Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

industry, your activities are not automatically newsworthy. While you may have the

respect of your customers, building a self-sustaining “buzz” is not the kind of thing

that comes easily to a B2B website. After all, your site probably isn’t built for buzz;

chances are you’re offering straight-up product information, corporate bios, and white

papers. You’ll need to move forward with a view toward increasing your site’s

linkabil-

ity

with noncommercial content.

Advantage: High-Value Conversions

SEO is very appealing to B2Bs, for a good reason.

Because each new customer or lead is very valuable to your business, your SEO cam-

paign can make a quick and measurable difference to your bottom line by bringing in

just a few conversions. Don’t skimp on tracking—you’ll want your SEO campaign to

get credit for these high-value conversions.

Challenge: A Slow SEO Life Cycle

You know why scientists love that little fruit fly

called drosophila? The reason is that the drosophila has such a short life span that

many generations of them can be studied in a relatively short amount of time. In a sim-

ilar way, an SEO campaign can be studied and improved in a relatively short amount

of time if you have lots and lots of visitors coming through and either converting or

not. For a B2B, however, this is probably not the case. You will have a smaller, more

targeted audience and will likely have a longer conversion life cycle. That means less

information, and a slower evolution, for your ongoing SEO campaign.

Advantage: Text-Heavy Content

Got FAQs? How about product specifications and

mission statements? As a B2B, you probably have lots of text on your site, which the

search engines love. While some site owners will be scratching their heads looking for

ways to fit text into their design, you will probably have tons of text on which to focus

your optimization efforts. And if not, you may have marketing materials such as white

papers and PDFs ready for quick and easy appropriation onto your site. Of course, all

of the text-heavy items mentioned here have the potential to be about as exciting as

a glass of warm milk, so make sure you’re putting out text that people actually want

to read!

B2C

B2C is such a huge category that we almost hesitate to lump you all together. B2C

ranges from big flower vendors making a killing on Mother’s Day to one-person opera-

tions selling homemade soaps. You may have a local, national, or international cus-

tomer base, and you may have anything from a phone number or a Yahoo! store to a

complex, media-rich e-commerce experience. However, there are some key elements

that you have in common when you perform SEO. (Don’t worry about seeing so many

challenges here. You can look for advantages in the other category or categories that

apply to you.)

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