Essential Google Strategies for Enterprise Companies · 1 21 Corporate Drive, Suite 200 Clifton Park, NY 12065 518-270-0854 Essential Google Strategies for Enterprise Companies

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21 Corporate Drive, Suite 200Clifton Park, NY 12065518-270-0854www.internetmarketingninjas.com

Essential Google

Strategies for Enterprise Companies

Essential Google Strategies for Enterprise Companies

Internet Marketing Ninjas | 21 Corporate Drive, Suite 200 Clifton Park, NY 12065 | Phone: 518-270-0854 | www.internetmarketingninjas.com

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Organic Search Trends ............................................................................................................ 5

What is SEO Today? ................................................................................................................. 6

Search Engines Results Pages Are Changing ........................................................................... 7

Complicated Search Queries ................................................................................................... 8

Authority and Social Media Signals ........................................................................................ 8

Today’s Link-Building is Link-Earning ..................................................................................... 9

The Search Landscape ............................................................................................................ 9

It’s NOT About Targeting ONLY Keywords Anymore ................................................................10

Search Engine Personalization ..............................................................................................10

Search Engines and Mobile ...................................................................................................11

No Gaming the System Anymore...........................................................................................12

Organic Traffic is a Long-Term Purpose ..................................................................................12

Integration With Other Online Marketing Channels...............................................................13

The Need for Content Marketing Strategy .............................................................................14

The Focus is on the User ........................................................................................................15

The Strategic Approach to SEO ..............................................................................................15

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................17

Table of Contents



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The Internet is a global library. Search engines allow people to find sought-after information in that library, and search engine optimization (SEO) helps make sure your information is easily found. This is a simple system. That is why SEO is increasingly relevant. People crave information: Search engines and SEO make sure they get it.

For the majority of businesses, Google non-paid, organic traffic is the #1 driver of traffic to their website: 85% of search traffic comes from Google. Because this is non-paid traffic, nothing is guaranteed, and your rankings and traffic from Google are subject to hundreds of factors that are being changed and edited all the time.

In a study by SearchMetrics, it was found that 89% of sites that ranked in Google seven years ago are no longer ranking in Google! Much of what used to be common SEO practices are now being filtered and penalized by Google.

Any shortcuts or “tricks” or anything done in bulk could cause your sites to get penalized in Google. The only real way for your site to survive and thrive is to make your site more trusted and better than those of your online competitors.

Paid search results do not require SEO. Anyone with an acceptable ad and enough money can buy top placement in the paid area of the search results, but the majority of clicks (often up to eight times more) go to the organic area of the search results.

That is not the case for “organic” (natural) search results. To place well on the search engine results page (SERP) organically, your site has to be highly trusted, your information must be highly relevant to the search, and your site must be both indexed and findable. SEO helps you do that.

Organic search not only typically attracts more visitors than paid search, but the results are “earned.” You do not have to pay to keep your site in front of your audience. You only need maintain your SEO edge. Smart businesses know the value of SEO. They may pay for some of their traffic, but the lion’s share almost always comes from organic search backed by solid SEO practices.



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Most all enterprise-level companies realize the value of SEO, but how that SEO strategy should be organized and conducted is open to debate.

Many SEO specialists utilize shortcuts in the race to get ahead of the pack. They seek loopholes in the algorithm, place links on questionable sites, and may even pay for backlinks to help their sites rank well on the SERP. Practices like those can sometimes show quick results — but those results don’t last long and can often be damaging in the long run.

Many large corporations have celebrated gaining page-one status on the SERP one month, then panicked at the total disappearance of the website from the SERP a few months later. The risk of penalties from “black-hat” SEO far outweighs the short-term gain potential.

Not too many years ago, however, black-hat SEO was so much more effective than “white-hat SEO” that businesses felt they had to endorse black-hat tactics in order to compete. While remnants of that sentiment remain today, times have changed drastically.

Real success in SEO is earned success. It is not cheated, stolen, bought, or clandestinely manipulated. Real success is sustainable success — assuming you want your business to last and continually build its profit margin.

