Google Adwords is a great performance-based measure that can feed hundreds or even thousands of leads into your sales conversion system at a low cost per lead.  But boosting your rank in natural search results can also play a big part in your lead generation.

The sum of the activity behind it will often add up to much less than Adwords, and it can even boost your Adwords cost-effectiveness.

Let's take a quick look at why SEO can be worth so much to your business...

People search for content

Some analysis suggests natural listings attract 60% or 70% of clicks as opposed to 40% or 30% for paid clicks.  So a big chunk of the market is being caught not by Adwords but good performance in natural search results.

If you're not on page one or two of natural search results for the key search terms of importance to you, then address it.  People don't bother searching much farther.

SEO can reduce your Adwords bid

Google may not reveal much about its algorithms but it's accepted that Google Adwords ranking isn't just factor of your bid value but the relevance of your page to the search terms nominated.

So if you boost your page relevance as part of your SEO strategy, chances are you will gradually reduce your Adwords cost per click for the same placement, or elevate your rank in the Adwords for no additional spend.

How to boost your natural search results

There are two things you need to know in order to boost your natural search results...

• What search terms/ keywords do you want to appear strongly in searches for?
• Do you have Google Analytics set up for your website yet? If you haven't got it yet, consider getting it. It's easy and quick to set up. Contact us for details.

The 3 basic ways to boost your SEO are...

• Boost search relevance
• Boost inbound links
• Optimise web page structures

Boost search relevance

Make sure the pages in which you talk about certain subjects have a high-density occurrence of the keywords that matter.  Don't try to use different terms for the same thing.  Use the same searchable term as many times as possible without affecting the readability.  The keyword density (how many times per hundred words your word appears) needs to be strong.

Good copywriting can help achieve a balance between strong keyword density and unpleasant ‘affected' writing styles.

Boost inbound links

The more links to that page from elsewhere in your website and elsewhere upon the internet the better.  Google will attribute a higher ‘page rank' to your page the more links to it seem to infer the page is relevant to others.

The better the page rank the better the loading Google gives your site irrespective of content in the site itself.  It's another factor working for you instead of against you.

There are article sites, directories and other sources of content around the net we use to help establish links to a website and boost page rank.  Search for "directory" or "free article" and then the industry name you are in, and you'll find some of them

Optimise web page structures

There are ways to ensure your web pages are built to encourage Google ‘spiders' (investigative and logging programs) to see, log and rank your content.

Use the page titles at the top-left of the browser window to feature keywords.  Use meta descriptions in the coding, too.

And in the coding of your website, there are principles of the coding structure, itself, that can boost or hinder the search spiders.  Ensure your coder is a website developer, not a website designer.  There are significant differences in their approach behind the scenes that make a big difference to Google and the other search engines.

3 Take Home Points:

1. Great natural search results can bring in more customers
2. Establish content with links to your website elsewhere in the internet.
3. Make sure your website pages are structured properly and have plenty of keyword occurrences.