Your website is the hub of your business, the place people turn to first when they need information, services, or products. You want your website to be attractive, engaging, and relevant, so people find you and find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. You might offer a killer product or service. But if your website doesn’t show up when people are searching, you’re missing out on leads.

Try this simple website audit on your own to see how well your website is working and identify possible issues.

Remember, you can always reach out to a local website audit expert like Beanstalk if you need the professionals to handle it.

In the meantime, here are 12 easy things you can check to make sure your website is operating smoothly and maximizing conversions:

1. Does each page of your website have a focus keyword?

Each page of your website should focus on a keyword that highlights a specific aspect of your business. Even if you run a business that sells flowers and chocolates, you should consider making one page that focuses on flowers and one that focuses on chocolates. People searching for flowers don’t want to have to skim through information about chocolates to find what they need.

Creating a narrow focus for each page or aspect of your business allows for users to quickly find exactly what they’re looking for. Focus keywords provide a seamless experience from search terms to landing pages.

2. Do your website’s pages use <H1> headings?

An <H1> tag is an HTML heading at the top of a post or page that clearly conveys what the reader can expect to discover by reading the page. There should be one <H1> tag on each page of your website.

Interesting headlines can encourage visitors to continue reading and assure them that they have found what they are seeking. They provide a small SEO boost on each page.

3. Have you written meta titles and meta descriptions?

Meta titles and descriptions are what users see when they organically stumble across your website in search engine results. They should be clear, relevant, and unique to encourage people to click on your site.

Interesting meta titles and descriptions promote a positive user experience, are more likely to get clicks and lead to more conversions when the information on your website matches what people are seeking.

4. Do the images on your website have alt descriptions?

Alt tags are text descriptions of images. They convey the purpose of an image in situations where that image can’t be seen, like for the visually impaired and for search engine crawlers.

Images are a dynamic and effective way to convey a lot of information. When images aren’t available, alt tags allow you to convey some of that information with text. Alt tags are another place you can include important keywords in a post or page.

5. Does your website contain duplicate content?

Duplicate content is content that appears more than once on your website. It can happen if you update your site and don’t redirect your old pages to new ones, or if you include the same information on multiple pages.

Duplicate content makes it hard for search engines to determine which of your website’s pages are most relevant, so it can negatively impact your search engine rankings.

Use tools like Siteliner.com to find out how much duplicate content your website contains.

6. Does your website have a sitemap?

A sitemap is a roadmap of your website. It is a list of all of your website’s pages that tells search engines how your website is organized.

Sitemaps are highly encouraged because they boost SEO by allowing search engines to find everything on your website.

7. Is your website redirecting to a secure version?

The www resolve simply means that when you type in your website’s address with or without “www” at the beginning you’ll be redirected to the secure version of your website. 

If your website doesn’t redirect to the secure version, when people type in different things to reach your website, they’re actually hitting different pages that look identical, meaning that your website is going to be interpreted by Google as having duplicate content.

To check this, try typing your website’s address without “www.” at the beginning. If your website is redirecting to the secure version, you should land on a page that begins with “https://”.

8. Do you need to renew your domain registration soon?

We recommend that you renew your domain for the longest amount of time possible. Your domain name gains authority as it ages, so websites that have been around longer are interpreted as more trustworthy than newer sites.

You can use ICANN Lookup to check when your domain was created and when it will expire.

9. Is your website mobile responsive?

A mobile responsive website automatically adapts to the size of a mobile screen. Viewing a website that isn’t mobile responsive from a phone is frustrating. Mobile users will likely click away from your website rather than mess around with small buttons and unreadable text.

The quickest way to test if your website is mobile responsive from a desktop screen is to reduce the size of your browser’s window to roughly the width of your phone. 

10. What is your site speed?

Your site speed is a measure of how fast pages on your website load and how quickly users are able to interact with elements of your site.

A slow site can turn away users before they’ve even seen anything. And, with more users than ever before using mobile devices to access websites, mobile site speed has become critically important.

