How to Create an SEO Strategy: A Beginner's Guide
An SEO strategy is a long-term plan outlining how you'll improve your website's visibility in unpaid search engine results. Traditionally, an SEO strategy has covered the three core aspects of search engine optimization: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.
On-page SEO: Improving the relevance and quality of specific webpages Off-page SEO: Getting other people to talk about your brand and link to your website Technical SEO: Making your website perform better for users and search engines
That said, brands are increasingly focused on creating a generative engine optimization (GEO) strategy to drive visibility in AI answers. And many practitioners are expressing confusion over whether a strategy built around these core methods applies to GEO.
"Good SEO is good GEO," Google's Danny Sullivan stated at an event on August 28, 2025.
Here's how to create an SEO strategy that will also put you in a good position from a GEO perspective.
Step 1. Perform Keyword Research
The first step to creating an SEO strategy is performing keyword research, which means identifying queries you want to show for in organic search results. You're looking for keywords that target audiences use during relevant buying journeys that involve search engines.
Keywords give you insight into users' needs. And using keywords effectively can help you rank higher in search results because they help search engines understand your content's relevance. So, keyword research is crucial to focusing your SEO efforts in the right areas.
How to do basic keyword research: Type relevant terms into Google and see what autocomplete suggestions show up. Look at related searches, People Also Ask, and other search suggestions on the search engine results page (SERP).
How to do advanced keyword research: Use a keyword research tool to find keywords you might have otherwise missed. Tools provide useful keyword metrics to help you prioritize your SEO efforts, including:
- Volume: The average number of monthly searches for a keyword. This gives you an indication of your search result's potential reach.
- Keyword difficulty: How hard it'll be to earn a high ranking for a keyword.
- Intent: The general purpose behind the user's search, which can be informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.
Step 2. Make a Keyword Map
A keyword map is a document matching each target keyword with the webpage on your site that has the potential to satisfy search intent (what the user wants). If you don't already have a page that satisfies search intent, you can plan to create one as part of your SEO strategy.
Keyword mapping is helpful because it helps you group together keywords that share intent so you can target your keywords in the right places. You can also group together related pages and turn them into topic clusters (each with a main pillar page and multiple subpages). The idea is to link these pages together when you publish them to help users and search engines understand their relation.
How to determine search intent: Check what websites, pages, formats, topics, and angles perform well on the SERP. For example, if the SERP is dominated by listicles on editorial websites, other types of websites and pages may struggle to compete for that keyword. Do this for all your terms and group them accordingly.
Step 3. Create a Content Plan
A content plan is a document detailing what content you're going to improve or create. Content planning is a vital part of your SEO strategy because search engines prioritize helpful content that satisfies search intent clearly and comprehensively.
Go through the already-published pages listed in your keyword map and consider the following questions:
- Does your content satisfy search intent comprehensively?
- Is your content accurate and up to date?
- Does your page offer anything valuable that competing pages don't?
- Is your content easy to read, well formatted, and well structured?
- Does your page use videos, images, or other elements to support users' understanding?
- Does your page have a descriptive title tag and H1 tag?
- Have you naturally incorporated relevant keywords into your content?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, you have an opportunity to improve your content. You may wish to prioritize projects based on the content's current quality level, the commercial importance of the page, and the potential value of the page.
Step 4. Fix Technical SEO Issues
Fixing technical SEO issues can boost your website's visibility in search engines, so you should identify these issues while building your SEO strategy.
You can check for many technical SEO issues through Google Search Console, a free tool from Google. After setting up the tool, look through these reports:
- Page indexing: Shows which pages aren't included in Google's index and why
- Video indexing: Shows which pages contain a video that Google hasn't indexed
- Sitemaps: Shows XML sitemaps you've submitted to Google
- Core Web Vitals: Shows how your webpages perform for three page experience metrics
- HTTPS: Shows whether you have any non-HTTPS URLs on your website
- Manual actions: Shows whether you have any Google penalties against your website
- Security issues: Shows whether Google has flagged hacked content, malware, or social engineering
Common technical SEO errors to fix:
- Duplicate content: Pages with at least 85% identical content
- Broken internal links: Links between pages on your site that don't work properly
- Robots.txt formatting errors: Errors in the file that instructs search engines on which pages to crawl
- Redirect chains: Where a page redirects to a page that redirects elsewhere
- Invalid structured data: Incorrectly formatted schema markup
Step 5. Plan How to Get Backlinks and Mentions
SEO backlinks (links to your website from other websites) and mentions (references to your brand on other websites) can make your brand appear more prominent, trustworthy, and authoritative to search engines, contributing to higher search visibility.
Tactics to consider:
- Digital PR: Generate and distribute newsworthy content
- Broken link building: Identify broken links pointing to your own or competitors' websites and try to get them replaced
- Guest posting: Write high-quality articles for relevant and reputable websites
- Link baiting: Create high-quality content that naturally attracts links (e.g., original studies)
- Become a source: Respond to media requests for commentary, images, etc.
How to find prospects: Your prospects should be relevant and reputable sites that publish high-quality content. Search Google for relevant terms or use a specialist tool to identify prospects based on your target keywords and competitors.
Step 6. Decide How to Track Your SEO Results
Tracking your SEO results lets you see what's working and what isn't, so you can refine your SEO strategy over time. Start by deciding what metrics you need to track and how you're going to track them.
Sign up for Google Analytics 4: This free website analytics platform lets you review metrics on a site-wide or page-by-page basis. Measure organic search metrics including:
- Sessions: How many visits originate from organic search results
- Average online session engagement: How long the average session lasts
- Conversion events: How many desired events (e.g., purchases) originate from organic search sessions
Track keyword rankings: For insight into SERP position fluctuations, track your keyword rankings. You can see your organic rankings for up to 1,000 top queries chosen by Google in Google Search Console. Alternatively, use a position tracking tool to see your organic rankings, keyword metrics, and whether your website appears in SERP features such as AI Overviews.
Step 7. Start Optimizing for LLMs
Enhance and future-proof your SEO strategy by optimizing for large language models (LLMs). This can help your brand show in AI search responses, like those on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.
Research shows that AI search visitors are 4.4x more valuable than traditional search visitors. And AI search traffic could exceed traditional search traffic by 2028. By acting now, you could generate immediate results and build a strong foundation for an AI-dominant future.
Top tips for LLM optimization:
- Build a unique value proposition (UVP) and communicate it consistently
- Tailor your content to a clearly defined target audience
- Get your brand featured positively on commonly cited websites
- Manage and protect your online reputation
- Encourage customers to leave online reviews
- Make sure your content is accessible to LLM crawlers
- Avoid unclear language and complex sentence structures
Many LLM optimization tactics can assist your SEO performance — and vice versa. So, your efforts can have a doubly positive impact.
Expert Perspectives
Industry experts emphasize that the fundamentals of good SEO have not changed — they have simply expanded.
"Good SEO is good GEO," Google's Danny Sullivan stated, confirming that strong SEO foundations also position brands well for AI-powered search.
Final Thoughts
SEO in 2025 requires a comprehensive approach. A strong SEO strategy increases your chances of earning impressions, attracting traffic, and driving conversions at a relatively low cost. The businesses that succeed will be those that create genuinely helpful content, build authority through quality backlinks and brand presence, and optimize for both traditional and AI-powered search.
Great SEO techniques are also great GEO techniques — especially considering AI tools frequently rely on the web when generating responses. By acting now, you could generate immediate results and build a strong foundation for an AI-dominant future.