Find out why all should adopt an SEO problem solving analysis mindset and how to integrate it into your approach. SEO is a big deal.

Yes, it is made up of many little things. Some connected, some not.

• We all want to stay on the ball, plan and make sure everything runs smoothly.
• But the reality is that at some point something doesn’t work as expected or an asset doesn’t work.
• For this reason, SEO relies to some extent on problem solving as a whole.

We need to be prepared for such situations and know what to do because SEO obstacles and challenges are inevitable.

Great Implementers SEO Problem Solving Analysis:

Some SEOs are great strategists, others are great implementers. Few surpass both. Each has different strengths and levels of idea generation, strategy development and tactical execution disciplines.

With so many stakeholders and variables involved in SEO, what does it take to be a successful SEO troubleshooter? Here are nine ways to become an SEO problem solver.

1# Understand Your Stakeholders (All):

SEO success (right or wrong) is often judged by non-SEO and at the same time can also be slowed down or negatively impacted by others.

Troubleshooting becomes easier when you already know the expectations, identify potential obstacles ahead of time, and have the full context. Whether it’s company policies, different levels of understanding of SEO issues, or hugely different expectations in terms of performance and timing, you need to know all the players and evaluate what challenges may arise.

The more you manage to manage the mix and stakeholder expectations, the easier it will be to solve problems or take the right path when they arise. And yes, that’s a “when”, not an “if”. I’m not smart, but nothing goes according to plan.

2# Establish Communication Roles And Plans:

In addition to all the stakeholders, there are several people you work with. This can include people on your team, agency, department, and / or other agency or client functions.

• You will need others to succeed unless you have the skills and roles of author, designer, developer, and approver that go beyond SEO.
• Establish clear roles and responsibilities. Find out who your contacts are for the different functions you need. Know their processes and synchronize them with yours.
• Understand delivery times and delivery times. Make sure they know the unscheduled requests and things will happen.

Make it clear what you need, what you may need, and how timing and responsiveness affect SEO performance. Build allies and engage them in the troubleshooting and problem-solving process and work to achieve the greatest possible agility with resources.

3# Maintain Baselines And Goals:

• You want to have as much objectivity and cause and effect as possible with any SEO effort.
• There are so many misconceptions and gray areas that without bases and goals, where the efforts, resources are going, why things aren’t going according to plan and more, you can lose control.
• There are often many ways to achieve your goals. We can find ourselves in a rabbit hole with a glitch if we can’t connect it to a bottom line or respond to a goal.
• We can also step back and prioritize our efforts when we encounter resistance or an obstacle, when we realize that a developer update to fix a glitch can take six months.

4# Use Your Strategy And Plan SEO Problem Solving Analysis:

First, I hope you have a defined strategy and plan. If you don’t have it or your baselines and goals (mentioned above), take a step back and work on it. Otherwise, it is difficult to be proactive and carry out SEO efforts because you are always on the trail of problems.

With your strategy and plan, you can continue to build on the objective aspects of the campaign or make sure your baselines and goals help you with this.

As I said in the introduction, SEOs can be great for overall strategy, some for detailed execution, and many have a range of experiences and preferred areas (techniques vs content, etc).

By combining a strategy and a plan, you know how hard it is to push for a specific solution versus greater impact. However, it does allow you to customize expectations.

5# Go Off Script And Be Agile Problem Solving Analysis:

Even with the best plan and all the resources you could ever ask for, things often unfold in other ways that we design or anticipate. Of course, we process all title and meta description tags and are “perfectly” optimized. However, we can see that there are still issues with the duplicate tags or the way they are indexed.

• Shall we tick the box and move on?
• Should we do another round of optimization?
• Should we start doing other things on the plane at the same time?
• Do we need to involve a developer or copywriter?
• Here, too, things don’t always go according to plan. Sometimes we need to improve in certain areas.

Finding the right balance between adapting the plan and being agile while resisting sticking to the plan is arguably the most important problem-solving or problem-solving skill an SEO can have.

6# Develop Technical Skills And/or Resources:

• Knowing the “what” and “why” of an SEO problem is powerful. This is a step up from relying on tools or performance issues as indicators that something isn’t working as expected.
• If you can deal with XML sitemap, robots.txt, HTML or other related factors yourself to get to the root of the problem, you can go straight to troubleshooting.

At the very least, you need to be able to quarterback a situation by pooling your resources. With the ability to solve problems alone or speak the same language, and be very specific and direct with your resources, you stand a better chance of finding a satisfactory solution, and hopefully faster.