Use free websites like PageSpeed Insights to find out your site speed.

11. Do your pages and posts contain calls to action?

A call to action provokes an immediate response from your audience. After reading your great content, a call to action like “Sign Up,” “Call Today,” or “Buy Now” encourages your audience to complete an action.

Calls to action motivate customers. If you are selling a product or service, it is something a customer will expect to see. The call to action conveys the intent of a given page and boosts interaction on your website, helping you land more leads and conversions.

12. Is your website’s message immediately clear?

If a complete stranger stumbles across your website in their search results, is it instantly clear what your business does? People today expect to search for something, click on a search result, and immediately find what they are looking for. We live in a fast-paced world! If your purpose is not clear within moments of them landing on the page, they won’t hesitate to click away. Besides, there are millions of websites out there – they can easily find another similar company.

The point of SEO is to create a cohesive experience for the user, from the time they type something into Google until they are ready to take action on a page. Websites that get the most conversions make their path to conversion as simple and effective as possible.

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That about wraps it up! Take a stab at the tips above to check out how your website is doing. If you have identified any issues with your site based on this audit guide or are unsure how to proceed, contact your St. Louis SEO experts, Beanstalk Web Solutions! We’re here to help. Let’s grow your business together!

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The way the outside world sees your business has as much to do with your brand identity as the way you see yourself. Building a name for your company takes a lot of effort and focus. It all starts with knowing who you are and what you stand for. However, there are many things you can do to ensure your message comes across the way you want it to. 

Keeping branding consistent across all channels equals a 23% increase in revenue. Not only will you be more recognizable to your target audience, but people whose values align with yours may also turn into ambassadors, telling others about your company. There are five simple steps you can take today to develop your brand identity now and in the future.

1. Segment Your Audience

As you collect names for your mailing list and reach out to the general public, you’ll find your audience is pretty diverse. However, experts recommend personalizing your message as much as possible. The best way to reach a lot of potential customers but still keep things personal is to divide your list by demographics. 

Group people into similar categories based on factors such as age, location, gender or interests. Create a buyer persona for each segment and personalize your messages based on what you know about their demographics.

2. Keep Things Simple

It might be tempting to come up with an artistic logo that stands out from every other brand symbol. However, if it is unreadable, then it won’t serve you well. Think about companies like  Google and how simple their font and design is. Follow the lead of more prominent corporations and choose a readable font, and limit color choices to two or three. 

If you’re just starting, keep the name of your organization as simple as possible. If it tells what you do, so much the better. One example of a memorable company name is FedEx, which is short for Federal Express. Not only does the title state what the company does, but it is also easy to remember. 

3. Brand Identity on Social Media

The majority of people online are also on social media. Having a page on these platforms is no longer an option. If you want to establish a strong online brand presence, you need one or more social media pages. 

If you offer shopping directly on the page, make sure it aligns with your core philosophies for your business. Do you pride yourself on the best customer service around? Appoint someone to oversee sales on social, and respond to any inquiries within minutes. The experience customers have on Facebook should match what they’d have on your website or in a physical store.

Control negative feedback by responding immediately to any concerns or complaints. Even if a nasty review lives on the internet forever, people will see you rectified the situation or at least tried to. 

4. Choose Your UVP

Your unique value proposition (UVP) is what you have to offer consumers that is special or unique. Think about some of the brands you do business with. If you order curbside pickup from Kroger, the UVP is that you don’t have to go inside the store, and someone else does your shopping for you for a minimal fee. The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is known for its superior service. There are numerous stories about it going out of its way to make sure customers have what they need and want.  

What do you want your brand to be known for? Choose your UVP and then promote and abide by it. 

5. Invest in Employees

Your workers are the face of your brand. They are who the customers interact with. They also have family and friends, and what they say about your company can impact how others see you. Hire the best people you can find and then pour into them with training, perks and teambuilding exercises.

