How to use SEO content to boost sales

We’re going to explain what strategic SEO content is and how successful businesses use it to engage customers and build brands. In a world where competition is higher, advertising budgets are stretched, and customers expect more focusing on the 3 Vs of SEO content can provide you with a sustainable advantage over the competition.

What are the 3 Vs of SEO content?

SEO content has traditionally focused on increasing your ranking for key search terms. That’s important, but content can do much more for your business and brand. SEO agencies that simply focus on content as a means to improve your ranking position aren’t embracing the full potential of content strategically. (If you want to know more about strategic content, read our SEO content guide.)

To help our customers and clients understand the true power of SEO content, we’ve created the 3 Vs concept. This highlights the impact that content can have on your customer at every stage of the purchase process.

Here’s what the 3 Vs of SEO content are – and why they matter in digital marketing:

1. Visibility – SEO content can help your business or brand show up in search engines. When we talk about increasing visibility, we mean boosting your search engine ranking for key terms.
2. Value – Customers want to build a relationship with the brands that they buy for. SEO content can be used to improve the customer experience at any stage of the AIDA process. SEO content can reduce friction in the buying process and break down barriers. It can also add value to the user experience and provide crucial avenues for upselling.
3. Validation – Trust in what we read online is falling faster than ever. Brands that want to sell must build trust with customers and clients. How? Through SEO content. (You’re reading this article, so it’s working…)

You can create content that fulfils one of the 3 Vs, and you’ll achieve some success, but the core of sustainable SEO success is in delivering. A content strategy that touches on each of these points. The result is greater visibility for your business, value for customers, and validation.

In the next section, we’re going to explain how you can use the 3 Vs model to create better, more engaging and powerful content for your business.

Sound good? Then let’s get started…

Visibility

SEO is all about increasing your visibility in search engines, right? The higher you are, the more clicks, enquiries, customers and clients your business will get. A 2023 PWC survey found that 55% of customers make a purchase decision on search engine results alone.

A few years ago, if you weren’t on page 1 for your core keywords, you were nowhere. 25% of all internet users only click on the first page result, with over 90% of us never venturing further than the first page.

While you should always be pushing for a page 1 ranking, SEO content can be used to engage prospective purchasers directly.

Creating optimised, bottom-of-funnel content based on high purchase potential keywords can attract prospective customers to your business or brand. When developing your content strategy, you’ll need an in-depth understanding of keywords paired with industry insight into the factors influencing a purchase or contact.

This strategy is particularly effective for SaaS providers where software can have multiple use cases. We worked on an SEO strategy for software start-up Flowrite to develop detailed business content for those wanting writing support. We analysed existing content and keywords to develop a targeted strategy for medium-value keywords. The strategy delivered over a million visits in less than 2 years.

One of the key benefits of this approach was that it enabled us to use keyword-rich search terms that are more likely to rank in voice search. Here’s an example.

While competitors were targeting text-based search terms such as: “How to write the best business email”; we focused on vice-friendly search terms, such as: “Can you help me write a better business email”.

Voice search is likely to be one of the defining SEO trends in the 5 years, so it’s futureproofing our content.

The same PWC survey found that 63% of customers go direct to the business or brand website, cutting out an intermediary. SEO content can provide highly successful support for direct customer acquisition, delivering better results than other digital marketing approaches, including PPC.

Key takeaways:

• Page 1 for high-competition search terms is getting tougher
• Use SEO content as a customer acquisition channel
• Identify bottom-of-funnel keywords with high conversion potential
• Focus on medium-value keywords with low competition
• Build content that adds value to the experience
• Consider voice search when planning SEO content
• Use SEO content as a customer-acquisition strategy

Value

Customers in 2023 want more from brands than a flashy website ­– they expect personalization, a smooth purchase process, and personalisation. SEO content can play a key role in adding value at every stage of the customer experience.

SaaS customers, for example, are making a considered purchase. As Gartner explains, there has been a huge shift in power from vendors to customers. They expect a seamless purchase process, integration into their business, and instant impact. It’s impossible to adequately convey this in a single webpage or short buyer journey, so let your SEO content do the work.

