When you work focused on content creation and optimization for search engines, you need to create a routine and also a well-structured calendar to follow all the important tasks regarding SEO.

I confess that for some time, this process used to be merely intuitive here at Hotmart until our operation began to grow along with the team and we felt the need to create a clearer and more didactic process to follow.

This routine was set up based on internationally recognized SEO professionals and also of course, with the entire team that keeps this blog updated.

What you will see next is our real routine at the company, but that is completely adaptable to your business. I have made a few comments on each topic that can help you in this adaptation.

Content Creation

Our periodicity: daily

Content is to our blog what oxygen is to our body. That being said, keep in mind that content is a prime factor in an SEO strategy.

And this doesn’t mean that you should produce a lot in terms of volume, but focus on content that is extremely valuable for your readers.

There are those who produce few blog posts, but because they are incredibly epic, they attract a very qualified audience. This is the case of Brian Dean who with only over 40 posts in his blog, manages to educate and retain thousands of readers.

There are also those who produce on a larger scale, as is the case of Hotmart. We currently publish new content daily.

Which of the two strategies is better?

The truth is that I wouldn’t dare to say which one is the best model, because each business has its own peculiarities.

Brian Dean works in a very specific niche, with an equally specific audience. Hotmart has a wide range of subjects that we still need to explore, so we cover a lot of topics.

What I can guarantee is that content is what demands the most time and dedication from any strategy involving SEO.

Establish your frequency from the amount of content with the highest quality you can create.

And regardless of the number, publish regularly.

Content updating

Our periodicity: weekly

We consider this item so important that we have put it into our SEO routine.

Updating content means reviewing older posts that were published over 6 months ago and can be optimized.

Certain aspects that we analyze when choosing which posts will be updated:

• Is this post delivering the best information possible to our readers?
• Is it well positioned in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)?
• Can the reading experience be improved?
• Is there any information that requires updating?
• Is our competitors’ information better than ours is?
• Is the SEO on page ok?

These are some of the questions you can ask yourself when reviewing older content. In addition, you can repost them on social media.

It is very likely that after the update you will notice an increase in hits of those articles and even a jump to the top of the SERP.

Keyword search

Our periodicity: biweekly

Keyword search is among the first steps to start an SEO strategy. However, your relevant terms document should always be updated to continue guiding your next SEO steps.

If you work with a sales team, make sure to consult with them to understand what subjects come up the most during conversations with customers. This is where you’ll obtain different insights from traditional keyword searches.

SEO on page analysis

Our periodicity: biweekly

The on page SEO says a lot about the health of your website and how optimized your content is for users and for Google.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Friendly URLs
• 301 redirects when you need to change URLs
• Interesting title tags
• Meta description on all pages
• Internal linking
• Correction of broken links
• Images with alternate text
• Website responsiveness
• Website loading speed
• Heading tags (h1, h2, h3…)
• Well-allocated keywords and similar terms (LSI keywords)

Fortunately, there are a few tools that already scan the website and detect possible failures in the aforementioned items.

Here at Hotmart we use Moz and SemRush, but the Google Search Console itself, which is free, can map some of these items.

Publishing calendar planning

Our periodicity: monthly

The publishing calendar will guide all content creation, as well as the date on which the post will be published, who is responsible for it, on which social media it will be published and all the most important details regarding that content.

Thus, anyone who accesses our calendar will know exactly what is planned for the entire following month.

Snippet optimization

Our periodicity: weekly

Snippets are heavily responsible for the CTR of a page on Google’s SERP. It consists of title tag, meta description and URL.

The more aligned these three elements are with search term and user intent, the greater the chance of users choosing your page.

That’s why we analyze if our snippets are responding to user questions on the SERP on a weekly basis and whether they are attractive enough.

Comment replies

Our periodicity: weekly

As our blog has large daily volume of visits, we receive many comments in our posts.

We insist on approving and replying to most of them in order to foster our ties with the community that follows us and address any questions.

