--- title: "SEO strategy" description: "SEO strategy from ShoutRank: which queries deserve a URL, which should be left alone, and how that choice is measured." canonical: https://shoutrank.com/seo-strategy markdown: https://shoutrank.com/seo-strategy.md --- # SEO strategy SEO strategy from ShoutRank: which queries deserve a URL, which should be left alone, and how that choice is measured. An SEO strategy chooses the demand worth a page, the URL that should own it, and the work that should stop. Most strategy decks repeat a funnel and a keyword export. The useful document is shorter: these queries, these URLs, these templates, and this is what we will ignore for a quarter. It comes before a large content program and before [programmatic SEO](https://shoutrank.com/programmatic-seo). If the strategy is ‘rank for everything adjacent,’ it is not a strategy. ShoutRank does not guarantee a ranking or a citation. ## The problem ### The keyword list is the plan. Volume is treated as value. The business’s actual sales conversation never appears. ### Every team has a different priority. Product wants comparisons. Content wants thought leadership. Nobody has written down which one search is for. ### Last year’s plan is still running. Pages keep publishing against it, including the ones that never earned a click. ## How ShoutRank approaches it We start from revenue and from the queries a buyer already types. Brand search is noted and then set aside so it cannot disguise the rest. The output is an assignment and a stop-list. Both are boring on purpose. They are what the next two quarters are allowed to ship. ## What the work includes ### Demand set Queries grouped by the job the buyer is doing, with volume as a clue, not a verdict. ### URL map What exists, what should be merged, and what would have to be created. ### Stop-list Pages and ideas that should not be staffed. ### Quarter sequence The order, tied to who can implement. ## Process ### Discovery Interview the people who hear the buyer’s words. Read the queries you already earn. ### Audit Compare that list with the URLs that exist. ### Strategy Cut it to a set a team can hold in one table. ### Implementation Hand the table to the people who will ship the first pages. ### Monitoring Re-read the table when a new idea arrives. Add it only if something else comes off. ### Optimization Kill pages that the strategy no longer claims. ### Reporting The table, the stop-list, and what shipped against both. ## Why ShoutRank ### A stop-list is part of the deliverable Without it, the strategy is a wish. With it, the team knows what not to brief. ### It has to fit the people you have A plan that needs a newsroom you do not have is not a plan for this company. ### Measured in the open The same table is what consulting and the monthly review use later. ## How success is measured Share of the demand set that has a single owning URL. Non-brand impressions on that set. Pages removed or merged because they were on the stop-list. A named client result is published when that client clears the figure. Until then the report is the measurement. ## Questions ### Is strategy a workshop? There is a working session. The deliverable is the table, not the workshop. ### How long does it stay true? Revisit it when the offer changes or a quarter of pages have shipped. Do not rewrite it every month. ### Does it include AI answers? Yes, as a separate column: queries where being cited matters as much as ranking. The log is not blended into one score. ## Related - [SEO services](https://shoutrank.com/seo): The practice the strategy is choosing inside. - [SEO audit](https://shoutrank.com/seo-audit): When you need the facts before the choices. - [AI search optimization](https://shoutrank.com/ai-search-optimization): When the strategy has to include citations.