With the New Year comes the prime opportunity not only to make resolutions and goals of all kinds, but also to evaluate and assess all of those from the past year. Somewhere on that list should be a review your website’s SEO campaign. The internet marketing landscape can change fast, so taking the opportunity to revisit objectives, competitiveness, and performance for the coming year can pay huge dividends given that things have likely changed over the course of the year.
Performing an annual review of your SEO strategy is essential to the performance of your website(s), and there is no time like the New Year to do so. Inevitably through the course of the year, you’ve added to your site, little by little. This is a good thing, because it obviously means you were adding new content to take advantage of new and potential SEO opportunities. But as new trends and opportunities emerge, you may find adding content a little at a time may leave your site and overall strategy looking a bit pieced together.
Image credit of SEObook.com
While additions are great, every now and again we need to evaluate and assess whether everything is working together to enhance the original goal and focus. In the SEO game it’s easy to be focused on the overall metrics, but it is equally as important to take a look back to clean up things that may have slipped past us. Things such as over- or under-usage of target keywords, proper linking, etc., can use a quality assurance check now and then as more and more content goes up on your site.
Think of it like decorating a room. Maybe you wanted to have a contemporary Southwestern-themed room in your home. You paint, add furniture and the basic artwork that sets the tone you want. Then your family gets you Southwestern décor for Christmas and your birthday, or the Southwestern section at the Black Friday sale was too good to pass up.
Next thing you know, your room is filled with, albeit cute and attractive, an array of Southwestern décor. What you now have are several items that may all fit the genre, but do they not alter the original image you set out to create? Does that bright-colored poncho your sister-in-law bought you really fit the theme without stretching it?
By revisiting your site (or your room) and evaluating its performance and attributes against the focus and message you wish to present, you create the opportunity to pursue the best changes and strategy into the coming year.
So with this New Year, make it a point not only to evaluate your website’s performance, but also make sure you’re doing your best to meet and exceed your SEO goals.
Some of you might have read Dara’s take on SEO in the December issue of 
