Proven strategies to convert SEO traffic into leads

Traffic going up and to the right?

Congrats! You finally got SEO to work for your business. But now the fun begins - you need to turn that traffic into leads. If traffic keeps going up but your email list is flat (or zero) then this guide is for you.

Read on to learn our proven strategies that can help you turn your traffic into a pipeline of new leads and customers, no matter your industry.

What are Conversions? Why track them for SEO?

Okay, what’s a conversion?

By “conversion” I mean the actions that users take while on a website to become a lead or customer. 

SEO experts may sell you on increased traffic (or DA), but traffic alone isn’t very helpful. By tracking conversions on your site you can gauge whether you are getting the right kind of traffic to your site. By that, I mean traffic that becomes leads or customers. 

Focusing on conversions helps you reach goals for your business like:

• Generating new leads for your business
• Improving the ROI of your marketing
• Growing revenue

Rather than treat your blog like a wishing well you throw quarters into and wonder when it’ll work, tracking conversions from your content allows you to make sure there is an ROI associated with your content. This is the difference between a content strategy that does nothing more than generate traffic for your website, and a content strategy that creates a steady stream of new leads.

What Do You Need In Order To Convert Your Traffic Into Leads?

Before we jump to turning that sweet traffic you’re getting into qualified leads, let’s look at what you need in place first:

• A content strategy
• A lead magnet
• Clear CTAs

I’ll walk you through each one of these in detail.

A Content Strategy

If you’re already driving traffic to your site, then chances are good you have a decent strategy in place. Still, it doesn’t hurt to double-check that you’re aligning your content with the right target market and answering the right questions. 

We have an entire framework for building content and SEO strategies, but I’ll break down the five key steps here:

1. Set a goal
2. Identify your target customer
3. Map out their questions
4. Brainstorm your content
5. Measure your progress toward your goal

Follow this framework and you’ll develop a content strategy that aligns with your target market and sets you apart in search results.

A Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is an asset on your website that is designed to attract potential customers and encourage them to provide their contact information to access it.

Lead magnets help you :

• Generate leads by capturing the interest of potential customers
• Build an email list of engaged subscribers
• Nurture relationships with leads by providing ongoing value
• Establish trust and credibility in their industry or niche

Lead magnets can come in any shape or size that you want - that’s what makes them great.

But there are some tried and true formats that just plain work. If you’re stumped looking at a blank page on your screen, here are my favorite types of lead magnets to get your juices flowing:

• Ebooks or guides: In-depth, informative content that addresses a specific problem or topic
• Checklists or cheat sheets: Quick, actionable resources that simplify a process or task
• Templates or tools: Customizable assets that help users save time and effort
• Webinars or video tutorials: Engaging, visual content that educates and demonstrates expertise
• Free trials or samples: Opportunities for potential customers to experience a product or service firsthand

Which one is the best?

Whichever format your ideal customer will find the most useful! Brainstorm problems that your target customer has and ways you can solve them with a lead magnet. You can use tools like Canva (or even Goolge Docs or Sheets) to create a lead magnet for free and place it on your website.

Clear CTAs

Your CTA is an inflection point for your viewers. It is an invitation. Yet, the type of invitation depends on the stage of the funnel your viewer is in. This means you can have different types of CTAs for different viewers.

Although there are many types of CTAs, five good CTAs to start with are:

• Make a purchase
• Sign up or create an account
• Speak with sales
• Downloads 
• Subscribe 

Now that you know different CTAs, you need somewhere to place them. When viewers scan your page, their eyes move in a pattern like the letter “z.” By placing your CTAs in line with this pattern, there is a greater chance viewers will be called to action. 

Some tips for writing high-quality CTAs include making it action-orientated, clear, and visible. Use direct and strong verbs and make CTAs visually appealing so that they “pop” to viewers. Your CTAs are invaluable to generating desired action, so it is important to make sure your CTAs are ready for action!

7 Tips To Convert More Of Your Traffic Into Leads

There’s a (seemingly) endless list of best practices to convert more of your traffic. Here are our seven best tips:

• Write clear CTAs
• Know your buyer
• Test your page copy
• Hook your readers
• Optimize your site for mobile
• Build trust
• Retarget your traffic

Let’s walk through these one by one.

1. Write Clear Call-to-Action (CTAs)

Make your CTAs pop out to your customers by making them not only specific to your content but absolutely irresistible! 

CTAs, usually buttons for forms, direct you to take a desired action. By making your CTAs eye-catching and easy to access, this can help you drive up our conversion rate. Improving your CTAs can be as easy as making your CTA buttons a contrasting color to your webpage.

2. Know Your Buyer

Before you can even begin turning viewers into leads, you need to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona represents your ideal customers who are buying your product. You can have more than one buyer persona, but sticking with 3-5 buyer personas is ideal. 

One way to develop a buyer persona is by seeing who is viewing your website. Free tools like Google Analytics can help you obtain your viewers’ demographics, such as age and gender. By creating a buyer persona, you can curate targeted content that attracts your ideal leads.

3. Test Your Page and Copy

Testing, 1, 2, 3. 

Through A/B testing, you can see how well different versions of your content, CTAs, keywords, and more perform. Think of yourself almost as a scientist testing a hypothesis of whether one version of your marketing performs better than another.

