Quality content is key to attracting leads and converting them into customers. We have all heard the expression “content is king” and “content marketing is the kingdom.” Clearly articulating detailed information about your services and how you deliver them will increase search traffic to your site and help prospects understand if your Managed IT Services offering is right for them.
Unfortunately, many MSP websites suffer from thin content or worse yet, duplicate content. This typically means your website is doing nothing to help attract new leads or generate sales and is likely hurting your business. Your website is perhaps your single most important business asset and should be a driving force in securing new business.
Creating a Content Marketing Strategy
Consistently producing quality content will have a compounding effect on successfully driving relevant traffic and prospects to your website. Launching a content marketing campaign may seem like a daunting task but with a little planning in can be manageable. Developing a content strategy that spans from 6-months to a year that includes an editorial calendar will help keep you and your team on track and make the effort more manageable.
Conversion Rates & Closing New MRR
According to TechJury, the average website conversion rate for the B2B industry overall is 2.23%. Software and SaaS companies are seeing conversion rates of 1.1%. In general, a 2 to 5% conversion rate is considered very good or great. Even a 1.0% conversion rate would be effective for gaining new business if traffic levels exceeded 1,000 visitors per month.
Managed Service Provider Website Conversion Rates
Below is a website conversion rate statistic for an Apex Visibility client in the managed service provider industry for the month of November 2022.
These new raw leads were obtained directly from SEO and content marketing.
6-Month Content Marketing Analysis/Case Study
The charts below illustrate how the number of keywords ranking in search engine results grew over a 6-month period as content was added or expanded on an Apex Visibility client’s website. The content marketing campaign started in June with the optimization and expansion of the home page. Chart-1 shows that in May the website ranked for a total of 42 phrases across all pages. That number increased by 60% to 69 phrases in June and by the end of December, the number of ranking phrases had grown to 300, an 614% increase. Predicted search traffic to the site also increased by 39% during this period.
June – Homepage
The homepage content was expanded in June. Chart-2 shows the increase in the number of phrases ranking on the homepage since the content expansion and optimization. The homepage picked up 11 phrases in June and by November has climbed to 75 phrases, an increase of 582%.
July – MS Azure Page
In July we added a page to target MS Azure Services. Chart-3 shows we picked up another 20 phrases in August.
September – Managed IT Services
In September we expanded content and optimized the Managed IT Services page. Chart-4 shows the page improved from 5 ranking phrases in September to 71 phrases in December a 1320% increase in rankings.
October – Cloud Services Page
In October we expanded the Cloud Services page. Chart-5 shows that there was an additional 36 phrases picked up by December, including 3 phrases that are ranking in the top 3 Google search results.
November – vCIO Services Page
A new page was added in November for vCIO Services (Chart-6) adding another 10 ranking phrases.
The Cumulative Effect of Content Marketing
The above charts illustrate how adding, expanding, and optimizing content on 6 pages directly led to an increase of over 258 new keyword rankings, which is a 614% increase. Additionally, the site now ranks in the top 10 for 33 local (city/town name + service name) phrases that don’t appear in the charts above.
Content Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving
The power of a strong piece of content builds over time as search engines index the pages and backlinks are accumulated. Updating and expanding the content on a six-month interval (or as necessary) will encourage search engines to continue indexing the page and sends signals that the content is still relevant.
Promoting Your Content and Building Backlinks
Once quality content is written for the site’s main pages it is necessary to promote the content by creating related pieces of content and posting these content derivatives on blogs, guest blogs, LinkedIn, etc. These posts then need to be linked back to the original pieces on your website. This will build Page Authority and search rankings over the long haul.
In Summary
Developing and executing a content marketing strategy will generate a steady flow of leads to your website and help convert these leads into customers. The real magic happens when a campaign persists steadily for a 1-to-3-year period or longer. As the website’s overall Domain Authority (DA) grows so will the rankings generated by your content marketing campaign. Yes, it takes time (1-3 years) to build DA but once that number gets into the mid-thirties your website will become a sales machine.
Apex Visibility is currently offering an in-depth website analysis prepared by an SEO expert to businesses interested in improving their website visibility.
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