Let’s take the example of a SaaS business that’s built a new piece of productivity software. If we were developing an SEO content strategy, we would split content into several categories according to its primary function.

Brand building

This is SEO content to validate your position, establish your brand experience, and highlight who you are. We’d include content around new client acquisitions, growth, employee experience, diversity and sustainability.

Barrier breakdown

What are the barriers your customers your customer puts up, and how can we break them down. When developing a strategic content plan, we’d work with your sales team to understand customer pain points and how your solution can solve them. This content can – and should – be used by your sales team.

Tackling the technical

Customers want to know that the software is easy to install, integrate, and operate – so show them. Your content must highlight how easy and intuitive it is to use your software. You can create guides that solve common customer problems, answer frequently asked questions, and highlight key functionality. Of course, all content should be optimised to increase SEO. You can also highlight new and additional functionality, providing an opportunity to upsell to clients.

Flow content

Your content channels (including social media) should have a balance between technical support, sales and promotion, and sharing. We recommend our customers avoid focusing on 100% on SEO and create content that showcases the personality of your business. Under this title, we’d include interviews, point-of-view pieces, and company updates.

You can see the way that SEO content can add value to customers at every stage of the funnel. One of the most powerful uses of SEO content is in reducing friction from the sales process.

For example, a large library of technical content proves to customers that you care and can provide answers. They don’t need to ask about integrations and compatibility if you’ve already covered it in a blog, for example. Providing clear information on payment plans, monthly fees and contract lengths builds trust and removes barriers, something we’ll cover in detail in the next section.

Another additional benefit is that well-optimised SEO content can solve customer problems, reducing the requirement to contact your business for a solution.

Key takeaways

• Customers want to build relationships with the brands they buy from
• Focus on customer pain points and break down barriers
• Work with your sales and customer teams as well as SEO experts
• Create keyword-rich content that solves real problems

Validation

Do customers trust your business?

In a world where fake news is rampant, online trust has never been lower. It’s why many businesses are using SEO content as a key driver for growth. It’s all about giving customers the confidence you are who you say you are and will deliver what you promise. In short, it’s about validation.

SEO content can help build your brand and improve your reputation. Regular content posted online that deals directly with customer issues, including complaints, sends a powerful signal to potential customers.

SEO content can be a powerful tool for building trust. Customer case studies, for example, provide external validation that you’re delivering value for customers. This is increased when you share over social channels and can be improved by mixing written words with film or animation.

SaaS businesses can often struggle to find a position in the market, particularly when competing against an established incumbent. While the “disruptive challenger” strategy will capture some attention, SEO content that focuses on your brand can help build trust among your audience.

Complacency is the biggest killer, so established businesses, too, should use SEO content to continue to build and maintain customer relationships. Case studies, testimonials, guides, whitepapers and more can deliver value and reassure clients they’re working with the right provider.

Key takeaways

• Validation is about building trust and increasing customer confidence
• SEO content demonstrates an investment in your business
• Customer-driven content (such as case studies) sends strong signals
• SEO content can build relationships and increase customer engagement
• Create an ongoing digital dialogue with customers and respond to real-time issues

How to use the 3 Vs to build an SEO content strategy

When businesses approach us, they often tell us what they think their customers want to know without asking or listening. It’s the wrong way around.

The best SEO content strategies start with the customers and work backwards.

You don’t need expensive surveys or focus groups but can use 4 sources of insights:

1. Keywords – what are customers searching for?
2. Competitors – what are your competitors doing (and why)
3. Inside intelligence – what do we know about our customers that can inform our SEO content plan?
4. Analytics – what can we learn from the way users are navigating the current website and content?

Armed with this information, you’re ready to start building your SEO content strategy. We’re not going to do that here, but you can check out our detailed guide here.

Your SEO content strategy should be 100% focused on customers. Focusing on keywords at the expense of customer insight won’t help your futureproof your website, increase rankings, or smash sales.