SEO as a topic is hotter than ever with Google’s updated overhaul of its search algorithm (see Google’s Hummingbird for more details) as well as Google’s announcement of encrypting all natural search data (search the dreaded “not provided”).
So, as a marketing firm that uses B2B SEO to help businesses attract leads, what are we recommending now that these changes are in place?
To start, make sure each of your pages, blog posts and other landing pages are uniquely optimized for a specific key phrase. Then, look at your Landing Pages report in Google to see how many unique pages are being visited via the Organic source. Comparing this data over time will show us if the optimization we are doing and the new content we are releasing is resulting in additional traffic to new landing pages. An increase in total landing page count is the indicator of improvement. By having uniquely optimized these pages, you can better assume that your unique keyword reach is also expanding (since all [Google]organic traffic is going to eventually say ‘not provided’).
Additionally, don’t be afraid to spend a little of your marketing budget on PPC, even if it’s not producing leads, it WILL still give you the keyword intelligence that will now be missing from the organic medium. Try to do as much phrase and exact match as you can and look not only at clicks but impression counts to better estimate actual volumes.
With the move to semantic/entity search, implementing semantic mark-up is a critical piece to this changing world of search. Some semantic mark-up you can use that serves the B2B space includes authorship/people, events, testimonials, and videos. This is a huge change and a rather significant undertaking for any organization to change the way they do SEO.
Lastly, review and apply the foundations that are outlined by the search engines themselves (Google and Bing both provide starter/best practice guides). They’re telling you what they want.
Ultimately we are excited about Google’s recent changes for some key reasons.
It appears Google is rewarding white hat tactics (and we are firm believer in authentically and honestly helping buyers to buy) where websites are providing quality content at a consistent frequency that readers find helpful as they are making buying decisions.
Also, Google seems to be penalizing blog farming, weak back links/paid links and other sketchy black hat approaches.
We hope this information gives you some newfound direction in your B2B SEO efforts.
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