Effective Search Engine Optimization
If you’re on the front end of a technology or professional services company, my guess is you’re grappling with how and how much to invest in being visible online.
In the big picture, investing in effective search engine optimization (SEO) is important and powerful because our goal as marketers is to increase qualified leads for as few dollars as possible.
Take your rank to the bank
B2B marketers know that nearly 100% of executives are online with broadband, and nearly all use search engines extensively. In fact, a recent B2B study by Enquirio reports a full 92% of respondents turn to online resources in the early stages of the buying cycle and 77% named Google as their first choice.*
So being seen by a decision-maker on the ‘front page’ of Google results is an important step toward attracting new business. As the congregation said in Monty Python's movie "The Meaning of Life," it's "absolutely huge... just so super...[and] fantastic."
Effective SEO – does your website content pass the test?
Being found is a long way from being asked for a bid and hired. Precisely because qualified leads are what we front-end folks need to drive, I try to think in terms of Company Marketing Optimization (CMO) when I want effective SEO. CMO is more rigorous. It calls for all distributed content, including a client’s website, to impress both search engines and high potential prospects.
If this sounds like gibberish, let me show you how, for example, I test a client’s website content:
Test 1: Does it impress top prospects?
- Does the website content resonate with top prospects by:
- Communicating in terms that make sense to them?
- Providing the information they need?
- Giving them a reason to buy?
- Motivating them to act?
Effective search engine optimization employs these tactics and more to impress top prospects.
Test 2: Does it impress search engines?
- Do the website content, organization, and technical features have the attributes that impress search engine spiders, including:
- Optimized HTML tags?
- Correct use and repetition of keywords?
- Descriptive headers?
- Chunked up information?
- Clear themes?
With effective search engine optimization, one set of content can impress both search engines and prospects. To pull it off, we just need to be CMO geeks – strategic marketers armed with sound competitive analysis and uber-business writing skills adapted to following complex online content optimization rules. (Even established Web and advertising firms are partnering with niche experts who've got these talents – making sure to choose someone who presents realistic expectations, demonstrates successes, and provides reputable referrals.)
Build it with the audience in mind, and they will come….and stay
If you thought CMO is what SEO firms do, you’re in the ballpark. A quality SEO consultancy can directly contribute to website content optimization and conversions. But, as far as I’ve seen, they do not bite off all that's required to ensure you meet Test #1.
With the CMO approach to effective search engine optimization, keywords are the heart of a marketing program – not an afterthought slapped onto already-written website content or pasted into meta-tag code.
(A keyword is a phrase we want to be identified with. It should be a term a potential customer would typically use when searching for products or services like yours.)
CMO achieves effective search engine optimization by building all distributed content to reflect the language and searching behavior of the target audience. Because search engines are a channel. They help prospects find you.
CMO is the context for effective SEO. It helps us outrank goliaths in search engine results and take our rank to the bank.
* Source: Enquirio Business to Business Survey 2007