As an SEO agency with years of experience working with diverse clients, we've gained invaluable insights into what works and what doesn't when it comes to SEO lead generation.
While most articles on how to generate leads with SEO only cover the basics (e.g., publish high-quality content, build backlinks, etc.), we will delve into more advanced strategies, and share real-life client examples.
Let's dive in.
1. Prioritize bottom-of-funnel keywords that produce leads (not just traffic)
Most SEO strategies measure their success in increased traffic and page views.
However, at our agency, we take a different approach. We focus on measuring the total number of leads and signups generated from every single piece of content we generate. This holds ourselves accountable to conversions (rather than just traffic).
Through our experience, we've discovered that while top-of-funnel keywords (e.g., "what is accounting", "accounting tips", etc.) may drive more traffic, they often fail to deliver the most conversions.
Instead, bottom-of-funnel keywords with strong buying intent (e.g., "best accounting software", "QuickBooks vs. FreshBooks", etc.) are the key to attracting ready-to-convert customers.
Case Study (Going From 15 to 60 Leads per Month by Focusing Bottom-of-Funnel Keywords)
To illustrate the impact of this strategy, let's take a closer look at one of our real estate clients, Fast Expert. Before partnering with us, they were generating around 15 leads per month by ranking for home improvement keywords with low purchase intent (e.g., "how to fix a sink", "home improvement tips", etc.).
Upon analyzing their situation, we decided to implement a bottom-of-funnel approach, targeting keywords that indicate a higher likelihood of making a purchase (e.g., "best real estate agent in Denver", "questions to ask before hiring a real estate agent", etc.).
By going after these types of purchase-driven keywords, we were able to increase their leads from 15 to over 100 per month.
This improvement was achieved mainly by focusing on bottom-of-funnel SEO keywords that drive conversions, not just traffic.
However, it's important to note that we're not suggesting that top-of-funnel keywords are entirely ineffective at producing conversions. As demonstrated in the example above, our client's top-of-funnel content was still generating 15 leads per month before we began working with them.
However, since bottom-of-funnel keywords produce far more conversions, we recommend prioritizing them first, and then gradually expanding to include top-of-funnel content to build topical authority around the conversion-focused keywords.
By doing so, you'll drive revenue from SEO at a much faster rate.
2. Hire writers with subject matter expertise
Many folks overlook the importance of subject matter expertise when producing content for their blog. This oversight can lead to subpar content that fails to resonate with the target audience, and hinders the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Illustrating The Problem
Imagine you're running a software company targeting attorneys and you've created an article titled "How to Increase Law Firm Profitability." If you hand this topic off to a writer who has never started or managed a law firm, the resulting content is likely to be superficial and inaccurate.
Most writers without a deep understanding of the legal industry resort to simply Googling information and rehashing it in different words. Worse still, they may add new information and generalizations that are not only inaccurate but also easily spotted by experienced attorneys.
When an established attorney reads this type of content, they'd be more likely to navigate away from the blog post, leading to a poor conversion rate.
Ranking #1 in Google is only half the battle; you also need to engage and convert readers once they've landed on your article.
Our Solution
To overcome this challenge, our agency takes a unique approach to content creation. For each client we work with, we find a new writer who is an expert in the relevant subject matter.
For instance, if your target audience consists of real estate agents, we would hire a writer with extensive experience in the real estate industry to create your content. Similarly, if you run a technical SaaS product, we'd seek out a writer with the specific technical expertise needed to effectively communicate your message.
This sets us apart from agencies that use the same writer for multiple accounts, regardless of the subject matter.
It's a key differentiator that makes a massive difference on the quality of the content, leading to content that not only ranks #1, but resonates with your target audience and converts into leads and sales.
3. Produce press-worthy content (to build backlinks naturally)
When it comes to building backlinks for SEO, the conventional approach is to write guest posts on relevant websites.
You might create an article on the "best accounting software," hand off the blog post URL to a backlink agency, and ask them to create a guest post linking to it or maybe the a link building agency executes on those ideas.
While this method can be effective, and we do employ it at our agency, there's another powerful strategy that can help you attract high-quality backlinks naturally: creating press-worthy content.
Press-worthy content, such as original research, statistics, and surveys, has the potential to attract backlinks from reputable publications without the need to purchase them individually. This approach not only proves to be more cost-effective in the long run but also results in higher-quality backlinks.
Case Study: Press-Worthy Content for a Real Estate Client
To illustrate the effectiveness of this strategy, let's take a look at one of our real estate clients. We produced an article featuring statistics on the average real estate commission in every state. This piece of content was not only informative but also highly relevant to the industry, making it an attractive resource for other websites to link to.
As a result, the article earned links from several leading publications in the real estate space, significantly boosting our client's overall SEO rankings.
