Marketing Archives - Utility Avenue

The old school, black hat marketing, and search engine optimization tactics are dead. The AI crawler bots get more and more intelligent as time passes, as does what they’re looking for.

They are no longer looking for a recipe of “magic keywords.” They’re looking for aggregated themes on topics related to the initial search. They’re looking for concepts and ideas that naturally incorporate those keywords.

In the B2B market, SEO is a long-term, comprehensive content strategy that enhances your brand’s awareness, authority, and credibility online. It’s an organic, unpaid tactic that is high content output, but low monetary output.

The primary difference between B2B SEO strategies and B2C methods is the audience. With a B2C customer, they’re the end user and generally the sole decision maker. A B2B SEO campaign has to target multiple levels of decision-makers with different search intents.

Your content should be directed at CEOs, directors, and operations managers, not just the line-level employee who may be the end user. This requires a higher level of specificity and a longer, more complex sales funnel.

A B2B audience is more interested in who you are and what you stand for than what your product photos look like. They’re looking for an industry partner they can trust for a longer-term working relationship, not necessarily a one-off purchase.

B2B SEO By The Numbers

The numbers are in, and the SEO professionals across the globe have spoken. According to them, the number one most important element that affects your content’s SERP rankings is optimized on-page elements like meta titles and descriptions. But the very next result is the accuracy and quality of the content on-site.[1]

Recently, Google shared a few other statistics related to B2B operations[2]:

Just under 90% of B2B decision makers conduct online product research
24% of non-C-suite team members have sign-off authority but 64% lie with C-suite
Mobile devices are used for 49% of B2B product research

Proven B2B SEO Strategies

SEO isn’t a mystery but B2B strategies require a more nuanced approach.

On-Page SEO

On-page elements are your written content such as blog articles, FAQ pages, location pages, and keyword placement. In a B2B market, common keywords tend to be low volume and lower competition.

This content should follow the themes that match your brand values and solve the problems your audience has. If you’re designing your content to serve a purpose, to serve your clients, the keyword will be a natural addition.

Tell the AI bots what your website is all about so Google can do its job, and serve the best results possible to the searcher. By providing the highest-quality and most accurate content possible, you feed the search engine what it wants and increase the prospect’s estimation of your business.

Audit these three elements of your on-page content to boost your SERP rankings.

Holistic Keyword Research

Conduct in-depth, holistic, and value-driven research keywords based on what is already ranking and what has lower competition. Dig into what your decision makers are searching for and design your content strategy to match.

Peek At The Competition

The first few results will be sponsored ads. Skip those. Look at only the organic content and analyze why it’s at the top of the SERP. Is it a detailed, high-quality piece, video content, or a linkable asset?

Make Yours Better

Your brand has its own unique approach, its own perspective. Use this to create content that outshines the competition. Research keyword variations or location-based keywords to enhance your content. Format for easy reading and include engaging graphics. Make it great!

Off-Page SEO

You will have less control of off-page B2B SEO elements, but they’re extremely useful for building authority and credibility online. These tactics will show who you’re connected to in the online space, who links to your content, and who your industry partners are.

Off-page SEO includes content collaborations, your backlink strategy, guest posts, digital PR pieces, and local or social platform content and listings. All of these elements tell the algorithm that others consider your content to be legitimate and helpful. The more off-page authority you’re able to build, the more often the AI bots are to serve your website higher on SERPs.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the back-end, coded, and programmed elements of your website. Optimizing these fundamentals is necessary to ensure your site is effectively communicating with search engines.

It’s in Google’s job description to share high-quality results to search engine users and to provide a seamless process. The algorithm may promote a better, cleaner website over one with better content to serve its own objective.

Here are a few technical adjustments you can make to ensure your website meets search engine expectations.

Audit Page Loading

Slow page loading is a significant factor that could lead to a drop in rankings. You have a maximum of a few short seconds to load your data and images completely. Any longer and your visitors will leave. This increases your bounce rate and will impact your overall rankings.

Strong Mobile Optimization

This is more than just checking the “mobile view” on your web developer. It’s ensuring the content is formatted for easy mobile reading and using pop-ups sparingly. It’s optimizing your local listings and preparing content to match voice searches.

Test Navigation

All of your content and services should be easy to find. Use breadcrumb navigation to make it easy for viewers to backtrack. Don’t overcomplicate it with too many menus or fixed scrolling bars. Keep it simple and your content organized.

Verify All Links

Follow every link on your website, both external and internal. Double check that they are still in working order and point to what the content says they point to.

Create A Site Map

A site map will show the search engine crawlers everything your website has to offer. There are online tools you can use to create one for your site and submit the file to Google. Make sure it’s also listed on your home page.

