2024 SEO Strategy Checklist

As 2024 begins, it's time to rethink your SEO strategy. Rather than a complete overhaul, evaluating what's working and what needs improvement can help you realign your priorities.

This article outlines the key strategic aspects you need to review, from high-level business considerations to the specific data, tools, content, and technology elements that drive results.

Whether you're looking to make small tweaks or larger changes, this checklist will help you set your SEO program up for success over the next 12 months.

Define business priorities for 2024 and beyond

Before evaluating your SEO strategy, you need to understand where your business intends to go in 2024 and beyond. Gain insight into potential strategic moves, new products, markets, audiences, and pivots.

Your business strategy needs to be built into the foundation of your plan, so the more you can understand this and ensure your goals are aligned, the better.

Economic and industry trends: Do you have the correct understanding?

Macro trends may be addressed in broader business strategies. Still, it's good to do your research.

• Thinking bigger than SEO, what’s going on in the industry?
• Are there any major competitors making big moves in 2023?
• Is there an annual report that I can download and read? What do the industry press say?

This is the time of year when all kinds of predictive content comes out, so keep an eye out. Consider how this information will impact the trajectory of his business in 2024, especially search.

Audience Insights: Have there been any changes in the way customers search for or purchase products and services?

How well do you know your audience? And how much does this knowledge influence your search strategy?

Understanding your audience should be the basis of your strategy. When was the last time you mapped your customer's journey?

For example, looking at the intersection where search and social work together can provide great insight into what kind of content users are actually looking for.

Are your viewers still turning to search engines or searching on social for milestones in your journey? Do they want written content, or do they want to see audio and video? Do you have it?

Also, have you considered the right audience yet, or are there new ones you can tap into? Would anything change if you had knowledge about your upcoming business strategy and new product launches?

Competitors: Are you still monitoring the right competitors?

Plan your competitors and make sure you don't miss any new entrants in the market. There may be a Goliath that is not your daily search competitor.

When was the last time you took a closer look at your major search competitors? It's always a good time to reset your strategy.

Look at where their focus is, whether they're doing things you haven't considered, and where the risks are.

Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Considering the big picture and all the research you've done, write down what you think your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) are from an SEO perspective.

This may be something you use just for yourself, but it may also be useful to include in your strategy document if you need to share it with your manager, board, or clients. This shows that you really understand where you are now and what is likely to happen over the next 12 months.

Once you've thought through your business strategy, you can get serious about your SEO strategy, starting with a performance review and review of your processes, tools, and people.

Let's dig deeper: SEO SWOT Analysis: How to Optimize What Matters

Last year's best and worst performances

It's always helpful to look back at last year's performance. Depending on your strategic focus, you may need to include slightly different insights.

Overlay information such as content format to see which content performs best and worst from a search perspective. If you compare this to the content across all your channels, you can start to understand what content is most popular with users and in what format.

Consider this content in conjunction with your goals and ecommerce data. Even though you'll be using your own attribution model that your business has agreed upon, I think it's always useful to see what effect SEO has had on someone's conversions.

If you have a clearly defined customer journey, you will know where your focus has been and you will definitely understand what role SEO is going to play in customer conversion.

It's a great exercise to see how successful this is over the course of the year. This highlights gaps where results are not being achieved or rankings exist but are not driving the desired actions.

Work with your CX and data teams to understand some of these trends. For example, looking at rankings may be too narrowly focused. This alone is not enough to understand whether SEO is actually playing a role in converting customers.

So when looking at 2023 data, think broadly. It's also a great time to think about what you wish you had tracked so you can implement your 2024 strategy.

It's important to evaluate your tools carefully, as overlooking key assets can give your competitors an advantage.

We all build habits, and tools are no different. Use the same reports you always use. But are there other tools you have that you're not seeing benefit from? Do you need more training from your provider?

Or are there new tools that might enhance your capabilities, speed up the process, or improve the way you approach your SEO strategy?

Depending on when your annual budget is updated, it's worth taking some time to consider what's on the market and how best to use your tool budget.

AI: Did you accept?

