Organic search is the bread and butter of any inbound marketing strategy. However, organic search alone will not guarantee your success. Instead, make sure that you’re using the right SEO keywords in the right places within your sales funnel to get the most out of the traffic you are bringing in.
This blog pertaining to top-funnel and bottom-funnel SEO keyword use covers the following topics:
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- Sales funnel stages
- Let’s Build Business video on top-funnel and bottom-funnel keywords
- Top-Funnel keyword placement in the sales cycle
- FREE SEO Analysis
- Bottom-Funnel keyword placement in the sales cycle
- How bottom-funnel keywords boost your bottom line
- Effectiveness of moving prospects and leads down the sales funnel depends on ONE thing!
Understanding the sales funnel stages helps businesses utilize the proper SEO digital marketing strategies to attract quality leads.
The sales funnel offers a way of viewing the journey prospective leads take when considering your product or service. Cycle funnels serve as models designed to show the various stages companies should consider when conducting sales via digital marketing. The purpose of understanding the sales funnel is for businesses to move prospective, and quality leads through each marketing stage. Ultimately, you’ll want to move leads down towards the bottom, which is the conversion area.
Your typical sales cycle funnel includes the following stages:
- Awareness/Problem Recognition: The leads start to recognize they have a problem they want to be solved. This, then, leads them to the internet searching for a resolution and (if you’re utilizing SEO best practices) come across your brand’s information.
- Interest/Engagement: The leads begin to understand the problem and become interested in how you might help them resolve it. They also decide to do more research into the product or service and what it entails.
- Decision: The leads now have enough information about the solution to decide to take action. They can choose to contact you and move you down the funnel via a phone call, e-mail, or another contact form.
- Close/Sale: With each decision-making process, prospective leads choose if and when they’re ready to move on and answer the calls to action. When they come to your website and make their purchase, the sale is successful. Thus, the close happens either when they purchase, subscribe, or sign-up for more marketing promotions.
SEO and Keyword Placement: Does it really matter?
ABSOLUTELY! If your goal is to move potential leads through your sales funnel correctly, you need to ensure you’re utilizing the right keywords at the right time. However, if you don’t, then they may never get to where you want them to go – to the bottom of the funnel to make a decision and convert.
Many companies still don’t quite grasp that the keywords they use for certain types of content will determine where a new lead ends up within the funnel. This misstep is why it’s critical to provide the right keywords in the right places within your funnel, starting with your top-funnel keywords.
Top-Funnel Keyword Examples
The top-funnel keywords connect search words and phrases you use to attract new leads to your website. Depending on your business industry, and the types of products or services you provide, there are SEO keywords or search words and phrases that people will use to find what they need online.
Top-funnel words are what I call “surface-level” words that customers will Google to make an initial inquiry. Whether they enter a keyword phrase or ask a question, some of those words will reflect top-funnel words, which means the prospects are still at the very beginning of their buying journey.
Some examples can include:
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- How to patent my invention or idea – a question someone may Google when they have an invention idea and need more information about protecting their IP.
- Wedding photographer fees – what a visitor may search for when they’re initially diving into wedding plans.
- Natural ways to remedy back pain – a phrase someone may enter if they are experiencing this situation.
When attracting potential leads to your website, your top-funnel keyword placements must be relevant to and match your audience’s pain points. Thus, your SEO keyword strategy needs to help draw readers into your educational and resourceful content. Furthermore, you’ll want to ensure you have calls-to-action, lead magnets, and other tactics available in the “awareness phase” to help customers move down to the stage of the cycle.
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What are Bottom-Funnel Keywords?
Bottom-funnel keywords are the connecting words that help convert leads into sales. Your goal to reach success through digital marketing must also include bottom-funnel words and phrases that attract people who are a bit further down the sales cycle of their buying journey.
This audience may have already conducted a lot of online research, and they’re now ready to “act” and convert into a sale. If your business site has keywords that also attract this audience, they should be able to find you!
Some examples of bottom-funnel keywords may include:
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- Where to get an eye exam
- Buy Roku 2021
- Texas BBQ near me
- Top Black Friday deals
These keywords are designed to attract searchers who are ready to act now, not necessarily those still learning about their options.
Bottom-funnel keywords do help boost your bottom line, but only if you move prospective leads down towards the bottom stage.
To move prospective leads and potential customers down the sales funnel, you must utilize both types of keywords. Your content marketing must follow SEO best practices, and the keywords you incorporate must attract your targeted audience. Once you know and understand that your products or services are viable solutions to your audience’s pain points and search needs, you can begin attracting leads at whatever stage they’re in on their buying journey.
There will be customers at the initial inquiry stage, and they’ll need to start at the top of the funnel. But most importantly, once they arrive at your company site, you must have a strategy to keep them engaged. Innovative strategy is what helps guide them down the funnel and eventually get them to reach the bottom.
Similarly, people are visiting your website who are ready to move forward or make a purchase. Therefore, you’ll also want to ensure your bottom-funnel keywords attract them to your site and compel them to convert. Whether prospects are at the top, middle, or bottom of the sales funnel, there’s one significant impression you must make. That impression ensures you’re viewed as a viable and relevant solution that addresses pain points and meets needs.
How effectively you help move prospective leads down the sales funnel depends upon which outsourced marketing partner you choose.
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You’re only as good as the company you keep.” Well, I couldn’t agree more! At BUILDINGBLOCKS, our goal is to provide innovative digital marketing strategies that help connect your business to the right customers. We also help you see a return on your investment.
As your partner, we ensure that you integrate the proper implementation of SEO keywords and strategies that work best for your industry as you move prospects through the sales funnel. In the end, you position yourself as an authority and resource leader in the market.
Remember, SEO is all about reaching the right audience member at the right time. Therefore, your online presence must be relevant to customer product and service search behaviors to reach them effectively.
When you’re ready to get started, we want to hear from you! Contact us online and let us know how we can assist, or call 281-203-0529 to speak with us right away.
References
- Initial Online Search Top-Funnel Keyword Phrase – Photo Concept by Benjamin Dada.
- Google Maps Search – Photo Concept by Henry Perks.