Encourage your employees to tell others about your organization and what you do. Give them paid time off to volunteer in the community. Recognize their efforts, and have them share your social media posts with others. The more your employees speak about your positively, the more likely your local community will think of your brand as one they want to do business with.

More Than a Name or Logo

Brand identity is so much more than your name, logo or mission statement. You must know who you are at the core and why you started the business in the first place. Your goals and policies should all align with your purpose as a company. 

It’s easy to get off track in the beginning and lose sight as your company grows. However, if you write out your mission statement, create policies that match your philosophy and review things frequently, it is much more likely you’ll develop a robust and consistent brand image. 

Lexie is a digital nomad and web designer. You can normally find her at the local flea markets or hiking with her goldendoodle. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and connect with her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

The post How to Establish a Brand Identity Your Customers Want to Interact With appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

SEO vs PPC: the fact is that the success of any online undertaking depends on the traffic its pages generate. While this is undeniable, it does raise a question of what will get you there more efficiently — SEO or PPC. Both of these approaches are powerful tools to generate traffic, using different methodologies to get you there.  

Both search engine optimization (or SEO) and pay-per-click (or PPC) can drive visitors to your website, but choosing the right one for your business is key. When considering SEO vs. PPC, You can concentrate on using one if it’s enough, or combine both for optimal results. Knowing the strengths and limits of each may give you a clear idea of which one is for you. 

The Pros and Cons of SEO

Search engine optimization is all about adjusting your website and pages so they rank in the organic results in Google and Bing. You can’t buy your rank with money, but it’s based on the quality of your webpages calculated by algorithms of these search engines. This means that your digital marketing team needs to understand what search engines find relevant and then optimize your website to fit that concept.

Pros 

If your website can rank high in Google search results for desired keywords, you will experience steady traffic for your website. Even if you don’t do absolutely any SEO for a week or two, the traffic will keep on coming. For this reason, marketers like using SEO since it’s a long-term solution and doesn’t require constant investing to garner positive results.

For this reason, this is also a cheaper way to increase your traffic. Digital marketing uses keywords that are ranked high based on tools for SEO analysis, like Ahrefs. Using these keywords can lead visitors to your website and help you climb up the search results in Google and Bing. If you wanted to use PPC and buy that traffic, you would need to spend thousands of dollars, so SEO is by far a much cheaper solution.

Cons

It takes time to see results with SEO and get to the desired ranking in Google and Bing. This is a slow process sometimes needing a couple of months and sometimes even a year. Because of this, SEO may not be the ideal choice for those looking for results right away.

Another issue with SEO is that it requires unique content to rank high with search engine algorithms. The materials you have on your webpages have to be something people will want to share and consider valuable. To create such content may be time-consuming and too expensive for startups and small companies if they are looking for immediate effect.

The Pros and Cons of PPC    

Both SEO and PPC allow you to hire professionals from anywhere in the world, like GWM Melbourne and have the one you deem best to build your digital advertising strategy. But unlike SEO, you will have to invest money in PPC if you want to see results. Pay-per-click is exactly what its name says — you pay the clicks leading to your website. In most cases, this model is connected to search engines and the advertising they offer, like Google Ads, although it has spread on social media, like Facebook and Twitter. 

Pros

Unlike SEO, PPC is fast and you won’t have to wait days or months to see the first results. All you need to do is to choose an ad platform and you can start the marketing campaign immediately. This is why PPC is a perfect advertising method for businesses with little time to leave a mark.

One more great thing about PPC is that you can select your audience based on demographics, geography and other types of data. You can choose who will come to your website giving you control over who is your target audience. 

Since PPC brings quick results, it can also provide you with fast feedback. This allows you to run experiments and see what type of campaigning can have the most results, giving you the chance to adjust your advertising strategy.     

Cons

PPC can be quite expensive, especially if you are in a competitive industry. This can have you hemorrhaging more money than you planned to invest in an advertising campaign. In that case, SEO is a much better way to create traffic for your business and cheaper, too. 

