Psst! Business owners and solopreneurs, we have the secret to getting more sales and increasing your revenue with limited investment required. This digital marketing secret generates thousands of leads and has incredibly high conversion rates, but is still super affordable and doable for businesses of ALL sizes. Are you ready to learn the lead generation strategies bloggers, influencers, and businesses are using to boost their sales and get more customers?
The secret sauce is SEO!
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way of writing, formatting, and curating content so it ranks high on search engine results pages. Basically, if someone searches something in your industry, the goal is your website shows up to immediately engage that potential customers. SEO for lead generation is the number one way to create brand awareness, convert leads, and build authority in your industry!
While many businesses put their focus and budget into social media marketing, SEO drives 1,000% more traffic to your website than organic social media. WHOA! The truth is, social media content has a lifespan of just 24 to 48 hours, while your SEO website and blog posts have a lifespan of YEARS! Plus, lead generation from SEO has a conversion rate of 14.6% as compared to social media platforms like TikTok, which is just 3.4%. Check out our blog post about social media vs. SEO for more on the differences.
Okay, we’re pretty sure you get the point SEO is an AMAZING tool for converting leads to customers. But, how do you as a small business owner come up with a foolproof SEO strategy for lead generation and conversion? We’ve got all the answers you need in this blog post, but first, we need to understand exactly why SEO leads convert better than your social media followers.
Why do SEO Leads Convert Better?
SEO converts far better than other digital marketing tactics because you’re grabbing leads when the customer is ready to purchase something or solve a problem in your industry. This is a HUGE distinction from social media marketing, where a lot of people there are just looking to be entertained or discover new things but they may not really be interested in converting to a customer. Even if they are, it takes many interactions to eventually get them there.
Think about it you’re selling an online course about finding your personal style. So, you optimize your website and content to tell search engines like Google that you are the go-to source for all things personal style and fashion. You create hundreds of blog posts with style recommendations for certain body types, styling tips for specific outfits, and guides to developing a unique personal style.
Because you do all this, when someone searches “how to find my personal style?” in a search engine, your online course should rank at the top of the search engine results! The potential customer clicks the result, sees you as an authority on the topic, and hopefully purchases your course. Why? Because this is what they were looking for all along!
Ladies and gentlemen, that is how SEO and leads go hand-in-hand.
You’re putting yourself and your business in front of people who are actually looking for solutions to their questions and problems. They are ready credit card in hand to commit to a product or service that will help them solve their problems or make their lives easier. Rather than promoting your business to people who scroll mindlessly through social media, your content shows up to potential customers in the right place at the right time when you prioritize SEO strategy.
Here’s more on the benefits of SEO for small businesses.
SEO Strategy for Lead Conversion
Research keywords for new content.
When planning out your SEO strategy for lead generation and conversion, your first step is to research what your target audience are searching for on Google. These search intents are known as “targeted keywords” in the world of SEO. They are phrases, questions, or words that your potential customers often search as they’re looking for information, products, or services. Some examples of high-intent keywords include “best,” “pricing,” “near me,” and “services.” People searching like this are ready to make a purchase!
Software like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Answer the Public are great tools for researching highly searched keywords. When choosing keywords, you’ll want to make sure that they have at least 1,000 searches per month to ensure a boost in your website traffic. After compiling a list of search terms, create content for your website that’s rich with those keywords this will not only include site copy, but also high-quality blog posts! The more relevant indexed pages you of on your website, the more likely you are to rank for those keywords and keyphrases.
Create a keyword buyer journey map.
Once you’ve rounded up your keywords, it’s time to map them out into your buyer’s journey. This means organizing your keywords and potential blog topics into specific parts of the journey your audience takes to go from a reader to a customer. If you are unfamiliar with the buyer’s journey, it consists of three main stages awareness, consideration, and decision.
When considering the keywords and content you want buyers in the awareness stage to see, focus on content that identifies their problem and the effects that problem has on their lives. In the consideration stage, since the buyer has identified their problem, create content that offers solutions. This can be reviews of products, listicles, or how-to guides.
The last stage is the decision stage, which is when the customer makes their purchase. The content your customer should see during this stage includes free trial offers, detailed product descriptions, testimonials and success stories, and product comparisons with competitors.
Analyze competitors.
Along with your keyword research, an important step in creating an SEO strategy for lead conversion is analyzing your competitors. Study competing business websites to see which keywords they’ve used, what topics they’re blogging about, how they’ve designed and organized their web pages, and how they are reaching their target audience.
Of course, do not copy your competitor’s content and website you want to be unique and stand out! But you can absolutely take inspiration from them, especially if you’re just starting out. Competitor analysis is also a great opportunity to find content gaps. What type of content and topics are your competitors missing that you could write about?
Create a content calendar.
Now that you have a list of keywords to structure your content around, it’s time to start planning your content calendar. A content calendar is a structured schedule communicating what content you will be creating and when it will be published. Not only does this help prevent writer’s block, but it also enforces accountability for creating your content every week.
