Google's Matt Cutts Answers "The Question".... The Question to Life, The Universe, and Everything SEO.*
Matt also slips in a great line from 2001, A Space Odyssey into his talk. HAL would be proud.
*The real answer is 42.
Feed your Website. Feed It.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Aggressive Link Building for B2B SEO is a Fool's Game
Artificial link-building for short-term B2B SEO advantage is a mirage and an affliction.
Don't do it.
You don't need to engage in artificial and risky attempts to build links to boost your webpage's B2B SEO success.
My SEO philosophy is to build quality content, target and exploite long-tail-search opportunities, and network those pages into cohesive and related clusters of relevant content. Then let the search engines rank these pages, ideally getting to page one results. When done correctly, this will encourage the proactive creation of quality, natural, inbound links from other websites which find my material relevant and worthy.
Inbound links are valuable if they are organic, have natural fit, are mostly unsolicited, and come from quality sources. Call this the 'white hat' laissez faire school of 'let them come' link SEO.
Buying links, joining link networks and participating in link-farms are blatant attempts to unnaturally and artificially circumvent search engine organic ranking systems. Search Engines hate these 'black hat' tactics because they can pollute organic search results with spammy pages of poor quality, pushing more deserving webpages down in rankings. Such tactics can create manipulated results which strike at the core consumer value of Google and BING. That's why Matt Cutts and Google have declared war on unnatural link-builders attempting to "game" SERP results.
I've witnessed various in-house marketers and agencies proclaim that acquiring links was their primary tactic. It didn't seem to matter that their webpages content was ageing, verbose, too broad, and too long. Nor did it matter that their webpage organization and hierarchy was poor. Never mind that their webpages violated the principles of long-tail-search and the content was not concise, not precise, nor relevant. None of that mattered. Chasing links would do the heavy lifting for SEO success, wouldn't it? No, not really. Especially not if you are in for the long-haul.
In my 12+ years of search engine marketing and lead generation success, I've never engaged in a systematic attempt to increase the number of inbound links to my websites. Not once. I'm too busy optimizing niche content, focusing on long-tail-search, and enhancing website structure and hierarchy. In other words, I am focused on providing a superior, quality, product for humans (my potential customers) and search engines.
During a recent presentation I gave on Search Engine Marketing, during Q&A someone asked why I had not brought up link-building. When I told them that my success has come without link-building projects, there was an audible gasp from several people in the audience. I was apparently committing a form of SEO Linking blasphemy, in their link-loving minds at least.
Link-building hurts the innocent, too. I've met a some poor souls recently whose company websites were hit hard by recent Google updates and actions. Their pages dropped out of vital page one search results. Their company websites, built invariably by some hired, local SEO agency and/or 'seo expert', were set-up for disaster because a major part of the SEO strategy was to buy links. Once Google's anti-spam filters caught up with these sites, they were severely punished. Now these companies are scrambling to rebuild their sites, disavow links, and petition Google to give them another chance.
Matt Cutts video on "Unnatural Links to Site":
Creating a B2B search engine optimization programs based on aggressive link-building is fraught with danger, risk, and ultimate failure. "Black Hat" link-building may look like a short-cut to SEO success, but in the end such link-building tactics can, and will, backfire.
Focus on precise content, relevant content, webpage organization, and long-tail-search instead. You'll be amply rewarded.
Feed Your Website. Feed IT.
Don't do it.
You don't need to engage in artificial and risky attempts to build links to boost your webpage's B2B SEO success.
My SEO philosophy is to build quality content, target and exploite long-tail-search opportunities, and network those pages into cohesive and related clusters of relevant content. Then let the search engines rank these pages, ideally getting to page one results. When done correctly, this will encourage the proactive creation of quality, natural, inbound links from other websites which find my material relevant and worthy.
Inbound links are valuable if they are organic, have natural fit, are mostly unsolicited, and come from quality sources. Call this the 'white hat' laissez faire school of 'let them come' link SEO.
Buying links, joining link networks and participating in link-farms are blatant attempts to unnaturally and artificially circumvent search engine organic ranking systems. Search Engines hate these 'black hat' tactics because they can pollute organic search results with spammy pages of poor quality, pushing more deserving webpages down in rankings. Such tactics can create manipulated results which strike at the core consumer value of Google and BING. That's why Matt Cutts and Google have declared war on unnatural link-builders attempting to "game" SERP results.
