How to Leverage SEO for Your Lead Generation
Search engines get the best attention these days. It's search engines we ask for when we want to buy something or know more about a brand.
Attention = importance. Whoever gets the attention on Google will be among your top choices as a user. Many websites have been working on content creation and SEO for a while, but struggle to turn those visitors Google sends them into leads to possibly become buyers one day.
At SEOLeverage™️, we've been working hard over the years in refining our process to turn users at different stages of the buyer's cycle into a steady stream of leads leveraging existing content and specifically built articles and lead magnets.
Do you want more leads, but you're at your wit's end?
You're not alone. According to a Hubspot report, 61% of marketers consider generating leads and traffic to be their biggest problem.
You probably heard that SEO could potentially generate qualified leads, but it might take up to 6-12 months for your SEO strategy and SEO campaign to work.
In terms of lead generation, you're left to either:
- A: Ramp-up paid advertising and other marketing initiatives, and risk paying for more poor quality leads.
- B: Or, start investing in SEO and play the long game of aiming to rank first on a search engine results page.
But what if I tell you there's another option? What if you can speed up the process of lead generation through SEO? Generate leads faster, now, who wouldn't want that?
First, what is SEO?
Simply put, Search Engine Optimization or better known as SEO, involves a thorough process of changing different parts of your website. This is done to improve search engine rankings and visibility, for instance, on Google and Bing.
Having a well-optimized website helps search engines identify your site as a relevant answer to a user's query every time someone searches for something related to your line of business.
The absolute goal of SEO is to increase your website's ranking in search engine results pages, bring in qualified people (leads), and keep them engaged with good content.
What is a lead in digital marketing?
You can find a lot of definitions of a lead. To me, a lead is someone who raises their hand.
People want to know more about you, your brand, your product, or your service. They're selecting you among hundreds of thousands of possibilities and give you their name, e-mail address, or phone number - or more - just to further engage with you.
But, how does one become a lead in the first place?
Most of our clients get anywhere between 100 and 5000 leads per month. While many of these are from people who filled in web forms or booked an appointment, the majority of leads start with a simple opt-in.
This is the easiest way for you as a website owner to get leads:
Offer something of greater value than a user's e-mail address.
Leveraging SEO for Lead Generation
To kickstart your SEO lead generation strategy, I've outlined these SEO best practices and things you must avoid to increase your organic web traffic and generate more quality leads.
The "Ideal" Lead
Always start by defining who is your target or prospective customers. Whether you're conducting an outbound lead generation exercise with cold calls or launching a PPC lead generation campaign on Google Ads, you need to know who exactly your target audience is.
Your Landing Pages Suck
Someone needs to land on one of your sites before opting in for a PDF download or whatever lead magnet. If you're not getting leads, your landing pages might not be in line with their expectations.
If you target potential customers, you need to know what they expect - and find a very good way to deliver.
SEO Optimization for Leads
In SEO, many people are focusing their SEO efforts by optimizing a page's meta description, fixing broken links, reducing image sizes - but search engine optimization is much more.
Search engines want to make your site's search visitors happy. So they'll pay close attention to how happy people are when they send them to your site.
When working on SEO for lead generation, things need to be looked at from a different perspective.
Create an Ongoing Content Strategy
Google really doesn't care whether you publish once every week or twice a year. They do care about you caring about your content, making sure it's up to date, and that you create a content cluster to stress your page's topical relevance.
Marketing Automation
Getting a lead isn't enough - your content strategy shouldn't stop with an opt-in. You also need to think about the nurturing sequence. That is, a series of emails you send to a lead, which will help them get to know, like, and trust you (more) and make a decision when the time is right.
SEO + Lead Generation = More Qualified Leads
SEO and lead generation should always go hand in hand. Doing SEO without taking into account lead generations is like you're ignoring customers that walk through the door.
Armed with the right SEO strategy, it is possible to turn your website into an effective lead generation tool that works 24/7, bringing in a steady stream of leads.