Let’s say you run an eCommerce site. It’s a year after launch, but your store isn’t performing as well as you hoped.
Your product descriptions are personalized and you’ve doubled and even triple-checked your checkout process to ensure it provides a seamless user experience – where did things go wrong?
Ultimately, running a business is more than simply launching a pretty website.
It requires going the extra mile to make sure your brand is getting online visibility through search engine optimization (SEO) to attract potential customers, while giving them that extra push to purchase your products or services.
In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about SEO leads, how to convert them into paying customers and top SEO consultants who can help you increase your website traffic and generate leads.
Table of Contents
What Are SEO Leads?
SEO leads are potential customers or clients who discover a brand through a search engine, such as Google.
There are three main types of SEO leads:
- Cold leads: A cold lead is familiar with your brand and offering, but isn’t interested in converting as your customer or client yet.
- Warm leads: A warm lead knows your brand and offering, and is interested in making a purchase, but isn’t committed yet.
- Hot leads: A hot lead is interested in your brand and offering, and is ready to purchase. This type of lead just needs an extra nudge to finally convert.
How To Get SEO Leads
So, how can you put your brand out there for potential customers to gain interest in your offerings and convert?
From creating blog posts that rank on Google to engaging in link building, here are our top tips on how to get SEO leads.
- Create Optimized Blog Posts
- Increase Your Website Speed
- Utilize Link Building
- Encourage And Manage Social Proof
1. Create Optimized Blog Posts
A blog is a type of content you can utilize for lead generation. It contains components that can help you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) including content, keywords, backlinks and images.
In addition, writing blogs provide value to your reader by educating them about your brand and offering.
Let’s say you run a digital marketing agency. To increase your agency’s online visibility, you can write blog posts about search engine optimization (SEO) to educate your readers about the topic and plug your SEO services which they can avail.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your blog and increase your chances of ranking on search engines:
- Conduct keyword research: Find keywords that relate to your target audience and have a high search volume — the keyword’s number of search queries — and low keyword difficulty — a metric that identifies how difficult it is for the keyword to rank on search.
- Insert keywords into strategic locations of your blog post: Once you’ve determined which keywords to use, it’s time to strategically place them in your headers, title tags, image alt tags and meta description. Keep in mind to use your keywords naturally and avoid keyword stuffing (spamming keywords into your blog post) to prevent penalties from Google.
- Use header tags: Utilizing header tags such as H1s, H2s and H3s allows your content to be skimmable and organized, while helping Google understand what your content is about.
2. Increase Your Website Speed
Page speed is a website metric that measures how long it takes for your web page to load.
Page speed affects your site’s bounce rate and time on page — a metric that identifies how much time is spent per page — which are contributors in search engine optimization.
In 2010, Google announced that speed affects a website’s search ranking because the brand wants to provide its users with the best user experience.
In addition, Google conducted a study in 2018, which showed that more than half of mobile users will leave your website if it loads more than three seconds.
To increase website speed:
- Host your website on a reliable web hosting platform such as HostGator or HostArmada
- Ensure your website is responsive in order to cater to different device users
- Use an image optimizer plug-in like TinyPNG to compress your images
- Eliminate unnecessary plugins that can slow down your website speed
- Fix broken links, which can cause Google to view your website as outdated
- Check your website speed using tools such as Pingdom and Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
3. Utilize Link Building
Link building occurs when you ask other websites to link to a page on your website.
To build links, you ask people to backlink or link their blog post, article or website into one of your web page’s keywords for exposure.
Backlinks are used by search engines such as Google to help websites rank.
4. Encourage And Manage Social Proof
Customer reviews impact SEO and your overall search ranking, as they tell Google and users that your website is credible and trustworthy.
Social proof such as customer reviews offer potential customers an opportunity to read previous customer experiences about your brand and offerings.
To motivate your customers to leave reviews:
- Display social proof on your homepage
- Automate your customer review process using follow-up emails, pop-up forms and customer feedback request emails
- Reach out to past customers through social media, email and surveys to ask them for a review
- Provide a special discount on your customers’ next purchase when they leave a customer review
Compared to positive social proof, negative reviews can deter potential customers and damage your brand’s reputation.
Instead of turning a blind eye on (or even deleting) negative reviews, acknowledge your brand’s shortcomings, reach out to the customer and provide a solution.
How To Convert SEO Leads Into Paying Customers
So now you have a website with high-quality content such as blog posts, you’ve engaged with link builders and you’re managing your customer reviews like a pro.
