An inbound marketing campaign uses successful search engine optimization (SEO) to attract leads and tries to hold interest while encouraging them to make purchasing decisions. This SEO is the bread and butter of digital marketing and has been for many years. An online marketing strategy that does not make SEO one of its objectives will surely fall flat and not get the results your company is trying to achieve.
Outbound marketing (email blasts, TV ads) tries to bring in as much traffic as possible, even if it isn't the target audience. Inbound marketing attracts consumers who are more likely to be interested in what you're saying or selling. WebFX explains that inbound marketing occurs when potential leads learn about brands, often through SEO content writing on websites, email marketing, social media, whitepapers and videos.
How Can SEO Help Inbound Marketing?
The goal of SEO is to get websites found and ranked higher by search engines like Google. SEOforGrowth explains that SEO is the best way to reach potential customers, stating that not being found in search is equivalent to not existing in a marketing sense. Google updates its search algorithms constantly, and poor-quality content and spam tactics no longer get companies high rankings. User experiences are the new priority, and SEO is necessary for success. Once your website draws people in, they can benefit from the great content from your inbound marketing program.
First Page Strategy writes that you can break SEO down into on-page and off-page strategies. The most important part of on-page is content, including the text, photos, informatics and videos. These can be informational, entertaining, educational or any combination of the three. However, if it is not high-quality, aligned with user intent and relevant, the content will not achieve those sought-after high rankings.
Website architecture must support this excellent content. The framework should have a hierarchical order of the pages and technical features that improve site crawling and help users find content. Your website must load quickly, have a valid SSL certificate for security and be mobile-friendly, too. Remember, better user experiences mean higher search engine result page (SERP) rankings.
The Technical Part of SEO
HTML is another vital part of SEO. It is computer coding and how websites and search engines communicate. HTML tags deliver information to search engines, so optimizing HTML benefits SEO and inbound marketing. The most critical HTML signals come from page title links (the clickable ones in SERPs); these help search engines interpret the meaning of the content on the web pages.
Meta descriptions are also HTML tags and appear under those title links. These are written in the content and should contain about 120 to 180 characters. They can be a sentence or two and should summarize the most critical parts of the content. SEO Clarity adds that meta description snippets on social media also encourage users to visit websites.
Headings in content make it easier for users to navigate websites and are basically tags for your content. The first one on a page is an H1 (example above: "How Can SEO Help Inbound Marketing?"), and those that follow are H2, H3 and so forth. The higher numbers signify lower content levels, but all give search engines a better understanding of the web pages. There is also a Google-developed feature called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), an open-source HTML feature that helps pages load more quickly on mobile devices.
Off-Page SEO and Inbound Marketing
Everyone knows how links take users to other content, but they also help search engines determine if the content is relevant and trustworthy for users looking for specific terms. Links can take users to internal site links and external websites. Rankings are higher for pages that link to high-quality websites. Context is also essential: search intent, geography and user experience are its main aspects.
Site authority is the last essential component of off-page SEO. According to VONT, a website's ability to rank high on SERPs within its market niche defines this authority. Site authority is influenced by its linking characteristics and structure for its internal and external pages, plus Google's top keyword searches. Authority is also determined using metrics like the number of internal and external links, quality and relevance of the on-page content and the authority of the main landing page. If you’re planning on utilizing a primarily online marketing strategy, you’ll want to pay attention to your site authority.
Those are not the only things that contribute to site authority, though. Others include the keywords used in your URL, anchor text links and authority of the domain. If your content and SEO strategies are well-planned and utilize effective on- and off-page tactics, you can expect your rankings to get even higher as users engage with your content. These engagements can lead to more links, mentions and shares on other websites and social media. The old-fashioned term for this is word-of-mouth, and it has always been one of the best marketing tools out there!
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