Whether you call your SEO efforts a strategy, campaign, or channel, many SEO programs start strong but slowly drift. That could be in the form of reports getting routine, dashboards taking over for thinking, and moving into a mode of “doing SEO” versus challenging and building it.
In many cases, there’s an initial audit, roadmap, and then turn to implementation. Those are all good things, and I strongly advocate for the right level of strategy, research, and planning before moving into any level of ongoing work. However, monthly reports or dashboards, and little reflection can lead to stale tactics.
When activity, tactics, and implementation are the biggest part of what is reported on and/or measured, I question if enough strategic thinking and approach exist.
A strategic review and approach included a structured, periodic checkpoint within the process to assess performance. That includes a mixture of team (and resource/partner/vendor) alignment, execution, and continued connection to overall business goals that SEO is mapped out to impact.
Similar to a retrospective or ending a sprint in agile methodology, it is time for a look backwards at what worked, what didn’t, and where we need to go next in the overall SEO investment. This is different than just a set of reports and metrics; it is time for true reflection and recalibration beyond just measurement.
Why Strategy Is Often Missing
There are some common reasons SEO teams and resources skip strategic review and don’t have the layer fully in place. At times, SEO can seem like an ongoing checklist of things to audit, crawl, fix, and optimize. It can also feel like something that is always on or never-ending.
While all of those things are true to some degree, I think with SEO being a longer-term discipline before seeing return on investment (ROI), there’s pressure to show activity as progress before seeing tangible results, and this can be hard to change after habits and patterns form are embedded in the process.
Agency and client relationships can become rooted in deliverables and lose strategic direction over time. Or, a lack of ownership can exist where no one person or entity truly feels accountable for stepping back and considering if the strategy is still right and delivering.
Risks Of Skipping Strategy
When teams lack or drift from strategy, they run the risk of optimizing for the wrong things. Whether that is the topics, content, context, or even chasing the wrong key performance indicators (KPIs). Going for traffic and things that show activity and progress alone, and are disconnected from the bottom line, lead to danger when they can’t convert at some point.
Additionally, silos can exist, and insights can stay within the silos. When SEO is reduced to activities, tactics, and just actions, learnings from content, dev, brand, product development, customer service, leadership, and other functions aren’t shared with SEO, and vice versa.
Plus, in a world where new…
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