Generating leads sound simpler than it really is. You cannot just build a site and get loads of leads on a silver platter (unfortunately). Instead, you need to work hard on building a solid SEO strategy and optimize each segment of your lead generation process.
In this post, we will go over the most critical steps you need to take to optimize your site for better lead generation.
Build a Solid SEO Strategy.
To get the most out of your lead generation process, you first need to build a solid SEO strategy that will keep you on track. Here are a few key steps to take.
Know your target audience.
Building a marketing strategy without knowing who you’re trying to address makes no sense. In digital marketing, casting your net wide usually doesn’t deliver any significant results. Instead, you need to build several buyer personas that will reflect the major characteristics of your customers.
Pay attention to their demographics, such as their age, location, gender, education, family, and income. Then, look at what online channels and sources of information they use. What are their major challenges or problems?
Identify your leads.
Now that you’ve built buyer personas, you also need to determine what actions visitors need to take to become your leads. Namely, a visitor becomes a lead when they complete a signup form and start receiving your emails regularly. They can also become leads when they download your lead magnet or sign up for a free product trial.
Target the right keywords for your website optimization.
Keywords are the nerve center of your lead generation process. You need to find those phrases that will make you more visible to the right searchers and, above all, convert them into leads.
Now, there are numerous ways to search for your perfect keywords. Start by choosing the right tools, most popular of which are Google’s Keyword Tool, Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, and Moz’s Keywords Explorer.
Keep in mind that keyword optimization is not just about spamming your content with a bunch of popular phrases. You need to focus on building a user-centric keyword research strategy and understand the intent behind Google searches.
Explore industry-related blogs and forums, Q&A platforms like Quora, and social networks. Look at Google’s search suggestions to see what your customers are searching for (Keywordtool.io can do that for you). Google Trends is also valuable because it shows you how the popularity of your keyword grows/plummets over time.
Your goal is to get yourself noticed by the right searchers and drive them to your site. Small and local businesses should also focus on optimizing their site for local searches. For example, if your products are designed specifically for the Hong Kong market, then a visitor coming from Italy or the US is not relevant because they won’t be interested in making a purchase. In this case, you should consider working with Hong Kong-based SEO professionals that understand local customers’ intent and will help you choose the right location keywords.
Perform a Content Audit.
Analyzing your content is vital for your lead generation. It is the only way to understand how well your content performs and how it gets people to convert. Here are a few steps to take:
Identify technical SEO errors.
There is a bunch of tools you can use to identify common technical SEO issues. For example, with Neil Patel’s SEO Analyzer, you can get a detailed report on your page level score and even get suggestions for further fixes. Another extremely effective tool is Screaming Frog that crawls your URLs, audits your title tags and meta descriptions, and detects various SEO errors.
Check mobile friendliness.
Google’s Mobile-First Index is a big deal and your site needs to meet its standards. To make sure whether your site is mobile-friendly, go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test that will provide you with a score and the recommendations for improvements.
Assess the quality of backlinks.
In 2019, building high-quality links will be more important than ever. This strategy not only impacts your rankings, but also increases your online authority and helps you generate more leads effectively. There is a bunch of tools that may help you analyze your backlink profile, including MajesticSEO, CognitiveSEO, and Ahrefs.
Check your page speed.
Use Google’s Page Speed Insights, GTmetrics, or Pingdom to check your page loading times. Page speed is a major ranking factor and, above all, it has an immense impact on user experience and lead generation.
Find your best-performing pages.
Go to Google Analytics> Behavior> Site Content> All pages to find your top pages. By identifying the pages that resonate with your audiences best, you will be able to optimize them to turn them into lead generation powerhouses.
Optimize your Page.
Now that a content audit has shown the major problems in your strategy, you need to fix them to boost your lead generation. Here are a few significant elements of your content you need to optimize.
Meta tags.
When performing Google searches, the first thing searchers see is your title tag and meta descriptions. This is why these elements need to be perfectly optimized and user-friendly.
When optimizing your title tag, make sure you insert your keyword somewhere early in the title. This way, it will show up irrespective of the device searchers use. Sure, the keyword should be added naturally.
An optimized meta description needs to be concise, engaging, and no longer than 160 characters. These are immensely important aspects of your page because they tell a user what your page is about and inspire them to click on it.
Page Content.
Find keywords that don’t resonate with your audiences and simply replace them where it makes sense or do a complete rewrite of your site, optimizing your content for new keywords. Always make sure you contextualize your keywords properly and build quality, engaging, and valuable content around them.
Backlinks.
In 2019, building high-quality links will be more important than ever. The best way to acquire those juicy backlinks is through writing guest posts for other reputable websites. This strategy not only impacts your rankings but also increases your online authority and helps you generate more leads effectively. There are a bunch of tools that may help you analyze your backlink profile and find link prospects, including MajesticSEO, CognitiveSEO, and Ahrefs.
Semantic boxes.
Answer boxes and features snippets have a prominent position on Google, highlight you as a credible resource, and send you loads of visitors. Now, to appear in the answer box, you should use headings, include questions and answers to them in your article, properly format your bulleted list, and write longer articles to get people to visit your site for more information.
Turn your Visitors into Leads.
Now that you’ve built an SEO strategy, conducted content audits, and optimized the major aspects of your site, you need to start generating leads. Here are a few powerful tactics that may skyrocket your lead generation efforts:
- Create a solid lead magnet. A lead magnet is a valuable piece of content such as an ebook, free trial, or checklist you offer to your target audience in exchange for their email address.
- Review your homepage and make sure its messaging and CTAs speak to your target audience.
- Offer a live chat service on your site. Now that you know what your top performing pages are, you can add a live chat option to them. By helping your visitors find the answers to their questions faster, you will encourage them to convert faster.
- Add forms to your best-performing pages. These pages are already your major lead generators and, by adding optimized and user-friendly signup forms to them, you will improve them even more.
- Personalize your calls to action. The main purpose of a call to action is to grab people’s attention, intrigue them, and briefly explain to them what it’s in it for them if they click on it. Precisely because of that, generic CTAs like “Book Now” don’t work. Create a highly personalized CTA that resonates with your target audience and evokes FOMO. Such authentic CTAs drive 42$ more conversions than their generic counterparts.
- Write a powerful value proposition. It needs to be concise, written in a simple language, and it should emphasize the major features of your product and its advantages.
- Nurture your leads. If they don’t consider you relevant, a visitor won’t become your lead. You need to earn their trust. Provide them with valuable content, answer their questions in real-time, and start sending relevant follow-up emails. According to Forrester, lead nurturing helps businesses increase their sales by 50% at a 33% lower cost, compared to marketers that don’t nurture leads.
Conclusions.
Optimizing your website is vital to your lead generation efforts. Start by building a solid plan, then analyze the performance of your content, and optimize your pages accordingly. Above all, using the steps above, you will be able to build a stronger relationship with your audiences and take advantage of any opportunity to generate more leads.
