There’s a running joke among content marketers: Where’s the best place to hide a dead body?
The answer: The second page of Google!
And, as with all jokes, there’s an element of truth to this statement. Research shows that 75% of people never venture onto the second page of search engine results.
Why is this important?
You want to be on that first page. It is, after all, rule number one of marketing: always make yourself seen, known, and trusted.
So, you’re probably wondering, “How can I get onto the first page of Google?” The short answer is Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an essential part of digital marketing. It’s a set of strategies and tactics used to increase a website or page’s visibility in search engine results. SEO helps to drive more organic traffic to websites and pages.
SEO involves activities such as keyword research, content optimization, link building, and technical website optimization. By implementing these practices, a website can increase its chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages or SERPs. This helps to attract more visitors and potential customers to the website.
By using SEO, businesses can increase their website traffic and visibility, helping them to gain more customers and generate more sales. SEO can also help build brand awareness and trust, which is essential for any successful business.
What is SEO Marketing?
To understand SEO marketing, you need to know the basics of how search engines work. Search engines like Google use algorithms to rank search results.
These algorithms consider a variety of factors, such as keyword relevance, user experience, domain authority, and website content, to determine rankings. SEO marketing techniques can boost your site in these areas and help it rank higher in search results.
One of the most important SEO marketing techniques is optimizing your website for keywords. This involves researching keywords that are relevant to your business and including them in your website content, titles, and meta descriptions. This helps search engines understand your website’s content and show it to people searching for those specific keywords.
Another important SEO marketing technique is link building. This means getting other websites to link to yours. Link building helps search engines view your website as an authority on the topic, making it more likely to rank higher. You can build links by creating content other websites may want to link to and by reaching out to other websites to request links.
It’s also important to focus on user experience when using SEO marketing techniques. Good user experience means having a website that is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and includes quality content that is relevant and helpful to readers. By creating a positive user experience, you will help your website rank higher in search engine results.
But before you hire an SEO company, review the different marketing channels that can help you rank and the role SEO plays in each.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is when a company creates and distributes content that is both valuable and relevant to its audience on a consistent schedule. According to Semrush, 84% of enterprises have a content marketing strategy plan in place.
A sound content marketing strategy can boost brand awareness and generate higher-quality traffic. It’s a profitable marketing tool. If you’re keen to get started, you could consider interviews, ebooks, webinars, and roundups.
Content is a key player in your digital marketing strategy. Therefore, SEO is a major factor in whether your content gets seen by the right people. To get exposure and interest, your content needs to be created with your keywords in mind. Your keywords are essentially the terms and phrases your audience uses when searching for solutions online.
By creating content around these key terms, you’re laying the foundation of a strong SEO strategy and showing your audience you’re knowledgeable regarding the topics most relevant to their needs.
Now, let’s dive into a few specific components of content marketing and how SEO fits into each.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are the backbone of your content marketing, and SEO blog posts are like a belt and buckle. The two fit together. Of all SEO strategies, blogging is undoubtedly the easiest to start with. Blog posts offer a host of benefits:
- Companies that blog generate more leads each month, on average, than those that don’t.
- Businesses that use blogging as a marketing tool enjoy a higher ROI than businesses without active blogs.
- Updating your old blog posts will increase your organic traffic.
Prioritizing SEO is step one when creating blog content. First, pinpoint your most important keywords and start by creating pillar posts for each. These are essentially lengthy, in-depth blog posts that dive into specific topics. Once you’ve created these pillar posts, routinely link back to them using their designated key terms as anchor text to boost their SEO over time.
Guest Articles/Backlink Strategy
While blog posts are the owned media component of your content marketing, guest articles are the earned media component. Placement isn’t a guarantee; it’s earned through credibility, and rightfully so. Guest articles can bring you qualified traffic, motivated leads, authority, relevant links, and potential sales. They’re considered one of the leading inbound marketing strategies. As a guest contributor, you can craft articles that offer readers new opinions and expertise while positioning yourself as an industry leader. Since the goal is to place this content on high-quality sites your audience reads, you also get an opportunity to build your backlink strategy by linking to your pillar posts when possible.
One of the core metrics search engine algorithms consider when ranking your website is backlinks. Backlinks can be seen as virtual votes of confidence from other sites; however, the idea isn’t to get links placed anywhere you can. Focus on earning high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.
Aside from adding backlinks to your guest articles, here are a couple of backlinking strategies you can adopt for your own SEO campaigns:
- Exchange links with other sites
- Reach out to influencers who might share your content
- Write excellent content and conduct data reports that grab the attention of others and inspire them to share it
LinkedIn and SlideShare
If you’re a B2B marketer, you’ll definitely want to incorporate LinkedIn and SlideShare into your SEO strategy. Take the keywords you identified in your keyword research and plug them into the description on your company’s LinkedIn profile page. Be mindful not to simply stuff your page with keywords, though! Search engines have evolved enough to spot this and likely won’t give you points.
