SEO is not the end of lead generation: it’s a roadmap that will guide potential customers to your site! Are you making the most of your SEO strategy to get more leads? Let’s check out.
With more than 4.66 billion internet users worldwide, it’s almost impossible to go a day without going online in some form or another. As a result, internet users are getting smarter and understand the techniques businesses use to advertise to them. Users now understand how to dodge pop-ups, ads, and any spam messaging with the click of a button. Also, studies show that 85 percent of users first research the products and services they need before making a decision. In such a competitive market, how will your business convince them you’ve got what they are looking for?
The good news is that with so many spaces to occupy on the internet, creating a space for your brand and its audience is simpler than you think. You can then expand on your efforts to draw in potential customers, and in turn, grow your business.
Note: Not every marketing strategy will bring you immediate results. Various elements go into creating a winning marketing strategy for the digital era – the two most important tactics being SEO and lead generation.
Before we get into the details, let’s have a quick heads-up of what lead generation and SEO mean.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of collecting the contact information of potential customers who have shown interest, or maybe interested, in your business’s products or services.
It’s done by building an ongoing list of potential clients, i.e., ‘leads’. It plays a key role in B2B and B2C marketing. Why? Since all businesses need a stable stream of leads to grow their company.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is all about refining web pages to improve their visibility and ranking on search engine results pages. Every webpage is assigned a “ranking” which determines when, and on which page, the website appears on a google search.
Having good SEO will help more internet users come across your webpage in an organic manner. The higher your website ranking is, the higher the chances a user will come across your website and engage. This organic visit will then further boost your brand’s online visibility and increase organic traffic to your website.
SEO aims to increase your website’s visibility and direct the right people via search engine results to your website.
Now that we know the difference between SEO and lead generation, let’s see how the two go hand in hand. We’ll also discuss how to incorporate both in order to generate higher website traffic and leads while building a sales pipeline.
How Can SEO Boost Your Lead Generation Process?
SEO is useful for a multitude of reasons — lead generation being one of them. Leads generated through SEO are surprisingly cost-effective when compared to leads converted through other channels. The reason is that with proper SEO, potential customers come to you when they are searching for businesses like yours, and not the other way around. So why not leverage search engine optimization to boost your sales? Every lead is a new opportunity to grow your customer base.
To keep it short, here’s how SEO is useful for lead generation:
– SEO connects your website with actual online searches using keywords.
– When someone searches for a keyword your website has been optimized for, your website will appear in their search results.
– If your business is what they are looking for, the individual can then provide you with their contact information, and you now have a lead to contact and convert into a sale.
SEO serves as a funnel that directs a stream of leads to your website, which makes it one of the best ways to generate organic leads.
Before SEO was so prevalent, most companies depended on outbound marketing tactics to gain more leads. After the boom of digital marketing, dated practices such as cold calling have turned increasingly less effective.
On the contrary, SEO (which is a part of inbound marketing) makes leads come to you! SEO leads that approach your brand are more receptive to what you offer compared to the people you approach out of the blue.
Some SEO lead generation statistics you might not want to miss:
– SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate.
– 57% of B2B marketers agree that SEO brings them more leads compared to any other marketing initiative.
In a nutshell, if you need proven tactics to win more leads, SEO lead generation is something you should try.
6 Effective SEO Tips to Level Up Your Lead Generation Strategy
Here are the top SEO tips that will help boost lead generation.
1. Audit Your Website (It’s Time for On-Page Optimization!)
A website audit is critical to learn which web pages are performing well and which could use some touch-ups.
Navigate through your website to find if there are any broken links (404 errors), dated titles, missing meta tags, plagiarized or duplicated content, and any other problems. Once you know the issues, it becomes easy to fix the factors that are negatively impacting your site’s ranking.
2. Your Website Speed Matters More Than You Think
Who loves waiting minutes for a web page to load? No one.
The importance of fast-loading web pages goes beyond the user’s experience. Slow load times on both desktop and mobile devices can adversely impact your site’s ranking.
It can also lead to high exit rates, as visitors may quickly become impatient. Ensure your website loads faster and is mobile-responsive. Limiting the amount of heavy data such as videos and gifs will help prevent slow load times.
3. Have You Considered Creating Content Clusters Yet?
Do you think content optimization is all about stuffing keywords into sentences on a blog? Then it’s time to rethink what content optimization means.
You cannot improve your online presence by randomly adding a set of keywords to your content. Just like users, search engines have also evolved and can differentiate between spammy and relevant content. Updated algorithms mean they index more than keywords to ensure accurate search results. The context and intent of your content now also play a key role in your website’s ranking.
Make sure the content you create is high-quality and resonates with your target audience.
Need some help?
Try to think about why someone will search for a product or service that you offer, and what they would want to know. You can also use topic clusters to map out a content strategy.
4. Mobile Optimization is Everything!
Do you know 5 people you know who don’t own a smartphone?
Or 3 people who don’t use the internet.
We won’t be surprised if your answer is no.
Reports show that around 80% of internet users search on mobile devices. Given the increase in mobile usage, is your website optimized for mobile? If not, it is time to optimize your mobile website in order to stay competitive and relevant in the game.
Not to say you also hate to read an annoyingly tiny version of a desktop webpage on a mobile device!
Trying to read a tiny version of a desktop webpage that hasn’t been optimized for mobile on a tiny screen is off-putting, and can lead to visitors leaving your website entirely.
If your website needs more redo than repair, consider using it as an opportunity for a complete website redesign. This will ensure users can navigate your website smoothly and will contribute to your website’s usability score.
5. SEO Lead Generation is Incomplete Without Link Building
Link building, or backlinking, is the process of adding hyperlinks from other websites to your own.
Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO marketing. It contributes to the growth and success of your website by using links that appear in other searches on your own website. Link building helps boost ranking, drive more website traffic, and improve brand exposure.
However, you need to consider a few important aspects when experimenting with link building. Not all links come with the same value. For instance, a link from Forbes, Medium, or HubSpot will benefit your ranking much more than a link from a local or new website. It’s a tough job and we know it. So, as a rule of thumb, you can try to get links from other trusted websites with higher domain authority than your website.
6. Keep an Eye On Your Competitors
Check your competitor’s rankings on various search results for the same keywords you use. This will allow you to compare how well their pages perform with respect to yours. If they are getting better results for the same search terms, you might want to dig into the reason behind this. Possible reasons can include anything from the structure of their content, topics covered, backlinks, keyword placement, and more.
When you understand how similar content performs, you can parse out successful strategies for your brand. It will also help you highlight different aspects of your existing strategy that may be outdated or need some changes.
The Takeaway
Creating an effective SEO lead generation campaign might not be easy, but it will ensure your ongoing marketing efforts get closer to success in a market that may be oversaturated. Furthermore, it will help future-proof your website content. How? By increasing the opportunities to generate new leads with a solid online presence and a hassle-free user experience!
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