Case Study: Staying Attuned to Current Events
In addition to creating evergreen content, it's important to stay attuned to current events and trends that may impact your industry. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we created a topical article exploring how the pandemic had affected the housing market.
This timely piece of content positioned us as a thought leader in the space, attracted additional backlinks, and further strengthened our client's SEO performance.
Note: If you're struggling to identify press-worthy SEO article ideas for your business, our team can help! Reach out to us for a complementary 30-minute consultation.
4. Consider a multilingual SEO strategy
By limiting your SEO efforts to a single language, you're effectively shutting the door on countless potential customers who may be searching for your products or services in their native language.
Case Study: Skyrocketing Traffic With Multilingual SEO
At our agency, we had been managing SEO for a SaaS AI writing tool for two years, during which we were generating a few hundred thousand visits per month. Following our strategy of targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords, we had created pages optimized for phrases like "AI essay writer," "AI article writer," and similar variations.
We then took each of our high-performing, bottom-of-funnel pages and translated them into over 150 variations, targeting different countries and languages
The results were astounding. After implementing a multilingual SEO strategy, we saw monthly organic traffic skyrocket from a few hundred thousand visits to several million per month.
So if you're not leveraging multilingual SEO, now is the time to start! This is particularly true for SaaS companies, whose products often have the potential to serve customers across the globe.
5. Don't target multiple keywords with a single page
While it's tempting to try and maximize your SEO efforts by targeting multiple keywords with a single page, this approach can actually hinder your performance.
Let's consider a typical scenario: a project management software company publishes a single article targeting the keyword "project management software." They hope that this article will also rank for related variations, such as "project management software for lawyers," "project management software for healthcare,", "project management software for writers", and so on.
While this may seem like an efficient use of resources, the reality is that each of those specific keyword variations requires its own dedicated article. Search engines and users alike are looking for content that precisely matches their query, and a general article about project management software is unlikely to satisfy the unique needs and concerns of lawyers, healthcare professionals, writers, etc.
So in short, you need to adopt a precision targeting approach, rather than casting a wide net. This means creating 1 article for each specific keyword you want to rank for.
6. Build backlinks from topically relevant pages
We've found that the most valuable backlinks come from blog posts that are topically relevant to your product or service. While this may seem like an obvious approach, it's surprisingly not the norm.
For example, let's say you run a video editing software. Most backlink agencies would sell you backlinks from sites and articles that don't have any relevance to your product (e.g., a backlink from a health recipes site). While this may be helpful in the short term, with Google's recent helpful content update (and as new updates get released), these types of low-quality links may harm your rankings.
Instead, you should obtain links from sources that are highly relevant to your product or service. In the case of a video editing software company, this would mean seeking out backlinks from blog posts on topics like "how to edit videos", "the best video editing techniques", and so on.
While these types of topically relevant links may come at a higher cost, in the long run, they will generate better rankings and higher overall ROI from SEO.
The Golden Standard: Backlinks from Articles Receiving Traffic
While topical relevance is important, there's an even higher level of backlink quality to strive for: links from articles that not only cover relevant topics, but also rank on the 1st page of Google and receive organic traffic.
In addition to significantly enhancing your SEO site authority, these top-tier backlinks can drive a steady stream of highly qualified referral traffic and generate valuable leads for your business.
To illustrate the potential impact, let's consider a scenario where you run a video editing software business and secure a backlink from an article titled "Top 10 Video Editing Software", which ranks on the first page of Google and receives substantial organic traffic. Users who enter the article and click on your link may end up becoming paying customers.
That's why links with traffic represent the golden standard and warrant allocating a larger portion of your budget.
7. Diversify your backlink anchor text profile (to avoid a penalty)
In the past, using the same exact match anchor text for all your backlinks may have been an effective tactic. For example, if you wanted to rank #1 for "project management software," you might have aimed to use that precise phrase as the anchor text for each of your 50 backlinks.
However, Google's algorithms have evolved and are now much better at identifying and penalizing this type of behavior.
For a more sustainable and effective backlink strategy, it's essential to diversify your anchor text profile. This means using a variety of relevant phrases and keywords to link back to your site, rather than relying solely on a single exact match phrase.
Let's revisit the "project management software" example. Instead of using that phrase verbatim for every anchor text, consider the many other ways you could refer to it:
- Project management platform
- Best tools for project management
- Best software to manage projects
- And so on.
Build a list of all the anchor text variations, and try to use as many of them as you can! This creates a more natural and diverse link profile that is less likely to trigger penalties (and more likely to support long-term SEO growth).
Interested in working together?
Unlike most SEO agencies, we focus on generating leads (not just traffic). To get started, we offer a free 30-minute consultation where we'll discuss your SEO goals, assess your current strategy, and provide actionable next steps.