In today’s world of marketing, most people are fixated on measuring short-term lead generation. They want leads to flow in quickly and often that can result in a lack of focus and investment into their SEO strategy.
Return on Investment (ROI) often comes to the fore when considering short-term lead generation techniques such as PPC vs longer-term SEO strategies. Often, organisations don’t have the patience to reap the benefits of SEO, so they invest instead in paid ads as they quickly see ROI. Ads are certainly beneficial to some B2B organisations; however, you can end up investing a significant amount of money each month and most advert clicks are never going to convert.
Yes, SEO takes longer, but once you have your golden position in search engine rankings, it’s just a case of maintenance vs. ongoing significant investment. What’s more, the content you produce also helps to reinforce your knowledge and expertise – creating a lasting impression and adding value for your target audience.
The problem with SEO is when you end up significantly behind your competitors it’s hard to catch up and claim a great search engine ranking. But, if you are behind, don’t let this deter you. There are always ways of still ranking, by taking a slightly different tactic to your competitors. The right SEO strategy will pay you dividends over time. It won’t happen overnight, but it will be worth it when you claim your keyword top spots!
Here are some tips on how you can play the SEO long game to generate relevant and consistent leads.
Research is key
Research to inform SEO is a critical aspect of your digital marketing and web development strategy. SEO research involves understanding search engine algorithms, user behaviour, content optimisation strategies, and the ever-changing landscape of the internet. A starting point would be to look at what your competitors are ranking for and what they are posting on their websites.
You then need to be setting your SEO objectives as it is crucial for defining the direction and measuring the success of your search engine optimisation efforts, meeting your marketing goals and identifying your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Understanding your audience, knowing what they are searching for and what their problems are will also help you to post relevant solutions through your content. It also means that your visibility will increase, your audience’s user experience will improve and you’ll gain a competitive advantage.
Applying your SEO strategy to your audience
A good search term choice, also known as a keyword, is essential for effective SEO. To do this, you need to be choosing search terms that are directly related to your business, products, services or content.
You should also consider the search volume of the keyword you choose, which indicates how often it is searched for in search engines. Highly competitive keywords are often more difficult to rank for, especially if your website is relatively new or has a lower authority, so it’s essential to strike a balance between targeting competitive keywords and focusing on alternative, perhaps more niche or long-tail keywords with lower competition.
At Embrace, we typically look at Google rankings for keywords, measure their difficulty score out of 100 and look for keywords that have a good search volume to difficulty ratio. If it has high volume and low difficulty, then a lot of people are searching for this term, but it’s easy to rank for which makes it a great keyword to use.
A couple of other pointers you should consider is the intent behind your search term, the specificity of the search term and if your business serves a specific geographic area.
Analytics and tracking
Once your SEO strategy is up and running, it is important to continuously monitor the performance of your chosen search terms using analytics tools such as Semrush, Google Analytics or Google Search Console.
Try testing different keywords, track their rankings, and analyse their impact on website traffic and conversions. Your keyword strategy should be adjusted based on the insights gained from data analysis. You also want to be cautious of not duplicating SEO terms on other pages on your website otherwise they will be in competition with each other!
Results
So, maybe now you’re at the stage where your content is ranking well but how do you make sure your content is compelling enough to make people enquire? Creating content to motivate people to take action involves a combination of storytelling by sharing key messaging which shows what differentiates your business, valuable information which entices your reader and clear calls to action.
In short, it is absolutely worth playing the SEO long game! Cementing your SEO strategy can be a big task but the more time and money you invest into it, the more worthwhile it will be if you’re clear on what keywords and phrases you should be ranking for. Get this right, and upload regular SEO content frequently, then your website will rank higher on Google as it is frequently being updated.
If your SEO or website is not where it needs to be, contact us for an initial chat so we can help you reach the top of search engine rankings and be found for all the right reasons. Playing the SEO long game successfully will result in you generating consistent and relevant leads. Get in touch to find out more!
This latest thinking article was written by:
Katie Hargreaves
Content Manager
