January 08, 2010
Published by Dianna Huff
Volume 10, Number 1
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Welcome!

Happy New Year and welcome to year number 10 of this newsletter. Wow. It seems like yesterday that I sent out my first newsletter in July 2000 to all of 75 people. In 2000, the power of the Internet was only glimmer of what it is today and much of my work was still print-based. Things have certainly changed.

Speaking of change, the new year has ushered in tremendous change with regard to marketing and search engines. In this issue, I cover an important interview WebPro News did with SEO guru Bruce Clay about changes to search and how these changes affect you – the corporate or small business marketer.

Regards,

Dianna Huff

The New Rules of B2B Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

(Hint: It’s all About Your Site Visitors and What They Want and Need)

At November’s PubCon Conference, WebProNews reporter Mike McDonald interviewed Bruce Clay, CEO of Bruce Clay, Inc. and one of the top SEO experts and thinkers. Bruce talked about the changes Google is making with regard to search – and how these changes will affect the traditional format of 10 static links per search engine results page.

In a nutshell, traditional SEO – that is, optimizing Title and meta tags and inserting keywords into copy – will no longer be enough to rank well. Clay’s forecast pretty much summed up my thinking of the last year as I’ve watched these changes go down – and that is, having a Website is simply your ticket to the online marketing game.

To succeed today, corporate marketers and small business owners must rethink their entire online marketing strategy based on the changes Google has already implemented or will implement soon – changes  Clay covers in his interview and that I sum up for you.

1. Search is quickly becoming based on users’ personal search history + location (IP address).

Google has been serving up search results based on searchers’ location for months now. This is why you can sit at your computer and get one set of results and your colleague in another state sees a different set of results.

In addition, search results change based on whether or not you’re logged in to your Google account and your past search history. If you haven’t noticed, Google now “recommends” certain search phrases as you type in keywords either at the Google search page or the Google Toolbar. These “recommendations” are based on your search history.

2. Search results will be based on the user's intent.

According to Clay, a search for a product will give the user shopping results. A search for information will give the user content (i.e. white papers, reports, blog posts, videos, etc.). Hence, content will become increasingly more important in the next year for B2B companies – especially content that engages users and gets them to share it via social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.).

3. Search engine rankings will become less important.

For years the end all and be all has been rankings – i.e. how a site ranks for specific keywords within the three search engines. While ranking will still be important (after all, you do want users to find your content), what will become more important to you as a marketer is driving targeted traffic to your site, measuring bounce rates for specific search phrases, and most important, conversions.

What is driving this change, according to Clay, is Google’s radical change in how they rank and display search results based on users’ behavior. It used to be that Google looked at 128 factors to determine how to rank a site. Now they look at over 200, including social media and local search, which diminishes other SEO factors, such as inbound links.

Again, this is not to say you shouldn’t pay attention to inbound links. What is important, however, is that you keep searchers in mind when you develop content. You want to develop content based on what they need and/or want.

4. Content must be engaging.

“Engagement” is a new word being bandied about that simply means developing content that site visitors will download and share with others – as well as get them to come back to your site and eventually become a customer.

According to Clay, Google is now looking at sites and is asking, “Does the site have video?”

Steve Woods, CTO of marketing automation company Eloqua, is a good example of a marketer using content such as video to engage prospects and market influencers. He recently interviewed David Meerman Scott (best selling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR), posted this interview to his blog, and then tweeted the link to his Twitter followers.

I watched the video and then retweeted it to my followers (as did others). I also mentioned the video (and linked to it) in a blog post I wrote about how B2B company Infor used content to engage prospects, as well as citing the video in a LinkedIn B2B Social Media Group discussion.

Think of how many people have become exposed to Steve Woods and his company through this simple and cost effective method of creating engaging content – and think how this activity looks to Google.

5. Live search will be HUGE.

Thanks to Twitter and other social media, live search has become a tremendous game changer. This time last year, if I wanted breaking news, I went to Twitter for it. One day, for example, my Website was down – as was my Web host’s site.

A Google search gave me dated press releases from 2006 and 2007 about previous crashes. A Twitter search, on the other hand, gave me the info I needed. My Web host had experienced a catastrophic meltdown and everyone’s Website was down across the U.S.

If you do a search on Google right now for something topical (i.e. breaking news), you’ll see live search in action. One of the listings will be a "live search" result, which will update automatically as new content comes online. I don’t know about you, but I find this rather amazing.

Bottom line: It’s never been a better time to be a B2B marketer.

Although a bit overwhelming, these changes don’t scare me. On the contrary, I’m really excited. In a related WebProNews video, Google’s Matt Cutts says that SEOs will now have to think like marketers – and develop content based on what their audiences need and want versus straight SEO.

As a B2B marketer, I’ve always developed content based on what people need to make purchasing decisions, so I feel like I’ve been let loose in a playground. It’s a wonderful time be in marketing, people!

Links to information cited in the above article:

Bruce Clay / Web Pro News interview

Matt Cutts on Changes at Google

Steve Woods Interview of David Meerman Scott

What’s New on the MarCom Writer blog

Infor Print Ad Catches My Eye; Integrated with Social Media, Too

Best Online Resources for Selling Your Professional Services

Dear LinkedIn, Don’t Become a Facebook Wannabe

B2B Social Media Strategies for Small Business: Get Your Feet Wet

My Top B2B Marketing and Social Media Posts for 2009

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Advanced MicroSensors, Inc.

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Telephone: 603-382-8093
Email: info@dhcommunications.com

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