Basic SEO Marketing Yields Big Results for B2B Manufacturing Company

Lori Malitsky, CEO of Sunvent Industries in Pelham, NH, contacted me last February for help with her existing Web copy. After spending three years developing a new foundation flood vent, Lori was ready to go to market. Like many small businesses, she was on a tight budget.

During our first meeting, I quickly noted that Lori’s initial Web copy draft included a mistake many small companies make: she had positioned her four flood vent models on one page. In addition, the sales copy was minimal — consisting of short bullet points.

My recommendation? Give each flood vent its own page. Because Lori was selling these online, I wanted the extra product pages for a number of reasons:

–> Increased conversions — Giving each vent its own page would lessen buyer confusion and make it easier for people to click and buy.

–> More room for sales copy — With the extra real estate, I could add considerable “oomph” to the copy and explain the differences between each vent and their benefits.

–> Better SEO opportunities — When you have only one product page, you have only one Title tag — and thus only one opportunity to rank for one or two specific search phrases. Four pages mean you have four Title tags — and a much better chance of getting one or all of those pages to show in search results for numerous phrases (provided, of course, you’re creating unique Title and meta tags for each page).

Strategy: Basic SEO marketing tactics

Working with Lori, I edited her copy, optimized it for search, and provided additional consulting on site design and other issues. Optimization efforts included developing a keyword list and keyword site architecture, developing Title and meta tags, and adding keywords in the page copy (headlines, subheads, etc.).

While this type of SEO work is pretty basic, it’s also essential to getting a site to rank well. However, it’s not enough. One reason I loved working with Lori is because she had done her homework before calling me — which helped ensure her success:

1. She purchased her domain ahead of time — Domain age is one factor Google uses to determine how a site ranks. Lori purchased floodsolutions.com a year or so before she needed it and then redirected it to her Sunvent Industries site. Think of this move as putting an avocado on your counter to ripen five days before you need it. You don’t do anything to hasten the ripening — you just let it sit. That’s what Lori did.

2. She added lots of educational content — Because Lori was selling “FEMA compliant engineered flood vents,” she included the kind of educational, relevant information Google and people love — information about FEMA, the National Flood Insurance Program, flood vents, etc. The beauty of having this lovely content is that I could also optimize it — meaning, more opportunity for people to find her pages.

3. She obtained state certifications — Each state has its own requirements regarding certified flood vents. Lori’s flood vents have been certified in 18 states, and these certifications are available for easy download on the site. Again, this is the type of people-friendly content that Google adores — and that over time shows up in search results.

PPC and SEO work together to drive sales

Because it can take a little while for new sites to rank well in Google (sites usually appear in the index fairly quickly; getting high rankings is a whole other issue), I now recommend that companies use pay-per-click (PPC) to generate leads while waiting for leads from organic search to kick in. In Lori’s case, I wanted her to get sales right away.

To help with the PPC side of things, I recommended that Lori contact my colleague, Pauline Jakober, CEO of Group Twenty Seven. Group Twenty Seven developed the initial campaign and continues to actively help Flood Solutions use data from Google Analytics to make smart business decisions by analyzing which keywords drive traffic and ultimately sales.

Flood Solutions site goes live August 2011

Within a month of going live, the Flood Solutions site was appearing on page one of Google for a few of Lori’s targeted search phrases. Once the site was live, Lori added a blog, for which my team and I create original content each month.

What I love about this project is that it’s a great example of how “basic” SEO marketing yields solid results — results that Lori can literally take to the bank. Between August 2011 and January 2012, Lori has realized the following:

–> Steady increase in traffic — Traffic has increased by 45%, with 32% of total visits coming from organic and 38% from PPC. Eight of her top 10 keywords are non-branded, meaning people didn’t use “Flood Solutions” in the search phrase. In fact, people used over 500 keyword iterations to find her site.

–> Top rankings — In January, the site was showing up in position #4 on the first page of Google for Lori’s main keyword, “flood vents” — despite the fact her main competitor was clogging up the first page with spammy microsites. (Yeah baby!)

–> Robust sales — The site is doing so well, Lori is on track to meet her sales goal for the first year — after just seven months of sales!

As for me, I’m always thrilled when small B2B clients like Lori see real results using basic tactics. Having worked with small businesses since 1998, I know it’s hard to allocate money to marketing when budgets are tight. It’s always my goal to meet clients where they are — and to get the best results possible even on tight budgets.

Do you have an example of how your small business has achieved success using “basic” marketing tactics? Feel free to share!