Most building materials firms know that they need a website that’s optimized for search engines and the search terms that potential customers use. The key is knowing exactly what terms to optimize your content around. In addition, marketing teams need to be aware of how search engine optimization (SEO) can help their sales efforts. By analyzing your current SEO strategies and the results that users get, you can further support your sales teams.
Advantages of SEO
Search engine optimization, and other metrics like domain authority, help prospective customers find your site and your products. They influence where your website lands on the search engine results page. People who are looking for your products are the best kinds of leads, the kind you’ll want to capture and nurture. They are often warm leads because they have some familiarity or interest in what you’re selling. With this in mind, you’ll want to ensure that your website can be found by these prospective customers.
In order to ensure that potential customers find your website, you’ll need to optimize it for what they are most likely looking for. Put yourself in the shoes of an architect or project owner and think of what they’ll be searching for. They are probably not an expert on your product, and they may not know the technical terms or brand names of your products. Websites optimized to capture general search terms, as well as branded terms, have a greater chance of reaching this audience.
In general, longer phrases are easier to rank for because there isn’t as much competition. These keyword phrases, called long-tail keywords, are usually 3-5 words long. Research has shown that 70% of all search traffic uses long-tail keywords. In addition, users who search for long-tail phrases tend to be further along in the buying cycle, meaning that using these phrases improves the chance that visitors will buy your products.
How to optimize SEO
Architects and owners may search for your products in a variety of ways. They may search by problem or by solution. They may also use common names, even if those common names are incorrect. For example, it’s not a façade, it’s cladding, but everyone calls it a façade. Optimizing your website for these common, more generalized, search terms will improve your site’s ranking.
Branded vs non-branded searches
Your site will most likely rank high for branded search names and product-specific terms, like “JRZ WindowFlow 5000.” But if these are the only terms your site ranks for, you could be losing potential customers.
While being ranked for brand names is important, most searches for a company’s brand are not performed by prospects looking for product information. These searches are usually to find contact information, employment information, or for company research. While these searches may support sales, like looking for company contact information, they don’t usually directly lead to sales.
In addition to ranking for branded terms, you’ll also want to rank for non-branded searches. For example, “LED commercial lighting modern design” or “steel parking garage railings.” Make sure these more general terms are included on product description pages.
Regional searches
If your product is only available in certain states or regions, you’ll want to focus your SEO strategies on those terms. For example, “LED commercial lighting modern design Pacific Northwest” or “steel parking garage railings NYC.” Getting this specific doesn’t keep people from outside your territory from finding you, and it gives extra help to prospects in your territory.
What to look for
When reviewing your search metrics, instead of focusing on the total number of search terms your site ranks for, you’ll need to review the percentage of terms that are branded versus non-branded and the pages that people go to on your site as a result of searching for those terms. You’ll want to make sure that customers using those terms get to a page with appropriate content.
Using this information will help you understand how your current SEO strategy is performing, how it is supporting your sales, and where the gaps are. By refining the content on your product pages, you can provide a better shopping experience for your current and prospective customers.