You may be wondering how many blog posts you should write a week to take advantage of SEO to increase your lead conversion rate. While one post a week is the minimum, it’s a good idea to aim for five blog posts a week. This ensures you’re creating content that your audience is looking for and showing search engines that you know your stuff about your industry and niche! Plus, having a ton of content is super helpful when it comes to internal linking another great SEO-boosting tactic!
Tackle technical SEO.
When you first learn about SEO, there is usually an emphasis on content and on-page SEO but there is SO MUCH MORE to it. A major part of establishing an SEO strategy for lead conversion is tackling the behind-the-scenes technical optimization side of things! You’ll want to ensure that your website’s user experience (UX) is simple, attractive, and easy to navigate on both mobile and desktop.
Optimizing your website’s page speed is also an important aspect of technical SEO. The faster your website loads, the more favorable it is to search engines. If a website takes more than 2.75 seconds to load, your visitor will more likely leave your website and never return. Don’t make the big SEO mistake of a slow-loading website.
Optimize on-page SEO.
Once you’ve tackled your technical SEO, it’s time to optimize your on-page SEO for lead conversion. This means ensuring your web pages like your About Us page and blog posts are following good SEO practices and focusing on conversion.
So, what does this look like exactly? The first thing to pay attention to is your title tags and meta descriptions on all webpages and blog posts. Speaking of blog posts, you’ll want to create catchy and engaging blog post titles that uses optimization strategies like deliberate title length and targeted keywords. And your meta description is a 150-character brief to entice your readers to click on your website when it shows in search results.
Next, you’ll want to make sure your content is formatted in schema markup to enhance search engine visibility. This means using subheadings, incorporating FAQs at the bottom of your content, and adding reviews of your products and services. While we’re on the topic of structuring content, it’s also a good idea to create conversion-focused content, like landing pages that address specific services, products, or solutions.
Lastly, you’re gonna want to use some internal linking to further optimize your SEO. Internal linking is when you use a hyperlink to lead to another page on your website. The more content you make, the more internal linking opportunities you will have. Pro Tip: Make sure these internal links don’t break! We recommend running a broken link check once a week.
Optimize off-page SEO.
Your website and on-page SEO are looking good now it’s time to focus on optimizing your off-page SEO. This means using platforms and websites other than yours to boost your traffic and domain authority. You can do this by building high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites through guest blogging and outreach campaigns. You can also leverage local SEO by creating a Google Business Profile or a Trustpilot review page if it is applicable to your business. Diversifying your website’s traffic sources is key to achieving off-page SEO!
Add calls-to-action.
You’ve gotten your SEO strategy down, and you’re seeing an increase in organic traffic to your website. Now it’s time to actually convert those leads into newsletter subscribers, customers, and loyal followers. The best way to do this is by adding a call to action (CTA) throughout your content. CTAs invite your reader to take an action, like signing up for your newsletter, requesting a lead magnet, or making a purchase.
CTAs can be in a variety of formats, too! It can be a form, a simple button, a quiz, or a calendar to schedule a call or appointment. Using A/B tests to optimize your CTAs with different colors, styles, and phrases can increase the conversion rate of your readers who found you through SEO.
Review analytics.
SEO strategy for converting leads is not a one-and-done task. To fully optimize your website for SEO lead conversion, you have to continuously monitor your site’s performance and adjust your strategy accordingly. Using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console can help you track metrics like organic traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, and keyword rankings. With this information, you can make more informed decisions about what is working and what isn’t.
For example, identifying the most visited and highest-ranking blog posts can help you build your sales funnel to drive your target audience to become leads and customers. These are the pages where you’ll want to play with A/B testing in the CTA, formatting, and on-page SEO features.
Master SEO for lead conversion and watch your business skyrocket to success!
There are a ton of moving parts to running a successful business. But, one area you absolutely should focus on is SEO for your website to increase lead conversion. It’s an affordable and super effective way to get more customers and boost your revenue.
Listen, we understand that you have a lot to juggle and optimizing your SEO may not be at the top of your to-do list. That’s why InfluencerSEO is here to help with our SEO packages and copywriting services to make sure your website is up-to-date and using the latest SEO practices and techniques. But, if you do want to tackle the challenge on your own, make sure to check out our blog for more SEO advice!
Jordan Becerra, founder and Lead SEO Strategist at InfluencerSEO, has spent almost 15 years in the creator internet space, the last nine building InfluencerSEO into the go-to SEO partner for content creators, with 500+ creators served from pre-launch to massive publication. She learned creator monetization and community building strategy from the inside working for Lauryn Bosstick of The Skinny Confidential prior to founding InfluencerSEO, so she understands both halves of the game: how search actually works AND how creators actually build a strong community online and make money. Her job now is to stay ahead of where search engine optimization is going, especially as AI rewrites the rules, and to make sure the creators she works with get there first.
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