As an online course creator or small business owner, much of your time is probably spent devising strategies to gain new leads. However, if you’re not using search engine optimization (SEO) for lead generation, you’re leaving possible conversions on the table.
SEO refers to optimizing content to make it easy to find on search engines. Using SEO to generate leads gives good content the boost it needs to be successful. A good SEO strategy can assure success if your content is quality and well-written. This means it must appeal to both leads and search engines
SEO Lead Generation Prerequisites: Blog
One of the best places to host content is a blog. A blog is a prerequisite for generating leads, especially if you’re an online course creator. Blogs are invaluable lead-generation tools, mainly because they can host various types of content, such as blog posts, videos, and pictures.
Want to learn how to optimize your website and track your results? Read: SEO KPIs: How To Enhance Your Course’s Reach
According to Social Media Today, businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors. Once you’ve got SEO-optimized content, it’s time to create a system that allows you to collect information for willing leads.
SEO Lead Generation Prerequisites: Lead Forms
Lead forms are one of the most efficient ways to collect lead information. They have a short message and fields for users to enter their names, email addresses, and other relevant information. When someone fills out the form, you’ll have their contact information in your CRM or database, depending on which you use. Here are two tips you want to remember when using lead forms.
Make Lead Forms Easy to Fill
If your lead form contains more than three fields, you could discourage people from signing up. Ask for as little information as needed, so people do not change their minds about signing your forms.
Your Placement is Important
Where you place your lead forms significantly affects conversion rates. Putting it at the end of the post is one of the most effective methods for some blogs. This is because some of your readers may be interested enough to swap their contact information for helpful content.
You can also use an exit-intent popup which displays when users are about to leave your website. It usually contains a message guiding the user to the main page. The general rule is that if people do not find your content valuable, giving their personal information will be inconvenient.
5 Lead Generation Strategies with SEO
Once your blog and lead forms are in place, you can begin strategies to collect lead information. Here are five of the most tried and tested SEO lead generation strategies:
1. SEO Content
SEO content is any website or web page optimized for search engine visibility and ranking. Optimized content can generate leads by pulling in organic traffic without large costs. Impact states that SEO can reduce the costs of lead generation by up to 87.41% when compared to digital advertising. When creating content, the principal rule is to consistently create content that solves a problem. Ensure you tailor your content to:
- Your audience’s needs
- Your audience’s wants
- Your audience’s problems or questions
You also want to ensure you use calls-to-action (CTAs). They can be an effective lead generation strategy if they are well-mapped. Your CTAs should be tried and tested with keywords that encourage action.
Once you’ve created SEO content that will appeal to your audience, it’s time to use them to generate leads. Here are some of the most effective ways to do this:
Guest Blogging & Backlinks
Backlinks are links from one website to another, and they can effectively generate leads. The idea is to build relationships with websites related to your industry or niche. You can then write guest blog SEO content that contains a backlink to your site and post on those related sites. This will get your content in front of the website’s audience.
Backlinks are a great lead generation strategy because they show search engines that people find your courses valuable enough to link back to. This can help your course rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). You can build backlinks by:
- Connecting with other course creators in related fields: If your course teaches drawing, for example, linking up with a painting instructor is smart. Link building is safe because it allows you to market directly to your target audience..
- Writing guest posts on other blogs. Find related blogs and offer to write a guest post in exchange for them including a link to your course.
- Participating in relevant forums and answering people’s questions. In your signature line, you can include a link to your course.
- Posting on social media. Share your course on popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit. Use hashtags to get noticed by the right people and link back to your web pages.
- Featuring in interviews and podcasts. Take part in interviews or podcasts and use the opportunity to mention your course. This will give you a natural backlink and a great way to reach prospective customers.
Some tips to keep in mind when creating backlinks are:
- Track your backlinks regularly to ensure they are still active and of good quality.
- Don’t buy backlinks from link farms or any other source.
- Don’t use automated tools or other shady tactics to automate link building.
- Don’t use too many anchor text links in your content.
- Don’t use excess keyword stuffing as a way to generate backlinks.
Social Media Promotion
Social media is a great way to generate leads with blog content. You can use it to attract potential customers, build relationships and drive engagement. You should also make sure to increase your pages’ visibility is by including links to your social media handle on your blog or website.
Webinars and Online Events
Web events are an excellent way to collect email addresses from website visitors. You’d need to organize a one-time event that offers valuable information to your target audience. You can gain leads by ensuring participants sign up using their contact information. Of course, this requires a web event promotion strategy.
If webinars and similar events won’t interest your audience, consider giveaways. Giveaways are an excellent lead-generation strategy involving your existing customers. The right giveaway can motivate existing customers to stay engaged with your brand.
