How can B2B marketers improve their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and focus in the fast and furious digital landscape of 2022?
The search marketing arena has always been one of swift changes, and keeping up-to-date with ever-shifting SEO machinations and technical search intricacies can be more than a handful even for top B2B optimization professionals.
Don’t let the complexities that SEO efforts sometimes entail deter you, however, as there are still bountiful and easy-to-achieve benefits for the B2B marketer in many aspects of optimization.
Let’s jump right in and take a look at some of the SEO tactics B2B marketers can apply and benefit from today.
1 — Applying SEO To The Minute & The Monumental
When I first went online in 1984 operating a 300-baud bulletin board system, it would be six years before Archie’s FTP site search arrived in 1990, followed three years later by Excite and the other early web search engine innovators, and if there’s one aspect of search and SEO that has remained constant throughout the ensuing decades, it’s been unending change.
One of the finer qualities SEO possesses is its ability to be applied on both small and large tasks — from the minutiae of time-tested HTML alternative text fields all the way to the monumental, covering nearly every element of enterprise websites containing tens of thousands of pages.
Although this small-to-large scope of abilities can also make SEO a bit daunting for the uninitiated, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help B2B marketers focus their efforts, with an SEO strategy that is:
- Comprehensive
- Applies to both visible and unseen elements of information
- Applies to both technical and non-technical elements
A top-notch SEO strategy in B2B is comprehensive, and an integral part of the processes of planning, development, implementation, and ongoing measurement. Although better than nothing, when SEO is brought in as an afterthought, strong integration becomes more difficult than when it’s an initial core element of a business marketing strategy.
Great SEO involves website content that’s both hidden and in public view, and smart optimizers pay attention to both the visible and unseen elements of information they have to work with.
Similarly, strong SEO has an arm that branches out more into areas where programmers and developers typically work, although as SEO practices have gained much wider adoption over the decades, more and more of this side of optimization has been moved into areas where even non-technical professionals such as designers, marketers, and writers can now have control over certain SEO elements. The WordPress content management system (CMS) administration area and plug-ins today offer SEO access to many pieces of information that were once mostly reserved to coders.
Many of the easy pickings in SEO are certainly available for B2B marketers to easily change, however all-too-often efforts aren’t ever made to optimize anything beyond these very basic elements, such as on-screen written content.
The best SEO professionals go well beyond the items that are easy to adjust and test, and in the often cutthroat search ranking landscape, the biggest gains come from deep efforts to align all of the easy changes with some that are much harder to suss out.
“The best SEO goes well beyond items that are easy to adjust and test, and in the often cutthroat search ranking landscape, the biggest gains come from deep efforts to align the easy changes with other much harder ones.” — @lanerellis Click To Tweet
2 — Making The Swirling Sea Of SEO An Always-On Habit
SEO isn’t a standardized practice with oversight by an administrative body, but rather a living and breathing practice that’s evolved in the back-and-forth between search engine firms and the webmasters, marketers, programmers, and others who have for decades kept SEO in a constant swirling sea of activity. Sometimes this sea is murky and tumultuous, and at others — at least for a brief while — clear and calm.
When putting SEO to use in B2B marketing, there are a few elements to make note of when it comes to your efforts:
- Certain elements of SEO are ever-changing and require ongoing attention
- Build smart SEO efforts into routine work
- Utilize process checklists to operationalize efforts
B2B marketers have found greater success in efforts that are always-on, and this is spot-on also for the world of SEO.
Search engine firms are forever tweaking the weight they place on certain signals from websites, and often add new ones or take others away, which means that smart B2B marketers working with SEO need to keep up with these shifts.
A helpful way to ensure that some of the easier elements of SEO are maintained is to build them into routine work that’s done on an ongoing basis.
A tactic that some B2B marketers also find helpful is to utilize SEO process checklists, to operationalize efforts in both the short and long term.
“SEO is a constant swirling sea of activity. Sometimes this sea is murky and tumultuous, and at others — at least for a brief while — clear and calm.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis Click To Tweet
3 — Keeping SEO Efforts Current
With change being a constant in the world of SEO, it’s important to stay informed on the shifts from each end of the search industry spectrum. Some ways to do that include:
- Keeping track of industry best-practice changes
- Pushing your own boundaries with new SEO discoveries
- Utilizing events and ongoing education opportunities
When it comes to keeping track of SEO industry best-practice changes, there are many news sites, blogs, and message forums dedicated to the daily search landscape shifts, such as Search Engine Roundtable and WebmasterWorld, and the blogs maintained by Google, Bing, and other search engine firms also offer news of changes that can affect SEO strategy.
The next level of SEO learning comes from networking with industry experts at events, whether hybrid, in-person, or remote. I recently explored how to get the most from each, in “In-Person, Virtual & Hybrid: How To Get The Most From B2B Marketing Events In 2022.”
Additionally, online learning can help B2B marketers looking to learn more about the ins and outs of SEO. Here are several articles we’ve published detailing both free and paid online learning options:
Find Your Own Search Engine Optimization Oz In 2022
You don’t have to travel with Dorothy and the Tin Man to the land of Oz to achieve newfound SEO success, however it’s important to remember that SEO is only one element of successful B2B marketing, and there is no magical yellow bring road when it comes to search rankings.
The more aligned your organization’s SEO and marketing efforts can become, the greater their combined power is — to build and promote content that can reach heights that aren’t possible when using just one of these two important ingredients.
While in 2022 many B2B efforts include both SEO and marketing elements, until both teams have truly understood what each does, campaigns won’t be as cohesive as a unified effort can.
We hope that the SEO ideas and practices we’ve shared here will help your own search and B2B marketing efforts.
Crafting top ranking B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.
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