I've witnessed various in-house marketers and agencies proclaim that acquiring links was their primary tactic. It didn't seem to matter that their webpages content was ageing, verbose, too broad, and too long. Nor did it matter that their webpage organization and hierarchy was poor. Never mind that their webpages violated the principles of long-tail-search and the content was not concise, not precise, nor relevant. None of that mattered. Chasing links would do the heavy lifting for SEO success, wouldn't it? No, not really. Especially not if you are in for the long-haul.
 |
| Play to Win, without buying Links. |
During a recent presentation I gave on Search Engine Marketing, during Q&A someone asked why I had not brought up link-building. When I told them that my success has come without link-building projects, there was an audible gasp from several people in the audience. I was apparently committing a form of SEO Linking blasphemy, in their link-loving minds at least.
Link-building hurts the innocent, too. I've met a some poor souls recently whose company websites were hit hard by recent Google updates and actions. Their pages dropped out of vital page one search results. Their company websites, built invariably by some hired, local SEO agency and/or 'seo expert', were set-up for disaster because a major part of the SEO strategy was to buy links. Once Google's anti-spam filters caught up with these sites, they were severely punished. Now these companies are scrambling to rebuild their sites, disavow links, and petition Google to give them another chance.
Matt Cutts video on "Unnatural Links to Site":
Creating a B2B search engine optimization programs based on aggressive link-building is fraught with danger, risk, and ultimate failure. "Black Hat" link-building may look like a short-cut to SEO success, but in the end such link-building tactics can, and will, backfire.
Focus on precise content, relevant content, webpage organization, and long-tail-search instead. You'll be amply rewarded.
Feed Your Website. Feed IT.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Revive Stagnant Paid Search Campaigns: Brian Geddes @ SMX West 2014
Brad Geddes is one of the acknowledged experts in paid search marketing. I've had the pleasure, and the competitive advantage, of taking his Google Adwords classes in the past. Brad Geddes's presentation "Breathing New Life Into A Tired Paid Search Campaign" at SMX West 2014 is worth a serious look and review, especially for those of us who have been running Adwords campaigns for years. In my case, for over 11 years. Paid Search is too effective for lead generation to be taken for granted, or allowed to wallow on extended auto-pilot mode!
Saturday, March 15, 2014
SMX West 2014: Blog Coverage Recap
What happened at SMX 2014?
This informative posting on Search Engine Land by Barry Schwartz provides a quick but detailed listing and links to the major topics and highlights presented at SMX West (Search Marketing Expo West) for 2014 in San Jose. For any serious search engine marketer, this SMX West post is worth a digging into!
This informative posting on Search Engine Land by Barry Schwartz provides a quick but detailed listing and links to the major topics and highlights presented at SMX West (Search Marketing Expo West) for 2014 in San Jose. For any serious search engine marketer, this SMX West post is worth a digging into!
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Google Search Amit Singhal At SMX West 2014
Amit Singhal, the top manager of Google Search, was interviewed by Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan during SMX 2014 in San Jose. Here is a link to that interview. For anyone who is exploiting search engine marketing for leads, revenue, and ecommerce, this interview is worth a quick read.Live Blog: Head Of Google Search Amit Singhal Keynote At SMX West 2014
There is also a surprise appearance from another famous Google Employee.
A partial video feed can be seen on YouTube.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
"The SEO Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - Presented at SMX West 2014
Presented during the Keynote session of the first day of SMX West 2014, Rand Fishkin presented a short but thought-provoking presentation sharing his opinions on where he sees Search and Search Engine Marketing are going in the near future.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
B-to-B Web Marketing Should Help Sales People Sell
An effective B-to-B website is a salesperson's friend.
