SEO is a fairly broad topic, but at the end of the day, whether we are optimizing for site speed or writing content, there should always be some sort of business objective driving the activity. We sat down with Maeva Cinfuentes of Flying Cat Marketing to talk about how SEO success needs to be evaluated based on the revenue it drives, not simply the traffic it brings in.

Mindsets:

• You need to change the KPIs - it’s not about traffic and rankings.
• Don’t expect someone who charges by the word who you hired to write a blog post for $100, to have the time to interview SMEs and create really relevant content for your audience
• SEO is a channel, not a strategy

Skillsets:

• Teach your writers to be journalists, so they can get the best, and most relevant content from the SMEs, especially in technical industries
• Learn how to select the right topics - you need to listen and know how to ask the right questions to understand your audience.
• Networking - your network will be extremely important so you can do your research. This means not only building your network, but also nurturing that network so when you reach out for a favor (to interview them) they are more likely to respond.
• Unlearn all your “SEO writing” skills. Don’t write for the bots, but for the target audience. The Skyscraper technique doesn’t make sense for every single topic and every single reader.
• Understand and measure content consumption
• The headline should tell a story
• BLUF - bottom line up front - if they want to keep reading, they will

Toolsets:

• Ahrefs
• Clearscope
• ClickUp
• Google Search Console
• Google Analytics

Results:

400% increase in traffic… and revenue!

CTA language optimized for the topic and the search intent of the keyword being optimized for and focusing on high purchase intent long-tail keywords.

Proofpoint’s POV:

What gets measured gets managed. The downside to this, is if you measure the wrong things, you will manage the wrong things. Just as true with SEO as any other marketing channel.

If you measure traffic and rankings, or even leads, then that is what you will manage your SEO program to. Unfortunately, it is way too easy to drive high volumes of traffic. Sometimes you may even do it by accident.

Have you ever looked at your Google Search Console report and find one of your case studies ranking for something irrelevant about your client? Happens all the time. But that is almost never valuable traffic.

You can also spend all your effort going after the broad, high volume keyword. My favorite example from a former client… “what is erp”. Yet when you are selling to enterprise buyers, it isn’t terribly likely that they don’t know what an ERP system is.

We also often see this with professional services companies. They will optimize for a variety of “what is + [acronym]” searches, but it isn’t likely their prospective customers will be looking for those definitions.

Another really important thing to call out here, is to not trust everything the SEO tools tell you. Just because something seems like it has zero search volume, doesn’t mean it actually has zero search volume. We have built entire programs out of only going after zero search volume keywords.

Similarly, be very careful with how much trust you put in Google Search Console data. A recent analysis by Ahrefs showed that on average a site could be missing around 50% of it’s traffic data in GSC.

A bit more about Maeva:

Maeva is a polyglot who has been living in Spain for quite some time. She loves improv theater and hopes to do some clowning one day.

Helpful Links & Resources:

• Connect with Maeva on https://www.linkedin.com/in/maevaeverywhere/

Connect with Mike & Gaby at Proofpoint:

• Mike’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrinberg/
• Gaby’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellaisrael/
• LinkedIn Company Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proofpoint-marketing-llc
• Proofpoint YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/ProofpointonYouTube
• Proofpoint Website: www.proofpoint.marketing