How to implement killer search strategies using the purchase funnel
Search engines continue to play a vital role in purchase decisions. Whether a brand is operating in the B2B or B2C space, according to Hubspot 81% of all purchase decisions start with online research.
The next Koozai 'breakfast & learn' session is at Albert House, London, on 6 July.
What may be less well-known is the range of tactics that can be employed as part of an integrated search strategy to maximise performance at every stage in the buying process. Today we will explore how SEO and PPC activity can be integrated into the marketing mix to engage customers at the awareness phase. Organic search arguably does its hardest work at the top of the funnel, and below are a few areas to consider when developing an awareness strategy.
Know your audience
Keyword research should tell you everything you need to know about your audience. No exaggeration here: keyword research should be regarded as the most important part of an SEO campaign, and it needs to be well executed. Detailed keyword research allows a marketer to gain deep insight into their audience’s needs, and will offer a steer on how a business can solve a customer’s problem better than the competition can.
Identifying the highest-volume keywords and optimising existing content for these is part of this process, though this is the most basic optimisation that can be carried out for SEO. The real opportunity for growth lies in understanding your audience’s other needs and building rich, relevant content around the keywords that reflect them.
Focus on relevance
Google’s main aim is to deliver the most relevant results for a search term, whether this is for paid ads or organic listings. Relevance is maintained for paid search via the Quality Score metric. In summary, if a website’s content or ad text is of poor quality, or if the keywords the website is bidding on are irrelevant to its product offering, Google will make it extremely difficult for that website to appear high in paid results.
The organic algorithm works in a similar way. The sites that rank highest for a search query are typically the most relevant. Therefore, the core goal of an SEO campaign is to improve a site’s relevance for what its target audience is searching for.
Know your competitors
As well as being useful for audience analysis, SEO data can tell you a lot about where your brand can be seen online. One way to do this is by reviewing the link and social profiles of your competitors. By understanding the types of websites that link to competitors’ sites, you can start to build up a list of publishers that are highly likely to want to work with your brand.
Use the technology available to you
Mobile is obviously a key consideration for SEO in 2017 and beyond. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you are most likely missing out on traffic via this channel – particularly if your competitors are already mobile-friendly. And if you are operating in the B2B space and think your audience isn’t searching on mobile, think again. Many B2B buyers will be using their mobile devices to make a buying decision alongside their devices in the office.
Voice Search, while in its relative infancy, is another area for brands to consider as part of their search strategy. This may be more applicable in some industries than others, for example in some travel sectors where a quick answer may be sought. Nevertheless, it is worth reviewing where Voice Search opportunities may lie for your brand.
Find out more for free
Koozai is running free monthly 'Breakfast & Learn' sessions for brand-side marketers. Our head of paid media, Marcus Knight, and I are hosting a series of sessions looking at how search marketers can use knowledge of the purchase funnel to turbo-charge their search strategies, starting with a session on 'the awareness phase' on 6 July from 8.30am to 10am at our London office in Old Street.
Natalie Mott is head of SEO at digital marketing agency Koozai
Content by The Drum Network member:
Koozai
We help brands to increase their visibility and market share through Digital Marketing. Specialising in SEO, Content Marketing, Paid Search and Paid Social, we work...
Find out more