Our users and visitors have always been our priority and it wouldn’t be any different on our blog. And believe me, replying to comments is one of the reasons people come back to your site!

Link building

Our periodicity: weekly

Quality backlinks are key to efficient SEO. It’s no wonder that links are among Google’s highest-ranking factors.

We keep an eye on the health of our links, to make sure the right people are reaching our channel.

We perform this scan weekly, but at the same time, we are always seeking opportunities to conquer new backlinks that are relevant and have quality.

Website Design/usability

Our periodicity: sporadically

Website design says a lot about the experience that your visitor will have when browsing your pages.

Eventually, we review our pages to see if they are aligned with the goals of our persona.

We use heat maps to understand the visitors’ navigation pattern and we update the placement of banners and buttons that are strategic for our business.

Promotion on social media

Our periodicity: daily

There’s no use in creating fantastic content if it doesn’t reach your user.

Social networks are great channels for dissemination, especially if you have engaged followers.

Nowadays, we use Instagram a lot and the Stories feature has brought us good results.

The interesting thing is to understand in which social networks your audience is and act in a consistent and interesting manner, since there you will be competing with diverse contents.

Competitor analysis

Our periodicity: weekly

Always keep an eye on your competitors. And in this case, we are not necessarily talking about business competitors, but SERP!

As we talk about digital marketing strategies and entrepreneurship on the internet, our competitors are often SEO experts. And so we always follow other strategies so we don’t fall behind, of course!

Once again, I’ll recommend SEMrush, because it’s one of the most complete on the market for a thorough analysis!

Monitoring of metrics

Our periodicity: daily

This is an essential task to measure your efforts and understand how your blog/website is behaving.

This is in fact, the first task of our daily routine: analyze the blog’s performance on the previous day and to check if there was any unexpected behavior (negative or positive).

To do so, we use Google Analytics and also Google Search Console.

The main metrics we analyze are:

• Number of unique daily visitors
• Number of visits
• Number of page views
• Most accessed posts
• New users vs. Recurring users
• Bounce rate
• Length of stay

Since each business has its own particularities, it is up to you to identify other indicators that are relevant to your business. Certainly, an e-commerce will have different metrics from a blog.

Defining your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is one of the first steps to starting any business strategy. This way, you’ll be able to identify if you are evolving with the speed and quality you’d like.

Reports

Our periodicity: monthly

Our reports help us locate other areas of the company in relation to the SEO work we are developing and gives us an interesting comparison of the results we are achieving.

Certain interesting aspects to contemplate in an SEO report are:

• The number of unique users
• Growth compared to the previous month
• Most accessed posts
• New rankings
• Percentage of post conversion vs. clients
• New links generated

If you are an agency and need to report results, focus on indicating which metrics bring real results to your clients, such as traffic and revenue generated.

Persona analysis

Our periodicity: sporadically

If your personas are going to dictate your entire content strategy, always review in order to understand if your strategy remains aligned to the moment of your ideal clients.

For example:

In the early days of Hotmart’s blog, our content was more generic, with broader terms, for an audience that was getting to know new business possibilities. Our goal was to gain visibility and authority.

As we positioned ourselves as specialists and our readers became more experienced in online marketing and business, we began to generate more technical and in-depth content.

Our persona was more mature and demanding about the content it consumed.

This is a natural process, especially if you are educating a market. This can happen to your business and you must pay attention to these developments.

In our case, we ran new surveys and interviews to understand the profiles of people we were dealing with.

We perform these analyses as we feel the need, but I recommend reviewing your persona document every 6 months.

Finally…

Prioritizing your tasks according to your goal is what will guide your periodicity.

I am well aware that for entrepreneurs there is still a huge list of other activities that are equally essential.

While being biased when it comes to SEO, I strongly recommend that you work with strategies to appear in search results.

This effort will be rewarding and will bring financial results in the medium and long term.

If time is scarce, at least try to create relevant content and devote yourself to a link building strategy.

SEO is more about dedication and discipline than intricate techniques to get around Google.