In the not-so-distant past, search engine optimization (SEO) was often treated as a standalone entity, with businesses focusing on improving rankings and driving organic traffic. Then AI hit the scene and sent everyone scrambling to figure out the new rules of ‘the game’, leaving some companies to wonder if SEO services are worth it. The answer is absolutely...if you use SEO the right way.
To maximize SEO as a tool now, it must be integrated into a comprehensive sales and marketing strategy in ways that speak to humans rather than robots. Done correctly, it will guide tactics and inform sales, and even serve as its own form of demand generation.
Gone are the days when SEO was an afterthought, tacked on to the marketing package like the new kid you included on your team but didn’t really value or understand. They’d probably help with assists. At best, they may score a basket or two if anyone would pass them the ball.
That has changed. SEO is a key player on any team, with team being the operative word.
Want to play the old game? Here are some of the potential consequences of focusing primarily on SEO or viewing it as separate from other players on the team:
Like blogging, SEO is a long game, and if you evaluate its effectiveness on its own, you may decide it’s expendable. While SEO can generate some impressive results on its own, it isn’t as conversion focused as other marketing tools. On top of that, most things in life don't occur in a vacuum.
At Kuno, when we pair SEO with paid advertising, which is conversion-focused, we often see immediate results that create a snowball effect. It also gives us better marketing data because SEO and paid media, as well as social media, all use different dashboards and can yield different insights.
Keyword research and other data SEO analysts provide not only improve organic search rankings, but also provide valuable perspective into user behavior and preferences. Since SEO has the ability to better your understanding of your target audience, which helps all teams, it needs to be integrated with every part of your marketing team.
At Kuno, we’ll sometimes see a keyword fumble in the paid realm but score big organically. Because our teams work as part of a cohesive whole, SEO can take advantage of this data, enabling us to swoop in and claim ownership of traffic without a client needing to invest in ad spend.
When a keyword excels in both arenas—scoring clicks in ads and climbing the ranks organically—it becomes a championship move. Paid media brings its power plays, SEO adds its strategic finesse, and together, they dominate the digital playing field.
At Kuno, we need SEO now more than ever. Thanks to the bygone era of ‘keyword stuffing’ followed by what we might as well call ‘content stuffing,’ even the most impressive maneuvers won't score points if your content gets lost on an already crowded internet.
When your content teams up with SEO, you greatly increase your chance of getting content to the top of SERPs, ensuring your brand gets the recognition it deserves.
Today, a strong focus is on technical SEO—the playbook essential for ensuring your website gets indexed and seen by the masses, akin to having the best gear and training regimen to keep your team in top form.
Let's not overlook the power of long-tail keywords, the secret weapons in your arsenal. Despite their lower search volumes, long-tail keywords pack a punch by attracting highly targeted and convertible traffic, which could help your team earn that game-winning goal.
Long-tail keywords are like the niche plays that indicate high intent—optimizing content for them ensures businesses attract a more focused audience actively seeking specific solutions or information, just as a well-placed shot finds the back of the net.
And here's the beauty of it: while long-tail keywords may have lower search volumes and keyword difficulty, their specificity means businesses can score big with a targeted audience seeking specific solutions. Plus, ranking well for long-tail keywords often opens doors to ranking for shorter, higher-volume variations.
In the playing field of SEO, schema (or structured data) markup is another game-changer— strategic code in the backend that organizes content for search engine crawlers, enhancing visibility and understanding.
On-page SEO is the captain leading the charge, ensuring every aspect—from page titles to meta descriptions to alt text on images—is optimized for maximum impact.
While content may take center stage in the audience’s eyes, SEO works tirelessly in the background, fine-tuning your strategy and ensuring your content is positioned for success, much like a coach refining a game plan to secure the win. Together, they form an unbeatable team—scoring points and driving your brand towards victory.
While SEO for marketing may focus on brand visibility and awareness, leveraging SEO for sales is all about driving conversions by targeting keywords with clear buyer's intent, optimizing for specific product or service searches, and tapping into location-based services to bring home the win.
Through tools like Semrush, your SEO team can provide insights into keyword intent, helping businesses focus their efforts on high-intent phrases that lead to conversions. SEO analytics can also provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, helping sales teams tailor their approach for maximum impact.
Just like in sports, where different plays serve different purposes, there are four types of user intent keywords: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional. For sales, we're all about the transactional—keywords that drive individuals closer to making a purchase, like 'buy groceries online' or 'car insurance quotes.'
By targeting high-intent keywords, optimizing UX/UI for conversion, SEO can tell you exactly where to pass the ball for the best chance of winning that conversion.
In digital marketing, SEO isn't just about scoring points—it's about crafting a winning brand strategy. By ensuring your website shines in search results, SEO efforts lay the groundwork for increased brand visibility.
But SEO goes beyond pleasing search engines; it's instrumental in creating an unforgettable user experience. A well-optimized website with lightning-fast loading times, seamless mobile responsiveness, and intuitive navigation enhances makes a site a pleasure to use and explore.
Positive user experiences are the MVPs of engagement and trust-building, encouraging visitors to delve deeper into your website and, by extension, your brand. As users interact more, their trust and confidence grow, leading to increased demand when they're ready to make a purchase decision.
And when it comes to clinching the victory, optimizing for featured snippets and rich results is key. These prime positions in search results significantly boost visibility and clickthrough rates.
Users trust and click on featured snippets, leading to increased traffic and potential conversions. And with high-quality, well-structured content formatted for maximum impact, your brand stands out from the competition.
So, whether it's optimizing for featured snippets, leveraging structured data as Google's preferred language, or fine-tuning on-page SEO elements like metadata and alt text, SEO plays a crucial role in shaping your brand's reputation and success, much like a championship-winning game plan that leads to victory.
While SEO historically was more of an add-on service that didn’t often get credit for generating big wins, some of our clients are seeing the value of SEO services in ways that prove SEO is worth the investment.
Amerline, the mastermind behind circular connectors, teamed with Kuno to amp up its brand game and boost business growth. Lacking the budget for our full suite of services, they decided against paid media.
That didn’t stop our team of superstars. With a snazzy website overhaul, complete with top-line UX, we weaved in compelling content paired with SEO strategy. The outcome? Not just a surge in organic traffic and CTA clicks, but also a whopping 1,800% spike in quote requests!
Even if you don’t have the budget for the ideal team of players, if you plan strategically, you can still win big.
We’re seeing increasing evidence that integrating an SEO-forward approach into social media, content, email marketing and other channels creates a dynamic marketing strategy that generates results. The more we collaborate, the better we perform.
Kuno offers a full range of digital marketing services with experienced team members in SEO, content, demand gen, design, web development and RevOps. A great team combined with collaborative, winning strategies is how we get to closed, won and done.
Let us help you get your team in shape and working together so that you win the game! Schedule a consultation with us today.
