If you’re looking to bring in more business from search engine traffic, it’s important to keep your SEO optimized to drive as much traffic as possible to your landing pages and other content designed to convert your audience into leads and eventually customers. But how does this apply specifically to B2B lead generation? Here are some ways that SEO can help you bring in the ideal B2B leads that you’re looking for.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a set of techniques that helps search engines return higher-ranking results for searches related to your company. For example, if someone searches Google for search engine optimization and you're among one of the highest-ranking results, then they may click on your website. That click leads to more visitors to your site who are interested in learning about or buying search engine optimization services. The better you are at SEO, therefore, the more likely people are to engage with your business—which can mean more sales leads.  B2B lead generation efforts depend upon getting found by potential customers through web searches. Because of that dynamic, it's imperative that companies know how SEO works. When done correctly, it can have a significant impact on revenue growth. It's also important to note how much work goes into achieving high rankings in web search results pages (SERPs). One study revealed an average increase of 30 percent in traffic due to high rankings while another reported an even larger boost between 64 percent and 180 percent via higher rankings within SERPs.

Why SEO is Necessary For B2B Lead Generation

A lot of businesses still don’t understand that they need to conduct effective search engine optimization for lead generation. If you’re interested in exploring new clients, then getting some good rankings is an absolute must. To do so, however, you need to learn as much as possible about SEO and how it works. By using its principles wisely and strategically, you can increase your odds of success and develop a clear picture of how it impacts B2B lead generation. It’s important to take action quickly though; if you wait too long or put things off, your competitors will get ahead of you. Most people are probably familiar with keyword selection but have no idea where to start beyond that.

Where Do I Start With SEO?

It may sound difficult to get started with Search Engine Optimization, but there are actually some simple steps you can take that will start getting your website ranking better. These include things like creating well-written content, tagging images correctly, and making sure your site is easy to navigate for search engines. While these might seem like small changes, they can have a huge impact on where you rank in Google’s search results. For example, if you want to rank highly for plastic products, it’s essential that your website talks about plastic products—and not about other things that aren’t related. To gain more visibility among potential customers in B2B lead generation, create valuable content that directly relates to their needs and appeals to their pain points.  Creating relevant content is one of SEO’s most important factors, so don’t overlook it!

Indirect Lead Generation using SEO Content

Search engine optimization (SEO) content does two things: It drives traffic to your website and it improves your company’s overall online reputation. If you're trying to get more leads from these indirect tactics, try crafting landing pages that specifically address prospects' concerns and encourage them to call or email you with questions. Whenever possible, include live chat features on these pages so that prospects can reach a real person quickly and easily. Once they've reached out to your sales team, you'll be able to convert them into business leads more efficiently than if they came in through other channels.   By creating excellent SEO content, you may also find that people start linking to your site naturally. According to an Aberdeen Group study conducted in 2014, nearly 68 percent of marketers believe strong organic search performance will play a critical role in their lead generation activities going forward. More links could equal better rankings—and a growing number of interested prospects contacting your business directly.

Understanding and Satisfying Search Intent

In general, if you want your site to rank high on search engines, it needs to satisfy what Google calls search intent. This is a fancy way of saying that users come to search engines with a particular problem or question in mind and expect answers. For example, if someone is looking for information about printing services in Dublin, they may type into Google something like: printing services dublin. Your job as a website owner is to make sure that your page appears when people search for those terms. In order to do so, you must ensure that you have addressed their key question—how can I find printers in Dublin?—so they have no reason not to click through from Google’s results page.  You can address user intent by writing copy that clearly tells them exactly how to solve their problem. Provide specifics such as dates and addresses for local businesses, as well as links to contact details, maps and pictures of storefronts. Avoid using language such as printers, which could refer to any number of things; instead, use more specific language such as offset printers or custom digital printing so they can identify a solution to their query easily. If searchers already know exactly what they need and don't need much convincing to convert (i.e., they're actively searching for a solution), there's less room for optimization than if you were trying to educate them on how best to meet their need (i.e., educating your prospects).

Conclusion

Optimizing your content for search engines isn’t only about getting people to find your website, it’s also about making sure you’re attracting qualified B2B leads. If you optimize every single piece of content on your site, you’ll be able to attract more users and make sure they come back for more. Just make sure that optimizing for search engines and optimizing for customers don’t become one and the same: you should always put B2B lead generation first. You wouldn't want to end up with a high bounce rate because people can't find what they're looking for. Content optimization is all about satisfying both customers and search engines—so keep in mind how each link can affect both groups when deciding which keywords to include. If you are interested in learning more about how SEO can help in your lead generation efforts, get in touch!