One of the most effective strategies to achieve this is by optimizing your website for search engines (SEO).
By making your site more visible and attractive to your target audience, you can effortlessly draw in potential leads.
Compared to many other forms of digital marketing, SEO can be highly cost-effective. Once your website is optimized and begins ranking well, you can attract organic traffic without paying for every click (as in pay-per-click advertising).
This consistent, long-term traffic source can generate leads at a relatively low cost.
Understanding Website SEO or On-Page SEO:
Before we dive into the techniques, let’s grasp what on-page SEO entails. Essentially, on-page SEO refers to the optimizations you make directly on your website to enhance its visibility to search engines. This includes optimizing content, HTML source code, and other elements that reside on your website’s pages.
1. Quality Content Creation: Quality content is the foundation of on-page SEO. It should be informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. Focus on providing value through well-researched articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and other forms of content.
Steps for Quality Content Creation:
Step #1: Search for the topics your audience wants to read. One of the places you can do this is at Quora, and Redditt. Basis the engagement on questions related to these topics, you can know which is the topic to get the most attention from your audience. YOU CAN LOOK FOR CONTENT IDEAS THAT YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LOVE HERE.
Step #2: Plan your content ahead of time basis your goals. For example, at Bigbootmedia, we plan our content one month in advance basis the theme of the month. If your theme is SEO, then on a spreadsheet, prepare a list of content ideas related to that, and then schedule posts accordingly.
Also mention the timeline of each post next to it, so you know which post is for which week.
Step #3: Add the images throughout the content to help your users understand in visual form. Think pie-charts (for data), infographics etc. One good example would be to go to one of our posts, and see how we have done that.
Step #4: Optimise for SEO. Obviously you need to add the keywords for the search engine to pick up your content, and this forms the crucial stage for your content.
Step #5: Finally publish the content on your blog. Just one piece of advise, when you are publishing the content on different social media platforms, optimise the content for that social media platform. For example, LinkedIn prefers long-form posts with an image, while Facebook prefers a more generalised and personalised experience with regard to the content.
2. Keyword Optimization: Identify and integrate relevant keywords into your content. This includes placing them in title tags, headings, meta descriptions, and naturally within the content. But remember, don’t overstuff keywords – they should flow naturally within the text.
3. Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Craft enticing title tags that include your target keyword. These should provide a clear description of the page’s content. Meta descriptions should be concise, persuasive, and include your keyword. This is what users see in search results, so it’s essential to make it engaging.
4. Header Tags: Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content. This not only makes your content more readable but also helps search engines understand your content hierarchy.
In the above image, below are the definitions:
<h1>defines the main heading of the webpage.<h2>tags indicate subheadings that are related to the main heading.<h3>tags are used for sub-subheadings under a second-level subheading.
Header tags help both website visitors and search engines understand the hierarchy and importance of content on a page. Search engines use this information to index and rank webpages, making it essential to use header tags effectively for SEO and user experience.
5. Image Optimization: Optimize images by reducing file sizes without compromising quality. Use descriptive file names and alt text to make images accessible and understandable to both users and search engines.READ MORE ABOUT IMAGE OPTIMIZATION HERE.
6. Internal Linking: Create a network of internal links to connect your content. This keeps users engaged and helps search engines navigate your website. Ensure your anchor text is relevant to the linked content.
Example: “Think pie-charts (for data), infographics etc. One good example would be to go to one of our posts, and see how we have done that.”
- In the above example, we have hyperlinked posts.
- Clicking on this link takes the user to another page on your website specifically dedicated to winter pruning for rose bushes.
- By doing this, you’re guiding your readers to more relevant and detailed information on a related topic within your own site.
- You’re also spreading link equity, which is the ranking power that a page receives, to the linked page, potentially improving its search engine ranking.
- Search engines recognize the connection between the two pages, helping them understand the structure and hierarchy of your content.
7. External Linking: When appropriate, include outbound links to authoritative sources. This shows that you’re providing valuable resources to your readers.
8. Mobile Optimization: With the increasing use of mobile devices, a mobile-friendly design is a must. Google prioritizes mobile-optimized websites, and non-compliance can negatively impact your rankings.
9. Page Speed: Fast-loading pages are favored by both users and search engines. Optimize your website’s speed by reducing image sizes, utilizing browser caching, and minimizing HTTP request.
Several tools are available to help you capture and analyze page speed metrics. Here are some of the most popular options:
Tool 1: Google PageSpeed Insights: This is Google’s own tool that provides insights into your website’s performance on both desktop and mobile. It offers suggestions for improvement and assigns a score based on Google’s best practices.
Tool 2: GTmetrix: GTmetrix analyzes your website using Google’s Lighthouse and Web Vitals data, along with metrics from PageSpeed and YSlow. It provides a detailed report, including actionable recommendations.
Tool 3: Pingdom: Pingdom offers real user monitoring (RUM) and synthetic monitoring to test your website’s speed. It provides insights into load times and performance bottlenecks.
Tool 4: WebPageTest: This is an open-source tool that allows you to run website speed tests from multiple locations and with various browsers. It provides a comprehensive report with various performance metrics.
Incorporate these SEO hacks into your digital marketing strategy, and watch your website’s lead generation potential skyrocket. By optimizing your website for both search engines and your target audience, you’ll attract more leads effortlessly and consistently. Stay committed to your SEO efforts, and the rewards will follow.
Other helpful links for you:
- Latest Google My Business Update: Auto-Tagging for Enhanced Conversion Tracking
- De-mystifying Local SEO- How it empowers your small local business
- Important Google Update: GMB Page no longer highlights posts after 6 months
- Is Organic Marketing better than Paid Marketing for Small Business?
- Effective SEO Tools Every Small Business Owner Needs
- From Vision to Achievement: How Google Ads Transformed a Small Business’s Journey