The best way to begin any SEO plan is to start from the top.

Get your goals straight first. Once you’ve determined your goals, you can break them down step-by-step and determine how to meet subgoals and objectives.

To do so, it’s important to have a methodology in place to map the steps and actions you’ll take to meet your goals.

This method is plain and simple.

The SOSTAC Method

Situation – where are we now?

Objectives – where do we want to be?

Strategy – how do we get there?

Tactics – how exactly do we get there?

Action – what is our plan?

Control – did we get there?

(Credit: PR Smith)

Let’s take Logical SEO, for example.
 

Situation – where are we now?

We’re at the beginning. We’re still building out our primary pages and carving out our place in the SEO community.

Objectives – where do we want to be?

• We want to rank and generate traffic for seo-related keywords to generate leads and bring in new clients.
• We want to rank for queries that include our locality -- Charlottesville...and our state -- Virginia.
• We want our site to be informative and welcoming.
• We want our blogs and secondary pages to rank for long-tail keywords that bring in qualified traffic to our site.
• We want our services to help people.

Strategy – how do we get there?

We will build a navigable website with simple yet informative content.

We will create content targeted at specific Keywords that fit our SEO niche.

We will gain a social media presence.

Tactics – how exactly do we get there?

The website

Our primary pages will be stellar. The images will augment the user experience. The layout will be clear and defined. The writing will be concise, relatable, and appealing to our users.

The keywords

We will brainstorm as many keywords and queries as we can that relate to our services and provide value to our business.

We will use the following 3-step method to answer the important questions.

1. How often is each keyword searched? - We’ll use Google’s Keyword Planner. The more it’s searched, the more people will read our content (given it ranks).
2. Which keywords are too competitive? - Use Google to view the Domain Authority of each website ranking on page 1.
3. Does the targeted query match our potential clients? - Is someone who searches this query interested in our services?
   • If yes - Great.
   • If not - This keyword should be scrapped unless it’s potential to bring traffic is too great to be ignored.

Social media

We will build social media pages to expand our audience.

• Facebook
  • Our page will attract people and companies interested in getting more out of their digital marketing
  • Our posts will engage the user personas we’ve created
• Google+
  • Both Facebook bullet points. (Google+ has a smaller audience -- we may post less).
  • We will encourage clients to post reviews on Google+ because they populate in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn
  • We’ll create these accounts when we're ready. Facebook and Google+ come first for the time being.
     

Action – what is our plan?

To get things done, we’ll create an agenda with action items. Each action item must be labeled -- who, what, and by when.

For us, the “who” is simple. Our staff numbers are greater than 0 and less than 2. For now, the “who” is Toshy Penny (TP).

Action Items

• Finish primary pages on site (1/27 - TP)
  • About page
  • Quote page
• Determine keyword targets
  • Brainstorm/research primary keywords (1/22 - TP)
  • Brainstorm/research long tail keywords (Ongoing)
  • Locality keywords - Charlottesville SEO, Virginia SEO
• Write 1-2 blogs / week (Ongoing - TP)
  • One Simple Method to Maximize Your SEO Strategy (1/19 - TP)
  • TBD based on keyword research and user personas
• Social media presence
  • Get on Facebook (1/22 - TP)
  • Get on Google+ (1/22 - TP)
     

Control – did we get there?

Here, we’ll review our objectives listed above.

When it’s time, we’ll determine which targets we met and which we didn’t. Most importantly, we’ll learn where we can improve.

Every SEO venture is an opportunity to learn and improve. That’s what it’s all about.