I just wanted to address a few considerations when considering SEO for your website. Before thinking about SEO, let’s work backward and think about your website goals as it relates to lead generation.
Ok. You have a website. You promote products or services. That’s what websites do. Promote. Engage. Persuade. If your website were able to talk, it would say “Thank you for visiting me; I understand you’re looking for something that I hope to have or you’re hoping to solve a problem that I hopefully can answer. Enjoy your stay, and when ready, call us, request more info, or fill out this handy form so I can follow-up with some engaging content via email.”
The next step after building a website is to generate traffic to it. Advertising, direct mail, and PR are all good ways to build that awareness and promote your solutions. When it comes to SEO, first understand your product. Is it something that people look for on search engines? If you’re a new product that solves a problem, how would your audience know about you if they are not necessarily looking for you? For example, if you manufacture a new product that helps dental assistants clean the back of people’s teeth, and you have a website for it, you may not necessarily need SEO yet. Why? Much of the time, search engines are for people who are looking for a solution that they’ve read about, or for a topic they are somewhat familiar with.
Now, if you hire a PR agency, and write content, and start promoting your idea towards your target audiences either through advertising, PR, direct mail, trade shows, etc, then you’re now starting to create interest or demand for your new product. If your audience is aware of your product category then they will certainly research search engines. Now the need to find you. Hello SEO.
Next subject. Is your website ready to capture leads or generate conversions? Do you really understand the language your customers speak so? Here’s a list of steps before starting SEO:
- Define your conversion goals. Do you have goal conversion rates? Make a list of actions that will contribute to conversion and lead generation. Give each goal a value in your analytics program. Doesn’t make sense to invest in SEO until your website is optimized for conversions. It may make sense to utilize landing page A/B testing with pay-per-click in order to optimize your conversion tactics. You need to do anything you can to limit prospects from leaving you! Invest in conversion optimization first. All proposals we do for prospects start with the conversion optimization process.
- Keyword research. Do you really know what terms your prospect uses to find you? SEO people can do this, but it may help you to prepare this on your own first. Survey your customers? Do a Google search for “Google Keyword Tool” and enter some phrases . You’ll see some traffic figures as well as related terms. Type in your competitor’s website URL in this tool, and see what words they use on their site. Your research is an important stepping stone to starting an SEO program.
- Be prepared to change your website’s content. Yes, I know you spend funds, time, and resources creating your website. If your website’s content does not support the keyword research or your buyer’s language, it will have to be changed or updated. Website content is probably the single most important factor in 1st-page rankings. Additionally, engaging content builds trust, and that trust influences conversion rates.
- Be prepared to invest in other forms of content. Videos, PDF documents, podcasts, blogs, and press releases all need to be optimized for keywords, as those content elements also appear on Google’s organic pages.
In summary, 1st-page Google rankings generates organic traffic to your website. It’s an intricate process, and can take awhile, but the results in time will be positive, and contribute to lead generation, as long as your website is optimized properly to accept that traffic and convert those interested visitors into leads. That’s the bottom-line, isn’t it?
I’ll discuss the ROI of SEO in a future post. Please let me know your thoughts.