2. Local SEO
Local SEO focuses on optimizing websites for localized searches. Many users look for local options when they search online, making local SEO an effective lead-generation tool. According to Moz, more than Google’s searches are local (Via Finances Online).
It might not matter where you’re situated if you’re an online course creator. But if your target audience resides in a particular area, local SEO can bring in leads. Here are three ways to optimize for local SEO and get leads.
Use Geo-Targeted Keywords
Geo-targeted keywords are words or phrases associated with specific locations. These keywords can target potential students in a particular area, which can be a beneficial lead-generation tool for businesses that offer services or products to local customers.
For example, a real estate agent in New York City might use the keyword “New York City real estate” to attract the attention of potential students in that area.
Geo-targeted keywords can generate SEO leads by targeting people looking for a specific service or product in their local area. Be sure to conduct keyword research to figure out the exact phrasings. It would help if you used the right keywords in your web page title and meta description.
Create Local Landing Pages
Local landing pages have content tailored to people in a specific area. They include SEO content, such as local phrases and keywords. One of the most efficient ways to get the right keyword is through location-specific keyword research. Your page should also include the following:
- Information about your services or products
- Contact information such as address and phone number
Local landing pages should provide (or link to) relevant additional information that potential customers may find helpful. This could include:
- Customer reviews
- Details of your services and products
A well-put-together local landing page can be the push for prospective customers to connect with you, so be sure to include a lead form.
Optimize for Voice Search on Search Engines
Voice search is a method of searching the internet using spoken words or phrases. It is gaining popularity as users look for quicker and easier ways to access information. Optimizing for voice search can increase your content’s value and your Google search results ranking.
To optimize for voice search, conduct keyword research to determine how people in a particular area phrase their queries when speaking versus typing. People use natural language when speaking, so ensuring your SEO content reflects this is essential.
Use Google My Business
Google My Business is a powerful lead-generation tool for businesses to increase their visibility and reach potential customers. By setting up a profile on Google My Business, you can make sure your business appears on google search results when people search for relevant keywords related to your business.
Optimizing your Google My Business Profile for local SEO generates leads by making it easier for interested customers to find and contact your business online. To do this, ensure the details on your profile, such as contact information and business hours, are accurate and up-to-date.
How to Set Up a Google My Business Page
Take the following steps to set up a Google My Business page:
- Go to www.google.com/business and click “Start Now.”
- Sign in with your Google Account or create one if you don’t have one.
- Enter your business name and verify that it is accurate
- Enter your address, phone number, website, and other applicable business information.
- Verify that the information you have provided is correct.
- Choose a category for your business and add any additional details about it.
- Add photos of your business, such as logos and images of storefronts or products.
- Submit your profile to Google My Business.
- Wait for Google to verify your business profile. This usually takes a few days.
How To Generate Leads With A Google My Business Page
Opening a new business account might seem daunting, but with these seven tips, you can get off to a good start. Here’s what you need to remember to turn your Google My Business Page into a lead-generation tool:
- Optimize your business name. Include keywords relevant to your business in the name field to make it easier for customers to find you.
- Incorporate keywords in your business description. Conducting keyword research and using relevant keywords in your business’s description can help it appear higher in search engine results.
- Optimize images for SEO. Add descriptive alt-text to images on your GMB page for better visibility and optimization.
- Use local category optimization. You should choose the most relevant categories for your business so that it appears in local searches. Check out your competitors if you’re unsure of what categories you should select.
- Encourage customer reviews by asking customers to leave reviews on your GMB page to increase visibility and reputation.
- Respond to customer reviews. Take the time to respond to all positive and negative customer reviews.
- Monitor and track performance. Use analytics tools to monitor and track the performance of your listing over time. This will allow you tweak your content as needed to ensure maximum visibility.
3. Directories and Review Sites
Directories are a great way to generate leads and improve your local SEO. They are essential to local SEO because they help increase a website’s visibility in its specific geographic area. A local directory can be an effective lead-generation tool because it instills confidence and trust in readers.
If you are a course creator, you might want to consider course rating sites rather than traditional directories, such as Yelp. One example is Course Reviewers, but sites like this will only benefit you if your target audience is likely to visit.
Reviews offer valuable insights into customer experiences. They also give your business a competitive edge in the market. Start by asking current customers to write reviews of your company or products. Studies show that people are more likely to trust recommendations from their peers than they are marketing messages from companies.
Encourage customers to leave honest reviews. This will help inform potential customers of your quality and reliability. Whether or not you host your reviews on a review site, having them on your website can be beneficial.
4. Lead Magnet
Everyone likes a valuable gift, and most people are willing to give out their email addresses in exchange. This content usually differs from blog posts that can be accessed with or without leaving contact information.
Lead magnets usually contain privileged information that is more valuable than what could easily be found in a blog post. They focus heavily on customer satisfaction. With lead magnets, the sky is the limit. Package your value as creatively as you can. Giving away valuable content for free is a great way to establish yourself as a professional in your field who is assured of the quality of their content.
