In the marketing industry, you’ll often hear the phrase “customer journey” mentioned throughout conversations. It’s used to talk about how customers become aware of your brand and interact with your business as they find their way down the sales funnel. In short, the customer journey tells the tale of the touchpoints your customers have with your company from beginning to end. It starts at the top of the sales funnel, where you’re initially garnering the attention of those looking for a solution to the problem your business can help them with.
This is why natural search engine optimization (SEO) is important. Natural SEO enables you to talk to the search engines in ways that make your brand more attractive to their algorithms. In return, these efforts mean you’re more likely to be seen at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), where your potential consumers are looking for the products and services you offer.
Before we dive into this subject any more, let’s start with some basics. You need to know what a click funnel is to ensure you’re facilitating the customer journey as smoothly as possible. Click funnels essentially automate the sales process, so every aspect of the buyer’s journey is controlled. Your funnel can guide leads through your website, so they intentionally land on pages that sell the products and services best fit for their needs. Click funnels ultimately take users through a series of pages that serve your audience’s end goals.
To get people moving through your sales funnel, they need to know you exist. So, how do you get your name out there? You first need to get the search engines to send people your way. As search engines get smarter, they’re looking for ways to answer people’s questions with high-quality, valuable content. SEO has finally evolved in ways that make it easy for you to communicate your messages without keyword stuffing and backlink strategies.
However, at their foundation, search engines are question-and-answer machines. If you create great content that answers a question, the search engines will pay attention to the messages you’re putting out into the world. In return, they’ll begin to send people into your sales funnel.
Social media outlets are just as important to organic SEO as your blogs, webpages, and landing pages. Social proof is essential when you’re building your reputation, and that can come in many forms, including likes, shares, and positive comments. Not only can great social content steer people your way, but it can also grab the attention of search engines when appropriately prepared.
Did you know that 87% of product searches begin online, and 71% of users are on mobile while they’re physically in stores? This is why it’s crucial to create content around voice searches. Consumers now want to know more information about what they’re potentially going to buy, and they’re using their phones to do so.
Think of voice search like conversations: You use long-tailed keywords to answer potential questions and focus on the intent of ‘what’ and ‘who.’ If people get to the ‘where’ part of their searches, they’re almost ready to buy. This is why 22% of voice queries are based on local content that includes “near me” within the context.
Also, more than 20% of voice queries are triggered by a combination of only 25 keywords, which means you have to do your due diligence if you want to usher people into your sales funnel. Voice search provides a more effortless and better customer experience, but that only works for your business if you’re employing best practices in ways that make sense to both search engines and the searchers they serve.
As voice search continues to grow and evolve, platforms like YouTube will become even more critical to your sales funnel. As any YouTube SEO service will tell you, voice search, as it relates to video platforms, relies on a few key components:
No matter which platform or channel your potential customers use, you need to meet them where they’re at if you want to bring them closer to your brand.
If you’re looking for natural SEO services, you’ve come to the right place. Zero Gravity Marketing (ZGM) comprises expert strategists who understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization and the customer journey. Contact our team today to learn more!