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The Best SEO Strategy is Always About Your Customers (Not Google)

Great search engine optimization has always been, and will always be, about your customers. If you – or the company you’ve hired to do your SEO – are getting bogged down in the intricate technical details of search optimization, focused on adapting to Google’s latest changes, or overwhelmed by the detailed (and often conflicting) must-do’s touted by many SEO experts – you are probably losing out on a lot of valuable customers. Same as you are if you’re not doing SEO at all.

Great marketing in general has always been about knowing your business and knowing your audience (the “user intent” model currently taking the Google world by storm). SEO is just one more piece of that puzzle.

Why A Customer-Focused SEO Strategy Works

When it comes down to it, your organization’s needs are pretty simple: stay in the black and maybe even get a little ahead. And it’s your customers or supporters who make that happen – not search engines.

The best SEO strategy that actually provides ROI for your business focuses on leading your ideal customer through the process from search to purchase. It looks something like this:

  • Ideal customer searches for a solution to a need.
  • Your relevant web page shows up in the search engine results for phrases describing that need.
  • Ideal customer clicks on your link because it displays the most relevant and compelling answer to the question.
  • Ideal customer reads your relevant page that shows you understand the need, offers a solution, and explains why you can meet that need better than anyone else.
  • Now convinced, ideal customer easily completes the purchase, fills out the lead form, donates, or takes the intended action you’ve clearly provided.

Notice what’s missing? The bells and whistles of an optimization strategy that over emphasizes the importance of search engine technicalities – or is only about keywords and rankings.

Rather, this model focuses on the end result. It’s about getting the right people for the right reasons – and getting them to buy.

Do note: depending on the individual buyer, the industry, the types of products and other factors, the actual buying process often takes multiple visits to a site, sometimes from different sources, and may happen over time. This is why digging deeper in analytics matters.

How the Best SEO Strategy is Practically Implemented

You are the most critical component of a successful search engine optimization strategy. You, and an SEO expert or company who can guide you through customer-focused SEO and the elements of a practical implementation that you actually need.

Your Contribution to SEO Strategy

Nobody knows your organization or your audience better than you do. Start by identifying who your best customers are, what they care about, what their needs are, and what motivates them to choose you (and not your competitors). Determine what it is you want them to do: buy a product, submit a lead form, give you an email address.

Your Digital Marketing Company’s Contribution to SEO Strategy

You know your business, audience, and products, but a great digital marketing expert knows websites, search engines, and conversion strategy. You need a firm that will:

  • Get to know your organization, products or services, and audience.
  • Research your audience’s questions, needs, and interests online.
  • Build content that is compelling and relevant for your target audience’s expressed needs.
  • Ensure your website is technically sound, easy to use, and focused on generating conversions (purchases, leads, submissions, etc).
  • Implement basic but key on-page optimization strategies to ensure your content is found for relevant searches.
  • Recognize your individual needs and doesn’t force you into a cookie-cutter mold.
  • Constantly research and analyze visitor behavior in order to improve.

Practically, this will look like constantly improving your website to make it more successful with your visitors, regularly generating new, quality content, and always analyzing how to improve.

This way, you are putting your time, money, and effort into SEO work that impacts your bottom line for the long haul and won’t be obsolete the next time Google changes its algorithms.

Let Sanctuary Guide Your Customer-Centric SEO Strategy

At Sanctuary our goal is simple – to develop and execute an internet marketing strategy that will help your business succeed online. We can partner with you from the ground up by building a new customer and conversion focused website (or refreshing your existing one), and guiding, developing, implementing, and honing your best SEO strategy. Contact us today for a free assessment and quote.

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About Julie Mamula:

Julie Mamula helps execute campaigns and strategic deliverables in a timely manner and at an exceptional level. She loves using the many concepts and strategies that she’s learned in her 25 year tenure in marketing to make clients’ strategies more successful.

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