Building an SEO strategy is not what you'd expect, especially when it's Tom Cruise doing the building! Learn how to build an effective, measurable and accountable SEO strategy that can be leveraged to justify investment and priorities.

2. The Tom Cruise Guide to SEO Strategy
Mission Possible-Planning & Preparation for SEO Success

3. Grant Simmons
VP
, Performance Marketing

4. The
Tom Cruise
Guide to SEO
Strategy
Mission Possible-Planning
& Preparation for SEO Success

5. Before We Start

7. SEO Strategy
•What is an SEO Strategy?
•How do we build one?
NOTE: I’m not telling you what to do,
rather how to do it!

8. Most SEOs

11. What is an SEO Strategy?

12. A (SMART) SEO Strategy
Is a plan of attack that
focuses tactics that
result in one or more
outcomes that meet or
exceed expectations in
cost, delivery &
reward.

13. A (SMART) SEO Strategy
Is a plan of attack that
focuses tactics that
result in one or more
outcomes that meet or
exceed expectations in
cost, delivery &
reward.

14. A (SMART) SEO Strategy
Is communicated succinctly so it’s
clear what will be done and what
will be the measurable reward.
Simply simple.

15. Tactics are what you do
Strategy is why you do it
Outcomes are the result

18. Outcomes
•Traffic
•Pageviews
•Conversions
•Revenue
•Visibility
•Ego / Our Board

19. “People Counting Platform”
DONE
Bad Strategy: Rank #1 for...
& DUMB

20. Quick Question

21. Quick Question
Agency, In-House or Freelance?

22. Quick Question
Agency, In-House or Freelance?
I am all three

23. Everyone Needs a (SMART) SEO Strategy

24. A SMART SEO Strategy
SMART = marketing strategy acronym
Specific | Measurable | Actionable |
Relevant | Time-bound
• Really good for marketers
• Not so great for SEO
(although can be applied)
• I have a better approach to building an
SEO strategy
•Not SMART... it’s CRAPO

25. Building a (CRAPO) SEO Strategy

26. A CRAPO SEO Strategy

27. Crawl
A CRAPO SEO Strategy

28. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Crawl
•If there’s a site, crawl it.
• Sitebulb – For itemized list
• (Screaming Frog optional)
• Lighthouse
•No site?
• Skip this step 

29. #1. Can I?
Crawl

30. Is the site crawlable?
Crawl

31. #2. Speed
Crawl

32. Is the site fast?
Crawl

33. #3. UX
Crawl

34. Can I Find
the Banana?
Crawl

35. Can I Find
the Banana?
Who you are
What you do
Why I should care
What I should do next?
Crawl

36. Can I Find
the Banana?
Who you are – Logo: OK
What you do – Maybe?
Why I should care – I don’t
What I should do next – No clue
Client Example

37. This is Bigger Than SEO

38. Run

39. A Positive Outcome Must Be Possible

40. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Crawl
Goal is to build an initial list of issues
And help you...
“should you decide
to accept the mission”

41. Research
A CRAPO SEO Strategy

42. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research
•Competition
•History
•Baseline

43. I use ahrefs & SEMRush (not S.E.M. Rush)  & Google

44. Competition

45. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research - Competitor Discovery
• SEMRush: Main Organic Competitors
•‘Client’ competitors
• Ask client and use common sense
•SERP competitors (for top terms)
• ahrefs: competing domains
• ahrefs: competing pages

46. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research – Link Opportunities
• ahrefs: Competitor link graphs
• Basic metrics in overview
• ahrefs: Top pages by Links
• Client & competitors
• SEMRush: Backlink Gap

47. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research – Content Opportunity
• ahrefs: Content Gap
• ahrefs: Best Pages
• (client & competitors)
• SEMRush: Keyword Gap

48. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research – Link Opportunities
•Competitor link graphs
• ahrefs: Best pages by Links
• (client & competitors)
• SEMRush: Backlink Gap

49. Site / Domain History

50. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research - History
If you have access
•Google Search Console
•Analytics (Google / Adobe)
If you don’t have access
•SEMRush
•ahrefs

51. Baseline

52. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research - Baseline
If you have access
•Google Search Console
•Analytics (Google / Adobe)
If you don’t have access
•SEMRush
•ahrefs

53. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Research (leverage crawl + research data)
Goal is to identify competitive opportunities, risks
(what they’ve screwed up or likely to) and potential
limiters of success.
And help you...
“should you decide
to accept the mission”

54. Accept the Mission

55. Accept the Mission
Client Sucks

56. CRAPO Study in Non-Strategy
Found gap in music genres list. (2010)
Suggested they build a list of music genres.

57. CRAPO Study in Non-Strategy
Found gap in music genres list. (2010)
Suggested they build a list of music genres.
they did not

58. CRAPO Study in Non-Strategy
Found gap in music genres list. (2010)
Suggested they build a list of music genres.
they did not
me: okay.

