Online Marketing: 5 Reasons You Need to Stop Looking at Rankings and Focus on Leads

Despite some correlation in the aggregate, leads and rankings differ immensely in terms of function. While leads demonstrate the start of a new customer journey, rankings signal how your website is performing in relation to given keywords. 

Rankings don’t generate leads on their own

Let’s just get one thing straight — a good ranking doesn’t mean you’re generating and converting leads. It just means you’re meeting certain standards set by Google. A ranking itself can’t and won’t create leads out of thin air.

It might seem silly to say that, but some businesses prioritize search engine rankings over lead generation. It’s true that high-ranking sites can generate leads easier, but working strictly for the distinction can set you down the wrong path.

Creating high-quality content should drive most of your leads

For example, one way businesses try to increase their rankings is to stuff their keywords in plain, shallow content. Aside from the fact that this probably won’t do anything for your SEO, it’s also a detriment in regard to lead generation.

There are many ways to generate leads, but within the context of content creation, you have to focus on quality. According to a recent Memeburn article, aimlessly creating uninspired content isn’t going to generate anything:

“Another point that you should always keep in mind is that your content should always have a focus. If you are just creating content for the sake of creating content, you are basically wasting your time and effort and will most likely not see any positive returns for your efforts. Make sure you have a dedicated content marketing schedule that is closely aligned to your business.”

Good content informs your readers and establishes your brand. It’s enough to bring them to your website, where you can move them along in the customer journey.

Not all leads convert

And another thing, lead generation isn’t the be-all and end-all of online marketing. If you can’t convert those leads, then they bring next to no value.

You might be thinking “then why focus on leads in the first place?,” but this hardly discredits the strategy. Instead, it demonstrates that not all leads are equal. You want to generate relevant leads that are likely to convert. To do that, you need to invest more time and effort in your campaign. Anyone can generate irrelevant leads, but they’re just as effective as run-of-the-mill content.

Your website has the job of converting leads

Converting leads takes place on your website. At this juncture you’ll find out whether you’re entire strategy was effective or not based on the conversion percentage.

There are plenty of tricks and tips to optimize your site for conversions. This Econsultancy article  recommends the tactic of visually showing users how much progress they’ve made in regard to subscribing or signing up:

“There are hundreds of these cognitive biases, which you can use to your advantage to improve your form’s performance. One application of this that can improve form completion is using a bias called the endowed progress effect. This bias proved that people are more likely to complete something if there is an illusion that progress has already been made.”

If users see that they’re 40% done with the process, then they’re more likely to finish the deal. This is just one tactic of many, but it shows how intricate the entire process is.

Focus on people, not search engines

And finally, focusing on leads is another way of saying you’re marketing for people, not for search engines. This distinction of philosophies is incredibly important since it will guide many of your marketing efforts. Businesses will have more success concentrating on content quality, website design, and customer engagement as opposed to keywords and word counts. The latter plays a role in online marketing, but is still secondary to the user experience.

Rankings on their own are hollow. They only carry meaning if they represent a site that engages users and generates and converts leads. To talk more about lead generation, or anything else, contact us today.