Why SEO is Essential for Growth Marketing
In the realm of growth marketing, digital marketing, and inbound marketing, there are various ways to describe these approaches. However, one truth remains constant: SEO is a fundamental component of every strategy. In today’s competitive landscape, where quality content prevails, SEO plays a crucial role. Neglecting SEO and organic signals in favor of immediate and predictable paid search or social strategies is short-sighted.
SEO enables you to connect with potential customers actively searching for your products or services. The ultimate goal is discoverability, and SEO helps engage potential buyers at different stages of their journey. Organic search allows you to capture new users who have prequalified intent, regardless of ad-associated interests.
The primary role of SEO in growth marketing is to drive organic traffic and generate leads. While the concept is straightforward, executing it involves a wide range of SEO tactics, such as keyword research, content production, on-page optimizations, conversion rate optimization, technical issue resolution, competitive analysis, targeting, authority building, crawl management, and more.
So, how does SEO contribute to growth? As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Investing in SEO can take various forms and merits its own discussion. However, the focus should be on establishing a content marketing foundation or expanding an existing plan. Ranking number one for a keyword is akin to having free ad space, as long as you continue to maintain and optimize it against new competition. Furthermore, the traffic generated from ranking for multiple keywords can be assigned a monetary value, representing the cost of replacing that organic traffic with paid channels or ads. This potential for multiplying your investment makes SEO a compelling strategy.
To build an SEO foundation, start by addressing technical barriers and ensuring your website is free of major issues. Regular SEO audits and close monitoring of organic signals through tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, speed monitoring, and ranking tracking are crucial. Proper tagging and analytics tracking are essential for measuring improvements and understanding user behavior. Implement a pillar page content strategy, establish clear naming conventions and folder structures, and create SEO briefs to guide content creation. Before publishing, conduct an SEO review to optimize content performance.
Once you have laid the groundwork, monitor your efforts, track your rise in rankings, and repeat the process. While ranking takes time and can vary based on competition and topic saturation, a well-executed content strategy will gradually yield traffic benefits. The pillar page and cluster model, recommended by HubSpot and proven effective, help build authority in your target area through interlinking between pillar and cluster topics. As your content gains authority and acquires backlinks, your overall domain authority will increase, enhancing your organic presence and facilitating faster ranking for more competitive keywords.
By delivering informative content that addresses customer queries, you reduce friction in the customer journey. A comprehensive SEO content strategy ensures that the quality of traffic and leads from organic signals surpasses those from paid sources. Paid advertising remains important, but leveraging organic interactions enables more targeted communication with potential customers, saving both money and effort.
Implementing a robust SEO strategy can act as your guiding star for building a foundation or realigning your course. By following the aforementioned guidelines, you can develop a comprehensive and successful content marketing strategy. If you seek a more extensive SEO approach or require assistance in achieving your growth goals, feel free to contact us anytime.