Successful B-to-B internet marketing is not only focused on search engine tactics, lead generation, and branding. Effective internet marketing also provides tangible aide and support to the business development team. A good B-to-B website should help open those proverbial closed doors and open the minds of valuable prospective clients.A recent success underlines the importance of why supporting your sales team with good web marketing will pay strong dividends. An admirably persistent senior business development professional with decades of successful industry experience wrote the following sales report regarding a strategic key account target opportunity:
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| An Effective B-to-B Website Helps The Sales Process. |
"The contact went on line prior to our meeting and researched our website and was impressed with what he saw…"you guys could obviously handle the work".
"The contact has put us on the bid list and we should expect the bid package shortly."
How did internet marketing help bring about this important sales step? By helping to inform and educate the prospective client about our company, at his own time and choosing.
The website acted as a strong verification and validation of our company's capabilities and expertise, helping convince this important contact that our company offers the right products, expertise, and services his company needs. His research into our website convinced him that we were a vendor worthy of consideration, and helped our business development representative "close the deal" by putting our company into their coveted bidder's list.
For successful web marketing, "Content is King". This approach helps your sales team. Good content can be used at all the multiple stages of the sales process, from early research to validation, verification, and call-to-action. Having intelligent, precise, concise, content is key to technical B-to-B success. Like a good sales brochure, effective website content acts as an educational sales tool, helping the client navigate from the initial discovery & research phases to sale and post-sale follow-up.
How does one ensure web content is helping their sales team? Listen to the sales team, ask questions. Get feedback. Go out and meet clients. Walk in the shoes of your business development team. Mingle with clients and prospective clients at trade shows, conferences, and other events. Track industry news. Take an interest, roll up your sleeves, and get involved. Don't be remote.
Along with quality lead generation, helping salespeople close sales should be a top priority for B-to-B marketeers. Sales people are one of the main spark plugs which make a company engine run. Having been a successful B-to-B industrial salesperson myself for many years has greatly influenced my approach to marketing.
If marketing doesn't help sales people, it won't help the rest of the company very much, either.
Good marketing succeeds on the ground, in the trenches, and is viewed as a valuable resource business development people want to use. So be useful!
Give Your Sales Teams What They Crave This Valentine's Day - Good Leads.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
How to increase your budget and invest in SEO and Content Marketing?
Budget sufficient resources to a proven lead generator: Search Engine Marketing.
A marketer recently posted an excellent question on a Linkedin marketing group, asking "How do we free up budget to invest in SEO/Content Marketing?". He was hearing clients complain that their companies were not investing sufficient resources into search engine marketing when compared to traditional media such as print advertising and trade shows. He posted this question to encourage input on how to resolve this budget and resource challenge.
Budgeting for SEO is an excellent question. My answer is below:
For B2B, my 12+ years of Search Engine Marketing experience show that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are, by far, the number one drivers of new leads. This happy reality can be shared and brought home to upper management by diligent tracking and reporting. Sharing lead statistics and educating management on the evolving nature of how leads are generated really help in creating support for SEO and SEM, and both organic and paid search.
If managed properly, SEO and SEM can produce many, many, more leads than print, trade shows, etc, and cost much less per lead. Search Engine Marketing will not replace these other activities, you need them all to be most effective.
But with search engines producing almost 75% of all business leads, according to a recent survey, B2B marketers and companies must pay attention to SEO and SEM, or risk losing business opportunities (strategic & transactional) and market share.
This new Pardot lead gen survey is very educational, and one excellent graphic in the survey is well worth showing to people in order to assist growing your SEO and SEM budget. I've blogged about it and related B2B lead gen experiences at: "Want B2B Leads? Pay Close Attention to Google Search and Content"
A marketer recently posted an excellent question on a Linkedin marketing group, asking "How do we free up budget to invest in SEO/Content Marketing?". He was hearing clients complain that their companies were not investing sufficient resources into search engine marketing when compared to traditional media such as print advertising and trade shows. He posted this question to encourage input on how to resolve this budget and resource challenge.
Budgeting for SEO is an excellent question. My answer is below:
For B2B, my 12+ years of Search Engine Marketing experience show that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are, by far, the number one drivers of new leads. This happy reality can be shared and brought home to upper management by diligent tracking and reporting. Sharing lead statistics and educating management on the evolving nature of how leads are generated really help in creating support for SEO and SEM, and both organic and paid search.
 |
| Search Engine Marketing Dominates Lead Gen. |
But with search engines producing almost 75% of all business leads, according to a recent survey, B2B marketers and companies must pay attention to SEO and SEM, or risk losing business opportunities (strategic & transactional) and market share.
