Recently, we ran across an article published on searchengineland.com (an excellent resource) that listed the six most common and fatal mistakes B2B marketers make when it comes to organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It was very insightful, so wanted to share those with you today...
1. Inadequate site architecture
Many B2B companies fail to have organic landing pages on their website related to key revenue streams (e.g., product or service lines). To be found for a specific keyword, there needs to be an optimized landing page on the website that revolves around that search term. Simply put, this means you need to review your business and ensure your site has at least one page that promotes each specific revenue stream.
2. Lousy meta descriptions
It seems like B2B marketers often leave meta descriptions blank or simply leave it to the IT department to fill something in. This leads to poor descriptions, and therefore, poor search engine results. When you write meta descriptions for B2B, think about what will entice the searcher (your prospect) to click on your search result versus all the others on the page. While you can write as much as you want, Google will only display about 165 characters. Make sure you use those characters wisely to create a keyword-rich, compelling message.
3. Failing to analyze organic landing pages
Many B2B marketers don't bother to evaluate, let alone manage, organic landing pages. Test your organic landing pages for all significant, ranking keywords. You may rank highly in the search results for a given search phrase. You may even have a meta description that drives click-through. But do the page-searchers land on the page you want them to land on? If not, optimize a different landing page or make changes to the content at the current landing page.
4. Failing to monitor analytics
The analytics associated with PPC landing pages are often scrutinized in great detail. Yet organic landing pages rarely see the same rigor, despite the fact that B2B purchasers tend to first look at and click on organic results almost twice as often as they do paid search results. Dive into your analytics and do the same for your organic visitors. Isolate your organic traffic. Look at the organic landing pages. Analyze the bounce rates. Adjust landing page content. Tweak meta descriptions.
5. Failing to optimize marketing materials before uploading them to the Web
B2B marketers are frequently guilty of mindlessly posting lots of print marketing communications on their websites, often in lieu of html content. While these represent valuable, influential information, if they aren't optimized, they won't show up in the search results; and the only people who will find them are those who actually visit your site. Make sure searchers can find them, too. Savvy B2B searchers (and savvy B2B marketers) know that they can quickly find these rich resources using Google advance search to search for PDFs only.
6. Duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
B2B sites are often rife with duplicate title tags and meta descriptions. In addition to decreasing the chances that more of your site's pages will rank well, this practice will likely lead to less of your site's pages being indexed by the search engine. Moreover, it's a clear sign that you haven't optimized your site for searchers. Title tags and meta descriptions help determine whether a searcher is actually going to click on your search result. You can easily check for duplicate title tags and meta descriptions using Diagnostics>Content Analysis in Google Webmaster Tools.
Tags: searchengineland.com / seo / search engine optimization / b2b marketing