Choosing the right SEO strategy isn’t just about chasing traffic—it’s about aligning your search presence with your business goals, resources, and growth timeline. Too often, businesses jump into SEO with a vague plan and wind up with underwhelming results or mismatched expectations.
The key isn’t to find the “best” SEO strategy. It’s to find the right one for your business, right now. Here’s how to make sure you’re building an approach that actually moves the needle.
Start by defining your goals
What are you actually trying to achieve? More visitors? More qualified leads? Better local visibility? A boost in ecommerce sales?
Your SEO strategy should match your business objective. A local trades business needs a different approach than an online retailer. A B2B software company won’t benefit from the same tactics as a suburban psychology clinic. Knowing what you want to achieve determines what kind of strategy makes sense.
Once you’re clear on the outcome, the right channels, tactics, and timeline become much easier to map out.
Understand the different types of SEO
There’s no single playbook for SEO—it’s a combination of tactics tailored to your goals, website, and audience. Some of the most common strategic categories include:
- Local SEO, which focuses on ranking in location-based searches and managing your Google Business Profile
- National SEO, built around broader keyword competition and long-form, authority-building content
- Ecommerce SEO, which zeroes in on optimising product pages, internal linking, and conversion paths
- Technical SEO, addressing things like page speed, indexing, mobile experience and schema
- Content-led SEO, where value-packed articles, guides, and media assets drive rankings over time.
Match strategy to your current performance
Before deciding on where you want to go, assess where you are now. That means looking at your current organic traffic, what you rank for, what content is working, and what technical issues might be holding you back.
If your site structure is a mess or your pages aren’t indexed properly, investing in high-end content won’t move the dial. Likewise, if you’re already ranking well but struggling to convert, your SEO issue might actually be a messaging or conversion rate optimisation issue. Assess your current position. Look at what’s already working, and what isn’t. A full SEO audit should cover:
Indexing. Are your pages being crawled and indexed correctly?
Rankings. What terms are you visible for, and how do those relate to your goals?
Site performance. Are there technical issues slowing down your site or confusing Google’s crawlers?
Content. Do you have helpful, targeted content that aligns with real search intent?
Tracking. Are you capturing key data in GA4 and Google Search Console?
This is where working with someone who can audit your site objectively adds serious value. If you’d like to know where you stand, book a free audit with us here.
Choose your approach based on resources and timeline
Some SEO strategies take longer to yield results than others. Building authority through content takes time, while fixing technical issues can deliver early wins. Local SEO might show results faster in a low-competition area, while national or ecommerce campaigns can be more of a long game.
You also need to be realistic about what you can manage. Do you have someone in-house to produce content? Can your dev team action technical fixes? Or do you need an external digital marketing agency that can handle everything for you?
There’s no point investing in a strategy you can’t sustain. The best approach is one that balances ambition with what’s actually possible in your current setup.
Know what success looks like
SEO doesn’t work without clear benchmarks. That might mean increased organic traffic, higher rankings for target keywords, more calls from local search, or a lift in ecommerce conversion rate.
Whatever your targets, they need to be tracked from the start. Set up GA4 correctly. Connect Google Search Console. Define your conversion goals. Without data, you won’t know whether your strategy’s working—or what needs adjusting.
The more tightly your SEO metrics are tied to business outcomes, the easier it is to justify continued investment and prioritise the right tasks.
Choose strategy over activity
Publishing content or optimising metadata doesn’t necessarily mean you have a strategy.
A real SEO strategy connects to a business outcome, builds from a clear understanding of your current position, and adjusts over time to maintain momentum. To build one that delivers:
- Start with clear goals
Choose the right mix of tactics
Work within your resource limits
Track clear and defined outcomes
Stay flexible and focused
If your SEO results have plateaued—or if you’re no longer sure what the strategy is—it might be time to reframe how you’re approaching the channel.
Stay flexible as your strategy evolves
Search behaviour changes. Search engines update their algorithms, and new competitors emerge. Your own business might shift focus or launch new offerings. Your SEO strategy has to move with all of that.
If you’re locked into a fixed deliverable list each month with no room to adapt, your strategy isn’t a strategy—it’s a schedule. That’s where things stall.
The right approach is responsive. It shifts with data, with business needs, and with opportunities as they arise. That’s why working with an award-winning SEO agency like SIXGUN matters. Get in touch with us now to discuss your requirements.
