One of the reasons SEO is my favorite marketing channel, even more than organic social, is because you can target people who represent the purchasing power of hundreds or literally THOUSANDS of people – FOR FREE.
And oftentimes, this is way easier than normal SEO.
The marketing funnel
First, you have the marketing funnel.
There’s more people at the top – the widest part of the funnel. These people are just explorers. They’re trying to learn about something. They have NO INTEREST in converting.
Because there’s so many of these people, most SEOs and digital marketers target them. This makes these searchers VERY COMPETITIVE, even though they shouldn’t be.
At the bottom of the funnel are people who know exactly what they want. In terms of Google or AI – they’re searching, looking for a company to satisfy their need.
I needed a tool to embed my TikTok feed on my website. I Googled “embed TikTok feed on website.” I found a company that offered this. The free version was good. The paid version let me customize the style of the embed. It was $60/year. I paid it an hour after finding the SEO landing page targeting what I searched in Google. That was 2 years ago and I continue to pay for the annual plan.
That’s bottom of funnel. There’s FAR LESS people who know what they want and are ready to convert. The thinnest part of the funnel.
Because the volume of people here is so low, most digital marketers and SEOs don’t target these people. This makes these searchers uncompetitive. This is what my SEO course is about by the way, all the methods to find and target these people who are ready to buy.
Decision makers
To me, that all is very exciting.
But here’s where it gets really, really exciting.
Not only are there individuals searching to buy for themselves… there are decision makers searching to buy for their groups, teams, or entire organizations.
And there’s way less of these people, making them EVEN LESS COMPETITIVE in terms of SEO.
If I were to compare this to Instagram, it’s the same thing as most people mistakenly thinking it’s better to have a large brand than a strong, trusted brand.
You’d rather have the strong, trusted brand because your followers will spend money with you or go out of their ways to help you.
How to find these people who represent a lot of purchasing power
That’s the principle.
When it comes to SEO, the most valuable people are typically the least targeted people.
SEO basics – the thing that you search on Google, this is a keyword.
To target a keyword, simply put it in your:
- Page title (at the beginning).
- Meta description (at the beginning).
- URL slug.
- H1 (the big top heading).
- First sentence of the page (at the beginning).
Here are the rest of the tiny 20% of SEO things to do that gets 80% of the results.
If you’re using video to target keywords (video ranks on Google very well), put the keyword at the beginning of your description, write a thorough description, and if there’s a title field for the video platform, also put the keyword at the beginning of that title field.
Example keywords
Here’s what these keywords – which represent the purchasing power of lots of people – look like.
Bottom of funnel keyword + for + plural modifier.
Modifier examples:
- Schools
- Districts
- Hospitals
- Government
- Government employees
- Teams
- Enterprise companies
- Small businesses (enough volume here to still be worth it)
- Students
- Lawyers
- Accountants
- Startups
- Nonprofits
- Agencies
- Retailers
- Universities
- Clinics
- Sales teams
Full examples:
- Asynchronous video messaging for teams
- Cybersecurity audits for clinics
- Standing desks for offices
- Whiteboards for conference rooms
- Expense tracking software for lawyers
- Cloud storage for video production companies
- Legal consulting for healthcare providers
- Soundproof phone booths for offices
- Visitor check in software for schools
- Remote signature tool for government employees
SEO tools will tell you that the monthly search volume for these types of keywords is low to null.
But that’s only because we’re looking at one of these keywords.
These keywords are so noncompetitive, when you have a page that ranks #1 for one of them, the page will also rank #1 for many other similar bottom of funnel keywords.
There’s simply not enough pages targeting these hyper-specific purchase-intent keywords, so Google has to suggest the nearest match – which will be your page.
Also, your brand can satisfy multiple use cases and scenarios (your standing desk company can be used for more than just offices, for example) so you make a page targeting each distinct use case/scenario.
Pages
“Edward, are you telling me I need to put up dozens of several-thousand word pages targeting these keywords?”
Nope!
Each page only needs to be 400-500 words.
One of these pages can be made in an afternoon.
The critical things:
- Make sure the above-the-fold content (what shows before you start scrolling on a page) completely says to the visitor arriving from Google that your solution is for them.
- Use a clear H1 (as mentioned above).
- A relevant image.
- 3-5 sentences of introductory text about how your brand is great for this keyword.
- A call-to-action button to reach out or try the product or make an order.
Then, for the rest of the page, have copy that is unique to this scenario or use case. Put thought into who is searching this, their specific industry, and their specific needs. Give lots of examples.
This type of copy both boosts conversions and makes the page more able to rank for other similar keywords!
But again, not 3,000 words like has been the status quo in SEO, but only 400-500. That’s really all that is necessary.
Finally another call-to-action button at the bottom of the page.
The most valuable SEO is also the easiest
For free, with less work than normal, this SEO gets you in front of decision-makers when they’re already warm and looking for a solution.
Purchase orders representing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people.
Anybody can do it, but few think to try.
The most valuable SEO is also the easiest.
You can use this email as a guide to make these pages and target these people – and if you want a more extensive resource on how to do it, my SEO course is 10 hours long + 3.5 hours of weekly examples.
