Search engine optimisation (SEO) should never be approached as stand-alone. It must be implemented as part of a wider marketing approach, where other key channels can positively impact and drive good SEO performance.
What is SEO and why is it so important to your business website?
B2B SEO is the development of increasing a website’s exposure in search engine results (SERPs) for keywords and phrases relevant to the content and offerings of a website. SEO is for the improvement of organic (unpaid) results and help drives better quality and more traffic. An SEO strategy refers to the activities undertaken to achieve higher SERPs, which we can categorise as:
On-Page Optimisation
Activities that involve optimising directly from your website pages. Actions include optimising images, content, keywords or metadata.
Off-Page Optimisation
Activities that drive awareness and referral traffic to your site from third-party sites. Actions include link-building, guest blogging, social media and PR.
Technical Optimisation
Activities that focus on optimising for the crawling and indexing phase, including how a website is built. Actions include sitemaps, site architecture and page performance.
SEO is a Long-Term & Inbound Strategy
SEO is a long-term and inbound strategy that websites need to utilise. 61% of marketers state that improving their SEO and growing organic presence was in their top inbound marketing priority. By targeting and optimising the right keywords, you can generate relevant traffic that is more likely to convert (e.g. by completing a form or downloading a sales tool). When set up correctly and regularly maintained, SEO can be a key lead-generation source for many B2B companies.
Whilst paid search solutions, such as Google Ads and Bing Ads, can generate website traffic and awareness, they are more suited to specific campaigns like product/solution launches, rather than being continuously active. To get the most ROI from your website, quality organic traffic is the route to success and good SEO will help you reach that.
Other reasons SEO is important for a business website include:
- Improved user experience – websites should provide an enhanced experience that is clear, accessible and responsive to meet an SEO ranking factor.
- Primary traffic source – organic search is still a primary source of website traffic for most websites. Therefore, investment in this traffic channel will aid website growth.
- Cost-effective Investment – Upfront costs for implementing an SEO strategy is relatively inexpensive compared to other marketing channels. Plus, 70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC.
- Competitive edge – outperforming the competition in the SERPs will help build brand credibility and highlight you are a significant player in the industry.
SEO Requires Support from all Key Marketing Channels
Just like any digital marketing channel, SEO is not stand alone. It requires cross-support to be effective and generate results. As our infographic above demonstrates, there are many areas of marketing that drive and influence good SEO performance.
When all marketing activities are integrated and aligned towards a common sales and business goal, you can maximise the exposure of a message. The different channels are your touchpoints and combining these increase a brand’s exposure to a greater audience. It will have more of an impact on users and help promote brand recall more successfully.
SEO and Content Marketing
SEO is synonymous with content marketing. It is considered the most important influence on SEO, with unique and optimised content such as blogs, website pages and sales tools driving traffic and increasing keyword rankings. According to Hubspot, marketers who prioritise blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.
SEO and Social Media
SEO is about gaining visibility and social media platforms enable this. Promoting inspiring content through LinkedIn or Twitter can reach a wide audience that could be willing to share and link back to your post – helping to generate backlinks and reinforcing brand reputation and authority.
SEO and Email Marketing
A creative email marketing campaign can positively affect your SEO. Depending on the size of your data list, emails can be sent to large groups quickly and cost-effectively, offering a platform to help promote your SEO content that can lead to more social shares and all-important backlinks.
SEO and Referral/Direct
Link building is an important element of rankings. A quality backlink to your website is a recommendation to Google that your site is credible. Links from referral and direct traffic help to generate these backlinks, and the better-quality domain then the more impact it will have on results.
SEO and Paid Search Solutions
SEO can take time to see results, so when you need to make an impact fast, integrating your SEO with paid search solutions is an effective strategy. It can help gain you traffic from the SERPs in the shorter term and even help with ranking on the most competitive organic keywords.
SEO and PR
PR is another tool that can help generate exposure and awareness to your SEO content and increase the chances of creating backlinks and social shares. Press releases and guest blogs are just some examples that will improve brand trust, credibility and ultimately SEO.
One Focused Marketing Agency to Deliver SEO Results
With SEO relying on multiple digital channels to be successful, whoever oversees your strategy needs to have the knowledge and access to influence all these marketing elements. A full-service marketing agency will have regular experience in creating optimised content and using the appropriate channels to promote them.
One focused agency managing and maintaining these channels means:
- Reactive – quick to respond to changes that can be filtered throughout all channels and platforms to help drive awareness and improve SEO performance with a consistent message.
- Reporting & Monitoring – access to the website and other business applications help with seamless reporting. It provides more insight into how each channel is performing and where budgets are best invested.
- Consistency – omni-campaigns can be launched for maximum exposure. With access to all platforms, a full-service marketing agency can ensure content for emails, social media and websites etc. are released at the same time with ease.
- Inside Knowledge – A full-service marketing agency is likely to have been involved in creating the underlying marketing strategy. Creating this core strategy means there is a deeper understanding of your business goals and customer personas. This insight helps when creating content, user journeys and other marketing campaigns that will resonate with users and push them through the marketing channel.
