First Page of Search Results – Would You Like to Know How to Ensure Your Site Shows Up There?

Start with understanding how your ideal customer perceives your type of business.  Face it; most people are NOT thinking about you, your business, your product or your service 99.99% of the time.  They’re thinking about themselves, their business, their customers and their own challenges.

What problems are your prospective customers experiencing?

Having been in the marketing and advertising business for over 20 years, I know that one of the biggest challenges facing most small businesses today is consistently attracting new clients.  These days there are so many ways prospects could find you and more than 21 strategies you could use to capture new customers, but how do you know which one is best for your company today?  I recently posted an article on our blog that talks in more depth about those 21 strategies and you can read it here https://bit.ly/2IwaCkw

However today, I want to focus in on one of those strategies: Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

And the reason is because according to Think with Google, 89% of B2B researchers use the Internet during the research process.  Additionally, the article goes on to debunk 5 common myths about B2B decision making.  And although the study in was conducted over the 2012 – 2014 timeframe, the results are even more pertinent today.

• Myth #1: Millennials aren’t making B2B decisions
• Reality #1: Nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials

 

• Myth #2: B2B marketers should target the C-suite
• Reality #2: B2B researchers who are not in the C-suite influence purchase decisions

 

• Myth #3: Branded searches should be the focus of your search strategy
• Reality #3: 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search

 

• Myth #4: Not many B2B researchers use mobile
• Reality #4: Mobile usage is intensifying; B2B researchers are using it throughout their entire path

 

• MYTH #5: Video is watched solely to gain awareness
• REALITY #5: B2B researchers watch video during the entire path to purchase

Knowing the reality of who is doing most of the research and how they are searching, it’s important to know when you start your keyword research.  As an experienced digital marketer, I have always recommended starting with generic search terms regardless of who is doing the actual research.  This is because there are so many new companies, products, and services being developed every day that the only way you are going to learn about them is by searching on the terms that describe your desired outcomes.

Additionally, I have been telling businesses for years that they need to be using video, social media, and mobile throughout their marketing.  See our special report we created five years ago here https://bit.ly/2sT2QvZ

Once you have a good understanding of who your ideal customers are, it’s time to start writing your keyword list to give to your digital marketing provider who will further refine the list.  Keep in mind that you want to target long-tail keywords (3 – 5 word phrases) because the competition for shorter keywords is so fierce it would likely take years of work to have any chance of ranking on the first page of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for those highly sought-after keywords.

Start by thinking about your business from your ideal customer’s point of view (POV).  What terms might they use to find the products or services you sell?  Think about what terms they might use when researching potential providers, AND the terms they might use when they are ready to BUY your products or services?  Often there are differences in how people search depending on their intent.  Try to compile a list of at least 10 – 20 keywords to give your digital marketing vendor of choice to provide them with a starting point.  Your digital marketing strategies consultant will then perform an exhaustive research using a combination of both free and paid tools to uncover keywords you missed in your initial research.

After your digital marketing strategies consultant finishes compiling their list of the best keywords for you to target based on average number of monthly searches and the lowest competition across multiple search engines, you need to let them know which ones you feel are most important to you.  Together you should agree upon the final target list upon which to begin the content development process.  Once the two of you agree on a final list of organic keywords, the next major decision that needs to be made is which modality you and your consultant believe will be most fruitful for you based on your type of business and your strategic marketing objectives.  Should you pursue Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO), or Search Engine Marketing/Pay Per Click (SEM/PPC).

Each modality has their own advantages/disadvantages and should be evaluated based on your business and marketing objectives.  Both SEO & SMO can produce great organic results; meaning they will help the pages of your website show up in organic search results.  The advantage of both is that as long as you continue to produce, share, and promote great content, your organic results will continue to provide you with a constant flow of traffic to your website and your social media channels for years to come.  The disadvantage of these two methods is that they take time (at least three – four months) of daily effort to begin to bear fruit (increased traffic to your website and social profiles).  Whereas SEM’s advantage is that it can begin to produce results almost immediately.  However, this strategy costs you significant cash from the moment you start implementing it.  Additionally, you are paying for clicks on your ads – not for leads or customers.  And the biggest disadvantage of SEM is that the instant you stop paying for your ads – it all goes away.

In my expert opinion, based on more than 20 years of experience if you want to produce the best overall results from your marketing efforts, you should invest in all three modalities – SEO and SMO to produce first page Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) and for long term top organic traffic.  Plus investing in SEM will enable you to start producing results almost immediately.  In addition, properly designed and managed SEO/SMO/SEM will ensure either your ad and/or organic results show up on the first page of SERPs for your targeted keywords – which in turn will bring you more targeted prospects into your marketing funnel.

Whatever channel you pursue you must also have setup and configured a marketing automation system with landing pages expertly crafted and continuously tested to maximize lead capture.  You also must have a variety high perceived value yet low cost giveaway (ethical bribe) items to offer to visitors in exchange for their email address; i.e. free report, whitepaper, audio, video, free trial, etc.  Your first and most important goal should be to grow your opt-in email list.  The more interested and qualified people you can get on your opt-in email list, the more people you can nurture and pull through your marketing funnel.  And therefore the more you nurture and educate them about how to make the best decision possible when buying what you have to sell, the more customers you can get and the more revenue you can generate.

Additionally, your marketing automation platform should be generating ongoing data about what is working and what is not throughout the whole process.  Reviewing this data on a daily basis will enable you to tweak your various processes to improve your overall conversion.  The latest editions of many marketing automation platforms are now integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) to speed up and make automated decisions for you based on preset rules.

Now if it seems like all this marketing is too complicated then hiring an experienced digital marketing strategies consulting company is your best strategy.

If you want help with your digital marketing, we’re here to help.

To give you an idea of what exactly what we do in terms of planning, implementing, analyzing, and reporting on the distribution of your keyword-rich content and our Page One Promise, see our SEO/SEM/SMO Packages.

Shea Ellison
Founder and CEO of Strategic Internet LLC
Strategic Marketing Consultants
Internet Marketing Strategies
Digital Marketing Strategies
770-455-6060
[email protected]