As with all the ads, people can get tired of your overtime. The longer you run your advertising campaign using PPC, the more it increases the chance people will see your ad too often. This will have you constantly working on updating your copy and refreshing the ads to make them relevant. 

Additionally, if you want to start PPC, you will need money. Most likely, you will lose some money before you optimize your advertising campaign properly in the first few months. For startups and small businesses, this can be a problem since they have scarce budgets for costly marketing tactics.

SEO vs PPC: The Verdict

When considering SEO vs. PPC, which is right for your business depends on various factors. For example, if you want to build awareness for a new product, then PPC is a more efficient method. In the end, the best strategy is to use a mix of both SEO and PPC since they can be equally profitable and help you get the most results out of your advertising campaign. 

The post SEO vs PPC: Which Digital Marketing Strategy Should You Choose? appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

A landing page is unlike any other page on your website as it is dedicated to a specific campaign or them you are currently running on your website and in your social media marketing strategies. Some advertisers penny-pinch by merely using existing pages on a site where they’d directed generated leads, but the effects are not as impactful as a good, straightforward, well-thought-out landing page. If used well, you can increase your landing page conversion rate for all your social media platforms. 

Unbounce describes the landing page as “a standalone webpage, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign.” This is where a visitor “lands” after clicking a link on the email or social media ads like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the like.

A homepage and other pages on your website usually have a lot of links and buttons for different functionalities within that page, but a landing page focuses on just one Call-to-Action (CTA) at a time to better drive those leads into sales. In the long run, having fresh, updated landing pages actually saves you the increasing costs of running campaigns. Using landing pages convert more existing customers and repeat visitors. 

There are two kinds of landing page designs for different purposes. See the difference between a Lead Generation Landing Page and a Clickthrough Landing Page by comparing the pictures below:

The purpose of “lead gen” or “lead capture” pages is to collect data from visitors and customers like names, email addresses, and contact information. The forms act as its CTA. The clickthrough landing page, on the other hand, directly leads to sales and subscription right away. 

5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages, so They Convert Better

1. Strengthen Your CTA

Do not use vague words in your CTA. Your Call to Action will be a lot stronger if it is straightforward and simple. Some marketers think they need to be creative and use words such as “Want to Know More?” versus “Learn More Now.” Surveys have shown that people want to be directed through the funnel process and not be left in the dark. The classic CTA buttons like “Click Here,” “Buy Now,” and “Add to Cart” may seem too direct, but they work. The language used must be active, not passive, and clear words evoke a more hands-on experience for the user.  

2. Strengthen Your Credibility with Correct Information

Be thorough. Provide complete product details like name of the product, model/kind, specs or features, testimonials and peer-reviews, and price.  Never make difficult for potential customers to understand the details of your service or product, or else they’ll just click away from your landing page. In whatever part of your sales marketing funnel, be conscious about building trust today for tomorrow’s digital economy. Trust is one of your most valuable assets as an eCommerce marketer, seller, or brand. 

3. Strengthen Your Design (Layout, Style, Navigation)

Since landing pages are meant to guide the customer through the sales funnel, designs should have a clear theme with easy-to-understand words in readable text fonts, with bold, contrasting colors that entice customers to click one button closer into a closed sale. 

Be consistent. The landing page must be coherent with the source page where you just led your customer from. If you used a picture on Facebook, for instance, that caused this customer to click and be directed to your landing page, seeing a different picture with a different design can be jarring to the customer. Chances are, they will drop from your funnel because of the inconsistency. Do not be deceptive you’re your campaigns as well. For instance, do not lead them to a more expensive product or a different promo. Be consistent, so you do not lose your customer’s trust and interest very early on in the process. 

