Get your SEO foundations right from the start
Just like the alchemists from forgotten times who obsessed over transforming the elements around them into gold, modern-day marketers endeavour to transform their efforts into higher rankings on search engines, increased organic growth, and, in time, conversion gold!
The formula is simple enough: tweak your content, rank high!
Simple right?
Theoretically yes, but most of us know that in reality, navigating Google’s ranking algorithm in the intricate and ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing can be as complex as turning iron into gold - even for already hard-gritted marketers.
But the ancient art of SEO-alchemy isn’t lost to everyone.
Maeva Cifuentes, CEO and founder of FlyingCat marketing, recently joined Steffen Hedebrandt for a talk about, how search engine optimising your content is a business strategy everybody should employ.
In this blog post, I’ll be covering the five key steps to building your SEO strategy!
Why should you use SEO as a B2B marketing approach?
Before I delve into Maeva’s steps, I think it’s important to first address, why using SEO should be a vital part of your marketing strategy.
First of all, it is THE ever-green when it comes to making your content rank high. It’s the most predictable and the most repeatable of all the organic channels that exist.
There doesn’t really exist any other way to increase traffic the way that SEO does.
But there is a catch.
Because, once you have created your content, you obviously want to constantly distribute it to increase your ranking.
But that’s just the thing, because once you have distributed your content you have to wait at least a couple of months before you share it again so as to not drive your traffic to a halt.
So how are we making sure, that we’re actually using our content to its full potential? How do we ensure that the stuff that we’re putting out there is getting seen by as many eyeballs as possible?
You could just pay for your traffic and of course that is a viable way.
But let's say that all of your budgets are getting cut.
Suddenly, you’ll have nothing to work with.
Investing in a more sustainable channel such as SEO ensures that you’re constantly driving revenue growth.
So even when budgets are being cut, you’re still hitting your KPIs
5 steps to building your SEO city
While the idea of SEO might seem simple enough, knowing where to start might prove more difficult than first anticipated.
You can't just pop in some relevant keywords after you have created your content.
It has to be incorporated into your entire marketing strategy. It’s just as Maeva puts it: “SEO can’t be an afterthought!”
Instead, you have to understand what kind of opportunity exists.
Now, if only I had an analogy describing exactly how you’re supposed to approach the subject of turning your content into an ecosystem of SEO-friendly material…
… Oh wait!
Step 1: Find your address - your addressable market
Drawing from the city analogy, building any kind of structure demands a solid foundation.
And when Maeva is building a city she always addresses the market first:
“I’m looking at all of the land that I have available”
She starts by assessing all the available land; carefully considering the neighbouring cities and their respective populations.
She’s determining the potential product demand out there and essentially evaluating the total addressable market
From there she starts seeing (keyword) clusters of different opportunities
Those are the core traffic-generating clusters, and these resemble all the foundational structures that any given city needs.
That any given market strategy needs!
So before venturing out and creating all sorts of thought leadership material, you need to take a step back and focus on the essentials first.
Step 2: Be boring first - SEO foundations matter!
Focussing on the absolute essentials of a city you’ll probably agree with me, that before we put in any sort of museums, nightclubs, shops or other recreational spaces, we need to make the city a liveable place.
And just like when building a city, be it the housing, hospitals, or schools - essentially the entire public infrastructure - you realise, that the foundation on which you build is paramount to your success.
And the same thing goes for content marketers looking to build a solid SEO infrastructure.
They also need a solid foundation; they need their content pillars - the central themes of their topic clusters.
Say you’re an attribution tool provider, these could be topics like: “What is multi-touch attribution?”, “What different kinds of attribution software exist out there?”, and “How does the sale pipeline work?”
You need to address all these “boring” things first so that your content marketing efforts have a solid foundation.
Step 3: Links are the highways and byways
But hold on, how do we ensure our audience even gets here, and then not only visits but sticks around?
