How to Generate Leads with SEO?
When you outsource SEO activities you probably expect that they’ll help you acquire new customers over time. Indeed, this should be the objective of specialists’ work. However, first you should observe changing visibility for specific keywords related to your business, then, your Google positions will improve and translate into a greater number of inquiries from potential customers. How to run the campaign to ensure that it brings the intended results? How can you generate leads with SEO?
Table of contents:
Lead Generation: What Is It?
Before we spill the beans and tell you how to generate leads in SEO, let’s define lead generation.
This process is supposed to increase users’ interest in your offer, expand your database and get new inquiries. A person who is looking for a solution to a given problem, is interested in a service or reaches out to you via the contact form can be a lead.
How to generate leads? You can focus on newsletters, social media, landing pages and Google traffic. Lead generation means transferring the standard communication and sales process to online activities. Of course, it includes various components and it’s a kind of process.
Lead generation vs SEO
The greatest advantage of Google traffic is that it attracts users who are looking for exactly what you offer (regardless of whether it’s a product, service or simply desired information). Therefore, there’s a huge probability that this traffic willhelp you generate leads. However, before this happens, you need to improve visibility for keywords.
In this case, first you’ll observe increased visibility for specific phrases – the website is going to appear on subsequent pages of Google search results for more and more keywords. Next, the site will be ranked in the TOP10 and its visibility will begin to translate into traffic. Expect your investment to pay off after a few months – then you canstart to gain leads and customers with SEO.
However, there is one more question – what to do to ensure that the search engine traffic translates into leads? How to generate leads with SEO? Keep in mind a few important issues.
Bear in mind that Google search engine is the dominant source of traffic for online stores. Therefore, it’s worth investing in the process.
How To Increase Organic Leads With SEO?
Search engine traffic can be very effective, however, if you want to ensure that it translates into leads, you need to take care of specific aspects. A well-implemented campaign may generate inquiries from customers, but there are instances when the acquired traffic doesn’t immediately bring the expected results.
Thanks to SEO, you obtain data that can be analyzed. You see what inquiries generate traffic, how users behave on the site and you can easily determine causes of your problems (e.g. with complex forms or unfriendly page design).
But beforehand, you need to pay attention to the elements that determine traffic acquisition and have an impact on lead generation.
Select appropriate keywords
Website optimization is an important part of the SEO campaign. Your page should be filled with keywords that correspond to your business profile which means that Google users are likely to type them when searching for your products or services. For keyword research, benefit from tools like SEMSTORM, Ahrefs or Google Ads Keyword Planner.
But how can you know if selected phrases will generate leads? First of all, you should determine what queries are typed by Google users who are looking for products like yours.
Let’s assume that you run a store with washing machines. Doing SEO for the name of this appliance seems to be the most obvious option. From the mentioned tools, you’ll also learn that the volume of searches for the word “washing machines” is very high, so gaining a high position for this phrase should translate into a great number of page visitors. Besides, reaching TOP1 would be prestigious, but… is it really profitable?
First of all, it’s a highly competitive phrase that requires significant investments and lots of time. Secondly, what do Internet users who enter such a query in Google have in mind? Do they want to buy a washing machine or are they looking for spare parts for this appliance, information about its history, a coloring book for a child? Although such queries can generate traffic, it won’t necessarily translate into conversions or sales.
On the other hand, a user who enters the query “washing machine Amica MX567” in Google is probably determined to buy a particular model and is looking for an attractive offer. If Internet users provide a device model, it’s a sign that they know exactly what they’re looking for. That’s why it’s worth focusing on long-tail keywords, meaning keywords with 3 or more words. Such queries make up to 70% of web traffic.
Check how to optimize website content. Although the guide focuses on service websites, similar rules apply for online stores.
Remember that content should be created mainly for users, not for search engine robots. If you want to generate more leads, complement your texts with phrases that correspond to search intent.
How?
