SEO Lead Generation Techniques for Business Owners

4 SEO Techniques to Generate More Website Leads

SEO as a process is not difficult.  Depending on how competitive your industry is in fact, I believe that most business owners with very little technical know-how can do their own SEO and generate more leads from Internet Marketing.  You do need to have a website with a Content Management System such as WordPress or Joomla and several others.

The SEO Pyramid

I’m not physics major but I think a rule of physics is that any structure must have a strong foundation if it is going to last.  If you are a physics major and you are reading this, please comment below if I am wrong about that assumption.

Step 1: Rich, Accessible Content

Regardless, in the SEO world for the purpose of lead generation techniques, you do need a strong base and then you can build upon that base to achieve optimal SEO results.  The essential foundation in SEO is to create several pages of unique, well written content.  Each page should only target one keyword phrase.

How you structure your content is also important.  You need to be linking the pages properly amongst each other, using the appropriate keyword anchor text, embedding the keywords into your URL structure, ensuring that you are using the correct .txt files for Bot accessibility and using sitemaps accordingly on the website.

OK I said it is “not difficult”.  I didn’t’ say it is “easy”.

Step 2: Choosing the Right Keywords

Every industry has it’s buzzwords.  For example, in our business we work with a lot of landscapers and in their world they generally use words like “hardscaping” and “softscaping”.  These are common terms within their own four walls so to speak but for the layman homeowner who may be searching Google for a landscaping service, it is much more common for them to say “front yard landscaping” or “backyard landscaping” in their search query than “hardscaping” or “softscaping”.

So the goal is to brainstorm keywords. Use keyword selection tools like the Google Keyword Tool or other keyword research tools to identify search terms that have a high volume of searches and a low amount of competition.

Once you have identified the best terms to use, you simply embed them into your web pages.  Remember, only focus on one keyword per page. Trying to target several keywords on a page is considered “keyword stuffing” and will get you penalized by Google.

Proper SEO for on-page targeting is to include your keyword phrase in the Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, H1 Tag, within the text itself and in the anchor text on other pages leading to this page.

One word of caution for on-page SEO is not to overuse the target keyword phrase as this will also get you penalized.  When you read the text it should sound like a human is talking and not a robot repeating the same phrase over and over again.

Step 3: Build Links Back to Your Pages

This is where SEO starts to get very tedious and time consuming.  You have to manually send link requests to tens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of reputable online resources requesting them to post a link back to your web page.

There are tons of methods of getting links.  These include local listings, search engine submissions, social bookmarking, directory submissions, deep link directory submissions, classified ads, social bookmarking. blog commenting, RSS feed submissions, article submissions, web 2.0 backlinks, Yahoo Answers submissions, Writing blog posts, Google Places and more.

Step 4: Social Media

Many business owners try to start with social media.  This is a mistake if you are really trying to drive lead generation for your business.  Sure, it will eventually create some word of mouth referrals but it is a slow process and should not be placed before On-Page and Off-Page SEO.  Once the other pieces are in place however, this is the icing on the cake.  Go out there and engage the audience you have created with your SEO lead generation techniques.

This article was originally posted by WSI Milton