Why your content strategy does not convert, despite traffic
Each week, a marketing team celebrates a peak of organic traffic. A blog article exceeded 10,000 visits. A page “What is CRM?” reached the first position. We welcome SEO “that works”.
But at the same time, commercial reality is less brilliant. Few leads generated. Little qualified MQL. Zero meetings made by salespeople from these successful pages.
The problem is known but rarely named, The illusion of SEO traffic.
The myth of organic visibility
For 10 years, companies have been conditioned to see SEO as a classic acquisition funnel. We produce content, we position ourselves on “strategic” keywords, we hope to transform this volume into leads. The problem is that The volume says nothing of the intention.
A request like “Customer onboarding definition” Can generate 2,000 monthly visits. But how many of these readers are really looking for a tool to improve their onboarding? How much do a budget, a deadline, a need have?
Without taking into account the level of consciousness From the prospect, the SEO becomes a surface game. You are visible, but you do not convert.
The 5 levels of consciousness: key to reading intention
Eugene Schwartz defined an always valid grid in the 1960s to read the intention of a buyer:
| Level | Prospect state | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| Unaware | Don’t know he has a problem | No keyword (no active research) |
| Problem Aware | Identified a problem | “Why has my newsletter has no clicks?” |
| AWARE SOLUTION | Look for a category | “Marketing email software” |
| Product Aware | Compare brands | “Brevo vs klaviyo” |
| Most Aware | Ready to buy | “Brevo price”, “Brevo promo code” |
👉 Align his keywords with these stages of consciousness is Go from a surface SEO to a performance -oriented SEO.
The right keyword at the right time
Take the example of a European startup as Swilewhich offers dematerialized salaried advantages. Here are three possible SEO approaches:
| Keyword | Volume | Stage of consciousness | Probable conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Employees Definition” advantages “ | 3,600/month | Problem Aware | Very weak |
| “Best restaurant ticket software” | 900/month | AWARE SOLUTION | Average |
| “Swile vs Edenred” | 300/month | Product Aware | High |
A classic SEO strategy will favor the first keyword. A strategy oriented Purchase intention will favor the third, and will structure its content to capture the intention behind the 300 research.
Because a single conversion at 300 € of recurring monthly basket is more than 1,000 informed but passive readers.
How to identify the keywords for high intention
Analyze your sales cycles
-
- What questions are systematically coming back in commercial calls?
- What comparisons are the prospects evoke?
- What brakes delay the signature?
These data are often more precious than SEO tools.
Use the right filters in Semrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest
Look for the following intentions:
-
- Transactional : “Buy”, “price”, “promo code”
- Commercial : “Best”, “comparison”, “vs”, “opinion”
- Navigation : “Brand name + function”
These keywords are often less bulky, but closer to the decision.
Cartography your existing content by stage of consciousness
Make the audit of your site. Classify each page depending on whether it is targeting:
-
- Awakening (UNAWARE, PROBLEM AWARE)
- Research (Aware solution)
- The decision (Product Aware, Most Aware)
You will quickly discover where your dead angles are located.
A new way to build your SEO strategy
Rather than targeting “the keyword that pays the most traffic”, ask yourself:
-
- What intention hides behind this request?
- In what time of decision is the user?
- What concrete action Am I able to offer him?
This involves rethinking your priorities. To accept to target keywords at 200 or 300 monthly research, but which trigger a free trial, a demo request or a connection.
Change logic: from volume to depth
This is the logic that adopted PennylaneFrench startup for accounting management. Rather than producing educational articles on accounting, it has deployed comparative pages (Pennylane vs Dougs), “Prices” pages, structured demonstrations, all optimized SEO.
Result: an apparently less “brilliant” SEO, but directly linked to incoming leads with high probability of closing.
The most frequent errors
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- Optimize for volume without qualifying the intention
- Ignore requests with competitors’ names
- Do not integrate salespeople into the SEO strategy
- Confuse informative content and decision -making content
- Measure the SEO only with traffic or position
Good practices to adopt
-
- Prioritize the low funnel pages : comparisons, alternatives, pricing pages, demonstrations.
- Integrate commercial signals from the editorial staff : Clear CTA, social evidence, minimum friction.
- Structure your SEO dashboards by stadium of consciencenot only by keyword.
- Work the articulation between SEO and CRM : Identify which pages really bring converted leads.
SEO is not an information channel. It is an intention channel.
As long as you measure SEO to the prism of traffic, you will miss the target.
The question is not “how many people come”, but “who comes, and why”.
In a B2B context, each published content must ask itself a single question:
When of the decision does this content answer?
Without this cartography, you will continue to attract without converting.
With it, you will stop publishing for the algorithm, and will start writing for the buyer.