It should also be responsive and mobile-friendly. There are 7.75 billion people in the world, and 67% of that or 5.19 billion people are mobile phone users. It cannot be stressed enough that designers or developers need to create mobile-friendly and responsive landing pages that can be viewed on any mobile device available to date. If our greatest access to our market is through their mobile phones, then all our designs should reflect that. There are open-source tools available that can help you design quality landing pages that connect, communicate and convert exponentially.

4. Strengthen Your Strategies with A/B Testing

Track different page elements on all versions of the landing page you are testing, to monitor and check which of the elements are working well as they should in converting leads to sales. Did customers who were provided with video content on the landing convert more than those who did not have the video version? Does the position of the CTA button work well for one landing page more than the other? Did new visitors buy more or respond more than existing customers? All these elements need to be monitored so you can adjust your strategies and designs quickly. 

5. Strengthen Your Results with Multivariate Testing

Not all campaigns are created equal. Some marketing drives will succeed more than others. Some campaigns you launch might even fail. But there is always a risk in digital marketing such as this. What’s important is that you can respond to unexpected situations right away and turn the campaign around to profitable. Conduct tests repeatedly and consistently because it is crucial to increase your conversion rate. Let your campaign be guided by data, not opinion or feelings. 

Conclusion: Give Your Customers a Good Landing Page

If the customer is in the heart of your marketing funnel, then the customer needs to feel it, see it, experience it. Don’t just pursue their pockets. Pursue the person. Talk to them as if they were right in front of you. Your landing page can actually create that feeling – that you are near and very reachable, that you care enough to make things simple and comfortable, and that you are going to guide them in a short and easy process, so they get what they need from you right away. These little things combined actually generate exponential ROI through high lead generation and conversion. So get to work on those landing pages today, and give your customers that seamless, smooth landing. 

Author Bio
John Ocampos is an Opera Singer by profession and a member of the Philippine Tenors. Ever since, Digital Marketing has always been his forte. He is the Founder of SEO-Guru, and the Managing Director of Tech Hacker. John is also the Strategic SEO and Influencer Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia – the leading software eCommerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand.

The post How to Increase Landing Page Conversion Rate appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

Whether you’re using Google Ads to drive traffic to a specific landing page or creating beautiful Facebook and Instagram Ads for brand awareness, you should begin each new marketing effort with a goal in mind. These goals could have been to boost leads, sales, or brand visibility. Regardless of what they are, it is imperative to track your progress so that you can fully understand what’s working and what’s not.

Defining a Conversion

The first step to creating effective conversion tracking is to define what a conversion is for each of your campaigns. In a lead-generation campaign, for example, a phone call or form fill could be a conversion. In a brand awareness campaign, it could be a view of a page that details a new product or service. A conversion can be defined as any action a user can take on your website that you identify as valuable, and therefore want to track.

It’s a great idea to use your conversion tracking in tandem with your Google Analytics Goals. This allows you to track your website’s success across all of the various channels that users are visiting your site from. This is especially useful if you are utilizing multiple marketing channels, as it lets you view everything from one dashboard, making your data a lot less overwhelming and a lot easier to digest.

The good news is that conversions, while they may seem overwhelming, can give you incredibly valuable data, which you can then use to make smart decisions that lead to success and increased ROI. Conversion tracking setup can be tricky, but luckily, there are abundant resources, both from ad platform documentation and from 3rd party users, that detail how this process can be implemented. Google Tag Manager also makes tracking conversions within Google Analytics & Google Ads much easier than it would be without.

The Value of a Conversion

A fundamental question you should ask yourself when defining your conversions is how much a particular conversion is worth. A good example is the value of a lead. If you can calculate how many leads turn into customers and how much a customer is worth to your company, you can calculate how much each lead is worth.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that for every 10 leads you get, you close three of them, and the average value of a customer is $1000. If this were the case, each lead would be worth $300 for your company. This can help you make your goals – if one lead is worth $300, and you have a sales goal of $10,000 that month, that would mean that you would need 34 leads in order to hit your goals. This can help you plan ahead, predict your revenue, and adjust your strategy sooner rather than later. The best part? This data only gets more accurate as you collect it over time and gain a larger sample size.

