The ocean that is digital marketing is getting deeper by the day. When the online boom started in the 1990s, people were essentially doing what they wanted and they were succeeding no matter how bad the websites were. This was the necessary transition period between having no internet to being completely dependent on it, several decades letter. If your business is struggling with SEO lead generation right now, we got your back.

The Rise of AI

AI is such an important aspect of digital marketing presently that we’d like to take a closer look at how it will impact how businesses do, well, business in the current period. With the coronavirus threat still in full swing, people are going to rely a lot of online services and communication. Where does AI fit into all of this right now?

In terms of SEO lead generation, it appears that companies don’t really have a choice: either you adapt AI into your day to day operations, or suffer from not getting really powerful benefits: 59% faster closing rate for sales, 58% increased revenue, 54% improved traffic and higher engagement too, for the website, and 52% higher conversion of existing leads. SEO leads are the lifeblood of any search engine optimization company, so it’s understandable that there is plenty of pressure in generating quality leads every year.

It has been said that on every front, however, that AI wins in terms of cost, effectiveness, and targeting. Of course, there is always going to be a need for human agents to handle processes that AI can’t handle (yet), but for the most part, you can offset plenty of processes to AI without missing a beat. Giving AI certain processes is also less time consuming, especially if the main goal is to hand over specific types of information to the consumer. At the rate robots/AI are learning right now, they are going to take over many functions on a website, and people will get what they want from your business faster than ever before.

A staggering 80% of companies believe that artificial intelligence is going to change the landscape of marketing for years to come. AI is already changing how manufacturing is done, and stock fulfillment. It has been able to improve the efficiency of so many things associated with human consumption that we should definitely embrace it, and adapt to it, for the sake of customers.

Let’s talk about lead nurturing. The fact of the matter is that it takes several visits before a sale is made. The same applies to businesses like SEO companies. Very rarely do people buy an SEO package off the bat. For the most part, people are going to take some time before they decide that what you are offering is great. Where does AI figure into all of this? With AI, you can continue nurturing leads by delivering goodies through a chatbot on your website. More than 50% of consumers say that they are fine with the idea of receiving news, updates, and coupons from bots.

People are getting used to the idea of essentially conversing with robots, so as the comfort level goes up; accessibility through the technology also increases. Why? Because people are beginning to feel that it is completely normal to speak to a chatbot or any other AI interface for their needs. As we have discussed before, AI is at the frontlines of improving customer communication by simply being good in relaying information. Companies are already using AI for collecting information from customers, and customers are already utilizing AI for relaying complaints and issues to businesses. This is a synergistic relationship between machine and man, and we just love how AI is improving digital marketing on the whole.

Building a High-Octane Website for SEO Lead Generation

1. The shift to usability

For the longest time, websites were viewed as the digital equivalent of paper, and what do we do with paper? We simply write on it. The intention is important here, because if the intention is simply to provide information, and that is the bulk of what your website does, then you are missing out on the rest of the 80% that you can do with your website. Sure, people can passively read blog posts and just forget about everything they’ve just seen or you can turn this around and transform your website into something that people can use for their needs.

The question is what and how. In addition to your landing pages, which is the crux of what we do with digital marketing, what else can we provide our customers through the website? If you can provide a useful, free online service that people can return to constantly, then people will naturally gravitate toward your website and you can even win against your hardest competition on Google’s SERPs.

Poor usability is frustrating to anyone, not just B2B audiences. Now imagine the impact this will have when a decision-maker is looking at everything you’ve got, and he’s comparing your website with another website that has free online tools, downloads, templates, etc. While the add-on services from your competition have nothing to do with how they actually perform SEO for their clients, they sure can attract a lot of people, and the brand develops constantly because of the trust from the organic traffic.

2. Optimize for speed

This is another pain point that many Web users have: they hate slow loading websites. And what is even more unfortunate is that the criterion for slow is about 3 seconds. You literally have 3 seconds to load the majority of your website on your site visitor’s device, or he will likely leave. Obviously, your website is going to lose a lot of organic traffic and it is going to take a hit because of the lower dwell time if your site is not loading properly and quickly.

