Facebook Pixel Code

Organic traffic, the dream of every marketer, usually pays off if you create useful content for your audience and promote it. But if your web pages aren’t visible in the search engine results pages (SERPs), your audience can’t see your product, let alone purchase it.

To build a business that thrives, you need to develop the right search marketing campaign. And with search marketing, you can promote your web pages so that the right people can find them easily in SERPs. Why? Because you need to be where your ideal customers are. According to HubSpot, 44% of online shoppers begin their buying experience on a search engine.

Here are four simple steps that will help you develop a search campaign that brings organic leads:

1. Start with keyword research.

Keywords are the lifeblood of organic traffic. If you haven’t mastered keyword research, don’t obsess over link building yet. First, you need to understand keywords, which can be head or long-tail keywords. The head keywords are usually competitive, with a high search volume, and are not very descriptive. Some examples are:

  • “Nike shoes”
  • “Small business”
  • “Lead generation strategy”

On the other hand, long-tail keywords are descriptive, fairly easy to rank in Google, and have lower search volumes. Some examples are:

  • “Best Nike women’s running shoes”
  • “Small business proposal templates”
  • “Lead generation strategies for plumbers”
Ideally, you should focus on long-tail keywords because they are less competitive and convert well because they have a clear commercial intent. Take time to conduct good keyword research; the lessons you’ll learn are priceless. Search Engine Journal saw a 78% improvement in organic traffic after optimizing its individual web pages naturally for long-tail keywords. KeywordTool.io is also a great tool to use to perform keyword research.

2. Build high-converting landing pages.

Once you’ve picked your long-tail keywords, it’s time to build your landing pages. An attractive search result will get people to click and visit your landing page. Therefore, building landing pages with a form integrated to gather visitors’ contact information is vital. If you are able to convince a visitor to fill out your form, it means the visitor is giving you permission to further email and communicate with them.

Here are the features that make for a poor landing page design:

  • Multiple offers on the page. You should only have one offer on your landing page.
  • Bad typography. Use fonts that are inviting and suitable for your audience.
  • Navigational menu. Keep it simple. A landing page doesn’t need a clickable menu.
  • Wrong use of color. Colors define moods. Use colors that complement your offer.
  • Too much text. Strike a balance between text and images.
  • Generic calls-to-action. Instead of writing “submit,” be descriptive and write “get free access.” Let the CTA tell the customer what to expect.

Since your landing page forms are part of your core inbound strategy, you need to make them engaging and high-converting. According to MarketingSherpa, you can convert 64% of visitors to your website with a good landing page. And once users click through to your landing page, make sure that you have useful content for them so that they’ll share it with others. When you consistently do that, your organic traffic will increase.

3. Understand how Google AdWords work.

These ads normally appear at the top of a SERP or the righthand side of the page and look similar to organic results; Google currently places a small yellow or green “ad” label on them. If you’re looking to get instant targeted traffic, advertising on Google can help while you generate organic traffic over time.

To determine which ads show higher up, Google Adwords mainly looks at three important factors:

  • The keyword you are bidding on;
  • The maximum amount you are bidding; and
  • The quality score of your ads.

As long as you do well on these factors, you will have success with Google AdWords. You don’t even need a huge budget to succeed; PPC advertising gives you the opportunity to reach an audience quickly.

On the flip side, there are many tasks that you need to get involved in if you truly want to generate organic traffic. For example, you need to conduct market research to learn about your customers, do keyword research, analyze your competitors, create compelling content and build backlinks. Therefore, you need to leverage ads to grow faster than your competitors.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

4. Create ad copy that matches your landing page.

When it comes to developing an effective search marketing campaign, you need a message match between your ad copy and the landing page. For example, if you added the price of your product to the title of your ad copy, then your landing page should have the price in the title as well. Your landing page should perform better if the headlines look similar to the ad copy.

A brand is built with color, font, content and overall website design. Make sure these are consistent everywhere you run your ads. In turn, this will impact your quality score, reduce your CPC, and increase the quantity and quality of leads that Google sends to you. Imagine visitors coming to your landing page and seeing a different headline or image that doesn’t come close to the ones on your ad copy — confusion would ensue.

You should know when to go for paid advertising and when to wait for organic traffic, but smart marketers use both strategies to grow their brands and increase revenue. In all, you need a proven search marketing campaign to pull them off.

Source: How To Develop A Search Marketing Campaign That Generates Organic Leads