Understand The Past To Know The Present The Past To Know The Present . 2...

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SEO: Tactics are Out -- Strategy and

Experimentation are Paramount

Bill Sebald

Managing Partner

Greenlane

@billsebald

Act 1

Understand The

Past To Know

The Present

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@billsebald #mpb2b @billsebald

Google happens

(1996)

SEO becomes a household

name

SEOs learn (and exploit) some “secret” ingredients

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The playbook was out there!!!

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SEOs

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Footer Link

Spam

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“Destroy what destroys you!” - Google *

*Disclaimer: Google may have never said this, but probably did.

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Google gave us warnings, but some of us didn’t listen.

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Act 2

The

Misconceptions

We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for. Should we add more keywords?

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

Do you think just adding the keywords will do it? Do you think Google is that easy to game?

#@%!!!!

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A keyword with 720 esv.

A company called Schneider is ranking well without the keyword anywhere in its code.

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

What kind of copy have you invested in?

We have a company writing 400 word blog posts everyday for $30 a post. It’s not driving any organic traffic.

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

You know, tactical SEO writing doesn’t usually impress Google these days.

Content is king…

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

…until content is noise.

#@%!!!!

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“You don’t have a keyword problem, you have a marketing problem.”

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In 2014, Google Hit Adolescence

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Hummingbird brought us:

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1. An improvement in contextual search 2. Semantic search 3. Voice search

(And marked the end of old school SEO as we knew it)

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Are you refusing to allow your Google to grow up?

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2017

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People are expecting “G” to understand the intent of searches

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We can’t just rank relevance on keywords alone anymore.

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We need to get smarter and avoid being influenced so easily by tactics.

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We need to read, learn, and think like humans. We need to mature like searchers have.

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Act 3

Investments

Into Intelligence

For Strategies

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What is your industry’s biggest source of new traffic and revenue? (For most of you, it’s organic search)

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Affiliate 8%

SEO 64%

Display 4%

Email 13%

Social Media

7%

Organic search

traffic is not free traffic. There is always some kind of investment needed.

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Affiliate 8%

SEO 64%

Display 4%

Email 13%

Social Media

7%

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Time may be the largest investment! If SEO makes up X% of your traffic, are you investing X% into time and budget?

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Affiliate 8%

SEO 64%

Display 4%

Email 13%

Social Media

7%

SEO has always been

about understanding the searcher.

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(But now we have to practice what we preach!)

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Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• 71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search. (Google, 2015)

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(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• B2B researchers do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand's site. (Google, 2014)

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(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

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Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• 49% of B2B researchers who use their mobile devices for product research do so while at work. (Google, 2015)

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(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• Customer journeys are more complex (compared to B2C). Longer cycles. Not impulse buyers.

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Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• On average, B2B marketers allocate 28% of their total marketing budget to content marketing.

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(Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2015: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2016_B2B_Report_Final.pdf)

But these are general industry stats. What

are the differences

in your searchers? (SEOs must invest in analytics)

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Biggest resource of all? Your own website data.

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Analytics are your

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SEO means Search Engine Optimization. Optimization means to take something

that is working, and make it work

better! Invest more into what is working.

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http://bit.ly/url-performance-tool

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Go past standard keyword research.

Invest in topic

research. #mpb2b @billsebald

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Google knows the questions people are asking.

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Click on, get more questions.

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https://www.greenlanemarketing.com/tools/topic-opportunity-finder/

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Invest in your shiny, happy sales team!

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Your sales force can be your biggest allies. Educate them on why you’re taking their time from the phones.

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Invest in understanding what Google wants post-Hummingbird.

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Make sure your content is triggering semantic search models. #mpb2b @billsebald

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The Knowledge Card might be a clue.

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Look at the SERP landscape. What query intent is Google seeing? How do you fit?

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Invest in mobile. After 10+ years, the future-of-mobile is finally upon us, and we must evolve (per Google).

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Characteristics of the B2B searcher

• 49% of B2B researchers who use their mobile devices for product research do so while at work. (Google, 2015)

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(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

Our customers don’t use mobile…

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

Google doesn’t care. They will be valuing you based on your mobile presentation.

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https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly #mpb2b @billsebald

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Invest in new technologies.

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Our customers don’t actually talk to Google, or Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Bixby.

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

Maybe not yet. But when it comes to SEO, history proves it’s unwise to miss the wave.

Our customers don’t use VR, AR, or any of that hocus pocus!

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

Maybe not yet. But all signs point to a likely adoption shift. Want to impress Google? Be first and gain buzz.

Competitors

Voice Search

- Made better by Hummingbird

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Competitors Google feels confident they can better

understand intent in a search…

…and they can better comprehend

meaning in content.

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They also believe they can have a reasonable conversation with searchers.

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Invest in figuring out the unknowns that specifically impact your site.

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RankBrain

“RankBrain leverages the historical performance of essentially, or nearly, identical queries, to see what worked and what didn’t, and then leverages that information to adjust and improve the delivered results for the current query.”

http://searchengineland.com/learned-danny-sullivangary-illyes-keynote-smx-advanced-278272

- Eric Enge on SEL

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RankBrain

My translation: Make sure your webpage “works well” by creating for searchers’ needs. If your content and funnel doesn’t match the users’ expected result, they will bounce. Test your usability / CRO, messaging, recall, clickpath, and get a lot of feedback!

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It’s starting to seem like great digital marketing is in sync with great SEO.

And I need to be treating my SEO like a full-fledged digital marketing channel.

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We want to rank for the keywords our competitors rank for.

#!@% Yes!

Act 4

Invest In The

Strategy

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Go back home and put all of this together to build the master plans.

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“I believe people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy.” – Jack Canfield

Despite all the tools, learnings, and areas of opportunity we discover, there is no true SEO silver bullet...

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…but we have the groundwork to build an SEO strategy that can succeed.

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And hey… strategies work for digital marketers. Why not SEO

marketers?

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I wrote about it on Moz.

https://moz.com/blog/seo-strategy

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#mpb2b @billsebald

strat·e·gyˈ stradəjē/ - A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. - A plan of action or policy designed to achieve an overall aim. - The art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most efficient and effective use.

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The purpose of a strategy is to identify goals and build a plan of attack towards achieving those goals. The purpose of tactics are for smaller goals that could feed something bigger.

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Think of your strategy as a “connect-the-dots”.

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Prepare to be flexible… Like Google

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Every part of your strategy is experimental. All of marketing is experimental.

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Think through and list out:

• Dependencies • IT requirements • Target customer demographics • Data Trends • Different B2B customer funnel entry points • Other marketing channels (how can they support

and benefit)

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Every Strategy

Needs Goals

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SMART GOALS

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Document It. Make it real.

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Take Time,

Think It Through

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Take Time,

Think It Through

The team with the best strategy can rule the world.

Act 5

GOOGLE

DOMINATION

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Ask me anything at the Post-Presentation Huddle!

Bill Sebald

@billsebald I’m very active

bill@greenlanemarketing.com