There comes a time when every small business owner looks at their website and asks, “How do I drive more leads?”
When this question is asked, “content” inevitably gets invited into the conversation. You may be wondering what types of SEO content you can create that will rank in search engines and drive a sustainable flow of leads for your business.
We asked a panel of small business owners and marketers to share their favorite piece of SEO content that drives leads through their website. Here are nine content examples that should be on your radar when creating your next content strategy:
1. Local landing pages
When a client searches for an “executive search firm” online, they’re not just searching for one firm. They’re looking to identify multiple firms so that they can select the best one for their hiring needs.
Knowing this, we created resourceful landing pages listing a diverse selection of executive search firms in a local area. These localities are determined by our service area, so that if a client does discover our page organically, then we'll be able to service their needs.
We learned that Google loves to have diversity in search results because clients want that diversity as well. By creating content that clients want, we're able to drive organic traffic to our site that often converts over to a lead.
Max Hansen, Y Scouts
2. Customer statements
We discovered that birth mothers were searching for some very specific terms in relation to their unplanned pregnancy. Initially, we shied away from targeting statements birth mothers make to search engines like “I don’t want this baby inside me” or “anyone willing to adopt a newborn baby.” But then, we decided to lean in to these frequently searched statements and create resourceful guides to educate birth mothers on their options.
Overall, we decided to proceed with the strategy because we felt birth mothers would benefit more talking to our Adoption Specialists than a search engine. Oftentimes, birth mothers will consume this resourceful content and we'll never hear from them. If a birth mother discovered our content and left our website more educated on their options, then that’s a win in our book. But sometimes, we'll receive a text message or phone call from a birth mother wanting to learn more about how we can help. That’s when we can really extend our support, and truly make a difference in the lives of the baby, the birth parents, and the adoptive family.
Kenna Hamm, Texas Adoption Center
3. Step-by-step instructions
We discovered long ago that for us to sell products like a “tempered glass screen protector,” we needed to educate our customers. So, we created step-by-step instructions with video to show customers how easy it can be to install a protection kit.
The lesson is that before a website visitor converts to a lead or a sale, they need to have all the “blanks” filled in. One of those blanks is what happens when they press “submit” on a contact form or “buy now” on a product page. Step-by-step instructions are a critical piece of content to create not only for SEO, but for the consumer peace of mind.
Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case
4. Homepage
Don’t sleep on your homepage. Because of all the authority associated with your homepage, this is the one piece of content that typically draws the most organic traffic. For us, our homepage is optimized for the term “digital marketing company.” For the last several years we’ve been fortunate enough to have first page visibility for this keyword. As a result, this is our top performing page in terms of leads.
To optimize your homepage, think about what the most valuable keyword is for your business. Then, use something like a free SEO audit tool to help guide you during the optimization process.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
5. Case studies
Clients want to know that you’ve done it before. Case studies are great pieces of content for us to share our successes and help provide potential clients with comfort in our expertise.
Plus, case studies are great ways to attract inbound search traffic. For example, some potential clients may search for something like “nonprofit recruiting case study” to discover firms like ours. A potential client searches for something like this because they want industry expertise and proven success.
These case studies are simple. Provide an Overview. Speak about Challenges and Solutions. Then, share the Result.
Jon Schneider, Recruiterie
No strings attached. No credit card needed. Sign up for our free trial today and see how your business can be automated and grow using Keap. ↗️ https://t.co/TgIDy3HLvC pic.twitter.com/cbVNA70FOU
— Keap (@KeapGrowing) April 20, 2020
6. Ultimate guide
Our Phoenix Relocation Guide provides people with everything they need to know before moving to Phoenix. This “ultimate guide” contains information like career resources, top companies who are hiring, where to live, and what life is like in the desert.
We’ve seen this page do so well with SEO and driving traffic to our website that we have since decided to create other guides. Guides are very time intensive to create. But when they're done right, they have an ability to drive organic traffic from a diverse collection of search terms.
Denise Gredler, Best Companies Arizona
7. Long form content
We recently completed a website redesign project. During the process we researched large companies that we admire to discover how they approach content. What we found was that their articles and posts were much longer and more informative than the “300 word minimum” commonly recommended by Yoast.
Once we achieved a better idea of how content is trending to long form content, we were able to establish new goals and standards with our own user experience. Now, each piece of content aims to be a longer piece of content that dives deeper into a topic.
Megan Chiamos, Cannabis ERP Software
8. Price lists
The price list. If there's one thing that stops me drilling into a website for a product or service, it's “price on application.” It may be true that a good salesperson will establish what the product is worth to the individual prospect, but that can also turn off a lot of people before they get to the salesperson.
Francesca Yardley, Threads
9. Service pages
The key for us is to make it easy for prospective patients to recognize our services. Developing pages for specific services is key. That way, prospective patients who don’t need a particular service can quickly move on. For those folks who are looking for our help, specific service pages make it easy for them to recognize that they're in the right place.
Dan Reck, MATClinics
Final thought
How many of these pieces of SEO content are driving leads for your small business? What will you look to execute as a part of your next content marketing strategy?
Whatever content fits best with your website, now's the time to get started.
