How to Define Relevant SEO SMART Goals?

Intro

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The SEO tactics we know today were first conceptualized in the mid-1990s by Digital Engagement author Jefferson Starship after he was frustrated by his website’s low ranking. Ever since then, SEO has been evolving, and each year there is a new playbook to play by. But is there a foolproof SEO strategy to adapt that doesn’t require constant change?

To be honest, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, but you can adapt to these relevant SEO SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals. Find out more about the SMART goals approach for SEO in this in-depth guide.

What is a SMART Goal?

The acronym, SMART, stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic (Relevant), and Timely. The framework is a perfect method of setting achievable and measurable goals through KPIs.

Employing the SMART strategy to achieve SEO goals improves productivity and efficiency, especially with a product company. Here are some questions to consider when creating any SMART-centered goal:

• What specifically do you want to measure?
• Which parameters are there to gauge the KPI?
• Can you make actionable impacts on the KPI?
• Is the KPI relevant and consistent with your company’s objectives?
• How long will it take to demonstrate your effort’s impact on the KPI?
• Having answers to all these questions will help you develop one definitive statement that rounds up your SMART goal.

Applying the SMART Goals Approach to SEO

It's common to find heads of marketing departments setting vague SEO goals with unclear instructions like "get more traffic and conversions, use AI tools for generating keywords” This approach disregards what needs to be done and the viable route to achieving the said goal.

To solve this challenge, apply SMART goals. For example, imagine we have a more explicit SEO goal like, “Increase organic share of voice by 10% in 6 months.

Now, let’s analyze this SMART goal.

Specific

To prove that a specific SEO strategy enhances the business' goals and objectives, attach a particular KPI to each SEO goal and ensure that the same aligns with the overarching business goal.

In this case, you want to guide customers through the sales journey as seamlessly as possible and ultimately get them to the bottom of the conversion funnel. But if you want more users on the conversion channel, your SEO strategy and effort will take a different route.

“Many businesses make the mistake of marketing to everyone when they should focus on people who are interested in what the company has to offer.”
– Sam Molony, Head of Content & SEO at Community Phone

So, how do you set a specific SEO goal? Here are some questions to keep in mind:

• Do you want to achieve a more significant market share in the coming year?
• Do you want to differentiate yourself from a close competitor?
• Do you want to optimize the cost per acquisition?
• Do you want to stimulate online sales?
• Are you targeting new customers in another geographic segment?
• Do you want to improve the click-through rate?
• Do you want to achieve a higher ranking for targeted keywords?
• Do you want to boost organic traffic?

Simply put, this stage entails understanding the business goals of your company. For instance, how much increase in traffic and share of voice do you want this quarter or year?

Note that your SEO goal will only be specified once you attach a number to it, as we did in our SMART goal.

The goal states the specific 10% increase in the share of voice we want to achieve. Let’s see if this is measurable.

Measurable

After highlighting your core goals, you’ll want a method that helps you figure out whether you’re close to nailing them. Identify measurable metrics to track progress and ensure accountability toward the primary goal.

“Measuring SEO goals isn't just about numbers, it's about understanding how your website is performing and how your target audience is interacting with it. By setting SMART goals and measuring the right metrics, you can make data-driven decisions that lead to sustained growth and increased visibility in search."
– Helga Moreno, Marketing Manager at andcards

Measuring the right metrics with a relevant SEO platform like RankTracker will show your progress with your SEO strategy and areas of improvement.

That is why our SMART example is measurable on desktop and mobile. You can see your website’s performance by monitoring the following competitors SEO KPIs:

• Impressions: check the visible metrics to measure the frequency at which your website appears in search results. The KPI is relevant for businesses that want to leapfrog as many potential buyers as possible through intense content marketing. Publishing informative, research-backed, and relevant content will position your site as an authoritative source in search engines.
• Clicks: This traffic metric gauges the number of times users click your website from a search results page. You might want to pay more attention to this KPI if your objective is to drive as many people as possible to your website.
• Organic Traffic: another website traffic metric that evaluates the number of people visiting your website after discovering it in the search engine result page (SERP). This KPI is crucial if your goal is to optimize your website for a better organic reach. Use Google Search Console to track organic growth in Google, and use SEMrush to see how other sites perceive your business. If there’s growth in SEMrush, new opportunities for collaboration will soon be open to you.
• Organic Leads: a conversion and revenue metric for monitoring the number of prospective buyers who discover your business website via organic search results. It’s an important KPI if your goal is to drive new customers to your website and acquire more conversions.
• Organic Revenue: a conversion and revenue metric that depicts the true ROI of SEO by measuring the revenue generated by organic search conversions. Pay attention to this KPI to gauge SEO's most significant possible impact on your business’ growth.

Actionable

Now that we have established our goal as specific and measurable let’s see if it is actionable. This means examining the feasibility of achieving the goals with the current resources and technical know-how.

From our example, our company’s goal of increasing the site’s share of voice by 10% in 6 months is not far-fetched, especially since the company website is not seasonal.

We can target an increase in winning featured snippets - concise pieces of information that appear at the top of specific search results for a query.

Since these snippets appear before the first result in summarized bits, they are a straightforward way to score more SERP visibility and clicks.

So because a little on-page tweak can do the trick, we will deploy the Rank Tracker to find keywords with featured snippets we don’t rank for and select 30 pages that can increase our chances of securing the snippet. Then we will edit their queries to be more direct, in-depth, and snippet-worthy.

Relevant

Besides being actionable, the SEO goal should be relevant and challenging. They should impact your business's SEO ranking, inspire your team, and of course, increase your visibility.

“Setting a relevant SEO goal is about setting a goal that, once accomplished, will have a positive effect on your business and on your further SEO. A good and relevant SEO campaign brings more money to the business and acts as a springboard for the next SEO campaign. Relevant SEO is compounding SEO.”
– Nikola Roza, Founder nikolaroza.com

So, is our goal relevant?

Yes, it is because increasing our share of voice by 10% demonstrates the site’s organic search visibility compared to competitors.

We can achieve this by following these tips;

• Basing our objectives on historical performance
• Benchmarking against the competition
• Getting aggressive in exploring uncharted waters or less-traveled paths in SEO. Note that this does not include robocall spam.

Time-Bound

Lastly, for your SEO goal to scale through, you should create a timeline for it. For starters, you want to define whether it's a long-term or short-term goal, then set an end date by which you wish to realize the goal.

Our example was a short-term goal of increasing revenue in 6 months. These deadlines discourage complacency and ensure accountability.

By defining clear, measurable SEO goals with specific timeframes, we cultivate a sense of direction that fuels ongoing progress. Our approach involves defining annual SEO objectives and breaking them down into quarterly milestones, ensuring steady progress and moving our endeavors forward confidently throughout the year. - Lala Ina Enriquez,Content Manager at Be.Live

You can also split your plan into achievable milestones (sprints) and set a deadline for each. You can then target an approximately 2% monthly share of voice increase. At this pace, you would have achieved or even exceeded your target by the sixth month.

This will help you monitor your progress and identify and correct shortcomings immediately.

In any case, remember to celebrate every milestone.

Over to You

Setting up a viable SEO goal may be more complex, but the trick lies in getting it right from the word start. With a resolved ambition and some deliberate planning using the SMART approach, you can create specific SEO goals that are measurable, attainable, and feasible from all angles. Doing so as early as now will save you a ton of time and frustration in the future.