How To Organically Scale Your Lead Generation Using SEO
Looking to drive more business revenue? Wondering why your pipeline isn’t full? Odds are you haven’t tried to scale your lead generation using SEO.
This blog post itself is an example of utilizing SEO to drive more traffic to your site and sales opportunities..
We do it all the time. You know why? Because it works. Really well actually.
I, and I know you, would never miss out on an opportunity to get your company’s offer in front of new prospects.
So why are you ignoring free lead generation and not getting the most out of Google searches? Instead, give each SEO method a try and figure out what works best for your business.
Soon enough you’ll identify a playbook of actions that yield the best results.
And don’t worry, each method is easy to try and can be implemented into your daily marketing routine.
Follow this proven advice to organically scale your lead generation using SEO. Then you’ll see the true ROI of SEO.
Get Google Reviews For Local SEO
People listen to what their peers have to say about things they’re interested in.
In fact, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust the people close to them.
Online reviews can easily make or break your decision to buy something. Really think about it. How many times have you been searching for a new restaurant to try and look straight to the reviews to make your decision?
Reviews also play a role in how Google ranks your business for relevant keywords.
If you look at the infographic above, reviews account for 15% of what Google uses to determine how businesses are ranked on the site.
These stats should convince you that you need to learn how to control these reviews and ensure that your business minimizes negative reviews.
Google holds reviews to such a high pedestal because they want to only recommend credible business to their consumers. What better way to determine credibility than to see what actual consumers have to say about it.
One of the most important things you should know about reviews is a calculated response can save you, where an emotional one can burn your reputation in the community.
Quality responses to reviews builds a trust between you and the customer because you are showing you care about them and want to guarantee their complete satisfaction.
Negative reviews and positive reviews are very different and require specific types of responses.
For positive responses, you want to avoid using generic statements. Keeping responses general can come across as superficial in the eyes of the consumer.
If you really make your customer feel valued, you need to make them seem like they’re getting a response from a real person, not just a bot that is responsible for spitting out “Thank you”s.
Before you hit send on your response, give the customer a reason to come back. Whether that means advertising a new product or simply saying you can’t wait to see them again, entice the customer to return to your business.
Now negative reviews require a bit more attention.
First things first, you never want to argue with a customer over a negative review.
Remember that little saying “the customer is always right?”, in this case, it applies.
You want to keep responses to negative reviews short and concise.
Start with apologizing for any inconvenience that caused the person to leave the review—even if your staff is not at fault, it’s better to take the high road. Then thank them for their feedback.
After completing the first two steps, suggest that you continue the conversation to fix the issue offline so it remains between the two of you.
The numbers prove it works: 33% of people that made a negative review and received a response from the company changed their review to become positive and 34% deleted the negative review completely.
Now that you know how simple reviews can be to increase your lead generation using SEO, let’s discuss the next step to gaining that valuable organic traffic.
Capture Attention With Google Business Images
You’ve made it past the first step of improving your presence on Google. Now it’s time to take a look at your Google My Business listing photos.
Google has a feature that allows you to create a business profile that goes beyond a simple listing. Google My Business allows you to easily connect with potential customers via its search engine.
Chances are, you already know about this and already have a profile. If you do, great. If you don’t, you’re going to want to seriously consider taking that next step. Google My Business is a foolproof way to create your lead generating using SEO. And it’s free, so really a no-brainer.
To improve your profile, you are going to want to add visuals that showcase your business.
Don’t believe us? A study found that 60% of consumers say quality images sway their decisions on choosing a business.
There are a few types of images that Google recommends you include in your profile:
- Exterior photos
- Interior photos
- Most popular products and services
- Common areas in the business
- Team pictures
- Management pictures
You don’t have to include each type of photo on your profile, in fact, for many businesses all types won’t be necessary to best show their business.
It is recommended that you include at least three exterior photos that show different angles of the business at different times of day so people know what to look for when they are first finding your business.
I find exterior photos to be extremely helpful when the business is in a location that can be difficult to find because I can compare the entrances of the building to the pictures they posted on their Google profile. Customers always appreciate convenience.
It is also recommended that you include at least three photos of the interior of the building. This can help the customer gauge the ambiance of the store without ever having to step foot in it.
The most popular products and services you offer sometimes only applies to certain types of businesses. This can be helpful for restaurants to show off their most popular dishes.
If your business only offers one service however, it may not be necessary for you to include pictures since it is the only service you provide. The more pictures the better though.
Including pictures of common areas in the business, such as the lobby, can be helpful for the customer because it can act as validation that they are in the right place because they recognize it from the profile. It can also act as a comfort if it is their first time visiting because they will gain some familiarity with the business.
Team photos and management photos are also great to include because the people behind the business are really what makes the experience pleasant for the customer. Headshots count for major trust points in the eyes of the consumer.
Being able to recognize faces and sense the comradery between a team of people that work for the business can help enforce the decision of a consumer to choose your business.
