How to target HR Directors with your organic strategy
Author:
Categorised In:
Share:
Are you looking to target HR Directors through your organic search efforts? Understanding your target audience is one of the most fundamental steps in order to shape your organic search strategy, no matter the industry. If you’re looking to target HR Directors, then delving into the depths of how they search and what they’re looking for is key for your business showing up when they need you most.
If you’re looking to target senior HR professionals, the chances are, you will fit into one of the below categories:
- HR software / technology providers
- HR consultancy firms
- Recruitment agencies
- Employee benefits and wellbeing providers
- Learning & development providers
- HR compliance and risk management services
Within this article, we’re going to delve into exactly what HR directors are looking for within search and how we can help shape your organic strategy in order to ‘show up’ and deliver high quality content.
So, what are HR directors searching for?
In order to effectively target HR Directors, creating an ideal customer persona is key. Your site needs to address their most pressing challenges and provide practical solutions to the problems they may face. As this is exactly what they’ll be looking for.
These types of roles are also increasingly reliant on technology and data. HR Directors are actively using AI and automation in HR processes, so it’s important to ensure the tone in which content is being written is also aligned with our strategy. This will be notable from keyword research, down to content creation and cross-channel too as Adam Pickles discussed in a recent blog, regarding CTA’s within ads.
Follow our simple steps below to outline the key areas of a target customer persona:
Who are they?
HR Directors are typically senior, strategic thinkers and we need to think about how their online searches would reflect this. It’s also important to note that most of the time, this level of individuality is highly respected within the business and is key to driving performance, culture, and growth.
What are they looking to solve?
HR directors could be looking for an array of solutions to their problems online, from high-level insights and best practices to complex problems, and information that impacts their decision-making within their role.
They’re not usually looking for basic HR definitions, but rather actionable insights or information. So again, it’s important that we’re targeting them with the right type of content too, as there’s no need to rank for ‘what is HR?’, given your target audience.
Developing an effective strategy
Building any effective SEO strategy always starts with the foundations and the technical architecture of a website. Before we can delve into the many, many ways you can target HR Directors and present the best content, you need to ensure your site is accessible, crawlable and has strong technical foundations.
Once you ensure that your site is in good technical SEO health and is crawlable and indexable to search engines, we can then begin looking at growth. A great place to start is often analysing what you already have in place, by asking yourself the following questions:
- What current content is on site? And how is that content performing?
- Are there any key business areas of focus to drive a better ROI which you’d like to prioritise within your strategy?
- Who are your key competitors? Not only from a business perspective, but those we’re actively competing with within the SERPs too.
- Are competitors executing specific tactics or methodology? Are they focusing on content creation or link building?
- Where do the gaps lie between you and your competitors? Are you looking to ‘catch them up’ or excel beyond their current market position?
- Are your pillar / service pages compelling enough for conversion?
- Should we be focusing on landing page impact or supporting resources such as blogs and guides?
These are all incredibly important questions within search strategy and it’s key to understand that the answers to each of the above, can shape your strategy in a multitude of different ways. It’s also important to consider the third pillar of off-site promotion and gaining trust and authority within the sector; not only for users, but for crawlers too.
Taking a tactful approach
“Yes, we’ve done competitor research. Yes, we’ve found the gaps and insight we need. But now what?”
The key here is to add that strategic element. What is really going to move the needle now, and what’s going to shape part of a longer term investment to building your brand’s organic presence?
Targeting the same areas as competitors often does the job, but in order to really succeed, you need to look at pushing boundaries beyond the norm and experimenting to drive success.
Understanding keyword opportunities
When it comes to SEO, many businesses often chase the terms with the highest search volume. Which yes, makes sense to an extent, but it’s not a long term strategy.
Let’s imagine you have a start-up business, 1-2 years into HR technology and development, and you’re trying to target ‘HR Software’. That term specifically has an average monthly search volume of 1,000 and is deemed ‘super hard’ to rank for by Ahrefs. It will take a significant amount of work, time and money in order to grab the top spot from a well-established, industry expert.
You also need to consider the intent.
Building your strategy around the intent of search terms in every stage of the user journey is also necessary for success. Whether that be targeting those trophy terms with key commercial pages, or taking a more indirect approach of creating supporting blogs and resources which target long-tail informational queries, we can reach HR directors from every search.
Content creation to target HR directors
As mentioned, when creating content, think about the strategic level of these searches. HR Directors may want solutions, frameworks and case studies, not just basic information. They’re looking for content that helps them justify investments, mitigate risks, and drive success through their role.
Here are just a sample of content ideas which could be used to target HR Directors:
Pillar page: HR software
Target keyword(s) : “HR software”
Search volume and intent: 1,000 avg monthly search volume, commercial intent yet highly competitive.
Case study: How [your solution] helped [company] solve their [specific HR challenge]
Target keyword(s) : “HR solutions for [industry e.g., manufacturing] UK”
Search volume and intent: Likely to be low, but due to the very specific nature of the search, this is more likely to convert.
Blog: The benefits of HR automation
Target keyword(s): “benefits of HR automation” (Low-Medium, problem-solution)
Search volume and intent: Medium search volume, yet long-tail, but highly intentful due to the specific nature of the search.
Resource: UK employment law updates and timeline
Target keyword(s): “employment law updates”
Search Volume & Intent : Average of 350 monthly searches and is highly relevant to HR directors due to compliance requirements. Although this may not directly convert in the short term, it’s demonstrating clear E-E-A-T signals from your site and building customer trust.
Interactive tool/calculator: “Measuring the ROI of employee engagement [free calculator]”
Target keyword(s): “employee engagement ROI” & “ROI of employee engagement”
Search volume and intent: Average of 50 UK searches a month, each. Highly intentful search queries, building trust and engagement on site, with a reasonable monthly search volume.
How can we help?
When looking to target HR directors within your organic search strategy, there’s a lot to consider, whether that be in regards to building the foundation of your site, reaching out to build off-site presence or executive an effective content strategy.
Hopefully this article has given insight into just a few of the various ways we would tackle approaching the industry, but if you’d like a second opinion or some expert insight, feel free to reach out to us today!