In today’s advanced search engine ecosystem, smart SEO strategy is the only wise choice for a company planning to stay in business for long. Smart SEO is sustainable SEO. The alternative delivers short-lived “success” and places sustainability on a shaky shelf in a fragile container.



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Organic Search TrendsGoogle algorithm updates rocked the world of search engine marketing over the past several years. A wholesale crackdown on low-quality sites began in early 2011 (Panda). In April of the same year, shockwaves had website owners scrambling. The Penguin update wiped out many businesses overnight by making them suddenly disappear from the SERP.

While other search engines have followed suit and rolled out their own adjustments to control the quality of search results, Google is the most important to most businesses. It is the favored search engine in the USA, receiving almost 70% of the market share. The giant is continually adjusting its belt, leaving businesses that depend on search no alternatives but to develop a robust paid search strategy (and budget) or get serious about SEO for the long run.



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The year 2014 saw additional rollouts — one that especially affected local business (Pigeon) — and 2015 has already seen a major adjustment for mobile search.

What is SEO Today?SEO has come into its own. Once considered only a tool to use for reacting to shifts in search engine algorithms or to fend off an eager competitor, smart businesses now see that SEO requires regular work and proactive thinking.

No one can tell you, with certainty, what Google will do next. Savvy SEOs keep an ear to the rail and are often able to catch wind of coming changes in time to make necessary adjustments, but much of SEO is adhering to fundamentals that have weathered the storm and remain effective.



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Let’s turn to a look at discernable trends — the “big picture,” if you will. One thing is absolutely evident: To play tag with Google is a poor idea, and watching Google play tag with site owners is an even poorer idea. An SEO strategy that hangs on every nuance Google management utters is no strategy at all. It is a fear-based approach to a situation that may seem unmanageable… but it is not unmanageable. Sound SEO strategy can help you keep calm, stay on track, and avoid catastrophe.

Here are some of the fundamentals common to SEO in 2015.

Search Engines Results Pages Are Changing Here are some of the questions SEOs are asked and respond to daily:

• How can I influence the information the search engine shows? Is it possible to show my phone number, or must I pay for that? How do I make the number clickable?

• How do I know if my site is “mobile-ready”?

• I keep hearing about “adaptive content” and “omni-channel” techniques — will those affect my business at all?

• Why does my site rank high on a desktop search but not at all on a mobile search?

With the rising popularity of mobile search, business owners are scrambling to maximize their effect on mobile. That isn’t always easy, and there are huge differences between “mobile-responsive,” “mobile-ready,” and “adaptive content” (for example). Getting found is one thing. Getting displayed well is another.



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Complicated Search QueriesOne-term searches (“loans”) are no longer the standard. Along with familiarity with Web browsers and the potential of search engines to return specific results, searches now are more likely to consist of two or more terms, like “Italian restaurants” or even “best Italian restaurant in Peoria.”

Moreover, Google reports that one of about every six search queries is not recognized as a common search, meaning those who depend on keywords to attract visitors can’t depend on keyword tools to display accurate or stable traffic estimates. Much of the job is to listen to your customers and clients, to understand their concerns, to list the words THEY use to find your products, services or information — and to use that information as leverage for living, dynamic keyword research.

Authority and Social Media SignalsSome say social media is the “new search” — that social signals and social search engines (YouTube has the second most active search engine in the world) will merge with and influence standard search so powerfully that one must maintain a strong social presence or risk extinction. Is that true?

Many companies see great value in maintaining a vibrant and engaging company blog (hosted on their own website) to establish a thought leadership position, provide a repository for strong “evergreen” content, and serve as an anchor for inbound marketing efforts. No matter how well-received and acclaimed any presence or method is, however, the smart SEO strategist knows an interweaving of components — rather than dependence on a stand-alone presence — builds the strongest fortress of all.



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Today’s Link-Building is Link-EarningLink-building has come under fire as a black-hat tactic that will get you in quick trouble with Google. While that may be true of paid links and low-quality links from sites built for SEO purposes only, it is definitely NOT true of professional, above-board link-building. Earned links are valuable links.