What’s next? It’s time to convert your SEO leads into customers. Here’s how:
1. Provide Value For Your Customers
Once you reach out to leads via a phone call, email or social media, focus on bringing value into the conversation by addressing their needs and pain points.
In addition, establish your brand’s credibility by sharing social proof and case studies on how your offerings have helped previous customers.
2. Identify The Problem
After sharing the value of your product and services, it’s time to determine the problem your lead is experiencing.
Start a conversation and tailor your dialogue to the lead. This stage is also a good opportunity for you to answer questions or concerns your lead may have.
Ultimately, your customers care about finding a solution to their problem. If they feel that your product or service is something that can help them, that’s when they become interested.
3. Ask For The Sale
So you’ve established your brand’s credibility, your leads know how great your offerings are and they’ve displayed interest in converting.
The next step? It’s time to pop the question and ask your lead if you can close the sale.
Ask them if they’re ready to purchase your product and provide further instructions on the next steps, such as which payment gateways they can use and when they can expect to receive the product.
However, if they aren’t ready to convert just yet, keep them in mind and start following up on their decision.
4. Follow Up With Your Leads
Following up with your leads via phone call or email reminds them that you haven’t forgotten about them, and that you value them as a potential customer.
In addition, follow-up with leads within two days after your initial call to prevent them from losing interest.
Top SEO Consultants To Help You Generate Leads
Looking for SEO consultants to help convert your leads into paying customers? We rounded up seven of our top consultants who can do the job!
1. Digital Silk
Headquarters: New York City, New York
Digital Silk is a world-class digital agency that helps brands grow online by providing digital services that increase website traffic, boost on-site engagement, generate leads and increase conversions.
Digital Silk has partnered with top brands including HP, Microsoft, Amazon and NASA.
Digital Silk’s services include:
- 360° digital agency services
- Search engine optimization
- Content marketing
- Branding services
- Marketing services
- Web design and development
- App development
- Software development
2. Delante
Headquarters: Kraków, Poland
Launched in 2014, Delante is an international SEM and SEO company that has worked with companies in over 30 industries and aims to help their clients boost brand visibility and create websites that convert.
Delante’s services include:
- SEO consulting
- SEO copywriting
- Link building audit
- Pay-per-click marketing
3. Funnel Boost Media
Headquarters: San Antonio, Texas
Started in 2011, Funnel Boost media is a lead generation company that helps businesses grow through search engine marketing.
From providing SEO services and pay-per-click marketing to conversion rate optimization and web design, they have you covered.
Funnel Boost Media’s services include:
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine marketing
- Web design
4. Disruptive Advertising
Headquarters: Pleasant Grove, Utah
Disruptive Advertising helps brands build websites that generate organic traffic and provides an exceptional user experience to their target audience.
Disruptive Advertising has partnered with big brands including Adobe and the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Disruptive Advertising’s services include:
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Digital marketing strategy
- Social advertising
- Landing page testing
5. Stellar SEO
Headquarters: Franklin, Tennessee
Founded in 2012, Stellar SEO specializes in link building that helps companies gain more quality leads, increase brand credibility and improve brand awareness.
From B2B and B2C to legal firms and eCommerce, Stellar SEO has partnered with brands in many different industries.
Stellar SEO’s services include:
- Search engine optimization
- Link building
- Public relations
- Content marketing
6. Ignite Visibility
Headquarters: San Diego, California
Ignite Visibility is one of the top digital marketing agencies and is recognized as a five-time Inc. 5000 company, trusted by top players such as DoorDash, National Funding and The Knot World Wide.
Ignite Visibility’s services include:
- Search engine optimization
- Pay-per-click marketing
- Web design and development
- Public relations
7. Outer Box
Headquarters: Akron, Ohio
Founded in 2004, Outer Box provided SEO and web design services for clients in various industries including retail, medical and boating.
Whether you need a personalized e-store or SEO services to generate more web traffic, Outer Box has you covered.
Outer Box’s services include:
- SEO consulting
- Web design
- Pay-per-click marketing
- Paid search
- Google ads consulting
Wrapping Up On SEO Leads
Increasing your website traffic and boosting your online brand visibility is key to generating SEO leads and ultimately, getting conversions.
To recap, here are tips on how you can get SEO leads:
- Create optimized blog posts
- Increase your website speed
- Utilize link building
- Encourage and manage social proof
To convert SEO leads into customers:
- Provide value for your customers
- Identify the problem
- Ask for the sale
- Follow up with your leads
While gaining SEO leads seems like a time-consuming and complex task, you don’t have to do it on your own. Partnering with SEO consultants ensures you’re getting expert help in generating leads that convert.
