Stalled rankings? Organic traffic in a nosedive? Ready to boost your SEO momentum?
Maintaining a strong SEO presence for the long run can be tricky for small business owners in Melbourne. So we’re here to help ensure your SEO strategy continues to bring in traffic, sales and ROI beyond the first quarter of implementation.
SEO momentum is won month by month. It’s a strategy that can certainly offer quick wins, but really, SEO has a long runway and requires a disciplined monthly game plan to see lasting results.
It’s common for a simple SEO strategy to start bringing in more traffic and sales in the first few weeks. However, many businesses make the mistake of assuming that the work stops there.
Instead, it’s important to understand that SEO is all about maintenance and needs work to be done each and every month.
In this guide, we’ll help you:
- Create an SEO Melbourne monthly game plan
- Maintain rankings, revenue and ROI from your SEO strategy long term
- Change your mindset about how to achieve lasting SEO results
Note: This is a leader-level playbook, not a beginner’s guide. We’re here to help Melbourne business owners continue to build on your SEO results, month after month. If that sounds like you, let’s get started.
Why SEO in Melbourne Requires a Monthly Game Plan
Before we dive in, let’s explore why SEO in Melbourne requires a monthly game plan in the first place.
First, Melbourne has a competitive search landscape. For local Melbourne businesses, it can be difficult to stand out on SERPs when every other shop, store and restaurant is vying for space on Google.
This is why SEO in Melbourne is so important and why lasting results will help you not only land top rankings, but stay there. Ensuring you’re working with a long-term SEO strategy means that you’ll have bigger opportunities for more traffic, more sales and more ROI.
Next, Google is not static. Search engine algorithms are changing constantly to help their users find what they’re searching for more efficiently. Plus, with the advent of AI features, SEO strategies need to adjust in an ever-changing landscape.
Algorithm volatility affects everything from keyword competitiveness, local SERPs, schema strategies and more. So, with a “set and forget” approach, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities.
Finally, monthly execution is key when you want to keep your rankings, revenue and ROI climbing. Sure, a one-off SEO project for a short-term campaign can offer a boost in results, but if you want continuous growth for your business, a monthly plan is essential.
So, if you’re noticing your SEO results falling off a cliff when it’s put on the back burner, see what happens when you start following this monthly game plan.
SEO Melbourne Monthly Game Plan Framework
Our SEO Melbourne monthly game plan framework operates on a 30-day cadence. We’ll go through how to boost your SEO results month after month without overwhelm by breaking things down into weekly chunks.
Each week of every month, you’ll go through the game plan to ensure your SEO strategy is ticking along.
If you follow this game plan with discipline and consistency, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done every week of every month to ensure your SEO results remain strong and you keep the momentum going.
To be clear, this isn’t about doing the same thing over and over. It’s about creating structure surrounding your SEO strategy and implementing the best possible approaches each month in a structured way.
Week 1:
Technical SEO and Data Foundations
Technical SEO is often the unsung hero of any SEO strategy. It’s easy to put off these simple (and sometimes opaque) approaches. However, checking on your tech SEO and data foundations ensures you’re maintaining SEO growth and organic results each and every month.
Technical Health Checks That Move Rankings
In the first week of each month, you’ll start with the following technical health checks:
- Crawlability and indexation
- Core Web Vitals
- Site architecture
- Duplicate content and cannibalisation
Crawlability and indexation
Many Melbourne business owners make the mistake of checking their website’s crawlability and page indexation once (usually when they start working with a new SEO agency) and leaving it at that.
Instead, it’s important that crawlability and indexation are checked consistently. If there’s an issue in this area, it can typically be resolved easily, saving your business time and money.
Core Web Vitals
Similarly, a monthly check-in on your Core Web Vitals can help you catch technical issues that are often easy to resolve. A simple check can ensure you stay on top of quick wins that keep your SEO momentum going strong.
Site architecture
It’s also important to review your site architecture. As we’ll see, a solid SEO strategy requires content updates every month. Without checking in, your site’s structure can get out of hand.
Remember, Google and other search engines are just bots crawling your website, and an organised site architecture goes a long way towards helping these bots understand your website. So make sure it’s always up to scratch.
Duplicate content and cannibalisation
Finally, you’ll do a quick check for duplicate content and keyword cannibalisation. Especially as your business grows and your website expands, culling any content that’s competing for the same rankings is key.
For any given keyword, review the content that’s performing the best and test out removing any content that’s competing with your own pages.
Analytics, Tracking and Baselines
At the start of each month, you’ll also want to re-establish your baselines for analytics and tracking, including:
- GA4
- Google Search Console
- Conversion tracking
GA4
Start each month with your new GA4 baselines. From page traffic and user demographics, you can’t measure your results if you don’t have baselines to work from.
You might try using a slightly different set of metrics each month to ensure you’re not missing any valuable data that could inform your SEO strategy.
Google Search Console
If you’ve been working on SEO for a while, you probably have some saved Google Search Console data that you always refer to.
This is a wonderful approach, but again, be sure to check on more than just your pillar pages to ensure no stone is left unturned.
Conversion tracking
Last but certainly not least is conversion tracking. Taking the time each month to review and reset your baselines for conversion ensures you’re focused on generating revenue vs spending too much time chasing vanity metrics.
Week 2:
Intent-Led Content for a Holistic Approach
As the old saying goes, content is king. And so far, not much has changed in that regard. A solid SEO content strategy needs constant content maintenance to keep rankings, revenue and ROI climbing.
Mapping Search Intent to Revenue
Search intent is a key component of a strong SEO content strategy that many Melbourne businesses miss. Each month, start by reviewing the search intent of all your major keywords. Then, ensure your content aligns with that intent.