If customers care about time, they may add phrases like “express 24h delivery” to their queries. On the other hand, if they look for the lowest prices, they may type “sales” or “the lowest prices”. If they want to buy specific products and pick them up from the store, they can enter phrases like “Boston, pick-up”. By using such keywords, you improve your chances of acquiring leads.
Link internally – cross-selling and up-selling
Proper website structure and linking of individual product or category pages, especially those of greatest importance to you, is one of the ranking factors. When talking about powerful websites with correct link profiles, internal linking itself can be enough to reach high Google positions for numerous phrases.
Internal linking includes cross-selling and up-selling. Cross-selling consists in selling complementary products – the customer receives a suggestion of solutions chosen by other Internet users who bought a specific item.
On the other hand, up-selling is about offering the customer better quality products, with more features, and at the same time at a higher price. In this case, stores may compare a given product to others and show the parameters that differentiate specific devices. It can be an effective way to convince the customer to choose a more expensive solution.
Thus, in real life, an element that is highly important for SEO, translates into a greater number of leads.
But how to do linking so that it has an impact on visibility?
It’s important to ensure that the link is anchor, which means the link is hidden under the text. A picture with the product price, name, and image shouldn’t be a link. It also supports internal linking but it’s definitely better to place redirects under the text.
Want to learn more? Check out: Cross-selling and up-selling: what to choose?
Improve website loading time
Website loading time is one of Google ranking factors. Now, websites that load fast are on the top. According to “The State of Online Retail Performance” report, the highest conversion rate by device type is different – on desktop, it’s 1.8 seconds, and at this loading speed, it’s possible to achieve the best results.
At the same time, accelerating a website may translate into better visibility in Google.
It’s like killing two birds with one stone – the SEO agency running your campaign will improve your website loading time and increase the chances of acquiring leads. At the same time, Internet users won’t be discouraged by a long loading time. Better visibility can translate into more page visits and leads.
Focus on user-generated content
Introducing the feedback module and letting users create content is another way to acquire leads. Why is it worth doing it? Visitors can generate a tremendous amount of information and use words that don’t come from the tools.
People who buy equipment go into great detail about how they use devices, what kind of space they work on, and more. These can be elements of queries typed into Google. When, additionally, users see flattering reviews, it increases the chances of generating leads.
This is additional content that can positively influence the SEO of the website, including visibility on subsequent queries. Don’t hesitate – user-generated content can be really valuable.
Read: E-commerce product reviews. Why are they important and how do they affect SEO?
Optimize structured data in the search results
Structured data is used to inform search engine robots about the website content. In practice, these are descriptions that are part of the site’s HTML code. Thanks to these solutions, the average rating with the number of stars, the number of added reviews, the price of the product, or the stock level can appear in the search results.
Thanks to the structured data, additional information about the product may appear in the search results, which translates into a higher CTR (click-through rate). Using them will make your website’s search results in the SERPs more attractive.
You can find descriptions of the data sets that may be implemented in Google’s documentation. There are also plugins for all popular CMS systems that will make this task easier for you.
Take care of link building
Backlinks are one of the Google ranking factors. Although it’s about the quality, not the quantity, achieving high positions requires acquiring many links from various sources.
Sponsored articles are very popular nowadays. Not only do they affect your site’s visibility in Google, but they also directly drive visitors and translate into leads. If you want to learn how to create a quality sponsored entry that meets your SEO and marketing goals, check out our blog: How to create a converting sponsored article.
You can monitor backlinks to your website in Ahrefs.
Optimize photos
Most Internet users associate SEO with general search results. They forget about Google Images, whereas many people looking for clothes or shoes, start with these results.
In the case of some products, we care mainly about their design, only then do we check other elements like composition. If you want your photos to generate leads, they should have outstanding quality. On the other hand, if you wish to rank high in Google Images, pictures shouldn’t load too long. Use TinyPNG to reduce their size without losing quality.
It’s important to use the most important keyword that describes the content in the image name. If the phrase consists of several words, separate them with a hyphen, not an underscore – the file should be called e.g. red-dress.jpg instead of red_dress.jpg. Make sure that you use alt descriptions – provide a description of what is in the picture and include keywords.
