Search engine optimization is a key contributor to increasing your sales. However, pushing your website up the rankings is not a walk in the park. You need to learn the ropes and keep up with the changes. Achieving your SEO goals requires improving your online visibility, creating website traffic and increasing customer engagement.
SEO Boosts Sales – Facts and Figures
1. Customers use search engines on a daily basis
It has been estimated that more than 2 billion people are using the Internet, 93% of which are on a search engine. This means your business stands a good chance of being noticed considering the number of estimated searches every day. While making a name for your business is not easy due to the stiff competition, SEO makes you stand out. If the product or service you offer is highly competitive, you will definitely get a boost in sales.
2. SEO generates quality traffic
You can get the best traffic if it is generated from search engines. The best thing about SEO is that there is no need to carry persuasion to extremes. People search for solutions on search engines. Once you offer interesting products or services, you can create traffic to your website. Increasing traffic requires the right reporting tools and analytics. As you implement your SEO strategy, you will notice an increase in traffic at a steady rate.
3. High ranking promotes your business
Ranking high on search engines is the ultimate goal of business owners and there is a good reason for that. The logic behind ranking high is that you get instant exposure to prospects. More often than not, customers prefer businesses ranking high in search engines because top-tier websites are considered credible. Implementing an effective SEO strategy not only promotes your business but builds trust and credibility as well.
4. SEO helps customers make informed decisions
Since 80% of customers rely on search engines to make an informed decision, SEO helps you educate shoppers. Customers undergo three phases before they commit to buying a product: research, comparison and buy. Research is crucial to the purchase stage. In SEO, first impressions last. Ranking high gives you an advantage over your competitors by gaining the trust of customers.
5. SEO increases brand awareness
Your website needs credibility to be noticed. Without SEO, your business will never gain traction as Google continues to push you down the page. If your business does not appear on the top 10 Google search rankings, people will be sceptical about your site. SEO builds your brand even while you sleep. You enjoy a steady flow of leads and prospects because of your high rank.
Convert Leads to Sales: SEO Best Practices
Create an SEO strategy that works
- Know your target audienceThe efforts you put in to attract leads will be rendered useless without knowing your prospect. Get to know the types of buyers you want to target based on following characteristics:
- Age
- Gender
- Education
- Income
- Pain points
- Information sources
- Define your prospect
Have you ever wondered why your leads are not converting to sales? You might have missed out on defining them. There should be a clear process that will help you identify when a lead converts into sales. Measure conversion when they sign up as an email subscriber, download a free guide or subscribe to a free trial version of your product.
- Choose target keywords
Using the right keywords maximizes the effectiveness of SEO. To do this, you need to identify what people are searching for using Google Search Console. You may also use Google Analytics as this tool will point you to the keywords already driving traffic to your website.
- Monitor search engine rankings
You will never know how you are doing without measuring your improvements. There are several ways you can check your sales funnel rank and one of which is by searching for target keyword phrase. It helps you to determine where your page is at in terms of ranking.
Analyze existing content
A content analysis should be part of your SEO best practices because it enables you to get an idea how your content is performing. It also helps you identify errors, which will be your basis for creating a better strategy. Here are techniques for analyzing your content:
- Check technical SEO errors
The first step to analyzing your content is to audit for errors. There are online SEO tools you can use to generate page speed and SEO score. You can even download recommendations for fixing the errors.
- Identify pages that are performing well
Content analytics also give you an overview of the pages that are ahead of the competition. In Google Analytics, go to “Behavior” and choose “Site Content” then “All Pages”. It will generate a list of most viewed pages and the report will serve as your starting point to include elements that will leverage your SEO strategy.
Optimize New and Existing Content
SEO ranking is based on these factors:
- Meta Titles and Descriptions
The length of title varies, but putting target keyword phrase is essential.
Aside from the meta title, you should also pay attention to the length of your meta description. The recommended length was 160 characters, but recent Google updates suggest lengthier description.
- Page Content
Target keywords are vital to content optimization. Aside from focus or target keywords, you should also include semantic keywords or also known as LSI keywords, which refer to terms related to the focus keyword. They are displayed at the bottom of a results page.
- Links
High-quality links give value to your content and entice readers to navigate into your website. Guest posting is one of the ways to build links.
- Featured Snippets and Answer Boxes
An answer box has a steroidal effect on your ranking by increasing traffic to your website. Follow these practices for optimizing content for answer boxes:
- Properly format action or process using bullets or numbers
- Include questions
- Add heading tags
- Make a long list
SEO Principles
1. Content is as equally important as link building
If you are heavily relying on link building to rank higher, you need to re-evaluate your SEO strategy because content still dominates the search engine. Make sure you educate readers by producing well-researched and informative content.
2. User experience matters
Customers use the search engine to obtain accurate information. Websites that deliberately mislead customers will be flagged by Google and will result in losing the opportunity to generate leads. Google has rolled out stringent rules requiring website owners to produce relevant and entertaining content.
3. Mobile-friendly websites attract more online users
The digital age has brought freedom to the consumer that smartphones have become more of a lifestyle than a trend. The use of hand-held devices signals website owners to create mobile responsive websites. In fact, Google included mobile-responsiveness as a ranking factor in 2015.
4. Keywords must be used sparingly
Keyword stuffing does not translate into higher SEO ranking. It is even frowned upon because it diminishes the value of your content. Keep keyword density in mind when using keywords. Content peppered with repeated keywords may no longer make any sense.
SEO plays an important role in ranking websites. A sales increase is a good indicator that your SEO strategy is working. However, if you are not seeing any changes in spite of your efforts, you need to reassess your strategy. We can guide you through adopting an SEO strategy tailored to your needs. Check out omega to learn more about our services.
