Some customers will know your brand name and type it right into their search bar to get to your website. But what about those who don’t? Even if they don’t know your name, they know what they need—and they’re searching for it online. If their searches relate to your business, you want your site to be the one they find.
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website turn up in online search results—particularly on Google, which accounts for roughly 90% of all online searches, but also on other search engines (whether traditional or powered by AI). Anyone with a website can embark on SEO; how far you take it is up to you.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to create and run an effective SEO campaign, step by step, from identifying target keywords to measuring your results.
What is an SEO campaign?
A search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is a plan to improve a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to attract more unpaid or organic traffic, rather than rely on ads. SEO works by helping search algorithms recognize your site through keywords, sitemapping, and linking strategies.
SEO campaigns can help you reach potential customers, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions. An effective SEO campaign typically involves:
- Optimizing on-page content. Start by researching keywords your audience searches for, writing clear and helpful content, using compelling headings, and adding descriptive title tags and meta descriptions. Strong on-page optimization helps search engines understand what your site is about and why it should rank, while also keeping readers engaged.
- Improving technical structure. Technical SEO involves making sure search engines can crawl, understand, and index your site correctly. Compress images, fix broken links, and use tools like Google Search Console to identify crawling or indexing issues.
- Increasing off-page authority. When reputable websites link back to your content, it helps prove your site is valuable, so search engines rank it highly. Create high-quality, shareable content, pursue partnerships for backlinks, and maintain active social media accounts that drive engagement and trust.
Find out how to optimize your Shopify store to increase its search visibility.
Common goals of an SEO campaign
A successful SEO campaign typically sets goals from the outset. Here’s a table breaking down common SEO goals and the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure them:
| Campaign goal | Explanation | Associated KPIs |
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Increase organic site traffic |
You want to boost the number of visitors to your site from search engine results pages (SERPs). You want more organic traffic, which doesn’t involve pay-per-click or pay-per-impression campaigns. |
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Improve search rankings |
You’re aiming to position your various website pages higher in SERPs for specific high-value, target keywords. |
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Generate leads and sales |
You strive to convert your organic traffic into tangible business results, such as form submissions, sign-ups, phone calls, subscriptions, or product purchases. |
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Boost site authority |
You want to elevate your site’s credibility and perceived quality, which influences search engine ranking algorithms as they pair websites with user search intent. |
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Improve site performance |
Make sure your website is fast and secure. These efforts also ensure that web pages are easy for search engine bots to crawl and index. |
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How to create an SEO campaign
- Identify target keywords
- Audit and optimize existing content
- Create new high-quality content
- Build backlinks
- Invest in local SEO if applicable
SEO probably won’t catapult your site to the top of Google Search results overnight, but playing the long game can deliver high search volume over time. Here’s a five-prong SEO strategy to improve your website’s search engine rankings:
1. Identify target keywords
Choosing the right keywords is the foundation of any SEO campaign. Every target keyword helps align your content with the terms and phrases your audience actively searches for.
Use SEO tools such as Google Keyword Planner (a free tool within the Google Ads platform), Ahrefs, or SEMrush to discover keyword ideas based on search volume, competition, and user intent.
Look for a mix of high-volume primary keywords and long-tail keywords that are easier to rank for:
- Primary keywords. Short, broad search terms that get a large number of searches each month (e.g., “running shoes”). They help you reach the biggest audience, but the competition to rank for them is usually very high.
- Long-tail keywords. Longer, more specific phrases (e.g., “best running shoes for flat feet”) that have lower search volume but are easier to rank for and attract highly motivated, targeted shoppers ready to take action.
Analyze your competitors’ websites to identify which keywords they rank for and where their organic traffic comes from. Plug a competitor’s URL into a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and SEMrush’s Organic Research. Look at the keywords they rank for that you don’t—these reveal topics where they’re capturing traffic you’re missing. Then, create multiple pages that leverage those keywords.
“There are so many [SEO] apps, tools, and resources,” remarks Polysleep co-founder and CEO Jeremiah Curvers in a Shopify Masters podcast. “You don’t need to be an expert, especially now with the advent of so many AI tools. It’s very easy to build a keyword list based on competitiveness. Look at what your competitors are doing [and] ensure that your onsite SEO is on point.”
2. Audit and optimize existing content
As you create new content anchored around relevant keywords, you’ll also need to audit the existing content on your site. Make sure your title tags, headings, and meta descriptions are compelling with clear keywords, action-focused language, and a value-driven hook that tells searchers exactly why your page is worth clicking. Include the target keyword (i.e., the main keyword you’re hoping for someone to Google). Focus on clarity and relevance.
Then, sprinkle in personality to stand out in crowded search results. Keep your content readable and engaging—cramming in keywords unnaturally only hurts rankings. Improve internal linking by creating connections between pages on your site. When you group related pages together with links, you create topic clusters. The stronger these connections—and the fewer duplicate or low-value pages—the better search engines understand you’re an authority on that topic.
On the technical front, compress images and improve page speed to enhance user experience. Optimize your pages for mobile users, since Google’s ranking algorithm assesses the mobile version of your website.
Submit an XML sitemap to the Google Search Console. This map lists the pages you want to be publicly searchable so Google can easily find and index them.
Epic Gardening founder Kevin Espiritu built a thriving media business by maintaining high-quality evergreen content.
“We have a staff horticulturist, and then all of our writers are garden writers,” Kevin explains on a Shopify Masters podcast. “All articles pass through what we call a Hort review—our horticulturist checks it for accuracy. Then we’ll also go backward, year-over-year, and look at stuff and say, ‘Do we need to refresh that one?’"
This systematic approach to content audits ensures his site maintains search rankings and user trust over time.
