SEO strategy: how to build lasting growth through Google

SEO comes down to three things: content, technical setup and off-page. An SEO strategy decides the order in which you tackle them, so your time goes first to the work that brings in the most.

What is an SEO strategy?

An SEO strategy is a plan that sets out how your website gets easier to find in a lasting way: which searches you want to win, which pages have to do that, and in what order you tackle it.

Separate actions with no connection, a text on one page and a link to another, work at cross purposes and bring in little. A strategy puts those same actions in an order where they reinforce each other. Don't know the basics yet? Then read what SEO is and how it works first. The rest of this article shows how you decide that order and stick to it.

The three pillars of SEO

Every website that ranks well in Google has three things in order, and usually just a bit better than the competitor in the same search results.

Content: be the best answer

Google wants to deliver the best match for what someone searches. If someone searches for "loodgieter Middelburg" (plumber Middelburg), Google wants to show a page that answers exactly that question. A general homepage or a page about all of Zeeland (a Dutch province) fits that less well than a page about plumbing work in Middelburg.

Content is about relevance: do you answer the searcher's question, and do you do it better than your competitor? That matters when Google decides who comes out on top. Good SEO content gives exactly that answer, even if it fits in a few paragraphs.

Technical setup: getting found

Content only helps if Google can find the page. Technical SEO is about two things: making sure Google adds your pages to its index, and making it as easy as possible for Google to walk through your site (crawling).

You check whether Google can reach all your pages, whether your site loads fast enough, whether everything works on mobile and whether there are errors holding Google back. You can read more in the article on technical SEO.

Off-page: how the web talks about you

Besides what's on your website, Google looks at what the rest of the internet says about you. Links from other websites, mentions in directories and reviews on Google count as signs of trust.

A link from a trade association says more than a whole row of links from unknown websites. Mentions with your name, address and phone number in local directories (citations) help your local findability.

A strategy is choosing what comes first

People who start with SEO often want to do everything at once: write copy, fix technical errors and build links. A task list like that only helps once you know what belongs at the top.

That order starts with an analysis: which of the three pillars is weakest for you?

After that, you weigh two things for each improvement: what does it bring in terms of traffic and findability, and how much work does it take? Anything with a big effect for little work comes first.

Three examples of a weak pillar

A roofer is on page 2 of Google for his most important search term. His website is technically fine, but his page has only three sentences about his services. The problem is in the content. A strong service page with everything a customer wants to know takes little work and brings in a lot: that's where you start.

An online store has extensive product descriptions, but Google indexes only half of the pages. Then the problem is in the technical setup, and as long as half the pages aren't in Google, better copy doesn't help much. You fix that first.

An accounting firm has a good website with relevant content, but not a single link from outside. What's missing there is off-page. Without links or mentions from outside, Google has little reason to see that firm as the authority it wants to be.

It can also go wrong the other way. If your copy doesn't match what people search for, you'll notice little in your traffic from a speed score (PageSpeed) that comes out ten points higher. You're solving the wrong problem.

How do you decide where to start?

Start with an analysis of your current situation, with one question first: which pillar is weakest? You can check each pillar yourself.

Check your technical setup

Google Search Console shows for free whether all your pages are found and whether there are indexing errors. Start there, because if your technical setup isn't right, the rest doesn't help much.

Assess your content

Search for your most important search terms and compare your pages with what's in positions 1 to 3. If those pages give a better or more complete answer than you do, you know where to improve. A free SEO check also points out missing titles, subheadings or meta text quickly.

Analyze your off-page

Look at how many relevant websites link to you, whether you're in the right directories and how that compares with your competitors. Tools like Ahrefs or Semrush show that.

After this analysis you know which pillar needs the most attention. Within it, decide which improvements bring in the most for the least work, and finish those before you start on the next pillar.

This works for AI search engines too

People increasingly search through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. These systems get their answers from websites, and a page that's easy to find and answers the question clearly has a better chance of being named as a source.

The same three pillars apply: relevant content, a site that's technically findable, and confirmation from outside. So you don't need a separate AI strategy. Also read why SEO doesn't become less important with the rise of AI.

Measuring results

Four numbers tell you whether your strategy works.

• Rankings: For which search terms are you higher than last month?
• Organic traffic: How many visitors come through Google? Is that rising in a lasting way?
• Conversions: How many visitors become customers? Traffic without customers points to the wrong search terms.
• Return: What does SEO bring in compared with what it costs? Set the investment against customers won and revenue. If traffic from Google grows while your investment stays the same, your cost per new customer goes down.

Don't expect results within a month. You usually see the first effects after three to six months, and clear growth after six to twelve months. A page that ranks well keeps bringing in visitors afterward without you paying per click.

You adjust an SEO strategy every month

It's tempting to see a strategy as a project with an end date: make a plan, carry it out, done. But Google and your competitors don't stand still, and over time your customers start searching differently. A plan you make once and then leave lying around goes stale on its own.

SEO works best as a loop that keeps going around. Every round you know more about what works on your site.

That monthly round is exactly what my own Vizibly System does. The system measures what visitors and Google do on your site, I choose which pillar goes first that month, and the improvements go straight onto your site. You follow it in your own dashboard.

I don't sell link packages or a promise that you'll rank at the top within three months. What you do get is a fixed way of working for your SEO: measure, improve and show what it did, every month.