Well just like a city, it’s all about infrastructure.
And as you may know, a city is built on a massive grid of roads, constantly intersecting with each other.
Let’s look at three types of links that are relevant for building your SEO.
Internal links: Internal links guide the search engines and make sure, that Google is ranking you higher and higher - it’s the roads that connect your house to the school, the hospital, etc.
External links: Now these act as bridges to neighboring cities. By linking to authoritative external websites it adds credibility and trust to your content and can lead to search engines ranking your content higher.
Backlinks: Now these serve as a vote of confidence from other websites, enhancing your content's authority and visibility. They also bring referral traffic and contribute to your overall SEO strategy, helping your content rank higher.
So once your linking is up and running and the core pages start generating traffic.
It's like the heartbeat of your content hub.
Now we need to make our audience stay
And what better way to do that than through some upper-funnel thought leadership content!
Step 4: Flashing lights and discos to make you attractive
This is where you ascend the funnel and embark on thought leadership and brand-building endeavors.
However, there’ll be no dancing until you've established those initial clusters of pages, executed the initial internal linking, and prioritized these foundational aspects (as set out in the previous steps)
It's common for people to overlook these crucial steps because they may not be the most glamorous pages to create.
It's vital to lay down the groundwork, but when that’s done, both thought leadership, expressing opinions, and building brand awareness are important ways to keep your audience engaged in your content.
Try creating insightful articles, case studies, and whitepapers that address industry challenges and trends.
You should also try to collaborate with industry experts for interviews and guest posts to enhance your brand's overall credibility.
By doing so you’re consistently weaving your brand's unique value proposition into your content.
Engaging with your audience through social media and webinars, both showcasing your expertise but also building a loyal following.
Step 5: Don’t forget your road signs - CTAs
It's crucial to understand the significance of strategically placed Call-to-Actions (CTAs) on your SEO pages.
These CTAs should be tailored to match specific search queries and correspond to the user's position in the customer journey.
Remember that not all pages are equal in terms of conversion rates; pages with thought leadership content, for instance, may naturally convert at a different rate.
However, it's essential to ensure that CTAs are present on all pages, as this can represent low-hanging fruit for improving user engagement and conversion rates.
Step 6: Measure and maintain your SEO city
Building a strong SEO foundation is essential for your business, but it's equally important to constantly check whether it’s performing according to your KPIs.
And while we have already established that SEO is your go-to for boosting organic website traffic, the big question still remains:
Is all this effort delivering a worthwhile return on investment?
There’s no way to be sure unless we are measuring it. Here's a quick SEO checklist of the metrics you need to keep an eye on:
Search engine ranking (SERP).
Traffic volume - are visitors actually coming through?
Conversion ratio - are your visitors signing up or requesting demos?
Revenue impact from organic search (you’re going to need an attribution tool like Dreamdata for this ultimate metric).
Just like in a city, if you notice certain neighbourhoods aren't thriving, it's time for revitalisation
Well, it’s just the same with content. If your content isn't delivering the results you want (if these metrics are dropping), it's time for some adjustments.
Check out this great conversation with Ross Simmonds.
A final word
So to wrap things up, let’s do a quick summarisation on how you should navigate the concrete jungle that search engine optimisation has proved to be.
Start your SEO strategy by identifying your addressable market
Build your SEO infrastructure by focusing on the basics first
Set up links to ensure that both your audience arrives and stays connected with your content
Create upper-funnel content that showcases thought leadership and builds brand awareness.
Strategically place Call-to-Actions (CTAs) to guide your audience from page view to pipeline conversion.
Measure and maintain your SEO with key metrics such as traffic, SERP, and conversion ratio to ensure your organic content is continually delivering on worthwhile return on investment.
In essence, navigating the intricate landscape that is SEO can be a daunting journey, but by following these steps you’re sure to stay focused on your objectives when you venture into the your SEO city!
Start optimising your content with metrics that matter today
