Episode 20: ORKs for SEO: From Soakers to Search Leaders
Discover how to set and track effective OKRs for your SEO strategy in this episode of the Content Community Commerce podcast. Learn to navigate SEO challenges, leverage the compounding effect, and apply practical tips for long-term success.
“Be okay with starting on the JV team. In the beginning, you’re going to have fuzzy metrics and broad goals, but that’s part of the process. You’re building a foundation for bigger wins down the road.”
Objectives
In this episode, you will be able to:
Learn about OKRs and how they help set measurable goals for your SEO strategy.
Explore why SEO can be frustrating and difficult to grasp, and why patience and realistic expectations are crucial to success.
Discover the three key stages: starting with broad goals, refining your approach with specific targets, and knowing when to pivot if your strategy isn’t delivering results.
Understand how SEO is a long-term investment that builds momentum over time, and why it’s essential to track metrics like traffic, keywords, and domain authority.
Get actionable advice on setting realistic OKRs, aligning them with business objectives, and effectively managing client expectations and progress reporting.
Transcript
Robbie (00:00):
So, Tim, I heard you’re thinking about a new way to describe OKRs for SEO. What is it?
Tim (00:07):
Soakers.
Robbie (00:08):
All about the soakers. Super soakers. When you go for those really big ones, we’re going for super soakers. Is your business going for super soakers? You’re about to find out.
Tim (00:17):
Are you tracking your soakers?
Robbie (00:19):
I think there might be too much soaking going on here, guys. You gotta pull it back, or we’re gonna get canceled.
[Intro]
Robbie (00:33):
Hello, this is Tim and Robbie with the Content Community Commerce podcast. We talk about topics at the convergence of content, community, and commerce. And today, we’re following up on this two-part series of OKRs for SEO and for email. Last time, we covered OKRs for email, and now we’re focusing on OKRs for SEO—this is about soakers.
Tim (01:01):
We’re making this happen. This is a new term.
Robbie (01:03):
We’re back to the soakers. Hopefully, this is like a warm soaker episode as opposed to a cold soaker episode. Nobody wants to be shot with a cold soaker. No business wants any cold soakers happening. Why are OKRs important? For anyone who didn’t listen to the last episode, what’s an OKR, and why is it important?
Tim (01:27):
Yeah, so when we’re working with clients, I find that there are usually a couple of approaches. You’ve got the group that wants to do KPIs, and the group that wants to do OKRs. It’s always about fitting this in, but the OKR structure tends to work well for reporting. You’re able to set goals on the front end for what we’re trying to achieve. They can start out as soft goals, and then we can pivot as we hit those into a tighter set, which maybe looks more like KPIs eventually. These will typically involve broad SEO goals, like growing traffic by a certain percentage or increasing organic revenue. We might aim to rank in the top 10 for specific keywords, or increase our domain authority from 20 to 25, or even 50 to 70. That’s what the OKR model looks like when applied to an organic strategy.
Robbie (02:43):
The concept of OKRs is really popular in the e-commerce space. John Doerr’s 2018 book Measure What Matters started the trend of OKRs being a popular framework. Let’s make them actionable and real. SEO, often seen as the black box of marketing, is an intimidating space.
Robbie (03:09):
No marketer feels comfortable—very few marketers feel comfortable—in SEO because it’s so layered and nuanced.
Tim (03:17):
You’re just painting this beautiful picture for someone, and they have to trust that when you come back in six months or a year, it’s going to look like what you promised.
Robbie (03:28):
The paint hasn’t dried—it’s like invisible ink. It’s eventually going to show up.
Tim (03:34):
Look at this beautiful canvas. This is your website ranking for all of these things. Well, how are we going to do that? Just trust me.
Robbie (03:39):
This is a very reasonable approach. I think many can relate to this—everyone’s been burned by SEO at some point.
Tim (03:57):
Sadly, yes. Many groups I’ve worked with are guarded and protective because they’ve had rough experiences with previous SEO efforts. They may have gone years without seeing results, and when you reverse-engineer what was done, you find things that weren’t executed well or weren’t done at all. People are guarded, especially when agencies overpromise and underdeliver. They may get in over their heads, realizing too late that there’s more to SEO than just slapping on a title tag and meta description.
Robbie (04:59):
Yeah, and much like other areas of marketing, there have been bad actors in the SEO space, which has evolved rapidly. Some strategies have even been black hat.
Tim (05:14):
Different color hats.
Robbie (05:15):
Stripe hat, gray hat, rainbow glitter surprise hat.
Tim (05:22):
Rambo with the headband. All kinds of things.