This new Pardot lead gen survey is very educational, and one excellent graphic in the survey is well worth showing to people in order to assist growing your SEO and SEM budget. I've blogged about it and related B2B lead gen experiences at: "Want B2B Leads? Pay Close Attention to Google Search and Content"
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Want B2B Leads? Pay Close Attention to Google Search and Content.
A recent study by Mathew Sweezey, Marketing Evangelist for Pardot, reinforces the key role of search engine marketing for lead generation. In his paper "The State of Demand Generation 2013", the results of a user survey clearly list the main effective ingredients needed to enjoy successful B2B lead generation:
1. Obtain Search Engine Marketing Success, especially Google Search Engine Success.
2. Employ Short Content on Webpages and White Papers.... Concise, Precise, and Relevant.
In summary, B2B Buyers use Google Search, and like Relevant and Short Content on Webpages and White Papers. Worth Repeating: "B2B Buyers use Google Search and like Relevant and Short Content."
The same study indicated that an impressive "72% of product research for a future business purchase begins on Google." Nearly 3 out of 4 B2B leads start on Google.
No amount of creative branding content or social media chatter will mitigate this fact. If you're not focused on winning with search engine marketing, you're at risk of missing nearly 3 out of 4 potential leads!
From my own experience, this simple formula of efficient content and effective SEO has produced over 10 years of outstanding organic search engine marketing lead generation success for B2B niche markets. I've focused on what our potential customers need and are looking for, in order to provide solutions to their problems.
Like a good consultative selling sales pitch, my webpages provide features which bring benefits to meet the prospective customer's needs. This customer-centric approach works for Google SERPs as well, based upon the superior search ranking results I commonly enjoy.
To optimize your lead generation success, craft webpage content to be efficient and relevant, focused, and concise. Content should be as short as reasonably possible, to best provide key information easily to a hectic, busy, potential client. Quickly give them the facts they need in order to be educated and motivated to contact you as a quality business lead.
Potential clients will not waste their valuable time attempting to sift through wordy webpages or white papers full of flowery, self-important, lightweight "content". They want straight facts and answers, and they want them now.
Include and use appropriate technical terms, acronyms, and jargon, because that specialized vocabulary is a key component in the business language of the targeted niche clientele. It is also good practice to spell these abbreviations out at least once on the page, as appropriate, both for visitor comprehension and search engine optimization. Make content simple and relevant for the potential client.
B2B lead generation content is usually designed to reach and influence lucrative and small market niches, not a mass audiences. You want that "1%" of the global potential audience, so talk directly to them. Don't worry about the other "99%" who will not give you any business under any circumstances.
Avoid creating excessive content. Don't 'tell a story' and yammer on telling the world how wonderful and great your company is. Potential clients can see right through this self-centered hype and quickly move on to a competitor who is more focused on the client.
In short, for superior B2B lead generation, focus on search engine marketing combined with concise and precise webpages, white papers, and other content. Include a clear call-to-action. These best practices are true big B2B lead generation winners.
A special thanks is given to Ayaz Nanji, with MarketingProfs, for his post which alerted me to Mathew Sweezey's paper. Ayaz gives an excellent overview of the Pardot report at: B2B Buyers Prefer Short Content; Rely Heavily on Google Searches.
B-to-B Web Marketing Should Help Sales People Sell.
FEED Your Website. FEED IT.
1. Obtain Search Engine Marketing Success, especially Google Search Engine Success.
2. Employ Short Content on Webpages and White Papers.... Concise, Precise, and Relevant.
In summary, B2B Buyers use Google Search, and like Relevant and Short Content on Webpages and White Papers. Worth Repeating: "B2B Buyers use Google Search and like Relevant and Short Content."
The same study indicated that an impressive "72% of product research for a future business purchase begins on Google." Nearly 3 out of 4 B2B leads start on Google.
 |
| 72% of B2B Leads Begin on Google Search, per Mathew Sweezey, Pardot. |
From my own experience, this simple formula of efficient content and effective SEO has produced over 10 years of outstanding organic search engine marketing lead generation success for B2B niche markets. I've focused on what our potential customers need and are looking for, in order to provide solutions to their problems.