How do you speed up a website? There are a couple of things that you can do right now to speed up loading time:

– Use tools like GZip to make sure that your CSS, HTML, and JavaScript that are larger than 150 bytes are compressed. This will enable shorter loading times. Take note that GZip is not recommended for reducing the size of JPEG or PNG files. Use the appropriate tool for that: GIMP or Photoshop. The images have to be a lower size before being loaded to the website.

– Optimize your code by removing spaces, commas, and other elements that may increase loading time. This is called minification and it will dramatically improve the page loading time of your website. CSSNano and UglifyJS can help you accomplish this.

– Reduce the cycle of redirects. Every time there is a redirect on a page, it takes additional time for the redirected page to load. Use redirects only when it is completely necessary to do so. Otherwise, don’t use redirects.

– Optimize leverage caching and make sure that you set an expiration date for elements like headers. Setting the expiration ensures that cached data are forgone in favor of data downloaded directly from the host.

– Check your server response time. Perhaps your website is doing well on its own, but the server is dramatically underperforming. If your server is the problem, maybe it’s time to shift to another plan that will ensure better performance overall.

– Content delivery networks are all the rage these days because they can dramatically increase the speed of distribution of Web data. Basically, copies of your website are stored in a variety of data centers, and this allows for better access by having an entire network providing the data to users on demand.

3. Build for trust and efficiency in leadgen 

Beyond the complexity of code, we have the issue of building trust on the Internet. It’s important to be authoritative but at the same time, trustable. But how can you do this will still boosting the leadgen capability of your website? Here are some professional tactics:

– Show your contact number. Whether it’s an international toll-free number or a cellphone number specific to the state of Arizona, it doesn’t matter: showing your number can immediately build trust and remove that cloud of doubt in people’s heads. In the age of the Internet where people can create ten email accounts and abandon them at a moment’s notice, it’s imperative that you show your customers that you have a fixed place of a business, that you are tied to a registered number that they can actually check. People who are thinking that your website is phony (because all websites might be phony) will say “okay, I can call this guy, this website is for real.” Even though it may seem counterintuitive to have your phone number displayed at the very top of each page or offer, do it.

– Lead generation requires a lot of elbow grease in order to work. That is why it is counterproductive to have lead forms on just the homepage or on your landing page. The best practice here is to put a lead form on every page on your website. It doesn’t matter if the page only contains a video, a short blog, or even an old article from years past. What is more important here is to have the latest offers displayed to visitors in all their beautiful glory. Don’t be afraid to show your latest offers on old content, because old content is still part of your website, even if they kind of look different now with all of the improvements you have done on your website.

– Social proof has always been important. Actually, the more costly the product or service, the more social proof you should provide to your audience. Get testimonials and feedback from past clients and plaster these across your website. Adding a Testimonials link on every page can also help build trust and erase internal resistance to your brand, especially if they have never seen it before.

– Create talking head videos or any other video where you’re part of the material and people can see and hear you. Videos are excellent in closing the communication gap between B2B audiences and online content. There will always be a gap because people will always be looking for the human element, even in digital content. While written content has always attempted to reduce the gap, the gap still exists, and that is where your videos come in. Watching videos also ensure better conversions because again, it’s a trust issue, and we must continually work on removing the trust issues associated with you service.

– Writing is content that has never been easy, but we’d love it if you can use power words with your content. Power words are easy to understand but attention-grabbing and authoritative. Also, they give people a sense of safety, security, and wellbeing. Words like “Get,” “Free,” and “Discover” are examples of power words. They are compelling, they get the pulse running, and they’re perfect for setting the scene for your core message.

– This may have been obvious if you have watched how the Internet has changed throughout the years, but it bears repeating: never use common templates for your websites and blogs. Custom-designed websites with your vision in mind will always be better than any old template that has been swimming around the Internet for years. If your website is from an old template and has the character of an old shoe as well, it’s time to upgrade. Hire a designer and brainstorm with the designer so you can get the best possible upgrade. Time’s ticking and people want to see more of your branding right now!