Donna FontenotThe surest way to successfully construct a building is to follow a blueprint. A blueprint contains detailed plans and designs that enables skilled personnel to build the structure just from the blueprint. In the same way, a detailed set of plans is the surest way to build a successful search marketing campaign. And just like construction blueprints, while each SEO blueprint may be unique, each will also contain similar details to ensure success. What details should a search marketing blueprint contain?

Defined Goals
The first step in any plan is to know what the goal is. A search marketing campaign may be broad or narrow. It may encompass an entire web site consisting of thousands of potential keyword phrases, or it may focus upon just one subsection of a site. Whatever the focus, it should be clear from the beginning what the desired goals will be. Be specific when defining the goals. Determine the scope of the project. What is the core topic that is being addressed? What content is already established within this core topic? What content should be added to address missing subtopics? How does this area of the site compare to the competition’s coverage?

Keyword and Competitive Research
Once the goals have been defined, the blueprint needs to focus on details. Proper keyword research is vital at this stage. Understanding which phrases are the most likely to bring traffic is a good first step, but care should be taken to realistically address the competitiveness of each phrase. If it is not feasible to rank well for a highly competitive phrase when your business is a fledgling company that is pitted against long-established companies, you may need to work on ranking for the lower-hanging fruit for now. Identifying which phrases are less competitive, but still likely to bring significant qualified traffic is key to this part of the SEO blueprint. Analyzing the competition will also aid in determining which details to include here. With a bit of practice, you’ll find the phrases that the competition failed to address properly, and you can beat them with a detailed, focused plan.

Content Outline
Many times, a site may already have a significant amount of content that addresses the core topic. If so, that content should still be picked apart and evaluated. A fresh eye can often see what the original publishers could not. Content can be tightened, refocused, and expanded upon to create an outstanding resource for the subject matter. No matter how much content already exists, a new outline should be considered. Is there enough information? Is the information arranged logically? Do page titles and section headings represent the key concepts that are being targetted? For every question a user might have about the topic, is there content to answer the question? Does the topic include multimedia whenever multimedia would be useful? Are illustrations and diagrams included when possible? Have podcasts, video, and screencasts been considered as compelling content? Does the copy satisfy both the user’s needs as well as the marketing goals? The content outline should be the ultimate plan for each page of the topic section.

Evaluate and Address Technical Issues
The blueprint should include any technical issues that need to be addressed, such as server problems, coding issues that may hamper search engine bots from spidering content, and any other technical issues that need to be solved to ensure that nothing is preventing the search engines from indexing the site properly.

Offsite Marketing
Finally, the blueprint needs to outline the various ways that the site will be promoted, publicized, socialized, and marketed so that others will link to the site, talk about the site, and recommend the site. Because a large part of any SEO campaign is obtaining backlinks, this part of the blueprint should be carefully considered. Keeping the site’s content fresh, and providing users with that fresh content via such services as blog posts and RSS feeds should be considered. Participating in social networks and joining in the conversation about the topic is yet another way to have a measure of influence over the buzz and popularity of the site. Although you don’t have full control over the links others place on their own sites or the buzz they may generate, you can have an influence by being involved in related social networks and actively promoting the site. If your blueprint contains a detailed outline of each of those offsite avenues you intend to pursue, you have a good chance of being successful with this important part of your search marketing campaign.

Take Action
The final step is to have your team follow the plan, while making sure everyone is nimble enough to adjust it along the way as new information, situations, or problems are presented. While each search marketing blueprint will differ in the details, the basic outlines will all look very similar. Get the core elements right, remember to fill in the details that are specific to each situation, and you stand a very good chance of building a successful search marketing campaign.