3. Create new high-quality content
Publishing new, relevant, and engaging content—also known as on-page SEO—can help your site rank for more keywords and attract organic visitors. The best content directly and completely answers the user’s query.
For example, if someone searches “how to clean white sneakers,” a strong piece of content might include step-by-step cleaning instructions, recommended products, before-and-after visuals, and tips for preventing future stains.
Incorporate target keywords naturally in titles, headers, and throughout the text. Structure articles with clear formatting, short paragraphs, and subheadings for readability. Link to other pages within your site using internal links to connect relevant, high-authority content, and guide visitors and search engines to the pages you want to rank.
Consistent blogging for SEO can lead to unexpected opportunities. Eighth Generation CEO Colleen Echohawk credits the brand’s blog strategy with major media exposure.
“One of the things we continue to practice quite a bit is blogs—we do a new blog pretty often because we know we’re getting all that SEO content out there,” Colleen shares on a Shopify Masters podcast.
When British Vogue searched for native design artists, Eighth Generation ranked highly enough to be discovered. The result? Its blanket appeared on the cover with actress Lily Gladstone, driving significant international sales growth in London, Germany, Japan, and the UK.
4. Build backlinks
You’ve already linked to other pages within your website. But one of the most effective link-building strategies is backlinking, where you encourage other websites to link to your content. Backlinks are one of Google’s top ranking factors and help establish domain authority. High-quality links from authoritative sources drive referral traffic and build brand credibility across your industry.
If you know other site managers in your industry, reach out and request that they link to pages on your site. You might also ask to appear as a guest blogger on their site. This can be a win-win situation, creating valuable content for them and creating links that bring traffic to your site.
Professional connections aren’t the only way to win backlinks. Create shareable, link-worthy content like research reports, infographics, or expert guides, then promote your best content through email outreach and social media. Some SEO experts leverage broken link building by finding dead links on other sites and suggesting their content as a replacement.
5. Invest in local SEO if applicable
If you serve specific regions or cities, local SEO ensures nearby customers can find you in Google Maps and local search results. Start by creating a Google Business Profile with accurate business information, photos, and customer reviews. Include location-based keywords (e.g., “florist in Chicago”) in your titles, meta tags, and page content.
To boost local search rankings and connect to people searching for local goods and services, build local citations on directories like Yelp, Apple Maps, and industry-specific sites. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews to strengthen trust and improve local rankings. Ensure your NAP (name, address, phone number) is consistent across all listings and your website.
How to measure the success of your SEO campaign
- Monitor keyword rankings
- Review your backlink profile
- Monitor engagement with Google Analytics
- Measure SEO ROI
Creating content, building internal links, and optimizing for mobile SEO is relatively simple—but are you seeing the return on investment (ROI) you expected? Here are four ways digital marketing professionals can assess SEO campaign results.
1. Monitor keyword rankings
Tracking keyword rankings tells you if your optimization efforts are increasing your visibility for target search queries. Use Google Search Console to monitor your site’s actual impressions and search rankings on Google. Use specialized tools like Ahrefs to track the daily or weekly average ranking position for a specific list of valuable keywords.
Focus on overall ranking improvements and featured snippets (direct answers displayed at the top of Google search results). Evaluate which keywords bring the most qualified traffic and adjust your content strategy accordingly. The best SEO tools help you find even more keywords to incorporate into your website’s content.
2. Review your backlink profile
Your backlink profile—the collection of all external links pointing to your website—reveals how authoritative and trustworthy your site appears to search engines. Monitor backlinks and referring domains with tools like Moz, Majestic, or Ahrefs. While high-quality, relevant backlinks from reputable websites can bring more traffic to your site, spammy links from low-quality sites can actually depress your search rankings.
3. Monitor engagement with Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics—a free tool—to track organic sessions and the number of pages viewed per session. Be wary of a high bounce rate—users who leave without interacting—and low average engagement time. These can indicate low-quality traffic from visitors who aren’t really in your target audience. You can then populate your top-ranking pages with compelling calls to action (CTAs) to drive conversions.
4. Measure SEO ROI
In the long run, a successful SEO strategy can be more affordable than paying for search engine or social media ads. However, SEO still requires an upfront investment since keyword research, content creation, and link building need time and money—especially if you’re enlisting digital marketers or paid tools.
To track your SEO ROI, subtract your total SEO costs from your organic revenue. A positive SEO ROI means your website is properly optimized: the revenue generated from organic search exceeds the time and money spent on optimization. Your SEO team may decide this supports increasing future marketing investment in SEO.
Jeremiah urges site owners to play the long game. “Don’t expect short-term returns,” he cautions, “but over a couple of years you’re going to end up drastically improving your odds if you start investing from the get-go in a great content strategy.”
SEO campaign FAQ
What does an SEO campaign look like?
An SEO campaign is a coordinated series of strategies and actions—including keyword research, content creation, technical optimization, and link building—designed to improve your website’s visibility and rankings in search engine results.
How do I measure the success of my SEO campaign?
To see if your SEO efforts are paying off, track keyword rankings, organic traffic, user engagement, backlink growth, and ROI, using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
What is the most used SEO tool?
The leading SEO tools do not offer precise usage data numbers. However, Semrush and Ahrefs are popular paid tools among SEO professionals. Google Search Console and Google Analytics are widely used free tools that can help nearly any SEO campaign.
How do you do an SEO audit?
To do an SEO audit, evaluate your website’s technical health, on-page optimization, and off-page authority to identify factors affecting search performance. Start by checking site speed, mobile-friendliness, indexing, and crawl errors, then review meta tags, keywords, and content quality. Finally, analyze your backlink profile and user engagement metrics to uncover improvement opportunities.