Launch Your Successful B2B SEO Campaign!

Create B2B content with the intention to serve, more than sell, and leverage these simple tactics to boost your B2B SEO campaign.

Sources:

[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/633151/effective-seo-tactics/

[2]https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/

—————-Author Bio Below

Jason started freelancing in SEO back in college, sold his first agency, and now is the founder of Zupo, which is an Orange County based SEO consulting agency helping construct powerful long-term SEO strategies for our clients. Jason also enjoys multiple cups of tea a day, hiding away on weekends, catching up on reading, and rewatching The Simpsons for the 20th time.

I found out about Donald Miller a couple of years ago in one of my Facebook groups for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Several comments recommended Building a StoryBrand as a must-read when it comes to marketing.

I read Building a Story Brand and then “Marketing Made Simple.” I love how they take highly complex ideas and explain them in simple executable steps. Donald Miller knows that business is more than just a good idea made profitable – it’s a system of unspoken rules, rarely taught by MBA schools. If you are attempting to grow your business or career profitably, you need elite business knowledge to create tangible value.

Donald Miller has done it yet again with his newest book, Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity, and More.

Business Made Simple

If you want to grow your career and create a healthy and profitable company, check this book.

From writing your mission statement to formulating sales presentations, writing effective marketing messaging, setting up sales funnels, and executing projects across many departments, it covers all bases.

These 60 short, daily entries and accompanying videos will add enormous value to your business and the organization you work for. In this sixty-day guide, the book presents the nine areas where truly successful leaders and their businesses excel:

Character: What kind of person succeeds in business?
Leadership: How do you unite a team around a mission?
Personal Productivity: How can you get more done in less time?
Messaging: Why aren’t customers paying more attention?
Marketing: How do I build a sales funnel?
Business Strategy: How does a business really work?
Execution: How can we get things done?
Sales: How do I close more sales?
Management: What does a good manager do?

His book is based on the idea that value-driven professionals give their company’s and customers an incredible return on their investment. Donald Miller defines a value-driven professional as: “Someone obsessed with getting value to everyone they work with.”

“Each of us has to wake up in the morning and give people a return on the time, energy, and money they entrust to us.”

He goes on to say, “this is the secret to success. If you want to succeed in work, love, friendship, and life, give people around a great return on whatever it is they invested in you”.

1. See yourself as an economical product on the open market.

You are committed to getting people a strong return on the investment made in you. You’re zealous by making other people absurdly successful.

2. See yourself as a hero, not a victim.

You see yourself as a hero on a mission, not a victim. Victim mentality will end your career. Once you see yourself as a hero on a mission, you.

3. Know how to de-escalate drama

How do you escalate drama? You ask yourself: How would a calm and calculated person handle this situation? Your goal is to remain calm.

4. Accept feedback as a gift

Value-driven professionals are thankful for constructive feedback and know how to take feedback and use it to grow in their careers.

5. Know the right way to engage in conflict

We live in a broken world, so conflict is unavoidable. But how do you navigate conflict as a value-driven professional? You expect conflict, control your emotions, affirm the person you are confronting, and understand you could be wrong. Bonus: in all great story the hero has to face a conflict.

6. Long to be trusted and respected more than liked

A respected and trusted leader sets clear expectations, communicates and keeps others accountable, and rewards good performance. They care less about being liked than being respected and trusted.

7. Have a bias towards action

Donald Miller has observed that all great leaders have a bias towards action. They take action to make ideas happen.

8. Do not choose to be confused

When there are things we don’t want to do, we tend to get confused about how it works. For example, you may need to fire an employee, but you choose to be confused about what you should do to let this employee go.

9. Be relentlessly optimistic

High-impact leaders are not afraid to fail. Actually, successful leaders have failed more than most. As a result, they experience more success in work and life.

10. Have a growth mindset

A value-driven professional has learned to adopt a growth mindset when faced with setbacks. This comes from the work of the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Growth mindset individuals see the world differently from embracing challenges to persisting through obstacles to learning from criticism to finding inspiration from others’ success.

Final Words

The truth is that it’s hard to be successful without a clear understanding of how business works.

According to Donald Miller, if you master the lessons introduced in his new book—the ten characteristics of a value-driven professional along with the ten core competencies of a value-driven professional—you will dramatically increase your worth on the open market.

Business Made Simple is the must-have guide for anyone who feels lost or overwhelmed by the modern business climate. If you want to take your career to the next level, read and apply the Business Made Simple book’s principles to transform your economic worth over the next 60 days.

The Business Made Simple book by Donald Miller is available for purchase.

Category: Marketing

The Ultimate Guide To A Successful B2B SEO Campaign