Why you should always optimise your content for SEO, even if your goal isn’t organic traffic
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a key component of any successful content strategy these days, and SEO methods are used all the time even if we don’t realise it.
For marketers who are focusing on creating thought leadership content to share across other channels and to generate leads, you may not think that SEO should be a focus for your content.
However, SEO isn’t just for driving organic traffic from search engines, it’s also a way of achieving wider marketing goals and bolstering your efforts.
Here, let’s explore how SEO can help you meet all your marketing goals, even if those goals don’t require organic traffic.
1. SEO helps with lead generation
If your primary goal is lead generation then you shouldn’t dismiss SEO, in fact, you should be embracing it.
Of course, lead generation is about more than just content. However, using SEO tools to conduct keyword research can help you to identify the pain points of your customers and gaps that you might be able to fill with products and content.
By encouraging users to come to your website you are opening up an opportunity for them to interact with other content, particularly if your website is well optimised, well laid out and has a good internal linking structure.
Then, as potential customers spend more time on your site, they learn more about your company which makes them more qualified leads if they do decide to give you their information.
2. SEO helps with brand awareness
Most people won’t go past the first page or two of Google when searching for something, so even if you just want to get your brand out there you should be making sure your content is SEO friendly, relevant to your audience needs, and is ranking well on Google.
Additionally, if you are producing amazing thought leadership articles but they are not ranking because they aren’t optimised or aren’t targeting the right keywords then you could be missing out on traffic and readership.
Keyword research conducted as part of your SEO strategy can help you find out what your audience want to know about, and what they are searching, which can help you to produce your thought leadership content in a more strategic way for optimum engagement.
3. SEO helps you to keep above competitors
If your competitors are hot on optimising their website and their content for SEO, then you should be too.
It’s common for us to get clients who say “Our competitors aren’t anywhere near as good as us, yet they rank better than us”. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t know if you really are better than your competitors. Google crawls websites and ranks them based on how well optimised the pages are for specific keywords, it doesn’t take into account how much money you are making or how many word of mouth referrals you get.
If you want to be seen over your competitors, then you need to compete with them on the internet too. SEO is an important part of this, as you can optimise everything from your home page to how you are appearing on Google Maps for location-based searches.
4. SEO helps with your pay-per-click efforts
Another benefit of SEO is that it helps with paid search efforts.
There is one key reason why SEO and PPC work well when used together, and this is because there is more visibility when these two are combined.
Consumers are more likely to click on ads and sponsored shopping results if they trust the company that those ads are coming from and see them as an authority. By having your brand ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and appearing in coveted Featured Snippet positions, you are more likely to be trusted by consumers and they are more likely to click on ads promoting specific products and services.
Get in touch today to find out how SEO can help your business
Trust us when we say, that search engine optimisation is more than just about organic search. SEO helps to inform strategy and produces a multitude of benefits for businesses.
For more information about SEO and how we can help you to perform better, get in touch with the team at Varn today.
