Get More ROI from Your SEO

By now, every business knows that a website optimized for search engines is a must. After all, if your company isn’t at the top of search engine results, then who will find the site you paid good money for and the Search Engine Optimization you are continuing to invest in?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), however, remains mysterious—and expensive—for many businesses. The return on your SEO investment is typically measured in organic clicks: visitors who come onto your website by way of Google or other search engines.

Many SEO consultants will promise to deliver just the right amount of organic clicks to your website each month. And that’s great. But that's like leaving the football on the 5 yard line without a touchdown. If you want sales and revenue then you have to dig deeper, and ask yourself (or, even better, your SEO consultant) some key questions, that include:

• Who are these visitors?
• Do they represent my ideal prospective customer?
• How many became qualified leads?
• What processes are being initiated to improve Conversion Rates now and for the long term?  (Conversion Rate Optimization, CRO)

Driving organic site traffic is good. But turning those curious clicks into qualified leads and, ultimately, paying customers is best. That’s how you turn SEO efforts into ROI. That’s where many businesses and their SEO consultants hit a wall.

The Buyer’s Journey and Lead Conversion 

Converting clicks into leads requires a fine-tuned understanding of the digital sales process, and the buyer’s journey from the moment they enter words into the search bar to the instant they become a customer (hopefully through your website as opposed to one of your competitors’). If you’re not guiding that visitor down a path to lead conversion, they’re likely to bounce from your site soon after they arrive—leaving nothing but a visitor statistic in their wake.

So what does that Lead Conversation path look like? That’s a big question and requires an involved answer… the subject for another blog post.  But for many clients, Conversion Rate Optimization results start when we create a Lead-Magnet, a pop-up content area on the home page that initiates a sales funnel. When visitors land on the home page, they’re greeted with an eye-catching message, a compelling offer and a strong call to action that entices them to click through to a landing page.
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Once they click the landing page, they find more reasons to trust you as a solution to their problem. And then when they provide a minimal amount of personal info, they receive access to a free downloadable asset, such as a guide, checklist, video or other value-added information. This is your visitors’ reward for surrendering their names and contact info, and an opportunity for them to learn how your business, products and services can help them solve their challenges.

Meanwhile, your sales team is busy gathering all the new contacts they’ve captured. And can start reaching out, qualifying leads and converting them into customers.

Effective Lead Conversion

For lead-generating tactics to generate the best results, you’ll want to make sure they check off a few must-haves.

• Relevance: Make sure your offer relates to whatever it was the visitor was searching for in the first place.
  

• Specificity: Give away one freebie that’s easy to understand and has real value to your visitor. A vague “free consultation” for example won’t always work.
  

• Instant Gratification: Don’t make your visitor jump through a bunch of hoops to get the offer or asset. Serve it up quickly, before they bounce from your site.
  

• Tangibility: Your visitor isn’t going to give up their contact info for some nebulous or future offer. Make sure what you're giving away is tangible and useable, right now.

If you’re ready to get ROI from SEO, then let’s talk lead conversion strategy. We’d be delighted to help you map out your buyers’ digital journey. And turn them from curious visitors to solid leads. Contact us today if it sounds like we could help.