59. CRAPO Study in Non-Strategy
Them (2020) – went bust, rebuilt, now have list.
>

60. CRAPO When-the-Client-Sucks Study
Me (2020) – Went home that night & built a site
>

61. Assess
A CRAPO SEO Strategy

62. Quantify Everything

63. By now, you should have all the pieces:
•A list of issues
•A good idea of opportunities & risks

64. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Assess the list
•Quantify
• Significance of opportunity / Risk
• Time to complete / implement
• Cost to implement
• Potential return
• value of visit, pageview, conversion
• cost of loss of rank to competitor
• $$ value for you,
map to Low, Mid, High for client

65. What is the Potential if EVERYTHING is Done Well?

66. Never Assume Everything Will Be Done Well

67. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Assess
Goal is to build an ROE (return on effort) for each
tactic ready for prioritization.
•Consider
• dependencies
• budget / ability to pay
• feasibility
• resources
• culture / brand

68. Culture
Brand vs SEO

69. Me: I recommend the text in this image to be actual text with
an image icon rather than just an image.
Client: That’s not aligned with our brand

70. Me: Shoot Me Now, Please.

71. Don’t Hang Your Hat on Things That Won’t Get Done

72. Prioritize
A CRAPO SEO Strategy

73. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Prioritize Tactics
•Consideration of:
• Time (from assessment)
• Resources (skills, availability)
• Impact (from assessment)
• CEO / Ego
•Low-Hanging Fruit

74. Low-Hanging Fruit
What can you fix, or get fixed quickly that
can demonstrate a noticeable &
measurable outcome?

75. CRAPO LHF Study: LA Philharmonic
WHILE ON THE PHONE IN OUR FIRST MEETING
Told them to change all title tags:
LA Phil | Name of Page to
Name of Page | LA Phil
20% improvement in number of
ranking keywords & traffic in 3 weeks

76. Low-Hanging Fruit
What can you fix, or get fixed quickly that
can demonstrate a noticeable &
measurable outcome?

77. “High-Hanging Fruit”
•Platform
•Politics
•People

78. How I Feel
When a client says
they’re working with
a headless CMS

79. How I Feel
When a client says
content is owned
by marketing, SEO
by development, &
link building by
their PR team

80. How I Feel
When a client
says they have
an in-house
SEO

81. Me >
In-House SEO >
< Last
Agency

82. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Prioritize
Goal is to build a list of tactics ordered and prioritized.
You’re going to add additional detail in the next step.

83. Outcomes
A CRAPO SEO Strategy

84. Tactics are what you do
Strategy is why you do it
Outcomes are the result

85. You Have Your Baseline. Right?

86. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Outcomes
•Time it will take
•Effort estimates
•Responsibility assigned
•Measurement in place
•Reward anticipated
• Generally % and $$
• or client-prefered

87. “If you do all of this well, this will happen”
A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Outcomes
Goal is to quantify the outcome in aggregate in such
a way as to communicate & justify the investment in
time, money, effort to focus tactics.

88. Quick Question
While We’re Talking About $$

89. Quick Question
While We’re Talking About $$
Which Mission Impossible Movie
Grossed the Most Worldwide?

90. Mission Impossible – Fallout (the last one)
$787,176,729

91. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
Outcomes
•Time it will take
•Effort estimates
•Responsibility assigned
•Measurement in place
•Reward anticipated
• Generally % and $$
• or client-prefered

92. Measurement is Key

93. Also Responsibility / Feedback Loop / Commitment

94. Example of SEO Strategy

95. By implementing the top 12 prioritized items
on this list, we expect traffic to increase by
24% within 4 months of our engagement,
resulting in incremental revenue of $94,000
SEO Strategy Example

96. Example of SEO Strategy
With a little more detail some clients like

97. By improving your site speed, e.g. reducing
time to first byte from 6 secs to 2 secs,
adjusting the SEO elements & copy of your
top 15 pages, and by building 30 new links to
your homepage, we expect traffic to increase
by 24% within 4 months of our engagement,
resulting in incremental revenue of $94,000
SEO Strategy Example

98. A CRAPO SEO Strategy
•Crawl
•Research
•Assess
•Prioritize
•Outcomes

99. Real World SEO Strategy

100. By improving your site speed, e.g. lazy loading
images, adjusting the SEO elements & copy of
your top 25 pages, and building a new xxxxx
site section, we expect traffic to at least double
within 12 months of our engagement, resulting
in incremental revenue of $1.4M
Real World SEO Strategy Example

101. Outcomes?

102. Real World SEO Strategy Example

103. Boom!

104. What Are You Waiting For? Take the Leap!

105. Build Your SEO Strategy the CRAPO Way!

106. THANK YOU
The Tom Cruise Guide to SEO Strategy
Grant Simmons @simmonet