A well set up system that gathers useful data is the key to continuous improvement & growth in any marketing campaign.

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In modern marketing, trends change all the time. Marketers are used to such swift changes. Shoppers and retailers, on the other hand often find themselves dumbstruck by a trend that hits them from the blindsided by new trends. Here are 7 eCommerce business trends that should be on your radar for the upcoming year.

1. Shopping directly in social networks

Every solid SEO strategy stresses the importance of maintaining social media profiles. This helps marketers put a human face to their client’s business but it also creates an alternative shopping platform. Setting up a shop on a Facebook page revolutionizes social media in the sense that you no longer need to click an external link that will take you to a separate shopping platform.

Ordering can be completed directly from the social media page, which helps shoppers decide faster if they want an item or not. Utilizing in-app purchasing platforms like Instagram can provide huge benefits since they already feature thousands of images, which appeal to shoppers.

2. The trend to automate everything

We already know the power of automation in the transport and storage industry, which lies at the heart of operations of the eCommerce business. However, the automation’s reach can be extended into the online sphere as well.

From the point of a marketer, you can use automation to quickly communicate with the client using chatbots or algorithms. Where promotional campaigns are concerned, using automation, you can simultaneously post new offers in all social media and accompanying channels. Such an increase in speed and coordination can scale your ad campaign.

Finally, automation allows you to track customer’s actions in real-time. This will help you gain insight into the pages they find most interesting. Furthermore, you’ll get a chance to segment your clients based on their interests.

3. Search engines are losing the battle against marketplaces

More and more shoppers who know exactly what they are looking for head directly to a marketplace, such as Amazon, and search for products there. Such online behavior is slowly changing the odds in the product queries market, as search engines are slowly but surely losing ground they’ve gained during the past couple of decades.

Right now, the ratio is roughly 50:50 but like Amazon, eBay, and other online marketplaces up their game, their share of product queries will increase.

4. Voice search is becoming a new SEO standard

Whether you are searching for a product on Google or Amazon, you will need to input data. For decades, the only input method was text but voice search is becoming increasingly popular. Voice recording technology has finally caught up to search engines. Even people who mutter can still be understood and their words turned into a successful search query.

Although popular today, voice search is expected to take off in 2020, accounting for 50% of all searches. This means the best SEO practices will have to change because websites with the voice control function will start ranking higher. Retailers will start streamlining thousands of products to be voice search compatible.

5. Embracing augmented reality

2020 will mark the age of augmented reality (AR). The blurring of the boundaries between the real and the virtual world is perfect for eCommerce. Buyers get a chance to try on or try out products that would be impossible to test in real life.

If your eCommerce business platform uses augmented reality, then customers are less likely to return a product, even if they have never touched it before. The most obvious benefit is for the clothing industry, but there are also applications in the makeup industry as well. Even the furniture company IKEA has launched an AR app that allows prospective users to see how their room will look when furnished with IKEA’s products.

6. Mobile commerce will continue to boom

Out of all eCommerce industries, mobile commerce is still firmly at the helm. Creating and running a company app has become just as important as maintaining a brick and mortar business. Everything we have listed so far should make its way into mobile versions of eCommerce platforms as well. Simplifying the ordering process, adding voice control, and experimenting with AR are now a standard when it comes to mobile apps.

Mobile apps make it easier and more convenient to browse and purchase products while on the go. People spend less time in front of their personal computers, so it is more likely they will make a mobile purchase while at work, in the gym, or at school.

7. Improving the delivery process

We have already mentioned that producing, storing, and transporting everything ordered online is crucial to a profitable eCommerce franchise. In fact, the offline bit of the business means just as much to the average customer, as a speedy delivery is what they really expect. An increasing number of deliveries are carried out on the same day.

