Google estimates that 93 percent of the online experience begins with a search engine, so it’s important your business is found exactly when your target audience begins their research process.
Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are expensive, with cost–per-click always increasing year over year. This means Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is usually a better value marketing channel for driving traffic/clicks to your website for a smaller investment and higher ROI.
Prashant Puri, president of AdLift.com, a search marketing agency based out of Palo Alto, CA, says the foundation of great SEO starts with strong website architecture. This involves diving deeply into your website analytics to understand your audience, and planning accordingly.
“More often that not, SEO and being found on search engines is an afterthought. That’s not the way it should be since 15-45 percent of your traffic/revenue can come in via search engines (Google, Bing) if you’re well optimized. So investing in SEO early on is highly recommended,” he says. “You need a powerful content marketing strategy to get the word/brand out there across topically relevant websites.”
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 70 percent of B2B marketers are creating more content than they did a year ago. To improve your SEO and stand out, you need to be found on the sites your target audience visits, and your business also needs to build a strong brand via content marketing and social channels.
“Working with content marketers to get your message out in topically relevant publications is extremely helpful,” Puri says. “Google attributes a fair share of its ranking algorithm to 1) the kind of websites that mention/link to your website and 2) the quality of content.”
Matt Lee, director of marketing for Adhere Creative, notes that URL structure, page titles, meta descriptions, keyword research/selection/density, structured data, internal link hierarchy, H1/H2 tags, etc. are the foundation for all other things when it comes to SEO.
“Organic and high-quality links pointing to your site signals to Google that you have value to Google’s users (searchers) and have something important to say,” he says. “The best way to build these incoming links? High-quality editorial content. Use your PR arm to develop positive brand mentions and links back to your website.”
Take for example what 911 Restoration, a home restoration company specializing in water damage and disaster recovery solutions, did for its company website, which ranks at the top of Google, Bing and Yahoo search results.
“Part of ranking well is knowing the business inside and out. This allows for simplicity in messaging that will then translate into simplicity of the website for the SERP [Search Engine Results Page] bots to crawl and legitimize,” Alexander Ruggie, public relations director for 911 Restoration, says. “The more complicated the nature of the business, the more difficult SEO efforts will be. A mid-sized business should probably spend the extra money in hiring an SEO company, but if they were to try and go it on their own, then the strategy would be a triage approach that gets the greatest ROI.”
If you decide to do it yourself, the first step is to use the Google Adwords Keywords tool to analyze the most relevant keywords for your industry, and making sure they are well represented in your website. This is an easy first step that tells website crawlers what your company is about, what it can do, where it is, and how your product or service is what searchers are looking for.
The tools 911 Restoration uses to ensure online success include everything from Photoshop to Wordpress to collaboration with other sites. For PR outreach, 911 Restoration uses the services HARO, Profnet, Sourcebottle and eReleases, along with cold calling/emailing media outlets with either angles to stories or completely written articles and blogs that shed light on previously obfuscated aspects of its business. For social media and signals, it utilizes everything from Facebook to Reddit and LinkedIn. For directories it uses Yext. For call tracking, remarketing and quality assurance it uses 4voice.
“We mastered this through constant innovation, testing, trial and error and untold amounts of research into the best practices of successful optimization,” Ruggie says. “The landscape for SEO is also regularly changing, and companies are thus in need of regular web presence and maintenance in order to completely capitalize on the possibilities, or to stay at the top of any search results.”
Bryan Nonni, account coordinator with mRELEVANCE, LLC, stresses the importance of keeping up to date on Google SEO changes.
“SEO changes constantly, and Google releases the algorithm updates to the public before they go live,” he says. “Be aware of the changes and how to adjust your website and its content accordingly. Also, track your website with Google analytics, and learn how to critically analyze data and make changes to your website to positively affect its traffic and lead generation.”
Remember, in today’s digital age, it’s important for every company to have strong SEO. The Internet is where all initial research is done, and where for many, a majority of today’s sales are made too.
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