You can generate leads with SEO in 7 ways. The steps are to do your keyword research, optimize your website for search engines, publish high-quality content, promote that content, build links, monitor your results and keep your content updated. Together they bring people who search for what you sell to your site, and turn those visits into inquiries.
A successful SEO campaign starts with your target audience and the words they search. It takes time to see results, so plan for months, or work with a B2B SEO agency that specializes in high-converting search terms.
1. Do your keyword research
Lead generation through SEO starts with targeting the right keywords.
The first step in any SEO campaign is understanding your target audience and what they’re searching for. You can do this by conducting keyword research, which involves identifying the keywords and phrases people use to find your type of product or service.
For keyword research, you can use several tools and techniques, including competitor analysis, search engine trends and Google Keyword Planner.
When choosing keywords, consider what your customers are likely to search for. Consider your competition too. If your competitors target the exact same keywords, you’ll need to find less competitive ones. According to Profitworks, long-tail keywords convert 2.5x higher than head keywords.
2. Optimize your website for search engines
Potential customers need to find your site easily. Optimizing your website for search engines helps it show up near the top of the search results pages, where people are most likely to see it.
Once you have a list of target keywords, you can optimize your website and its content. This involves optimizing your website’s title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, content and images for those keywords.
You can also optimize your website’s internal link structure to help Google crawl and index your pages more efficiently. Backlinko analyzed 11.8 million Google search results and found that the average first-page result contains 1,447 words.
3. Publish high-quality content
Publish content that people want to read. It should be relevant to your target audience and include the keywords and phrases they search for.
Update your content regularly so it stays accurate and relevant.
Tools like Semrush, Moz and Ahrefs show you which content to create for your best keywords and whether your website is optimized for them.
4. Promote your content
Once you’ve published your content, promote it so that as many people as possible see it. Share it on social media and link to it from your website.
Social media promotion increases website traffic, reaches a wider audience and connects you with potential customers.
73% of marketers say their social media marketing efforts are ‘somewhat effective’ or ‘very effective’ for their business.
5. Link building
Link building means earning backlinks from reputable sources. Those links add to your website’s credibility and can improve its search rankings.
Better rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs) lead to more leads and sales for your business.
One way to build links is to publish guest posts on relevant websites. Guest posting puts your website in front of a new audience and earns links back to it.
Another way is to list your website in reputable industry directories. When other websites link to yours, it tells Google your site is valuable and worth ranking high in the search results.
Never purchase links, and link only to reputable sources that can enhance your domain’s ranking. Manual outreach to bloggers for guest posts and link placements builds authentic links and relationships with trustworthy sources.
6. Monitor your results
Once you’ve started your SEO campaign, monitor your results to see how it’s performing. This involves tracking your website’s search engine rankings, click-through rates and conversions.
You can use tools like Semrush, Moz or Ahrefs to track your SEO results. These tools also show the number of links pointing to your website.
Make sure your website loads quickly. Page speed is a ranking factor. Choose a reliable web host, make sure your site works well on mobile, and optimize images and scripts with tools like TinyPNG and WP Fastest Cache.
Your tracking data shows which parts of your SEO campaign are working and which need improvement. Use it to fine-tune your campaign and get better results.
7. Keep your website content updated
Publish new blog posts, add new products to your inventory and update your contact information. Aim to update your website at least once a week.
Which step to start with
Start with keyword research, since every other step depends on it. Find 10 to 20 terms your buyers search when they’re close to buying, and make sure a page on your site answers each one. Then build links to those pages and track which ones bring in leads.
If you want help putting this into practice, an SEO agency can run the campaign with you. Our team does this work for B2B companies.