There is also now a tool with Google Business Photos that allows you to give your lead generation a virtual tour of the business. This feature can give you an edge over your competitors.
The pictures don’t need to be professionally done but they should still look presentable.
Know the more effort you put into your Google My Business determines how many customers you gain from it.
Now that we have discussed the features of Google that will drive your lead generation, let’s talk about enhancing your website.
Drive People To Case Studies
So far, we’ve learned that people trust the opinions of other people.
There’s no exception for your website. According to a local consumer survey, 9 out of 10 consumers look to online reviews, social media posts and the opinions of others when making decisions about purchases.
The more honest reviews you have on your site will drastically increase the credibility of your business. The numbers are all there.
Case studies may be unfamiliar territory to you if you’re a start-up or never prioritized them before. Don’t worry, there are a variety of ways to incorporate them on your site.
Many businesses will include testimonials on their website from satisfied customers.
If you look at the screenshot of our ad agency’s homepage, you’ll see that we’ve included a testimonial.
Be careful with the testimonials you choose. People respond well to familiarity. You won’t want to include a testimonial from a company that is based in Australia for a consumer base that is primarily American.
If you want to make case studies a prominent part of your website, you can create a separate page (much like a blog section) where you can put as many case studies as you would like.
Make sure the case studies that you choose to include on your page relate to your business in some capacity. For example, we will include case studies that relate to SEO on the SEO page, and ones that relate to Facebook ads on our paid ads page.
You can also discuss case studies in more subtle ways.
You can write a blog post about a case study. In fact, that’s what Jeff Finkelstein did in his case study about Google Business Photos.
The article can be found in the blog section of Moz’s website. It is not featured on the home page but is still offered on the site to provide information for their consumers.
Creating your own case studies gives you a lot of content to use in different mediums, including:
- A video
- An ebook
- A blog post
- Social media posts
You get the best of both worlds with this- you’re increasing the quality of your content and the credibility of your business.
Just like we did in this best digital marketing quotes article, you too can use customer quotes from your case studies for future articles, social media posts, and ebooks.
There is a world of opportunity when you experiment with this.
Case Studies can scale your lead generation using SEO in a few ways.
Next, we will discuss another way to drive the lead generation using SEO with your website.
Start Blogging & Guest Blogging
Kind of funny to be talking about the importance of blogging in a blog post, isn’t it?
Blogs give people a reason to return to your website even when they don’t plan on buying anything.
Written content is a powerful way to get a reader to become a customer. If you can get someone to continue returning to your website, chances are they will buy something eventually.
To do this right, first get the reader to sign up for an email. This keeps your content sticky so they’ll be notified of new posts and can receive offers to buy your product.
Focus on having a unique blog that is more helpful, entertaining, or out-there compared to your industry. It needs to have an exclusive appeal that gets people to continue reading. Something like having 57 experts discussing a topic or providing transparent insight on how your business achieved the success it did.
Using personal experience also builds credibility for your site. People enjoy when others find success and have the generosity to share it with others who want to follow their footsteps.
You can also keep your social media accounts fresh with new content by promoting blog posts. The more your accounts appear on the feeds of potential customers increases the chance of them buying a product. They may not need it now, but somewhere down the road when they need your product, you will be fresh in their mind.
On the blog itself, you will want to encourage comments on your post.
Consider ending your posts with a question that prompts the reader to respond and discuss in the comments.
Encouraging discussion on your posts will also encourage your readers to share your posts and bring new audiences in contact with your brand. Receiving shares is a key metric to track for driving lead generation using search engine marketing.
If you’re struggling to keep up with posts, there is a solution that will also continue to raise brand awareness.
Get a guest writer to write a blog or two for your site to save you the time. They are also likely to share it on their own pages which will lead their customers to your page.
If you have the extra time you can also guest write for other businesses which will help raise awareness for your brand on their site.
To sum this section up, set up a blog and start blogging to see your organic traffic and lead generation take off. If you want to climb to the first page of Google, follow an article we recently published on 30 tips to write a great blog post.
SEO For Lead Gen Conclusion
We’ve given you a lot to think about, I know.
You don’t need to try all of it at once. SEO is a gradual process that takes time to see results.
The most important thing you can do is stay persistent and keep trying new things.
Take a look at your website and marketing activity to see how you can enable each method discussed in this post.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You can hire people like us to manage your SEO for you. Since we work on this daily for both our customers and our own website, our expertise will often get you triple the results in the same amount of time.
We’ve spent the time to master SEO for lead generation and can deploy these skills to grow your business revenue while decreasing your lead gen costs.
Just promise yourself you won’t let anything hold you back from scaling your lead generation using SEO.
Really ask yourself, how much did your business invest in SEO over the last 12 months? And how much business did you lose out on by not investing more?
P.S. Improve your company’s lead gen using our SEO service.