Here's how to approach a client SEO campaign in 2025:
1st fix technical issues – This shouldn't be huge consideration unless huge obvious problems. I ensure site is crawlable, fast enough, has all the right tags in place. I do it once then move on. Tech SEO becomes more important if you're dealing with HUGE sites.
2nd fill content gaps – I update existing pages to optimise for already targetted topics, and create new ones to target missing opportunities. I do this once too, using human writers, ensuring super high quality with no 'em dashes' or 'no fluff' BS.
3rd build consistent links – A low but steady flow of blogger outreach and niche edits to the homepage (mostly) and money pages (10-20%). You can do a link gap analysis against competitors, but for the most part I like have my link building team build a nice low amount of mixed authority links, 10-20 links per month, set and forget - but be consistent.
4th build link magnets - Every site should have some link magnets, like an industry calculator, statistics page, or survey (if you have audience/budget). You should get these to rank or even run a low cost PPC campaign to them to build a steady endless flow of earned links.
5th run a digital PR campaign – This is to earn the authority layer of links, the ones my competitors will struggle to get. I use my digital pr team to create unlimited campaigns (most fail, but some hit big) to gain those crème de la crème links that really move the needle. Needs to be done every 3-6 months.
6th Drop a brand mentions + community mentions combo – With LLMs and AI search I want the brand to show up with positive sentiment in answers. I want the brand to be recommended for their category. So seeding the brand in listicles, reviews and in community discussions (on Reddit/Quora) really helps this. May need to be done every quarter.
(here’s a podcast I did w Cody Schneider all about getting mentioned in AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORhopSp7l8)
7th Local SEO stuff (if applicable) – Ensure they’re listed in all major local directories if they're a local client. Even if they're national it's still worth doing to get those brand signals.
8th Build a knowledge base – This is a new one I have started recommending. Cover every FAQ, service detail, and product feature to own the conversation in the niche, in LLMs but also search. The more the engine knows about you, the more confident it will be to mention/recommend you.
The goal is to build steady movement within weeks, but setting the campaign up for compounding growth over 6-12 months.