Apply the same idea to your LinkedIn posts on your newsfeed and in industry-related LinkedIn groups. Similarly, incorporate keywords into your SlideShare presentations. SlideShare offers an excellent platform for establishing your company as an expert on a particular topic, so use your target keywords in the presentation and description, and share your slideshow far and wide.
PPC
The first few results on a search engine results page are paid ads. If you can snag the top spots for your keywords, it increases your company’s name recognition and importance (especially when combined with organic search results). Be sure to use the keyword list that you generate through your keyword research in your PPC advertising.
One way to figure out which keywords your target audience uses is to enable site search on your website. This lets you see exactly what language people use to search for specific products and services.
Apply the same strategy to your PPC advertising on social media sites like Facebook.
Instagram probably doesn’t come to mind when you think of places where SEO keyword research is applicable, but don’t be fooled. Just because Instagram is a visual site doesn’t mean people don’t find what they’re looking for with words.
For example, someone looking for workout inspiration may browse through the hashtag #fitspo (over 74 million posts tagged), while someone planning a trip to Vegas may look through the hashtag #whathappensinvegas (over 3 million posts tagged). If you figure out which hashtag combinations give your posts the most exposure, you’ve found a way to boost your use of Instagram as a marketing channel.
YouTube
Videos are a vital part of your content marketing strategy. If they’re well executed, they can help boost your company’s visibility in search engine results. So how can a website like YouTube factor into your SEO strategy?
First, improve your video quality so people stick around longer than the first three seconds. YouTube can tell how long people spend on videos and ranks them accordingly. One quick way to increase watch time is to cut long-winded introductions.
Include links to other videos your brand has produced to add value for viewers and increase views on your other videos. Encourage your audience to like your videos, share them, or subscribe to your channel. Finally, make videos based on the high-interest topics you identified through keyword research.
Voice search
40.2% of Americans use voice search, and 71% of consumers prefer to ask questions by voice instead of typing.
In fact, people are more receptive to voice ads, with one-third of shoppers saying they are less intrusive compared to regular online, TV, social media, and print ads.
To take advantage of voice search, incorporate an SEO strategy that keeps that way of searching in mind. This means ranking for local searches online while also optimizing your website.
[BONUS] Infographics
We’re cheating a bit since infographics aren’t really a marketing channel, but they are such a useful tool for any SEO strategy that we have to include them.
Infographics present data and processes in an easily digestible way. Because they’re informative and visually appealing, it’s no wonder people readily share them. For these reasons, you should include infographics in your SEO strategy. Create them based on your keyword research and share them through social media, your blog, guest blogs, and more. Be sure to throw them up on sites like Pinterest as well.
SEO across marketing channels is invaluable. And yes, while results are never instantaneous, it is worth persevering and keeping keyword research top of mind every time you create new marketing content.
How Should You Nurture Leads that Convert From SEO Traffic?
Once you put the SEO best practices we’ve discussed above in place, you should start seeing more organic traffic—along with an increase in leads. So how should you approach these new leads?
Well, there are several steps you can take to nurture leads that convert from SEO traffic:
- Identify your target audience: First, identify who your target audience is. This will help you understand what their needs and wants are and how you can address them through your marketing efforts.
- Create Valuable Content: Create content that is valuable and informative for your target audience. This can include blog posts, eBooks, whitepapers, and other content that addresses their needs and solves their problems.
- Use Calls to Action: Use eye-catching and concise calls to action (CTAs) in your content to encourage readers to take a specific action, such as signing up for your email list or contacting you for more information.
- Score Your Leads: Lead scoring ranks leads based on how likely they are to become customers. By assigning scores to leads, you can prioritize and focus your efforts on the most promising leads while also tracking the progress of all your leads. Use a marketing automation and CRM tool, like BenchmarkONE, to tag and score your leads based on certain actions they take on your website and the content they engage with.
- Segment Your Email List: Once you collect email addresses, segment your list based on your subscribers’ interests. This lets you send targeted emails that better match their needs.
- Use Email Marketing: Use email marketing to nurture your leads and keep them engaged with your business. You can do this through newsletters, promotional emails, and automated email campaigns.
- Use Lead Magnets: Create lead magnets, such as eBooks or webinars, that encourage people to access something compelling and sign up for your email list. These offers should be valuable and relevant to your target audience.
- Use retargeting: Use retargeting to show targeted ads to people who visited your website but haven’t yet converted. This can help bring them back to your site and encourage them to take a specific action.
Overall, the key to nurturing leads from SEO traffic is to provide value and stay consistent. By consistently creating and sharing valuable content and using email marketing and other tactics to stay in front of your leads, you can increase the likelihood of converting them into customers.
SEO across marketing channels is invaluable. And yes, while results are never instantaneous, it is worth persevering and keeping keyword research top of mind every time you create new marketing content.
With a well-thought-out SEO strategy that incorporates a handful (if not all) of the marketing channels above, it will only be a matter of time before the algorithms reward your diligent efforts.