Robbie (05:26):
Anything and everything. But back to OKRs, they’re important because they guard against those kinds of issues right from the start.
Tim (05:34):
Yeah.
Robbie (05:35):
With that level of security built in, you know how you’re going to measure success from the onset, right?
Tim (05:44):
Yes, when you’re planning on the front end, you want to be intentional about what you want to see happen. You think about what keywords are important to your business, how you want to show up for them, and what that means for your business. The results page will often define some of this. For instance, you might want to rank with your transactional checkout page, but Google may prefer to show blog posts for that keyword. You need to understand how to find the right keywords, meet their intent, and what that means for your business. Initially, we set broad goals, but it may take six months before we see the desired results. We need initial OKRs to show that we’re moving in the right direction—seeing traffic growth, visibility, etc. Once we hit an inflection point, we can set more granular OKRs, like ranking a keyword in the top five.
Tim (07:54):
But setting that on the front end can be frustrating if you don’t see results for months, unless you’re a super high-domain authority site. For most businesses, they’re not in that luxury of “publish today, rank tomorrow.”
Robbie (08:08):
For those who can publish today and rank tomorrow, you can dump on everyone else. But for most of us, this is starting from scratch, or in the “land of mortals” with domain authorities under 30.
Tim (08:28):
Yes, if you’re playing in that 20-30, maybe even 40 space, it’s a different level of work. Once you get to 60, 70, 80 DA, things get easier, but you’re also up against a hyper-competitive set of people. You’re not the only one gunning for that keyword.
Robbie (08:39):
So, if I’m starting off, where does stage one go?
Tim (08:49):
Stage one focuses on traffic and keywords—really broad. We want to see traffic increase by a certain percentage over six months. I don’t specify a percentage because it depends on where you’re starting. If you have only 20 visitors per month, getting to 5,000 in six months is exponential growth. But if you’re in a more competitive space, going from 1,000 to 1,500 users per day is more challenging. You decide on the percentage, then watch if it’s growing. By six months, you should see an uptick. If you track a set of keywords, you want to see visibility increase, maybe moving from position 98 to 25—still buried, but at least out of the dead zone. Then, in the next six months, you can aim to get onto page one.
Robbie (11:00):
We’re moving from the steerage class to the second class. We don’t need to be in first class, but can we at least get to second class?
Tim (11:06):
You’re on the plane, stuck in the lavatory at the back, hoping to at least get to economy or economy plus. You don’t need much legroom, just closer to the front.
Robbie (11:19):
I don’t even know what the equivalent of planes would be. This is like back in the ’90s when they had smoking on planes—you’re in the back, with the smokers.
Tim (11:29):
Can I at least get out of the cancer stick section?
Robbie (11:33):
Yes. But that’s a relevant way to look at it, because it takes time. It’s a hard pill to swallow for some.
Tim (11:41):
It does take time. Tracking revenue or leads in the first six months is a wildcard. You’re not in a place where you can set a realistic OKR for that. You might have a stretch OKR for 12 months, but at six months, you’re not there. You should see traffic and keyword indications that you’re on track, then lock in OKRs for the next six months. That’s when you can start looking at revenue and more granular details.
Robbie (12:27):
Six months in—what does stage two look like? Is there more foundation to work with?
Tim (12:39):
Yes. At six months, if you’re not seeing any performance, you need to hit the brakes and reassess. Are you targeting the right things? Is your site still low authority? Should you go after more niche things? Review the strategy. But if things are going well, you can get more granular. Start setting specific growth goals for areas like the blog, and maybe an engagement goal. For example, with GA4, instead of bounces, you track engaged users. Set a goal for increasing engaged users on the blog. You can also track revenue next to the blog, especially if it’s an e-commerce site. Attribution models can show the blog’s contribution to purchases. You track traffic, keywords, revenue, and commerce-level pages like collection or product pages. If a B2B site has solution pages, track traffic growth and leads. Also, consider an off-page strategy to grow domain authority and get signals to Google through product reviews or other mentions. Track domain authority, mentions, and their quality.
Robbie (16:03):
So, if Bob’s Basement Conspiracy Theories talks about us, it won’t matter.
Tim (16:06):
I would love for them to review one of our saddles, but we want relevant mentions. If you’re seeding a product or getting your software tested, you want reviews from trusted sources, not spammy mentions.
Robbie (16:51):
So, within the SEO umbrella, you have OKRs that are broken down for organizations. This connects smoothly with business outcomes and gives you a stable foundation. It also helps clients understand and communicate internally what’s happening.
