To increase your website demand generation, you must develop a digital marketing strategy that accounts for both on-page SEO and off-page SEO. In simpler terms, what you say on your website matters just as much as what’s said about you from other sources.
In this article, we’ll dive into the value of diversifying your content approach and how each form of SEO benefits your website’s efficacy in attracting your target audience and reaching your KPIs.
Diversifying Your SEO Approach
Algorithms and platforms update frequently; the only constant you can count on in digital marketing is change. Don’t rely on one silver-bullet strategy to drive traffic to your website. Instead, plan a diverse approach that acts as a fail-safe: when one strategy needs to pivot, the others will help you maintain consistent, strong performance.
This principle isn’t new and should be a general rule for all digital content. You are probably already practicing this concept in your current marketing approach. Instead of only writing white papers, do you create a mix of blog posts, infographics, case studies, podcasts and ebooks? If so, you’re on the right track and should think of your approach to SEO in similar terms. If you use only one tactic over and over again, you limit your potential audience reach.
On-Page SEO
On average, 70 percent of a buying decision is already made before an individual engages with a prospective business or puts a product into their cart. Modern consumers and B2B buyers are research-savvy. The SEO tactics you use on your website, i.e., on-page SEO, help your site rank on the search engine results page (SERPs) when your target audience does that research.
Mix up the following tactics for an effective on-page SEO strategy:
- Keywords and phrases: Strategically place words and phrases used by your target audience on your web pages and blog posts. Think of what they would type into Google when looking for a similar product or service. For a deep dive on strategy, check out WordStream’s Big, Easy Guide to Keyword Research for Businesses.
- Meta descriptions and title tags: Think of these as an elevator pitch for your website. Edit and optimize both for each page, so you entice searchers to click on your snippet in the SERP.
- URL structures: Your URL structure or slug should include your website’s domain name with a path to indicate page content.
- Internal linking: Include links on your web page that leads to additional relevant content on your site. This practice not only improves on-page SEO but helps reduce bounce rates.
Overall site health will also play a large role in your content’s performance. If pages take too long to load, links break or images display incorrectly; you’ll hurt your website’s ability to attract and convert visitors.
To bolster your site performance, try these seven easy SEO strategies that yield big results.
Off-Page SEO
Just as consumers use credible resources to validate their future purchases, search engines use backlinks as a ranking and credibility factor for your site. To build a comprehensive off-page SEO strategy, you need to understand two fundamental principles:
- Backlinking: these links are created when one website links to another. Developing relevant content, guest posting and digital PR strategies all help increase backlinks.
- Domain authority: this is your search engine ranking on a scale of 1 – 100. The higher the score, the more authoritative and valuable search engines view your site. What’s more, other sites tend to link to high DA sites, so as your DA increases, you’ll not only see higher SERP rankings but also have a better chance at securing organic backlinks.
Off-page SEO is all about your online presence, via securing and earning more backlinks/placements/mentions of your business on external sites.
Developing a Cohesive Digital Content Strategy
Your website is only as effective as its content. A strategic combination of on-page SEO and off-page SEO is how you can use search engine functionality to drive visits and conversions.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, our experts at 10x digital can develop a scalable strategy to strengthen both your on-site SEO and overall online presence. We’ll help you build a foundation that can grow over time to increase your optimization, lead generation and help achieve your goals.