3 SEO Marketing Strategies to Generate New Business

The first step to getting new business through digital marketing is simple—get noticed. One of the best ways to get noticed online by your target market is through a solid SEO marketing plan. The three SEO marketing strategies outlined in this article will ensure you are attracting your ideal customer, saving time and money when creating content for SEO and generating buzz and boosting brand awareness outside of your company’s website.

1. Create a Priority Keyword List

An SEO keyword is a word or phrase that someone types into a search engine, like Google, when they are searching for an answer to their problems. Every business should have a priority keyword list that lists all of the keywords that they want their website to show up for.

For example, since SyncShow is a B2B marketing agency, one of our target keywords is “B2B marketing agency.” If someone is typing that phrase into Google, we know they are someone we would be interested in talking to.

The priority keyword list is the foundation of an SEO marketing strategy for generating new business. According to a study from Forrester, 60% of buyers would rather not communicate with sales reps as their primary information source, and 68% of B2B customers prefer to research independently online. This means that people are Googling, finding their answers and making decisions strictly based on the content they find. Know what your prospects are searching for so you can ensure your content shows up for their search and you are the one leading their purchasing decisions.

In order to start creating a priority keyword list, put yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes. Imagine what they would type into Google to solve their problem. Take it a step further by using SEO keyword research tools (like SEMrush or Moz) to determine what keywords your competitors are ranking for and what keywords are driving the most traffic to their sites. Examine their content and see how you can tweak your own to compete with them for the top spots on Google.

Once you have a priority keyword list, audit which priority keywords you are already ranking well for and determine which ones you need to work on. A great place to start when trying to rank for keywords is by creating content centered around them. The next point lays out an easy way to start creating SEO content.

2. Repurpose Existing Content

Once you have your priority keyword list, the next step is to start ensuring the content on your website is optimized for these keywords. However, why reinvent the wheel if you do not have to? Before investing time and money writing new content, take a look at your existing website content and determine if any of it can be repurposed or slightly tweaked to rank for your priority keywords.

For instance, if I have a blog post titled “3 Marketing Strategies Every B2B Business Should Try” and I want to start ranking for the keyword “inbound marketing strategies,” I may update this blog post to be “3 Inbound Marketing Strategies Every B2B Business Should Try.”

However, just updating the title is not enough for Google to rank you on page one for this search term. Here is a quick checklist to use when updating older content:

• Ensure the keyword is in the title tag
• Ensure the keyword is in the body copy (Hint: This should feel natural. If the keyword is mentioned too many times in your body copy, Google may think you are spamming.)
• Ensure the keyword is in relevant image alt text
• Ensure the keyword is in relevant heading text
• Ensure the keyword is in relevant link anchor text
• If the content is in a blog post, when you are finished updating the content, update the publish date as well

3. Acquire Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites back to your website. Think about the biggest publication in your industry. How cool would it be if they posted an article and referenced your website or blog in it? Google thinks so too.

Backlinks are a helpful SEO marketing strategy for generating new business in two ways:

1. They will boost your on-site performance. Google ranks sites with a lot of backlinks from high-authority websites higher than those without. This means that, hypothetically, if you and your competitor both have an equally well-optimized page for your target keyword and you had more high-quality backlinks, you could outrank your competitor on Google.
2. They generate buzz about your company and boost brand awareness. A backlink allows you to reach a whole new set of people who are not even on your website or necessarily searching for your target keywords. This is because backlinks are not something you put on your website. They are on other websites pointing back to your site.

Sometimes digital marketers spend too much time with their heads down on the computer and not enough time out in the world making connections. Backlinking is all about those connections. Here are a few ideas of places to get started generating backlinks:

• If your company sponsors charitable events, gives money or volunteers for a nonprofit, ask them if they will link back to your website on a sponsorship page or write a blog about your partnership.
• Do you belong to any professional organizations like a Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau or an industry-specific group? Reach out and ask if the group or organization will link to your website from their website with a blurb about your involvement.
• Are there any online directories that list companies in your industry? For instance, if there is a directory of Top HubSpot Partner Agencies, you can rest assured that SyncShow is getting a link from there.
• Can someone from your company contribute to a well-known industry publication? For example, I contributed to this article in May and, in exchange, SyncShow received a backlink to our homepage.

Ultimately, the best way to ensure your website is generating new business is through a solid SEO marketing strategy. If your site is ranking on the first page of Google for your target keywords, you are sure to generate more website traffic which, in turn, will generate more leads for your business.