Tim (17:44):
For almost every business, the goal is to increase revenue. When you’re reporting back, you’re tracking what key stakeholders want to know—growing organic revenue by a certain percentage, growing traffic by a specific amount based on conversion rates. You need to do some math, but when you set realistic goals, it’s satisfying to smash them. The most enjoyable part is when you hit your goal early, then you can set a stretch goal for the end of the year.
Robbie (19:27):
We’ve been sandbagging this whole time, and now we’ve got to step it up.
Tim (19:29):
Yes, if you hit it early, your goals were too low, and you need to move them up.
Robbie (19:39):
After a year of working with a group, does forecasting become easier?
Tim (19:52):
It gets easier, and you can start setting very specific goals. You know better what works and what doesn’t. You can set goals based on what brings traffic or converts well, and then add components like case studies, white papers, or email captures to move people further down the funnel. It’s about attracting top-of-the-funnel leads and creating bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content to tie into that.
Robbie (20:44):
TOFU, MOFU, BOFU—there are no acronyms in marketing.
Tim (20:51):
None at all. Nobody comes up with creative acronyms ever in marketing.
Tim (20:53):
I’ve often had to Google client acronyms, especially when they span multiple industries. Sometimes, it’s not even a marketing acronym, just slang.
Robbie (21:31):
When that happens, it’s usually younger people, and I just don’t get it.
Tim (21:41):
My favorite is when it’s just slang, and I spend all this time looking, only to realize it’s something like LOL. Back to OKRs: after one year of SEO, you should see progress. SEO is a long-term investment with compounding returns. Bad actors might stretch it out, but you should see performance within the first year. You should see movement towards some type of OKR goal for traffic or revenue. As you move into year two, the compounding effect kicks in, with different inflection points—perhaps month six, month 14, or later—where you see traffic take off. It’s a building process with compounding benefits.
Robbie (23:31):
Once the snowball’s rolling, it speeds up, gets bigger, and starts taking everything with it.
Tim (23:39):
Yes, it becomes a massive snowball. Let’s wrap up with some key takeaways.
Robbie (23:49):
We covered a lot of ground. This is an intimidating space for most marketers. If you get this, good on you. You’re part of a select few. We want everyone to win. So, what’s the first takeaway?
Tim (24:20):
Before we started recording, you summed it up well: be okay with being on the JV team. You’re going to have fuzzy metrics, not tight ones. You’re watching from a high level, moving towards a bigger goal, but you’ll be on the junior varsity team for a while.
Robbie (24:50):
Build up your confidence. Feel like a champ. Get a jacket with some letters on it.
Tim (24:55):
You get a soaker jacket—JV Soaker squad.
Tim (25:03):
The next takeaway is that once you start seeing things working, you can zero in. At the six-month stage, you can start setting specific metrics, like organic traffic or revenue growth. The timeline depends on how far along the business is. If they’ve had some SEO wins before, this might come earlier. But if you’re starting from scratch, you’ll need to wait before setting realistic OKRs.
Robbie (25:58):
What’s the final takeaway?
Tim (26:12):
The flip side: know when your stuff isn’t working. At six months, if you’ve been giving it CPR and it’s still flatlining, stop and reassess. Own it if you’ve targeted the wrong things or if your site isn’t ready. Many businesses get tripped up by going after big shiny keywords with high search volumes, only to realize they’re not ready to compete. Start with keywords with 500 searches a month. The riches are in the niches. Go after the longer tail, more abstract ideas. Win those first, then move up.
Robbie (27:56):
Quit trying to make fetch happen. Quit trying to make fetch happen.
Tim (28:06):
If the strategy isn’t working after six months, own it and pivot.
Robbie (28:26):
This was awesome to unpack because if you’re in this space, you want to feel confident. You want to know your timelines, what’s realistic, and what expectations to set for everyone else.
Robbie (28:30):
This was a treat, Tim. I learned a lot.
Tim (28:42):
Thanks for letting me brainstorm for the last 30 minutes. Hopefully, you’ve got some good takeaways. If not, don’t let us know—just kidding! Send us a private message.
Robbie (28:50):
We can learn. Go put it in the comments if you want to dunk, but this might not be the place. Though nothing’s stopping you.
Tim (28:50):
Either way, it’s a public place. That’s how I learn—if you think it’s all wrong, dunk. We’ll learn from it. But hopefully, you’ve taken something actionable away for your organization.
Robbie (29:00):
Thank you all so much. Let us know if you have questions, comments, or just want to talk shop. This is Tim and Robbie with the Content Community Commerce podcast. We’ll see you later. Until next time.
[Outro]