On pages where you receive ample traffic, you can obtain loads of data to reach significant insights. If one version of your webpage performs better than another, you can reach a conclusion and continue to build on your marketing strategy.

Google Analytics and HotJar are two free tools you can use for testing your content. 

Google Analytics monitors your website’s performance and tracks viewer information. It even analyzes your performance and visitors so that you can optimize your SEO.

HotJar performs in the same way but does so by using heatmaps. Heatmaps are a tool that allows you to see where your traffic actually interacts on your website. Almost like a heat mapfor temperatures, they use color to show where most user interaction is on your website. That way, you can refine your content to optimize content placement and CTAs.

4. Hook Your Readers

Some estimates say you get 3-5 seconds to hook a reader who visits your blog or landing page.

Because of this, the title and first few sentences are absolutely critical to converting your traffic into leads. Here are a few ways to grab your reader’s attention and improve the engagement in your page:

• Begin your content with a story or annecdote that draws readers in
• Share a fact or statistic to grab their attention
• Mix in content formats (written and video) to draw visitors into your site

By capturing the interest of your readers, you’ll increase the amount of time that they spend on your page and increase the chances that they convert on your site. 

5. Optimize Your Site For Mobile

It’s estimated that 58% of web traffic is on a mobile device, but that percentage can be much higher depending on your industry. 

It’s not exactly news: you need to pay attention to how people are finding your website and what device they use. 

By making your content accessible on a phone screen, you ensure visitors to your site have a great experience no matter how they visit. One way to ensure your content is mobile-friendly is by using Google Search Console. By clicking the “Experience” tab and going to “Mobile Usability report,” you can see if users can access your content and improve mobile use issues. 

6. Build Trust

To build your leads through converting, you can’t just say, “Trust us.” 

If only it was that easy. You need to show it! 

Feature case studies and testimonials on your webpage as “social proof” to build trust with your audience. With case studies, you illustrate the experience of a previous client going from a viewer to a buyer satisfied by your product or service. On the other hand, a testimonial is a personal statement made by a previous client about their time working with you. 

With either method, you can show your viewers that they can trust in you!

7. Retarget Your Traffic

Every browse Facebook and seen an ad for a website you were just on?

That’s re-targeting. 

No matter how great your CTAs and lead magnets are, you won’t convert 100% of your traffic. By retargeting your traffic you can reel them back in and stay top of mind.

Social media sites will be your best friend in remarketing. Through sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, you gain access to a wide audience who can see your content just by scrolling through their feed.

How Do I Write Page Copy That Converts

To create convertible landing pages, you need to tell a story that is relatable to your customers. Telling a story puts your customer at the center of your messaging. This way, you have a direct line to inspire your viewers to take action. 

Any good story has the following elements:

• A character: The main character of your story is your customer, not your business. Your customer has needs, wants, and goals - you need to tell a story with your copy that puts your customer at the center.
• A problem: Every good story has a central conflict or problem that the character encounters. What is the problem that your customer has (that you can solve)? Identify that problem and demonstrate it in your copy. 
• A guide: This is where you come in - you are the authoritative and experience guide that your main character can trust to help solve their problem.
• A call to action: When your character meets the you as the guide, you need to call them to action. This is key to getting them to take the next step towards reaching their goals and solving their problems.
• A happy ending/Success: By choosing to work with your business, your character will achieve their goals and successfully solve their problem.

Now that you have your story, you need to translate it to your landing page. Read the following example to see how we use this framework with our page copy.

Here’s Our Story As An Example

This is great in theory, but what does it all look like in practice?

Here’s our “story” as an example:

• Our character: Founders and business owners from ambitious, growth-focused companies. This could be software companies (SaaS) or other high-growth companies like consultants or financial services firms. 
• Their problem: The problems our character has include: not having a marketing strategy or plan for growth, not getting qualified or relevant traffic, and not getting any leads from their content.
• The guide: We have years of experience in marketing, SEO, and lead generation. We’ve worked with over 100 companies to build strategies to generate more qualified traffic and leads, and have numerous success stories to share.
• The call to action: Or primary CTA is to schedule a free strategy session. 
• Success: Success for our character looks like more traffic, that traffic being qualified, and generating leads from their content.

If you take a quick scan through our homepage, you’ll see the elements of this story throughout our copy.

Your turn! Write our your story and use it in your content.

How to track conversions for SEO?

With your business goals in mind, you want to make sure what you are working towards aligns with your performance. With the various types and amounts of data you can acquire from your website, you want to boil down your tracking to two steps: identifying significant metrics and learning how to measure those metrics in relation to your performance. 

One essential tool for tracking conversions for SEO is Google Analytics.

The best part is that it is free! 

Google Analytics helps you measure your website’s activity, traffic, and revenue. This way, you can see how well you convert traffic to leads.

Crush Your Conversion Goals!

Generating leads is not a one-and-done process; it is a constant process. But don’t be intimidated. Now that you have learned more about proven strategies for converting SEO traffic into leads, you can take action! 

If you have found yourself struggling to convert traffic into leads and are seeking growth, look no further than Centori. From lead generation to content strategy, Centori has helped over 100 companies turn viewers into quality leads. 

Want to learn more about how to turn your traffic into a full pipeline for your business? Click the button below to our free-to-download SaaS Organic Growth Guidebook!