Like a good consultative selling sales pitch, my webpages provide features which bring benefits to meet the prospective customer's needs. This customer-centric approach works for Google SERPs as well, based upon the superior search ranking results I commonly enjoy.
To optimize your lead generation success, craft webpage content to be efficient and relevant, focused, and concise. Content should be as short as reasonably possible, to best provide key information easily to a hectic, busy, potential client. Quickly give them the facts they need in order to be educated and motivated to contact you as a quality business lead.
Potential clients will not waste their valuable time attempting to sift through wordy webpages or white papers full of flowery, self-important, lightweight "content". They want straight facts and answers, and they want them now.
Include and use appropriate technical terms, acronyms, and jargon, because that specialized vocabulary is a key component in the business language of the targeted niche clientele. It is also good practice to spell these abbreviations out at least once on the page, as appropriate, both for visitor comprehension and search engine optimization. Make content simple and relevant for the potential client.
B2B lead generation content is usually designed to reach and influence lucrative and small market niches, not a mass audiences. You want that "1%" of the global potential audience, so talk directly to them. Don't worry about the other "99%" who will not give you any business under any circumstances.
Avoid creating excessive content. Don't 'tell a story' and yammer on telling the world how wonderful and great your company is. Potential clients can see right through this self-centered hype and quickly move on to a competitor who is more focused on the client.
In short, for superior B2B lead generation, focus on search engine marketing combined with concise and precise webpages, white papers, and other content. Include a clear call-to-action. These best practices are true big B2B lead generation winners.
A special thanks is given to Ayaz Nanji, with MarketingProfs, for his post which alerted me to Mathew Sweezey's paper. Ayaz gives an excellent overview of the Pardot report at: B2B Buyers Prefer Short Content; Rely Heavily on Google Searches.
B-to-B Web Marketing Should Help Sales People Sell.
FEED Your Website. FEED IT.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Alternatives to Google Analytics 'Not Provided' Organic Search Keywords
Google Closes The Curtain on Organic Keyword Research
Google has mostly shut down the ability to see the organic search terms visitors use when visiting our websites, creating an unwelcome blind-spot when applying organic keyword research to search engine optimization efforts.To understand what Google did to expand "Secure Search" and what it means to SEO practitioners, read a recent article posted by Thom Craver on September 23, 2013: Goodbye, Keyword Data: Google Moves Entirely to Secure Search.
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| This is not the end of life as we know it. |
But using keyword research to enhance SEO is not dead!
Jennifer Slegg has produced an excellent overview on useful options and tactics to obtain meaningful keyword data for SEO: Google '(Not Provided)' Keywords: 10 Ways to Get Organic Search Data
Here are Jennifer's alternative keyword research suggestions. Read her informative article to learn more:
1. Google Experts (Avinash Kaushik, for example)
2. Non-Google Keywords (BING, for example)
3. Google Webmaster Tools
4. Analyze On-Site Searches
5. Google AdWords
6. Search Volume Tools
7. Filters to Segment "Not Provided" Data
8. Historical Data on your website
9. Google Trends
10. Additional Ways to Capture Keyword Data
From my own perspective the action Google has taken in cloaking organic search terms is irritating from an SEO perspective, but at the same time this development is not fatal. Far from it.
Organic keyword research solely based upon looking at one's own website analytics can be risky, because like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the organic search terms you see (saw) in Analytics are there only because your webpages ranked for those search terms, and this implies that you already have related, relevant search terms in your website and webpages. But what about the search terms you don't (didn't) see, because your website either doesn't have them, or Google didn't think the content was relevant?
The bottom line is that keyword research must by necessity go beyond the organic search terms used by visitors to your website. In order to cast a wider net for lead generation and target new or overlooked lucrative market niches it is important to use all the options listed by Jennifer in her article.
The best source of valuable keywords will be from your customers and potential customers. What search terms do they use? What terminology and acronyms are important to them? Get close to your markets and customers, find keywords they find important, and you'll be able to ID lucrative opportunities your competition will overlook.
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