10 Lead Magnet Ideas
Here are ten different ideas you can use to pull in potential students with lead magnets.
- Offer webinars: Webinars are a great way to showcase your expertise and boost awareness of your services or products. By offering relevant and valuable information, you can generate SEO leads while increasing your credibility as an expert in the industry.
- Host online contests: Online contest platforms such as RafflePress offer a great way to generate leads. By giving away prizes, you can encourage prospective customers to share their contact information in exchange for the chance to win.
- Create e-books: E-books are one of the best ways to provide valuable content and establish your authority as an industry expert. Pick a topic that solves a problem and shows your readers that you’re good at what you do.
- Offer a free trial: Free trials effectively generate leads without investing in costly advertising or marketing activities. By offering a free trial of your products or services, you can entice potential students and build their trust before asking them to become paying customers.
- Give away coupons: Offering discounts and coupons can be a great way to generate leads while increasing sales and loyalty among existing customers.
- Create free tools or apps: If you have the technical know-how, creating valuable tools or applications can be an effective lead-generation strategy. You can get more eyes on your products and services by giving away free downloads.
- Provide free consultation: Offering free consultations is a great way to build trust with potential leads and demonstrate the value of your services or products. You can help customers make informed decisions by providing personalized advice while generating leads.
5. Pillar Post Strategy
A pillar page is an in-depth, comprehensive guide to a specific topic. Pillar pages are hubs or landing pages for all other content developed on that keyword or theme.
They provide in-content links to other related pages or posts on your website so visitors can easily find the necessary information. Pillar pages are a great way to organize related content and make it easier for visitors to navigate your website. Your pillar post must be optimized for users and search engines.
5 Ways to Generate Leads with Pillar Posts
- Gated content: By gating content on your pillar page, you can collect valuable data and information from visitors who are interested in learning more about your niche or topic area.
- Put in helpful links that show related content: You can include helpful links in your pillar posts that show related content and guide visitors to other pages or posts on your website.
- Use CTAs: Pillar posts are a great place to include calls-to-action, encouraging visitors to take the next step in their journey with your brand.
- Include helpful information to show how you can help customers: Include helpful information and resources on your pillar page to show visitors how you can help them. This can include case studies, testimonials, reviews, and other helpful content.
- Promote your Pillar Posts: Once you’ve created a pillar post, promote it across all your channels to get it in front of as many people as possible.
Using Tools in Your SEO Lead Generation Strategy
As an online course creator or lead generator, you’ll need various tools to increase your success rate and generate more leads. These tools:
- Help increase efficiency.
- Automate tasks.
- Keep valuable information.
- Help you stay on track.
In the following sections, we’ll discuss the categories of tools you need and how to use them.
Lead Generation Tools
Here are the three major categories of tools you need as you generate leads:
- Lead generation software
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- SEO tools
Lead Generation Software
Lead generation software help business owners ethically generate leads from their website traffic. They collect insightful information to help you get them to sign up and continue further communication. Lead generation tools help:
- Save time by targeting valuable leads.
- Give valuable insights that can improve strategies.
- Turn various parts of your website or blog into lead-generation machines.
8 Top Features to Look for in Lead Generation Software
Here are some of the major features you want to look for in your lead generation software:
1. In-blog campaigns
This feature allows you to turn various parts of your blog into a lead machine by using:
- Popups
- Inline forms
- Buttons
- Content locker, which allows you to turn any content into gated content.
2. Contact database and management
The software offers a contact database and management so you can keep track of your leads, segment them according to different categories, and even assign tasks to your team.
3. Analytics and tracking features
These features allow businesses to measure the performance of their campaigns with detailed reports.
4. Campaigns and Ads
This feature allows businesses to launch and manage various campaigns. Some of the most popular types are:
- Social media ads
- Google ads
5. Integrations
This allows businesses to integrate with other software to help manage their lead-generation activities. These include:
- Video tools
- eCommerce tools
- Analytics and data tools
- Email marketing tools
- Customer relationship management software for contact management and other features
- Content marketing tools
6. Email marketing
This feature allows businesses to send automated emails, nurture leads, and collect leads from various platforms.
7. Landing page and form builder
This feature allows businesses to create and manage landing pages and forms that help capture leads.
8. SMS marketing
This feature allows businesses to send mobile messages to their leads.
3 Best Lead Generation Software
This section will discuss three of the best lead generation software for online course creators and other small to medium business owners.
- HubSpot
HubSpot offers various integrations that generate leads by creating “end-to-end” customer experiences. With over 600,000 customers worldwide, it is one of the most comprehensive lead generation and management tools available. HubSpot integrates with more than 100 apps and software.
- Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform designed to help digital merchants build customer relationships. This platform has over 400,000 customers and is more popular with B2C customers and online course creators. Klaviyo integrates with more than 300 apps and software.
- OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a lead generation and lead-form building software. This software is built for companies looking to grow their email lists, increase sales, and reach more leads. OptinMonster has more than 700,000 customers and integrates over 1,500 apps and software.
This table provides a summary of the three best lead generation software and their features:
Customer Relationship Management Software
Customer relationship management software help companies manage customer relationships. They also generate leads by automating processes such as sending emails, tracking website activity, and providing insights into customer behavior.
CRM software can help companies generate more qualified leads by nurturing existing relationships and leveraging deeper customer data, including interest, preferences, and purchase history. They also:
- Track and nurture leads.
- Identify opportunities.
- Automate marketing campaigns.
- Build better relationships with customers, prospects, and partners.
3 Best Customer Relationship Management Software
This section will discuss three of the best CRM software for online course creators and other small to medium business owners.
- Salesforce
Salesforce is a robust Customer Relationship Management software that helps B2C companies build better relationships. More than 70,000 companies use this software to manage relationships with their customers.
- Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a cloud-based software that helps companies improve customer service by managing leads. More than 20,000 businesses manage their customer relationships with Zoho.
- Oracle Sales Cloud
Oracle Sales Cloud is a cloud-based CRM system used by more than 7,000 B2C companies to manage customer relationships.
This table provides a summary of the three best lead-tracking software and their features:
SEO Tools for Lead Generation
If you’re building an SEO-driven lead generation strategy, you’ll need some tools to measure your SEO efforts’ effectiveness. These tools can:
- Conduct keyword research.
- Check SEO rankings of competitor websites.
- Show a website’s click-through rate (CTR).
- Track backlinks to measure the effectiveness of link-building efforts.
There are numerous free SEO tools to get you started if you are still deciding whether to purchase a plan.
4 Free SEO Tools for Lead Generation
Here are 4 of the best SEO tools that can help improve your lead generation strategy.
- SEOquake
SEOquake is a plugin or extension that provides crucial data and metrics. This makes it a valuable tool for audits, analysis, and improving strategies.
- SERPWatcher
SERPWatcher is an effective SEO tool for tracking website rankings. This tool is perfect for course creators and business owners who want to track their competitors’ rankings.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most SEO analytics tools for tracking website ranking and measuring user engagement. Google Analytics makes it easy to measure the effectiveness of your strategies.
- Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a must-have for any SEO professional. It also gives vital insights into your users.
This table provides a summary of the four best SEO tools for lead generation and their features:
What Are the Top Key Performance Indicators for Lead Generation?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you to track how well your SEO lead generation strategy performs. Here are the significant KPIs to focus on:
- Lead volume: The total number of leads generated over a specific period.
- Cost per Lead (CPL): The cost associated with acquiring each lead
- Conversion rate: The percentage of leads that convert into customers
- Quality score: The overall quality of each lead, based on various criteria such as demographics and interest level
- Engagement rate: The number of leads engaging with your content or offers
- Average deal size: The average value of each lead conversion.
Hiring a Lead Generation Agency
To maximize your lead generation efforts, consider hiring a lead generation agency. A lead generation agency provides specialized services:
- Content creation
- SEO strategy and execution
- Social media marketing
- Email campaigns
These services can help you get your course, product, or service in front of the right eyes.
They’ll also let you focus on providing valuable content, knowing you have sound digital marketing and lead-generation strategies backing you up.
If you’d like to learn more about what a lead generation agency can do for you, book a chat with me, Bo-Peter, today! I’ll answer any questions and help you decide if hiring a lead generation agency is right for your business.
Final Thoughts
SEO lead-generation strategies can gain leads and increase your ranking on the SERPs. Tools and well-curated strategies can help you maximize your lead generation efforts, ensuring your content reaches the right audience and drives conversions.
If you are still unsure where to start, hiring a lead generation agency can help. A lead generation agency will assess your current SEO strategy and provide specialized services to help you reach more leads and generate more conversions.
FAQs About SEO for Lead Generation
1. What is the difference between SEO and lead-generation?
SEO focuses on improving organic visibility and rankings, while lead generation focuses on driving conversions. Both are essential components of a successful digital marketing strategy.
2. What are the best tools for lead generation?
There are many great tools available for effective lead generation. They fall into these categories:
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- Lead Scoring System
- SEO Tools
3. Can SEO help in lead generation?
Yes, SEO can be a powerful tool for lead generation. Optimizing your content for search engines and targeting keywords and phrases can drive organic reach and increase conversions.
4. Is it worth hiring a lead generation agency?
It depends on your situation and objectives. A lead generation agency can be a great asset to maximize your lead generation efforts and ensure that all digital marketing activities are properly executed.
