No matter your industry or focus, you’ve likely heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s absolutely essential, after all, since it directly affects your search engine results pages (SERP) rankings. Chances are you’ve likely also heard of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, since it’s been booming in the past decade. However, many people, from marketers and business owners to simply marketing enthusiasts, often don’t fully grasp how the two relate. Indeed, you can use CRM to improve SEO in quite significant ways. If the two seem unrelated, this article’s just for you.
What is CRM?
In short, CRM software is a potent tool that does what the name promises. Namely, it tracks and optimizes every aspect of a company’s relationship with customers, from Facebook marketing to customer support inquiries. It offers a consolidated database for collected insights that’s accessible to all your employees, and it offers an array of other tools. Let us briefly note them.
Core CRM features include a centralized database, lead and contact management tools, sales automation and analytics tools, and sales pipeline management tools. Apart from such core features, CRM may specialize in the following:
- Operational CRM – service, sales, and marketing automation
- Analytical CRM – predictive modeling, profitability analysis, and customer segmentation
- Collaborative CRM – interaction and channel management
Furthermore, commercial CRM solutions may focus on specific industries for additional efficiency, whereas moverstech.com focuses on the moving industry, as the name implies. Similarly, other CRM solutions focus on particular industries and can meet their specific needs.
How to use CRM to improve SEO
Having discussed the above, let us delve into how you can use the power of CRM to improve SEO and drive traffic to your website. There are many subtle ways to do so, but here are the most significant ones.
Keyword optimization
SEO begins with the most fundamental step; keyword research. There are many ways to do so without CRM, of course, but CRM offers insights into your specific business and customers.
To elaborate, lead analysis and lead scoring tools can let you know exactly where your leads are coming from. Some general keyword research into your market and competition can naturally help, but keeping a closer eye on your own leads can reveal even more. Namely, you may track the performance of individual keywords, landing pages, and even secondary channels. In turn, you can inform your marketing efforts accordingly and streamline your content strategies.
Relevant content
Next, we should examine how you may use CRM to improve SEO in terms of the content itself. Your content may already be resonating with customers, but analysis through CRM can offer notable room for improvement.
An extensive database comes with the invaluable asset of an accessible trove of data. Whether you’re using basic or analytical CRM, you can analyze traffic, engagement, and retention metrics and adjust your content accordingly. Thus, you can accurately pinpoint which types of content work best for your customers, whether seasonally or continuously, and produce more of it. Not only does this improve your marketing content effectiveness, but it also boosts your SEO; Google and other search engines value quality content. Providing quality content to your customers gives search engines all the right signals to consider your site trustworthy and qualitative, which in turn makes your site seem authoritative in its field. All of those factors directly improve your SEO and your SERP rankings.
Optimized operations through multiple locations
Furthermore, we should analyze an issue multi-location companies face; lacking internal cooperation and fragmented SEO efforts. CRM can indeed tackle this issue as well, simply due to its definitive goals.
In short, multi-location businesses face the following concerns that affect SEO:
- Data collection and customer segmentation
- Lead management and profitability analysis across multiple locations
- Internal collaboration and customer input channels
All of the above can jeopardize your SEO efforts. CRM can make your job easier simply by consolidating a comprehensive database of your operations. It can help segment your customers for each individual location, account for location-based factors, and gauge topical and circumstantial factors. Moreover, it can consolidate your communication channels, both internal ones and those for customer input, streamlining your operations, and increasing customer satisfaction. This depth of data analytics and improved communication can help you create high-value content for each individual location while ensuring your teams collaborate towards a common strategy. Even in this case, then, you can use CRM to improve SEO across multiple locations with relative ease.
Augmented Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies
While SEM is not technically SEO, the two definitely coexist in many marketing strategies. Specifically, SEM can produce short-term benefits depending on your budget, while SEO can collect insights from it and ensure long-term benefits. On this front, too, you may use CRM to improve SEO by improving SEM strategies.
To ensure the highest possible return on investment (ROI) in terms of SEM, you’ll need to know the following as you create your content:
- A laser-focused profile of your most profitable customers
- Your products or services that perform the best
- Seasonal and circumstantial factors’ effects on your business
Lead analysis and sales metrics collected by CRM can inform your SEM strategies on all of those fronts. With an extensive, consolidated database at your fingertips, you can craft ideal customer profiles, note your best-performing offers, and account for seasonal trends. With this knowledge, you can optimize your SEM strategies, which in turn will boost your SEO.
Online reputation management
Finally, CRM can help you curate an excellent online reputation. SEO does hinge on a site’s trustworthiness, after all, and customer reviews affect it noticeably.
Through CRM data, you can boost your social media activity and even reach out to advocates of your business. You can then incentivize them to leave positive reviews and provide positive exposure, increasing your visibility and inspiring brand loyalty.
Conclusion: use CRM to improve SEO on many fronts
With all of the above in mind, it should now be clear that you can use the power of CRM to improve SEO in many distinct ways. Both are invaluable assets to use on their own, but using them together can enhance your operations dramatically.
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