The Role of SEO in your Online Marketing Strategy

 

SEO is a well-known fact to most. But search engine optimization is no longer just a channel, SEO is essential in any online marketing strategy and has a lot of connection with other channels. In this blog we take you through the role SEO has in the customer journey and how it can collaborate with the other channels within your online marketing strategy.

The online marketing landscape has changed a lot

Online marketing has developed enormously over the past twodecades. SEO is one of the first disciplines picked up by companies and led to the start of the first online marketing agencies. Google Ads was added quickly and slowly the whole landscape has changed enormously and has become a lot more complex. We now count a multitude of channels, each with their own extensive options. Think of Google Ads, Facebook advertising, Instagram, but also e-mail, marketing automation and marketplaces. You can use each of these channels at different times in the customer journey, each with its own settings, message and objectives. SEO is an essential and versatile channel in this.

SEO in the customer journey

The customer journey consists of different phases, for which different models have been developed. The See, Think, Do, Care model is one of the widely used models within online marketing. When looking at search engine optimization, it is a great advantage that this channel can be used at any stage.

Stimulate your target audience with good content, based on their questions, problems and challenges. However, this does not only have to tie in with searches that can be directly traced back to a question for your product or service, but that do have a connection. You can then influence these people and let them flow 'deeper into the funnel'.

Consider, for example, “water hardness Groningen”, when you offer water softeners. By informing visitors with your content and answering their search query, you will help visitors, but you can also make them think. Some of these visitors will then search for solutions against hard water (Think phase) and eventually look for a water softener (Do phase). Once they have purchased a water softener (Care phase), maintenance of the water softener or salt for the water softener is a logical next step.

SEO can therefore be used in all phases within the customer journey, but not everyone flows directly into the funnel. It would of course be a shame to completely lose sight of a visitor who has visited your website in the See phase. Other channels, including Google Ads, social media and remarketing, are a huge addition to this.

SEO and SEA

SEO and SEA, two worlds of difference, but also two worlds with many similarities. We often see that these two disciplines are tackled separately from each other. Even with large online players, there is little collaboration between SEO and SEA, even when they are almost next to each other. This is really a missed opportunity. By coordinating these two aspects, an enormous amount can be gained in the results of both channels. A few tips;

·         Make separate target group lists of users who have visited certain pages, such as blogs or FAQs, in order to optimize your bidding strategy or advertising texts.

·         Optimize your landing pages of the main products and services to increase conversion even further.

·         Analyze search terms within Google Ads to discover new search terms for the SEO strategy.

·         Look for Google Ads ads with a low Quality Score to improve landing pages.

·         Research which keywords convert well through Google Ads and focus on that with your SEO strategy

SEO and SEA (in practice almost always Google Ads) then have many differences, but that is precisely why they reinforce each other. By coordinating these two disciplines you will realize profit on both sides in your online marketing results.

SEO and remarketing

We already mentioned it, create separate lists of your website visitors who come to certain pages. A visitor who you do not yet know is looking for your product or service will probably perform less well on an advertisement calling for a purchase.

If we look at the water softeners again, a separate remarketing campaign can be used on the visitors to the water hardness pages. These visitors will then be presented with a remarketing advertisement in which they can view the benefits of a water softener instead of calling them to buy a water softener immediately. This allows you to use a large reach in the SEO phase, which is sent deeper into the funnel thanks to remarketing.

Search engine optimization and social media

Social media is a channel where you share and seek interaction. Social media is now used for many purposes, depending on the social media channel. By means of SEO you gain more insight into the search questions of your target group and vice versa you can also receive input from the questions, needs and challenges of your (potential) customer via social media. You can share valuable information via social media, whether paid or not, while the input from social media can be used excellently for expanding and optimizing your content.

SEO and YouTube

Video is growing fast. Every day we watch hundreds of thousands of hours of online video content in the Netherlands alone. We not only spend this time watching famous vloggers, influencers and cat videos, but also other content.

Did you know that, after Google, YouTube is the largest search engine in the Netherlands?"

You can easily reach your target audience on YouTube, with a good or fun video. For example, YouTube searches a lot for 'how to' videos. Thanks to these types of videos, people are helped to perform a certain job or solve a problem. After all, you can give a very good answer to the question of your potential customer through a video. Think of questions such as

How can I…

How works….

When should I….

The YouTube results are also reflected in Google and you can also easily place a YouTube video on your website, as support for the description of a product or service, or as an addition to your blog. Enough reasons to start with SEO and YouTube!

SEO and other channels

In addition to SEA, remarketing and social media, SEO also works great with email (such as newsletters and marketing automation), marketplaces and CRO. Let's zoom in on the latter for a moment. SEO and CRO sometimes work against each other. Much content on a page can distract from the goal of the visitor and website. SEO is sometimes at the expense of conversion in practice and what good is a well-visited page that yields nothing?

Make sure that the page layout is such that at least one clear call to action is visible. This call to action does not always have to be an invitation to buy directly or request a quote, on the contrary, tailor this call to action to the content and purpose of the page. Just to take the example of water softeners again. For example, someone looking for water hardness can request a free test. By properly positioning this call to action with a clear message, it will be used. E-mail is then again an extremely suitable channel to demonstrate the benefits of a water softener.

SEO is therefore essential in any online marketing strategy

SEO is an essential part of an online marketing strategy, precisely because of the cohesion and added value for other channels. We advise not only to focus on SEO, but also to use multiple channels to get the most out of your online marketing budget.

Are you not yet using SEO, and do you want to know how your website is doing? We carry out an SEO Scan for you free of charge and without obligation and map out the opportunities! Are you convinced to start immediately with SEO? Then start with search engine optimization today and grow your results from your current channels.