Back in the “bad old days” of search engine optimization (SEO), so-called experts could churn out fifty articles a day stuffed to the gills with every imaginable keyword designed to flag down the search engines and bring traffic to a client's website.
That was stupid SEO.
Fast forward a few years, and search engines have grown a lot smarter and more protective of their users' good moods. Search leader Google, for instance, has made it very clear that trying to game the system by stuffing keywords into irrelevant copy will not only not get you a high search ranking, it may even get your site removed from Google all together.
So what's a B2B marketer to do?
The answer is S.M.A.R.T. SEO:
To choose these keywords, you actually need to know your target market. So that's really the first step. You need to have a clear understanding of:
Once you have a good handle on the answers to those questions, use Google's Keyword Tool or Hubspot's Keyword Tool to explore those words and phrases. (Note: we also use Wordstream, a subscription-based tool).
Based on the number of searches each term is estimated to receive and the level of competition they're likely to involve, choose 1-2 keywords or phrases for each individual page that you're likely to be able to rank for.
Take some time to go over your competition's web pages, keeping a close eye on products or services you know they market successfully online.
If you're not a code-savvy marketer, you can use tools like SpyFu and Keyword Spy to find out what your competitors are ranking for by simply typing in a website address.
Between your own brainstorming, the input provided by whichever keyword tool you're comfortable using, and your legal espionage at your competition's website, you should have a long list of potential keywords and phrases in hand.
Analyze all of them, again using the keyword tool of your choice, to narrow down the very best choices for each page. Remember, you want keywords that are searched for a lot, but that require low or moderate competition, if possible.
Then, put your thoughts into action.
Be sure to write for your reader/target audience first. But remember, Google's a reader too.
Now that you've optimized your page as best you can, the other half of SEO success will come from inbound links from other sites. Recycle those keywords by liberally sprinkling them throughout:
While you're at it, think about how you can add internal links from other pages on your site to your newly optimized page using your keywords.
As marketers, this should be second nature by now. You need to track the results of your efforts on a regular basis. Doing so provides a ton of great information at your fingertips that can help you fine tune your search engine optimization efforts on a daily basis.
You can track SEO results by using Google Analytics' Traffic Sources report, our our favorite tool, HubSpot's Sources tool. The key here is to track your progress over time. Website traffic from "organic" sources should rise each month as you steadily add new, relevant, keyword-rich content to your website.
The only way to drive more traffic through SEO each month is to be intentional about it. Let us show you how.