2023 was the year AI was talked about in almost every article, podcast, and event. Have you tested where AI fits for you and your business? If not, you might want to take the time to do so in 2024.

I believe that AI is a valuable ally for strategy, acting as a data slicer, researcher, and idea generation machine. Although it does not complete tasks such as publishing content or making final decisions, it greatly enhances the process and accelerates delivery.

Reports: Do your reports say what you need to say?

SEO reports serve two purposes.

• Provides detailed insights to help you make daily decisions with your closest colleagues.
• Meet your manager, board, or client reporting requirements.

At the beginning of the new year, it is useful to solicit feedback from recipients to increase the transparency and clarity of your reports.

Teams and Partners: Are you ready for success in 2024?

A colleague, freelancer, or agency can help you, as they have many of the skills you need to bring your SEO strategy to life. We hope that they are also doing some of the things covered in this checklist. Most agency relationships should have a version of this on a quarterly basis.

When developing your strategy for 2024, consider whether you have the right players in the right positions and make sure they understand their roles.

Keywords: Is it still relevant? What am I missing?

Understanding your audience's search behavior is key to a successful SEO strategy. It's not just about optimizing what you think makes sense. You need to make sure it matches the user's intent.

Without this knowledge, the content may be incorrect in line with the user's intent even though the ranking is good, or the content may fail due to failure to lead the user to conversion even though the ranking and content are both good. There is a risk of doing so.

Understanding what your audience is searching for, what they want to find, and what they are trying to do should be a known component of keyword research.

Contents: Are you prioritized according to your plan?

By creating a content plan that prioritizes based on likely impact, you'll be better positioned for success. You'll work closely with CX and data teams to understand how to convert more users through content.

You should also ask yourself:

• Is the format correct?
• How do you want your audience to digest this content?
• Am I serving them in the right way to support conversion?

It's helpful to have a roadmap that clearly outlines the next quarter, as well as a plan for the year as a whole. This is especially useful for team alignment and fostering collaboration.

Technical SEO: How healthy is your website? What are your plans for 2024?

Technical SEO is integral to your SEO strategy and is often influenced by other departments, so it requires a broader business discussion. Having access to and participation in your website's technology roadmap will greatly increase your strategy's chances of success.

Engineering teams quickly forget about SEO. Incorporate yourself into their plans and don't become an afterthought. This makes your job as an SEO less stressful. There's nothing worse than a last-minute curveball: “We're releasing X tomorrow!”

A strategy refresh is the perfect time to take stock of your overall SEO technical health and consider what opportunities stand out as opportunities to address this year.

Benchmark against some key competitors to establish a baseline. It can also be used to advance cases for technical work that may be required by the development team.

Learn more: What to look for in a technical SEO audit

Digital PR: Why will your target publications want to talk about your business in 2024?

When we look at our performance in 2023, it will be clear what went well, what didn't work, and where we missed opportunities.

As you plan for this year, you need to avoid falling into the same pitfalls that have hindered your strategy in the past.

Aligning your digital PR plan with your content strategy is critical, especially if you rely on others to create your content. Ask yourself why your target publication cares and identifies hooks that will stand out in 2024.

Journalists are increasingly running out of time and facing pressure to produce quality content at scale. Success comes from creating the content your audience wants and building the right relationships.

Let's dig deeper: How SEO and Digital PR can maximize brand awareness

Collaboration: What is everyone else doing?

Remember, SEO is most successful when integrated into a broader strategy. While some companies have adopted this naturally, many still operate in siled teams with poor communication.

Advocate for breaking down silos, share your process for resetting strategy, and encourage other teams to undergo similar exercises.

Mimic customer behavior, align priorities, and work around your customer's journey. Magic happens when you stick to a customer-first mentality.

Refine your SEO game plan for 2024

Step into 2024 with confidence by building a strong SEO foundation. A careful assessment of what's working, where the gaps are, changes in the market, and alignment with business goals will set you up for success.

Use the checklist outlined here as a framework to align areas with your business priorities. Strategic clarity and transparency through reporting allows teams to collaborate and continuously optimize throughout the year.