There are a few baseline SEO projects done when a new client is first getting started at Digital Reach: site auditing, keyword research and mapping, and the bulk optimization. Even though SEO is ever-changing, these three projects consistently help to build a strong foundation and set any site up for success.
If you’re looking to create your own digital strategy or looking to get a better understanding around the basics of SEO, the bulk optimization is important to know. Let’s walk through it step-by-step.
Why Create a Bulk Optimization?
If you’re looking for quick wins through smaller, easier on-site changes, this can be one of the more promising SEO basics to perform. It can make a difference in how search crawlers have been understanding and indexing your content in turn affecting whether or not your page is fighting for ranks surrounding the most relevant terms.
SEO Metrics A Bulk Optimization Can Impact
If the explanation above is too high-level and you need more to evangelize to your team, then let’s talk numbers.
Keyword Ranks. Ultimately, a main goal will be to move the needle with your keyword standings. Especially if a page you’re optimizing already has some traction, this exercise could be what finally pushes that page into higher ranks.
Organic Traffic. SEO metrics can often have a domino effect. If you impact your search visibility by gaining higher keyword ranks, you’ll usually see an upward trend in your traffic as well.
Behavior. If you’re targeting the most relevant keywords for your site, you may also see a shift in user behavior. If you gain better visibility for your target keywords, you can get more qualified traffic to your site, and those users being your target audience will spend more time getting to know you (domino effect). Refresher: Behavior metrics are session duration, pages per session, and bounce rate.
What is a Bulk Optimization?
A bulk optimization is a strategy done early in the SEO journey. It is meant to be a low-hanging fruit approach to optimizing for your target keywords sitewide. Within a bulk optimization, target keywords that have been determined in the keyword research and mapping phases are utilized within metadata recommendations.
Keyword research and keyword mapping Keyword research is an exploration into industry verbiage to find appropriate target keywords to support on your site. These are evaluated by looking for relevancy in the SERPs and finding keywords with stronger MSV and CTR.
Once you’ve found your keyword targets, you’ll map them to the most appropriate pages on your site where they will then be optimized in the content.
Metadata This refers to important SEO elements that each page has: Title Tag, Meta Description, Headers, and URL Slugs. Metadata is considered to be off-page SEO.
Your title tag and meta description are the first things your consumers will see. It’s important to make this prime real estate count. Tips: Keep your title at or under 60 characters, utilize separators like a colon (:), pipe (|), or hyphen (-) between keyword phrases or your title and brand, and utilize important keywords within the title appropriately.
The headers are your page are an essential SEO element that not only make the content easier to digest by the user, but it’s also how crawlers can better process and index the content you’re providing. Tips: Don’t waste your headers on fluff. Crawlers (and users) are drawn to headers to help better define the content that will follow.
A page’s URL slug is an identifier for the page itself that is processed by search crawlers. Tips: Utilize target keywords in the slug (appropriately), separate keywords with hyphens (-), and don’t create excessive slugs (the longer the slug and more keywords it uses, the faster its effectiveness will plummet).
How Do I Create a Bulk Optimization?
It can be hard to know where to start, especially if you’re new to SEO. Here’s an easy breakdown for you to follow.
What you need. At this stage your keyword research and mapping will need to be completed. You should also have an idea of what pages you’ll be prioritizing in your first bulk optimization. Use Google Analytics if you’re not sure where to start. Within GA you can determine what pages could really use optimizations.
Easy framework. Keep it simple by organizing the page targets, keywords, and recommendations within a spreadsheet. Make sure you start with the page URL and the keywords that are mapped to the page.
Implementation. Implement everything all at once. This is a strategic move to ensure all work done within this project will be crawled and indexed together for a bigger impact.
What to Expect After Implementing a Bulk Optimization
It can take between 4-8 weeks (depending on site size) for crawlers to index site changes. Watch for SEO data shifts by tracking your keyword ranks in a trusted tool and by taking a period over period view in Google Analytics to check for traffic or behavior shifts.
A bulk optimization doesn’t work like magic for everyone. After it’s implemented, spend the time starting to draft higher-level content optimizations that can be put on current or new pages.
SEO is a long-term commitment that takes many moving parts to create long-lasting positive impacts. The bulk optimization should not be viewed as a one-and-done SEO approach but can be a great way to get started on your long but impactful journey of optimizing your site.
Psst: Feeling a little overwhelmed? Reach out to see how we can help.
