Search Engine Optimization has been a powerful predictor of success in Internet marketing ever since Google ran its first search. But SEO has evolved since those early years. And as the search process has become more complex, so has the way companies should use SEO as a digital marketing tool.
The biggest change of all? Fighting the train of thought that thinks that getting as much traffic as possible is a good thing. If you get tons of traffic but you aren’t seeing a lot of business from it, what good is that traffic to your bottom line? The goal, then, is more traffic from qualified leads, rather than getting as much traffic as possible. Here’s a look at three ways you can make more money with less website traffic:
1. Target conversion keywords rather than business keywords.
If you want targeted, specific traffic, then you need to write to targeted, specific keywords. But it’s not about covering every keyword that relates to your business, it’s about carefully targeting important keywords that indicate that a customer is about to take action.
For example, if you run a high-end e-commerce liquor store, your company might brainstorm topics like “liquor,” “drinks,” “low cost alcohol,” and particular brands of alcohol. But even if you get a significant amount of traffic from those keywords, what percentage of those customers actually goes through with a transaction? A better use of your SEO efforts is to track the keywords a customer uses right before he makes a purchase, then focusing your efforts on that type of keyword.
2. Identify the right content length for blog posts and blog titles.
While writing is an art form, blog posts and titles need to abide by certain scientific laws, too. The length of each blog post needs to be carefully determined by studying how your customers spend their time. If you have a very high time on page, it means your customers are investing a lot of time in researching and may be interested in long-form blog posts and white papers. If time on page is very low, then short posts, infographics, and images may better suit their needs.
On a more structured note, consider the length of your blog post and white paper titles, too. The best length for social media updates is less than 140 characters, while search results look better at 50-60 characters or under. The meta information for each post should never exceed 125 characters.
3. Review your metrics monthly to create your editorial goals.
SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” piece of your content marketing strategy. It’s a way to understand and implement information about your target customer. To that end, you need to stay on top of how your customer’s needs and interests are changing each month: Which blog posts are popular? Which blog posts see no traffic at all? And which pages and searches within your website are the most active?
Each of these insights can help you target better customers with your marketing efforts by creating similar content to what’s popular and editing unpopular content to be more effective. As you edit your archives, you’ll be slowly building a website that is custom targeted to customers who are ready to make a purchase.
If you’ve been focusing on increasing traffic to your website at all costs, it’s time to redirect your attention. Use these SEO insights to improve your lead quality and attract more qualified leads.