If you notice any content is struggling, notice whether the search intent is clear. As part of your game plan, make it a priority to maintain a clear mapping of which content is purely informational and which is commercial or transactional.
Content That Compounds Rankings
It’s ok to adjust your SEO content strategy every month or two. In fact, you should always be adjusting based on what’s working (and what’s not). Every month, your game plan is to focus on content that compounds rankings by:
- Updating existing assets
- Building topical authority
- Creating conversion-focused content
Updating existing assets
A strong SEO strategy isn’t always about new content, and many Melbourne businesses often neglect their existing assets.
Improve low performers and make high performers better by refreshing your existing content. While creating new content is great, updating what’s already there is an effective way to spend time each month on your SEO in Melbourne.
Building topical authority
These days, Google requires a holistic approach where you build your authority on topics you’re an expert in through strong content. This goes for your blog content, Google Business Profile and everything in between.
Entity SEO is all about showing Google that you’re a holistic entity that should be seen as an authority in your given field. Every month, ensure you continue to build on that topical authority with your content strategy.
Creating conversion-focused content
Lastly, when it comes to creating new content, make sure it’s conversion-first. At the end of the day, you’re implementing SEO to sell your products and services to more customers through Google.
If you’re busy creating content that doesn’t serve the ultimate goal of conversion, it’s missing the point. Build content clusters that hit various, related keywords with different intent to cover all your bases. Guide your customers through your website in a way that ultimately leads to conversion. Each month, create as much of this kind of conversion-focused content as you can.
Week 3:
Authority, Links and Maintaining a Competitive Advantage
Next, every month you’ll work on your authority building. This is where you’ll spend some time working on your backlink strategy to give your website a true competitive advantage.
Google’s algorithm understands which websites are an authority in any given field. Once your technical SEO and content strategy are up to scratch, it’s this authority that truly wins when it comes to SEO.
So, every month it’s important that your game plan has at least some focus on trust signals, brand mentions and quality backlinks.
Monthly Link-Building Activities
Each month, it’ll be part of your SEO game plan to focus on:
- Digital PR
- Partnerships
- Local citations
- Content-led links
Digital PR
Digital PR campaigns are key to helping your business get out there in the digital media landscape (which is a good thing even outside of your SEO strategy).
However, digital PR also helps Google see that your brand is mentioned elsewhere on the internet, therefore proving you’re a true authority.
Brand mentions on their own certainly make a difference, but every month, you should work on getting links to your website in digital media publications to show a strong trust signal for your website.
Partnerships
Each month, you’ll also want to work on your partnerships with other brands. When your partners link to your website (and vice versa), these backlinks all contribute to the strength of your SEO presence.
Spend some time every month nurturing your existing partnerships and putting feelers out for new opportunities. Ensure your partners have your link on their website and reach out if any links are missing.
Local citations
While local citations aren’t always the strongest trust signal to build your authority on Google, they’re still easy wins that shouldn’t be left on the table.
A quick directory audit each month is all it takes to make sure you’re taking advantage of local citations. Every little bit helps.
Content-led links
As part of your monthly game plan, it’s also a good idea to work on content-led links.
Generally, any kind of bespoke report or data you can share on your website can do well for earning backlinks. You might also ensure your content has infographics and other shareable media that are more likely to earn links.
Content-led strategies also work well in tandem with your digital PR strategy as journalists love shareable data and media, so this should be part of your SEO focus every single month.
Week 4:
Local SEO, CRO and Refining Your SEO Strategy
In the final week of every month, it’s time to focus on your local SEO strategy, conversion rate and any other refinement that can take your results to the next level.
Local SEO for Melbourne Businesses
Every month, ensure your local SEO is on point, including:
- Google Business Profile optimisation
- Customer reviews
- Location pages
Google Business Profile optimisation
An easy thing to “set and forget” is your Google Business Profile, which is a big mistake we see from countless Melbourne business owners. Every month, have a look at your GBP to ensure your hours, links and information is up to date.
Customer reviews
Then, spend some time going through the reviews you received that month and be sure to respond to each and every one. You might even take some time to ask customers for reviews, as such a simple request can make a huge difference.
Local pages
As part of your content strategy, consider optimising your website pages for the local Melbourne area. Especially if you’re a service-based business, you should have separate pages for every suburb you serve with strong internal linking throughout your site to boost your local SEO in Melbourne.
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CRO Tweaks to Lift ROI
Revenue should always be the focus when refining your SEO strategy, and spending some time each month on these CRO tweaks can lift your ROI for the long term:
- CTAs
- Lead quality optimisation
CTAs
As you create new content and refresh existing content each month, ensure you’re focusing on your CTAs. Every piece of content needs at least one strong CTA, and every CTA should be clear, specific and actionable.
Especially if you’re implementing eCommerce SEO, missing CTAs can be a huge issue in maintaining rankings, revenue and ROI.
Lead quality optimisation
You’ll also want to check in on the quality of leads coming through your SEO strategy. If you get heaps of traffic from certain keywords or content but those leads aren’t converting, consider updating that content or performing A/B tests to uncover any gaps that might be preventing conversion.
Common SEO Mistakes That Kill Momentum
Before you get cracking on your new SEO Melbourne monthly game plan, watch out for these common SEO mistakes.
Kick Off Your SEO Melbourne Monthly Game Plan Today
SEO isn’t a “set and forget it” strategy. It requires monthly check-ins and constant adaptation. Using this 30-day cadence and weekly health checks for all the important parts of your SEO strategy, you can maintain results and keep up the momentum.
Remember, SEO is an engine for growth, but only if that engine is serviced regularly. With a solid game plan to keep you on track, motivated and disciplined, you won’t miss an opportunity for more SEO wins.
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