Inbound 2017: Affordable SEO Tips (Heck, These Are Free)

The way we navigate the internet evolves constantly. More importantly, search engines present the information we seek according to awesome technology that tailors the experience to us.

Search engines process 40,000 queries every second and over 3.5 billion every day. Your B2B SEO can’t afford to get lost in the noise.

Artificial intelligence (called RankBrain) gauges a variety of factors while crawling the web and compiling your search results, including:

• Searcher’s location
• Time of day
• Type of device
• Context
• Search format

So while a search like “grocery stores near me” would’ve been kinda spotty half a decade ago, the same search today would yield a plethora of options, directions, reviews, AND PAID ADS. Figure out how to stand out in the SEO world, and even the smallest B2B companies can compete with giants. There’s no shame in finding an experienced inbound marketing agency to fill the gaps.

A breakout session at Inbound 2017 titled “Getting Found Again After [Not Provided]” detailed the contemporary art of SEO. Here are some affordable SEO insights (heck, these are free).

Affordable SEO Tips for the Hungry B2B Business Owner

People search how they talk. A 14-year-old boy is more likely to search “how to make my skateboard run better” than “recreational ball-bearing units”; a 45-year-old teacher is more likely to search “classroom technology tools” than “make my students learn better.”

Let’s Get You Up to Speed

• Analytics in their former sense died in September 2013 (when Google blocked exact SEO keywords in analytics results, leaving only estimates as a guide)
• As of 2016, 20% of searches were done via voice recognition (that’s destined to increase)
• Search engine results pages (SERP) have long since changed to include geolocation and multiple options from paid ads to organic searches

The new recipe for SEO requires a dash of educational guesswork, a pinch of instinct, a cup of organization, and carton of kickass keywords.

Optimize Blogging with Great Organization

Blogging was once incredibly sexy in SEO terms. Is it still? Of course. The more pages indexing in search engines, the better. That’s now only half the battle, though.

Now you need content organization and customization. Familiarize yourself with pillar content and cluster content.

Pillar Content

Consider a long-form piece of ungated website content. Give a high-level overview of a topic pertinent to your industry. You still need premium content - a lead-conversion opportunity compelling and specific enough for buyers to willingly give their contact info. But this pillar should lay the foundation for other related subtopics.

• Match your content to the searcher’s intent
• Include the overarching topic in the title and meta description
• Add synonyms/related content into the page
• Include images, video, etc. and plug in appropriate alt-text
• Show it prominently in your navigation

Cluster Content

These are typically blogs and other content stemming from your pillar content. They should be based on a longtail keyword and organized into subtopics:

• 8 minimum
• 22 maximum
• If you can’t come up with at least 8, the topic’s probably not worth blogging about at all
• Of course, beef up your existing content to optimize for keywords and relevance while reorganizing your content structure

Hyperlinks tie the clusters within and among each other, allowing ample opportunities for compounding traffic to interact with your CTAs. Build other conversion opportunities into your site’s blogs, sidebars, and navs.

Building a Bossanova SEO Strategy

You must validate your topics and establish domain authority. What’s that? It’s a search engine ranking score that predicts how highly your whole web domain will show up in SERPs (don’t mix this up with individual page authority).

Uncover topics relevant to your buyer personas with a little research and organization:

• Keyword monthly search volume
• Surveys
• Customer interviews (heck, interview your own sales team to learn what buyers most commonly ask)
• Forums

Tie cluster content to the bottom line and group their pain points into your topics. Then it’s up to you to solve that pain.