Moreover, with the devaluation of low-quality links, thanks to Google’s Penguin update especially, earned links (those truly deserved and originating from reputable sites) have become even more valuable. If there is one aspect of SEO that will, perhaps, never go away, it is the value of relative links from content-rich sites. The Internet was (and is) built on links.

The Search LandscapeGoogle enjoys the lion’s share of search engine market share. The rise of social media, the efforts of Bing and other engines, and the increasing howl from business owners that Google’s primary goal is to choke off organic search and drive site owners to paid search are all threatening Google’s grip.

Even if Google’s share remains solid, the statistics say more than 30% of all searches today are made by using a platform other than Google. Smart businesses recognize this fact and do not depend totally on Google for their organic traffic.

The year 2015 saw Google announce and implement increased emphasis on mobile readiness in the search engine algorithm. With the popularity of mobile



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It’s NOT About Targeting ONLY Keywords AnymoreSome say that keywords are no longer all that important, that semantic search, social search, and algorithm updates have rendered them all but obsolete. That is not true. What we do have today is diminished access to keyword data.

Searchers are hoping to find something. As long as the words on your page (along with other factors, certainly) seem to potentially fill that need, your website has a chance of ranking for any given search. How do the webcrawlers (spiders and bots) know whether or not your information is relative? Primarily by the keywords you use.

Search Engine PersonalizationOne movement to watch closely is that of “adaptive content.” By breaking content (regardless of the source type) into recognizable chunks, computers are more and more able to provide just the information the searcher seeks, no more and no less.

Closely related to the style of writing used in journalism, adaptive content can be pulled apart and re-used on any number of platforms and media types. Given the ability to chunk information, pull it from a variety of sources, and reassemble it on a variety of platforms, hyper-personalization of information retrieved is within our grasp.



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Search Engines and MobileThe year 2015 saw Google announce and implement increased emphasis on mobile readiness in the search engine algorithm. With the popularity of mobile use increasingly on the rise, Google’s tightening of the mobile SERP should have been neither a surprise nor a burden to anyone. For maximum marketing and branding results, it is imperative to make sure every online presence is not just mobile-friendly or mobile-ready but mobile-optimized. No brand can afford to ignore the importance of mobile.



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No Gaming the System AnymoreOld habits die hard. Despite Google’s heavy-handed crusade to clean up the SERP and remove sites reliant on black-hat techniques (link wheels, keyword stuffing, paid links, etc.), many SEOs say it is still impossible to compete with zero reliance on questionable methods. While there may be justifiable reason for that stance, an SEO strategy that will stand up to search engine scrutiny must be centered on tactics not based on deception

or any attempt to “game the system.” The risks are way too high to justify the means.

Organic Traffic is a Long-Term PurposeIt is reasonable to expect 500% or more return on SEO investment, whether paid or organic. Moreover, most companies would do well to plan delegating the same budget to organic search as to paid search.

Work devoted to building a sustainable Web presence and a legitimate, solid standing in search results is “owned work.” Paid traffic must be bought continually and will grow only when the investment increases. Organic traffic, on the other hand, is like planting a seed: It grows over time with cultivation.



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Integration With Other Online Marketing Channels Sustainable SEO has become a multi-disciplinary function. SEO activities must be augmented by social media, public relations, marketing, creative functions, and more. SEO is now a company-wide concern.

Carefully, clearly explain how SEO and the online presence affect the jobs of every employee. Moreover, every manager must understand departmental roles in supporting SEO efforts.

Like never before, it is critical that all stakeholders within an organization agree on the importance of SEO and accept departmental responsibility for participating in SEO efforts. Wise companies will train employees on how to play a part in SEO success and will empower those employees to join in SEO efforts. Simple examples of employee engagement include blogging about a company event or taking part in social media discussions about the company’s product or service. While many companies fear the potential nightmares that could result from letting employees join the SEO effort, proper training and guidelines will ensure that the rewards are far greater than perceived risks.



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The Need for Content Marketing Strategy In many ways, SEO is best looked at as concerned with “digital marketing” and not only a SERP-seeking endeavor. SEO informs online branding and seeks to position the company as an authoritative resource for customers and clients. The race is as much towards thought leadership as it is towards SERP placement — that is because an authoritative and thought-leading website will NATURALLY rank high in search results.