In 2020, “same day deliveries” are expected to really take off, making for about half of all the deliveries made. In order to meet these demands, the delivery industry basically has two options. Firstly, they can apply the model promulgated by Amazon Flex that includes on-demand drivers that will take care of the last section of a package’s travel. Freelance drivers can do door-to-door deliveries, which is the costliest part of shipping.

Secondly, an eCommerce business can establish nationwide pickup points. These simplify the delivery system and make it cheaper for end users. Instead of waiting for the shipment to come to them, buyers can drive out to a predesignated pickup point to collect their package.

The trends in the online retail industry change so fast. Right now, it only is possible to list the ones for the next year. In 2020 we will see automation, shopping on social networks, voice searching, and who knows, maybe even trailblazing delivery drones.

Sarah Jessica Smith is a young blogger from Sydney. She is in love with life and all the things that can make her daily routine easier. She loves to write about business, marketing, productivity and workspace décor.

The post 7 Refreshing eCommerce Business Trends That Will Dominate in 2020 appeared first on Beanstalk Web Solutions.

How B2B SEO Differs from B2C

Marketing to businesses is a little different from marketing to consumers. You’re looking at completely distinct sales funnel, content, and search engine optimization tactics. Today, we’re going to talk about the latter. There are a few things that are more important than anything else when it comes to B2B.

How successful is your B2B Search Engine Optimization strategy? I imagine that, for those of you reading this, your answers will fall into one of two camps. Either it’s unsuccessful and you want to figure out what you’re doing wrong, or it’s successful and you want to see if there are any other ways you can improve.

The most important thing to remember – and where I most frequently see businesses fall short in their approach to SEO – is that B2B is considerably different from B2C. Tactics that might work swimmingly with a consumer market aren’t necessarily going to resonate with a business audience. And certain things that have only moderate importance in B2C are foundational for B2B.

Let’s go over some of the most critical:

A Firm Grasp of Your Industry

When you’re targeting marketing towards consumers, they don’t necessarily care how much you know. Thought leadership can still be valuable, of course. Knowing you’re an authority in your field can go a long way towards inspiring confidence in your products and services.

With B2B, it’s about more than confidence. You aren’t just selling products – you’re selling expertise. If you cannot convey demonstrable knowledge and experience, your prospective clients will very likely seek someone else who can.

Publish regular content on your site that you know will be valuable to your audience – white papers, how-tos, walkthroughs, case studies, and so on. Participate in industry events such as seminars, think tanks, and conferences. Be visible, and make an active effort to be a leader both online and off.

Clearly-Defined Metrics and Goals

What do you want your SEO efforts to achieve, and how will you be certain that you’ve accomplished your goals? That’s an important question for B2C. In B2B, however, it’s critical.

B2B SEO targets a far narrower demographic. You know a lot more about who you’re marketing to and why they’re interested in your company, which means your efforts need to be significantly more focused. Presumably, there’s also a lot more capital floating around – which means you need a clear way of showing return on investment.

Devise clear-cut conversion goals for social, advertising, and on-site content for customers at every stage of the sales funnel. Research your target audience until you know them as well as your own family. And ensure you have a way of collecting, collating, cataloging, and analyzing the data generated from your efforts.

Business Information

Who are you? Why should anyone trust that you have their best interests in mind? Even if you seem like you know what you’re talking about – even if you create content that fits your audience like a glove and become an active leader in your industry – people still need a way of learning about your business.

They still need to know how to contact you. They need to be able to locate your business online and find information about your organization in Google My Business and on LinkedIn. Make sure you maintain a curated web presence, and that there’s an easy way to get in touch with a representative from your organization across all channels, both social and web.

Your audience has less time than most, and they aren’t going to waste it trying to figure out how to get in touch if that’s not already clear.

Closing Thoughts

Certainly, there are similarities between B2B and B2C. SEO is still SEO at the end of the day, after all. At the same time, it’s important that you understand the differences in audience, approach, tactics, and the overall market.

Terry Cane is the COO at SEOHost.net, a reliable and supportive SEO hosting partner.

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