5 Essentials of Search Engine Optimization

What’s optimal in search engine optimization is something that changes by the day. It changes rapidly in response to things like trending topics, relevant happenings, Google algorithm updates and new terminology in the industry. Because of all this constant change, optimizing a website has become an ongoing, continuously evolving process.

Ultimately, there are two forces at work helping to make search engine optimization an ongoing project: audience behaviors, and search engine guidelines. B2B audiences naturally change their search behaviors based on things like new terminology in the industry, industry news, political motivations and even new products.

And at the same time search engines also change what’s “optimal” over time when they update their search algorithms, introduce new features or formats, and alter the factors that go into rankings, among many other things.

With all of these moving parts at work, B2B organizations looking to optimize their online presence have a much bigger task in front of them today. Not only because of the large number of components that go into SEO and rankings, but also because website optimizations taking place today won’t work forever. They’ll eventually have to be repeated and updated to make use of different search habits and search engine algorithms tomorrow.

It all makes having an experienced and proactive SEO partner so important for B2B brands. Our goals when helping B2B clients with their SEO performance go beyond simply rankings to something even more aspirational: Yes, we want to increase awareness of each brand in the minds of their target audiences, but we also want to increase the return on investment these organizations are seeing from their search engine optimization efforts.

To do this, we focus on five high-level tactics with our clients to update and/or implement powerful SEO tactics that result in increased revenues, because of higher rankings:

1. Analyze. We usually begin the SEO process with clients by auditing different components on their current web pages to understand how visitors are behaving on those pages, what SEO opportunities exist, and what other SEO tactics are missing or out of date. Examples that immediately come to mind: informative, relevant meta descriptions and compliance with mobile first indexing. Part and parcel to these studies is taking an insightful look at how competitors’ websites are performing across these same areas.
2. Optimize. Once we understand what opportunities remain to be tapped on our partners’ websites, we execute these optimizations based on the latest search engine guidelines as well as an understanding of the concerns and changing interests of target audiences. For instance, understanding how top search engine Google prioritizes ranking factors serves as a great starting point for client optimization implementations.
3. Attract. We approach optimization understanding that success ultimately rests on whether or not audiences are finding brands willing to bring them solutions. So we help make that happen by making changes that we know can improve search rankings, such as increasing the number of incoming offsite links to a website or web page. Another tactic is building recognition and authority in context with the brand’s products and industry, by posting relevant content regularly. Both of these measures lead to better rankings and increased visibility for brands in front of the right prospects.
4. Convert. SEO measures can’t stop for brands just because they’re earning page one search result status. Even then it has to be about implementing content that is so relevant and well-connected to prospects’ intentions, that they’re motivated to convert and click through. These kinds of optimizations take place at every stage of the funnel: from a well-written meta tag so relevant to the prospect’s search query, that it compels them to click through, to landing page design so connected, it earns greater numbers of form completions.
5. Validate. At the end of this process, it’s always important to report on the effects that SEO changes have. That’s why we study and report on changes of such key performance factors as website conversions, rankings achieved through optimizations and link building tactics, and ideally, the return on the client’s SEO investment.

Used holistically, these high-level components of a strong SEO program will stay consistent even as audience behaviors and search engine algorithms change. So in that sense, the more SEO changes, the more it will stay the same.