Every search is a question, and the website that best answers that question is the algorithmic winner. A sustainable SEO strategy is one that listens to the chosen audience, develops content to benefit that audience, then clearly explains how the company’s products or services can help the visitor solve problems. SEO today is concerned about providing value, not about blasting self-serving messages out to the maximum number of people.



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The Focus is on the UserBlack-hat SEO practices are always seeking to optimize for the search engines. While any smart SEO strategy must surely take the search engines into account, optimization for the long term is more concerned with optimizing for the reader than optimizing for the crawler or for the SERP. As the algorithms are tightened, the wisdom of putting the user first will become apparent: Those sites with the most relative and helpful content will float higher in the SERP naturally, and those only trying to fool the spiders will disappear from sight.

The Strategic Approach to SEOEvery business should be careful to appoint a qualified content manager to oversee and coordinate the many articles, white papers, infographics, and other types of content that comprise the total content resource for the company. It is 1,000 times better to post quality content than to post plenty of content. Black hats are always concerned about quantity. Smart companies care more that all content is appropriate and appealing to their target audience and that calls to action are present and clear.

Once excellent content is in place, efforts can be made to share that material and to find ways to link back to it from other qualified and relevant sites. Some have criticized the work of building backlinks as black-hat SEO. The truth is that the fundamentals of link-building can be enacted in a proper way or in a dangerous way. SEO professionals know the difference and do not cross the line. There are four primary areas of concern in high-quality link-building:

• Analysis: You must first know what you hope to accomplish, how it will serve your audience, the problems and goals of that audience, the words they use to describe their needs, and the content that will best attract them. These concerns (and more) help ensure you are speaking in the right way to the right people.



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• Targeting: Appropriate content is designed with the needs of the target audience in mind. Seek always to be clear and to be helpful. Make sure that your value proposition is obvious and that your call to action is simple and easy to enact.

• Marketing: Even the best content is of no value to anyone until it is found and consumed. By means of social media, press releases, public relations, and other means, it is critical that you promote your content and get it out to as many people as possible — and especially to those in your target audience.

• ROI: Traffic numbers are an indicator of how well your SEO is helping to bring eyes and ears to your content, but conversion tells you how well your strategy is succeeding at the bottom-line level. Be sure you know exactly how the various efforts in your strategy support increased conversions. If your visitors are not doing what you want them to do (provide leads, purchase products, join your mailing list, and such), then more traffic won’t help. Make sure your success metrics are tied to conversions.



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ConclusionSearch engines — whether it’s Google, Bing, Facebook, the YouTube engine, or any other — are often the front door to your website or content. The Google search engine alone sees more than 3.5 billion searches per day. When consumers want to know or buy something, they are increasingly liable to turn to a search engine to find it. For businesses, it is critical to rank high in the search engine results. That increases the likelihood that searchers will find you and pre-builds respect for your business in their minds.

Given surprisingly hard-hitting changes to search engine algorithms over the past several years, many companies have turned to paid search only and have given up on the hope that SEO can help them rank organically. Many were penalized so heavily that their business websites disappeared from organic search overnight. Most of those sites were relying on black-hat SEO tactics, so the temptation is to throw the baby out with the bathwater and condemn all SEO as bad. That is a mistake. Bad SEO is bad. Good SEO can be a business-driver and a sustainable means of attracting and converting Internet traffic.

SEO has become integral to business. Moreover, it is now an inter-departmental concern. It is crucial for businesses to develop a sustainable overall strategy for SEO and to win support across the board for implementing that strategy. If your company is to succeed, it must have more than a great product or service and a desire to serve those who need that product or service. Your business must be found and respected online. SEO makes that happen. There is probably no more important audit you could run right now — no effort that stands a better chance of positively impacting your bottom line — than an SEO audit. You must know where you stand before you can begin walking in the best direction.

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Essential Google Strategies for Enterprise Companies · 1 21 Corporate Drive, Suite 200 Clifton Park, NY 12065 518-270-0854 Essential Google Strategies for Enterprise Companies