Strategic SEO Planning

Process

1. Discovery

• Business type, target audience, competitors, goals
• Current site assessment (if exists)
• Budget and timeline constraints
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)

2. Competitive Analysis

• Identify top 5 competitors
• Analyze their content strategy, schema usage, technical setup
• Identify keyword gaps and content opportunities
• Assess their E-E-A-T signals
• Estimate their domain authority

3. Architecture Design

• Load industry template from assets/ directory
• Design URL hierarchy and content pillars
• Plan internal linking strategy
• Sitemap structure with quality gates applied
• Information architecture for user journeys

4. Content Strategy

• Content gaps vs competitors
• Page types and estimated counts
• Blog/resource topics and publishing cadence
• E-E-A-T building plan (author bios, credentials, experience signals)
• Content calendar with priorities

5. Technical Foundation

• Hosting and performance requirements
• Schema markup plan per page type
• Core Web Vitals baseline targets
• AI search readiness requirements
• Mobile-first considerations

6. Implementation Roadmap (4 phases)

Phase 1: Foundation (weeks 1-4)

• Technical setup and infrastructure
• Core pages (home, about, contact, main services)
• Essential schema implementation
• Analytics and tracking setup

Phase 2: Expansion (weeks 5-12)

• Content creation for primary pages
• Blog launch with initial posts
• Internal linking structure
• Local SEO setup (if applicable)

Phase 3: Scale (weeks 13-24)

• Advanced content development
• Link building and outreach
• GEO optimization
• Performance optimization

Phase 4: Authority (months 7-12)

• Thought leadership content
• PR and media mentions
• Advanced schema implementation
• Continuous optimization