SEO Campaign Management for Smarter Marketing

Marketing business-to-business fifteen years ago looked much different than it does today. Progressive companies frequently employed a large sales force and would try to gain market share through telephone contact, personal cold calls, trade shows and trade magazine advertising to support those efforts. If a prospect wanted more information they would telephone the company of interest and either talk with a sales representative or ask for more information via brochure or other marketing literature. The global resource for information was often a Thomas Directory or some other paid resource that published multiple books, featuring companies by product category.

Today, a prospect’s power to find any resource they need is in their hands, thanks to the Internet search. Marketing is still a vital function. Attendance at trade shows, print advertising, brochures and a sales force continue to be necessary elements of a solid marketing program. Toda, the core of the marketing program is the company website. It is where the prospect first visits anonymously, prior to the telephone call of the past, to “soft shop” the company because they typically do not have the time to engage the sales force of a firm whose products are not a good fit.

As the Internet evolved, so did search engines. The most prominent of these is Google*. It refers more than 70% of all browsers that engage in random search (also known as organic search). The importance of Google as the leading referrer is evident in their stock price, which is well over $500 a share as this is being written. Because the marketing model has shifted, companies need to adjust their marketing program. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of making a website as attractive to multiple search engines as possible. Each search engine has its own set of rules and care must be taken by a professional SEO firm to ensure that a website has employed ethical website marketing to avoid delisting by one of the major search engines. This is where the professional SEO firm becomes a valued addition to any marketing program.

There are a number of companies who claim to provide professional search engine optimization services and they automatically send the equivalent of Spam to the search engines in an automated fashion. This works to a limited extent with lesser search engines and really does not provide great return on investment. It can also cause a site to be delisted. Proper SEO campaign management is largely a manual process that relates to internal search engine optimization marketing which involves keyword analysis and selection, adding keyword-loaded content with SEO copywriting to each page of the site, creation of site maps and maintenance of dynamic pages, much like a “news” page. Many are misled into believing that given these internal changes, their corporate website will move directly up the rankings to the top. Strategic SEO companies understand that this represents only 30% of the success rate of a random website search. Utilizing SEO copy writing such as press releases, white papers and case studies that contain a limited number of potential keywords, and syndicating them through paid and free Internet e-magazines and websites via a professional SEO firm can drive traffic to a target website. The major search engines view these external links as a “vote” to the credibility of the target website. The more votes a site gets through external links, the higher it moves in the rankings. A professional SEO firm will recommend that your website change often as it is re-crawled by search engines frequently and that article publishing throughout the web is done with a frequency of at least one written news release per month. The rules frequently change to keep everyone honest, too. All marketing-forward thinkers understand the importance of appearing near the top of an organic web search. With everyone vying for the same turf, the rules of engagement for search engine marketing are dynamic so no particular search engine optimization consulting firm holds the answer to the top listing of a search.

If your website was created, because “everyone else has one” and has stayed static for years, it exists among the majority that are available. Employing a professional SEO firm will ensure that your site remains in compliance with the major search engines, creates content that your prospect will find and drives more business to your company through your website.
About the Author

Woody Stoudemire, president, is a veteran of the marketing field, with vast experience in the development and execution of traditional and Internet marketing plans. X-Factor was created to help clients navigate the new challenges of marketing in the burgeoning digital market. For more information, visit http://www.x-factormarketing.com.