site.
Otzoviki: create a profile, respond to reviews. Otzoviki rarely provide links to company websites, but interested clients find the official website by company name, address, phone number.
Search engine sorcerers: we prepare high-quality content for the sorcerer format, make micro-markup - we get a chance to get to the zero position in the top.
Search on video platforms: define keys, write titles and descriptions of videos, add hashtags, make a clickable video cover.

Searching in verticals is often a direct path to sales. A business may not have its own website and operate on marketplaces or through a card in Yandex.Business.


SERM in Search Engine Marketing
Search engine reputation management (SERM) is a relatively new area of ​​internet marketing. Old-school SEOs are not always ready to deal with SERM.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
Dash. Classic SEO does not deal with brand reputation management in search.
We check the results for all variations of brand queries. We create a table to record the tone of mentions on significant sites. We highlight problematic links "search engine - site - geo".
We work with reviews: we thank you for positive ones, we respond to constructive negative ones, and we ensure that fake negative ones are removed.
We generate positive reviews using white hat methods: we request a review after a purchase, and launch automatic collection of reviews via messenger.
We push out negativity from the top 10 search results using managed content islands. We create and maintain at least 10-12 content islands (cards in Yandex.Business, Google Company Profile, 2GIS, social media profiles, YouTube channel, Yandex.Zen, etc.) in an up-to-date state.
We pay attention to content marketing: we publish expert materials and cases on our own blog and/or on external platforms.


Reputation management is included in the SEO strategy by default, since the sales of that part of the buyers who came to you from the search directly depend on the trust in the company.



Branded Traffic in Search Engine Marketing
Queries like “brand name”, “brand name + reviews”, “brand name + product” are very valuable.

Firstly, a person is looking for not just a product, but a product of a certain company. Secondly, there is no competition for branded queries. A brand can easily occupy the top 10 results due to its websites, blog, representations on social networks, video platforms and other controlled content islands.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
Dash. Strengthening a brand is not included in the tasks of classic SEO.
We write an SEO strategy so that, along with business goals, it popularizes and elevates the brand of a company or product.
We increase brand recognition and consolidate the status of an expert in the market.
We determine the place of SEO strategy in the overall work on brand promotion (media advertising, PR, SMM, influencer marketing, etc.)


When encountering a brand in the information field, the audience understands that the business has not disappeared from the radar, has not sunk into oblivion, and remains in touch with people even in difficult times.

In the current reality, it is logical not to reduce, but to increase the number of channels of communication between the brand and consumers: revive the community in VK, start a channel in Telegram and VK Video, try Pulse Mail, TenChat.



Link Building in Search Engine Marketing
Link building is the creation of conditions for third-party resources to place links to your site.

Links still work, but the art of link building has changed a lot over the past decade.

Classic SEO Search Engine Marketing / SEO Strategy
Bulk purchase of links, often from dubious donor sites.
We make well-thought-out internal linking.
We analyze the link profiles of competitors.
We get links using white hat methods: we publish expert articles on authoritative sites, we are placed in directories and readers, we pay attention to crowd marketing, outreach, UGC.
We buy links professionally: we carefully select donors, write anchors, and place links rarely but accurately.


Modern link building is a strategy within a strategy. The quality of all aspects prevails over quantity (in classic SEO it was the other way around). We recommend paying close attention to the types of links and the dynamics of placement.

Link profile building activity is gradually shifting towards content marketing. People continue to read media, blogs, newsletters, social networks, watch videos, listen to podcasts.



KPIs of SEO Strategy Stages
Clear KPIs at each stage of work are a distinctive feature and advantage of the SEO strategy. The KPIs are results that are clear to the client:

Portrait of the target user.

After completed audits - checklists of edits with indication of priority.
Page types for each group of queries.
Prototypes of pages with a ready-made structure.
Number of new pages created (per month).
SERM results: number of processed reviews, created or updated cards in catalogs and aggregators, etc.
Measurable business KPIs: conversion cost, search engine optimization profitability.
Even before work begins, the client sees what results are achievable and understands the value of SEO for their business.

Traffic and conversion can be easily predicted using special techniques:

We take data from the CRM: conversion to lead, conversion to sale, margin, profit, average check.
We look at current business metrics: traffic, requests, CPC.
We identify bottlenecks in the sales funnel that will be improved after implementing an SEO strategy.
It is worth remembering that SEO never gives absolute guarantees, since search engine algorithms are involved. They can change quickly and significantly, although the main trend is known - search engines strive to give the most relevant answers to user queries.

An SEO strategy deeply examines the client’s business, market context, target audience, demand, predicts traffic, can manage conversion within certain limits and ultimately reduces risks to minimum values.

SEO may not be profitable, but an SEO strategy is likely not.



Conclusion
Traffic should not be an end in itself. SEO gets to the root and creates conditions for profitability, ROI, LTV and other business goals of companies.

Classic SEO is not designed to achieve these results. It provides intermediate profit in the form of traditional SEO metrics. Therefore, in business, SEO is now transformed into SEO strategy.

The current crisis has only strengthened this trend. No matter how stormy the seas, SEO strategy is that powerful keel that keeps the ship of business from dangerous lists and helps not to stray from the intended route.