Your search engine optimization has slowed down and maybe stopped generating website leads. Guess what? This is happening all over the board for a very specific reason.
Things are changing quite rapidly in the world of search engine optimization and lead generation. The techniques used just a few years ago are becoming less effective. Buyer behavior is changing rapidly and along with that search engine optimization (SEO) is too.
Before we dive into why this is, we need to understand how things have evolved.
OLD SEO
We focus on keywords. Everything we do is about them. What are they? How do we rank in search results? How do we improve where we are in the list?
This is an old way of thinking in the SEO world. There are many changes including the new artificial intelligence from Google called Rank Brain. Machine learning is much faster than human learning and this has allowed search engines to understand searchers INTENT, not just keywords.
For example:
In the old search engines, to find out about Ruby Slippers you would have had to type those words into search engines to exactly match those keywords to get results. Now with artificial intelligence you don't need to do that anymore. Google understands searchers INTENT, not just keywords.
This means you don't have to use the keyword Ruby Slippers if you're talking about what Dorothy wore in the Wizard of OZ. You can simply type in "What Shoes did Dorothy Wear?" and up pops "Ruby Slippers!"
NEW SEO
We focus on topics; making sure our content is related in topic clusters which reinforces Evergreen Content. Topic clusters resemble spokes on a wheel where the main topic is the hub and the sub topics are at the end of each spoke.
We optimize blog posts but don't focus on the mechanics so much. Just make sure the basics are there.
Focus on the user. Optimize for user experience. Does the post read well? Is it interesting? Is it worth sharing?
That's top of the funnel to get visitors, now what?
Ah yes, the key and fundamental thing every business owner wants: more leads from visits. And not just any leads; we want qualified, quality leads. The problem is that this is getting harder to accomplish.
Buyers are getting more resistant to filling out forms online. They know that if they do, their inbox is probably going to get spammed by the business. This is pushing the buyers further down the funnel before making even the first contact. It's now estimated that over 85% of the buying decision has already been made before walking into a store or even making the first contact.
Conversion rates for gated content are less than 3%. Think about this. 100 people walk into your store but only three ask a question. On your website you may have an offer which is an answer to their question, but you make them give you their email first. Sorry, I'm walking out of that store because there's another store one click away that doesn't make me do that.
Producing a tremendous amount of content to drive traffic to your website to get 3% conversion only works for bigger companies. The reason is because out of that 3% the business will only sell to 20% at the high end. So 20% of 3% ...I have to get my calculator out...is 0.75% or 7.5 people out of 1000 to become a customer.
This number can vary widely depending on the industry and service. More competitive industries have higher competition which means traffic is harder to come by and even harder to convert into paying customers.
Ever wonder why you're not getting any contacts from your website? That's why.
So what do we do now? Well the answer to that question is as easy as answering the question: what do you do? Do you like filling out a form to get some ebook to download and get your inbox spammed? No, you just want answers to your questions. You need a chat bot on your website.
Chat Bots
A chat bot is the thing that hangs around on your website usually at the bottom right of the users screen. You type your question in and someone answers. This kind of thing has been around for a while now and not used widely because it can drain a business's resources paying someone to sit there all day and answer questions.
In the past users were resistant to this technology, probably due to unfamiliarity with the concept and how they were used to interacting online. Things are different now; users understand that this service is safe and easy to use.
The other change is artificial intelligence which allows us to program bots to do more things before a human gets involved. Your chat bot can answer questions, check on an order, find the right person, or other things to improve efficiency. Having a smarter chat system makes it easier to manage than it used to be.
Talk to the online marketing experts at Softwired Web to start garnering real leads from your website today. We will establish a plan that is right for your industry and your business.
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