Running a successful SEO campaign is complicated. There are a lot of moving parts and if you are to have the best chance at dominating your competitors, you must get organised. In fact, in many ways, running a successful SEO campaign is not so dissimilar to hosting a dinner party.
Not convinced? Read on and we’ll elaborate further…
1. You’ve got to know your guests
First, you really need to know who you are catering for. You can’t plan a successful dinner party without giving any thought to who you are going to entertain.
Do you have any vegans attending? How about nut allergies? And what kind of entertainment will best resonate with those attending?
Knowing your audience is critical to the success of your dinner party – just as it is with your SEO campaign. Fail to collect the important data and you’ll be cooking with a blindfold on.
- The importance of keyword research, understanding user search intent, and knowing your audience.
2. You’ve got to get the prep work done before cooking
Just as you need to know who you are cooking for, you also need to be clear on what ingredients you need to pull everything off – and indeed that you have the correct equipment and understand what your timings are.
Especially if you are cooking several courses for your guests, timing is going to be critical. What goes in the oven first? Are there any veggies you can dice and refrigerate in advance? Do you have all of the necessary spices to get everything right? Have you got the correct utensils and pans? How about clean plates and cutlery?
There’s so much prep that goes into hosting a dinner party – and the same applies to a successful SEO campaign.
- It is critical that your website is optimised accordingly, both on-page and in the back-end.
3. It helps if you have a reputation as being a good host
And of course, if you want people to accept your invitation to the dinner party, it helps if you come recommended, doesn’t it? If other, relevant and reputable people can vouch for your authenticity?
- Having a strong backlink profile from other reputable and relevant websites is an essentiality.
- It also can’t hurt to have lots of social proof by way of positive reviews.
4. You must live up to expectations – and preferably exceed them
When you send out the invitations, your guests accept, and you discuss everyone’s preferences, it’s important that you live up to expectations.
For example, if one of your vegan guests is expecting a special vegan dish and you simply throw some tomatoes and cucumbers on a plate because you are either unprepared or simply don’t care, it’s going to reflect poorly on you.
Furthermore, will you greet them with cocktails perhaps? Prepare a delicious dessert for after dinner?
You must meet and exceed expectations.
- The quality of the content on your website is critical in SEO. When people search for the focus keywords you are targeting and find their way to your website, if they find a website that is largely unrelated to their needs, they will abandon your website and your rankings will invariably suffer as a result.
5. You should be an attentive host and provide a safe and comfortable experience
If your guests turn up to your home for your dinner party and they have no idea where the guest bathroom is or how to find it, or are otherwise left to their own devices without any guidance or attention from you, they’re going to feel uncomfortable.
Certainly, your guests will expect you to spend some time in the kitchen preparing dinner, but you should also ensure that guests have drinks and that they have everything else they need to enjoy their time in your home.
- Having a quality UX design (user experience) is paramount for ensuring a positive on-page experience – which is an important ranking factor for Google.
Bon Appetit!
As you can see, there’s a fair amount of overlap between hosting a dinner party and running a successful SEO campaign.
Think of your website as your home, and your website visitors as your dinner guests. The key is to ensure that they have as pleasant an evening as possible – attending to every want and need and exceeding expectations. Even more so if you want them to come back again!
Of course, there is so much more to an SEO campaign than that, however, the fundamentals are very much the same.
If you are ready to take your business to the next level and wish to grow your online present, we recommend hiring an online marketing agency to accommodate your needs.
