The whole idea of an SEO content funnel is not just to drive one-time visitors to your website, but to actually drive traffic that can turn into customers for your company. In this video, I’m going to share with you exactly how you can do that.
After 10+ years of helping businesses build and refine their SEO strategies, I’ve come to see that it is critical to include social media and your email list as part of your SEO content funnel.
That’s right.
While most SEOs focus entirely on their website, you’re really missing out if you’re not sending some of that traffic over to your email list and social media profiles.
But even that’s not going to work unless you get your SEO content funnel right, and that means selecting the right topics.
Stages of an SEO Content Funnel
Let’s start by talking about the stages of an SEO content funnel.
There are basically four stages:
- Awareness – People become aware of your solutions and how they address their problems.
- Consideration – This is when they compare one solution versus another.
- Decision – This stage is when they’ve chosen a solution and are ready to buy.
- Retention – Keeping the customer engaged and reinforcing your value.
Awareness Stage Content
Let’s look at the types of SEO content that fall under each one of these phases.
We’ll take the example of a medical weight loss clinic and how they might attract someone interested in losing weight by seeing a medical weight loss doctor.
Starting with awareness, potential topics could be something like “How to lose 10 lbs in 3 months” or “What is glycemic index in food?”
The thing about awareness stage content for SEO is that if you just get visitors onto your website once, odds are you’ll never see them again—unless you’re a massive brand that covers every possible topic.
This means you usually have to take awareness content and direct those visitors to other channels where you can nurture them into the consideration phase of the SEO funnel.
To do this, your SEO content needs to be excellent.
Unless you have a subject matter expert who is an amazing writer, people will likely just land on the website, take the information, and leave.
Shooting Video Content for Awareness
I strongly advocate for shooting video instead of writing.
For example, if the topic is “How to lose 10 lbs in 3 months,” instead of writing an article, consider shooting a video.
What that video should look like is a subject for another video.
But essentially, you’ll shoot a great video, turn it into an article, and optimize it for search with headings and SEO entity optimization.
In that video, you’ll have a call to action, encouraging people to check out other videos, subscribe, or visit your Instagram to view related videos.
This way, you can get your content in front of people through organic search and then nurture that visitor through your social media accounts.
Consideration Phase Content
The next phase in the SEO funnel is the consideration phase.
Content here might include topics like “Tirzepatide vs. Semaglutide.”
These are people who are already solution-aware and are considering one medication versus another for weight loss.
Again, video content will do a better job of positioning you as the solution, rather than just promoting GLP-1s in general.
Decision Phase Content
Next is the decision phase.
This is the SEO content where someone has already made a decision about what they want and is now choosing between you and a competitor.
Here, you’ll need your service pages to rank for terms like “medical weight loss doctor + location” or “Semaglutide + city.”
This is where the person already has their credit card in hand and is ready to choose.
Retention Phase Content
Lastly, there’s retention phase content.
Personally, I don’t feel that SEO should be filling this role. I think this content is best suited for your social media.
This is the type of content that demonstrates your expertise and reinforces that you’re the best in your field.
It should be shared on your email list and social media accounts to continually reinforce your authority in the eyes of your target customer.
Common Mistakes in SEO Funnels
Here are some common mistakes to avoid with your SEO funnel:
1. Not Following the BARS Framework
The first mistake in SEO funnels is writing content that doesn’t follow the BARS framework:
We coined this term as a framework to identify topics that align with your buyer’s journey.
The idea is to choose topics that people won’t be satisfied with an AI-generated answer for, that you have a chance to rank for (without competing with giants like WebMD or The New York Times), and that have enough search volume to be worth your time.
2. Not Integrating Content with Social Media
The second mistake is failing to fully integrate your content with your social media.
For example, you might be on our blog right now instead of our YouTube account, but I’ve made numerous references to the video description. You need to do this as well.
Get people over to other content on your YouTube or Instagram, wherever you’re embedding your video from.
If you don’t do this, you might end up with someone who lands on your blog, watches the video, and then bounces.
3. Failing to Promote Downloadable Content
The third mistake is not promoting downloadable content.
On our website, we have a full on-page SEO checklist that includes videos for each step.
I often call it out in our videos.
This way, people who land on our site can watch a video, read an article, and then are prompted to download this resource by providing their email address.
This allows us to stay in touch with people, letting them know about future content, webinars, and more.
Not promoting downloadable assets is a massive mistake.
Finding Content for Your SEO Funnel
So, how do you find content for this SEO funnel?
Where do you begin?
Basically, you’re going to start with topic research, often referred to as keyword research.
There are paid SEO tools like Ahrefs that you can use to find opportunities. You can look at competitors to see what’s driving traffic to their websites.
Even Google Autosuggest can help you identify topics related to what you do.
SEO tools like Ubersuggest can give you insight into questions people are asking about topics relevant to your field.
Drive Leads by Optimizing Social Media & Email Marketing Content in Your SEO Funnel
All in all, there are many ways to find topics to produce content for SEO.
The key is to make sure you’re producing content that’s actually worth your time, reaches your target customer, and includes a strategy to nurture that traffic.
Don’t just focus on getting clicks and visitors to your website—focus on guiding them towards becoming potential customers.