Search Engines Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

B2B Search Marketing: 5 Key Ways Generative AI is Changing the Future of SEO from Google’s Bard to Microsoft’s Prometheus-Based Bing

Lane Ellis on Feb 8th, 2023
B2B Marketing, Google, Microsoft Bing, Search Marketing, SEO

How is ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology changing search engine optimization (SEO), and how will the major shifts being implemented by Google, Microsoft and others alter the business marketing landscape of the future?

During my 39 years working in online communications I’ve seen immense changes in search engine technology and how businesses optimize their ever-growing collections of digital content, and consider AI’s impact on the search industry to be one of the biggest shifts yet.

ChatGPT — short for generative pre-trained transformer — was rolled out as a prototype in November 2022 by the OpenAI AI research organization, and takes the form of a website interface where users type in questions and receive written responses.

B2B Search Marketing: 5 Key Ways Generative AI is Changing the Future of SEO from Google’s Bard to Microsoft’s Prometheus-Based Bing

5 New Search Opportunities B2B Marketers Need To Know In 2023

Lane Ellis on Nov 9th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO

What do B2B marketers need to know about search in 2023?

B2B marketing and search have always had a complex relationship, and 2023 will undoubtedly see new shifts arise in numerous areas, from how search engines deal with human versus artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, to indexing a partially or fully-siloed metaverse, combating dwindling organic search opportunities, where to best invest paid search advertising dollars, and key SEO fine tuning challenges.

Let’s turn our attention to each of these five areas of search in B2B marketing, and take a look at the changes marketers will need to adapt to in 2023 and beyond.

5 New Search Opportunities B2B Marketers Need To Know In 2023

What 5 Recent Search Marketing Changes Mean For B2B Marketers

Lane Ellis on Aug 4th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Google, Microsoft Bing, Search Marketing

How can B2B marketers adapt to the latest changes in search engine marketing?

Google, Bing, and other search engines have continued to refine their services, bringing changes that B2B marketers need to be aware of.

Holding the dual roles of the world’s most popular search engine and its biggest search advertising provider, Google and its parent company Alphabet saw an especially strong 70 percent increase in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2021, the firms recently disclosed. That equates to some $560 million is advertising revenue per day during the quarter, and a year-over-year increase of 62 percent, rebounding from the firm’s only revenue decline a year ago due to the global health crisis.

What 5 Recent Search Marketing Changes Mean For B2B Marketers

What the Future of Google Search Means for B2B Marketers

Lane Ellis
B2B Marketing, Business of SEO, Google

The future of search at Google includes fascinating changes that will deeply affect the course of B2B marketing.

Google’s search and other services jointly hold vast influence over what people see and do online, a powerful position that isn’t likely to significantly change anytime soon.

Like ocean waves, search always changes at Google, and whether it’s through tiny incremental shifts or explosive changes of course, the future this tech giant is enthusiastically creating is one savvy B2B marketers can’t afford to ignore.

Let’s explore some of Google’s future plans and most recent search changes, while also looking at what they mean for B2B marketers.

Google Search & The Sands of Time

What the Future of Google Search Means for B2B Marketers

Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers

Anne Leuman
Google, Search Marketing, SEO

Since the inception and rise of digital marketing, marketers have been keeping a watchful eye on Google — the ruler of the kingdom of search.

From research project to technology giant, over the last two decades Google has cemented itself as the dominating force in internet search. And while there are other rising contenders in the space, as of June 2018, Google owned 72.21% of all desktop searches. And the domination continues if you look at mobile, with Google owning a whopping 90.20% of searches.

Of course, Google’s market (and marketing) domination isn’t because of their speed to market in the late 90s, but rather the company’s dedication and investment in evolving the platform. And some of the latest evolutionary tweaks and new features are hitting soon — or have just recently arrived.

Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers

What You Need to Know About Optimizing Content for Voice Search

Kevin Cotch
Search Engines, Search Marketing, SEO

Thanks to the emergence of technologies such as mobile personal assistants, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Cortana, and others, there’s no doubt that voice search is on the rise. These days, consumers can send text messages while driving or use a mobile personal assistant to complete simple actions. In fact, Gartner predicts that about 30% of searches will be conducted without a screen by 2020. In addition, another study from ComScore, states that voice searches will account for nearly 50% of searches, too.

That means we marketers need to start thinking how we can get our content in front of our audience via voice search channels. While optimizing content for voice search can seem daunting, there are a few easy tips that can help you start gaining more visibility for those types of queries.

What You Need to Know About Optimizing Content for Voice Search

How to Find the Stories in Your Data for Compelling Reporting

Joshua Nite
Content Marketing World, Google, Online Marketing, Web Analytics

Our hyper-connected digital world is defined by an overabundance of data. Everything’s measurable, trackable, and quantifiable. Want to know how many people died on screen in your favorite movie? Or how much ice cream the average American eats per year? The data’s at your fingertips.

The ready availability of data is great for marketers. It helps us optimize performance, personalize content, and prove our value to the business.

But data in a vacuum isn’t informative or useful. It’s not about the facts and figures themselves; it’s about how we shape that data into compelling stories.

As an Analytics Advocate at Google, Adam Singer has years of experience finding and revealing the meaningful narrative in datasets. His presentation at Content Marketing World 2017 was all about how to create clean, informative, compelling data visualizations.

How to Find the Stories in Your Data for Compelling Reporting

Why HTTPS Matters for Content Marketers: Website Security, SEO, and Customer Trust

Joshua Nite
Google, Search Engines

Full disclosure: As a content marketer, I’m still trying to round out my technological knowledge. The complex inner workings of the internet might as well be some combination of elves, gnomes, and unicorns. As long as it delivers my content (and a steady stream of memes and status updates), it doesn’t matter how the internet works, right?

But it’s time for all content marketers to get at least a little technical. There are new marching orders from our overlords at tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple, and they’re going to directly affect your content marketing strategy.

The issue is a web security protocol called HTTPS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure). Other terms you might encounter are SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). Or you may just know it as the little green padlock in the top corner of your web browser:

Why HTTPS Matters for Content Marketers: Website Security, SEO, and Customer Trust

Still Struggling with Your SEO Strategy? Focus on These 4 Best Practices for Improved Results

Kevin Cotch
Search Engines, SEO

The pressure of understanding the ins and outs of developing and implementing an integrated digital marketing strategy has many marketers searching for a better way. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is just as integral to a successful marketing strategy as it was in previous years. That’s right, SEO is not dead but it has changed.

If you’re still struggling to develop a successful SEO strategy, you’re not alone. Search engine optimization experts are still faced with the constant struggle to provide the right results, but the all too often, expectations are focused on vanity metrics or outdated tactics.

Still Struggling with Your SEO Strategy? Focus on These 4 Best Practices for Improved Results

Is Bing A Thing? The Answer: It Depends

Leila De La Fuente
Microsoft Bing, Online Marketing, Search Engines

It’s no surprise that Google is the most popular search engine in the world. In fact, according to NetMarketShare, it owns over 75% of the desktop search engine market share and over 94% of mobile/tablet search engine market share.

Desktop Search Engine Market Share – October 2016

Mobile/Tablet Search Engine Market Share – October 2016

And it’s stats like these that have SEO and digital marketing professionals everywhere focusing solely on Google, when looking to improve organic search visibility. Why focus on optimizing for Bing, or Yahoo, or AOL, when they take up such a small piece of our search pie?

So when we’re asked the question, “Is Bing a Thing?” we’re quick to dismiss the need for optimization focused on Bing’s ranking algorithm; but the truth is, the answer should be “It depends.”

Is Bing A Thing? The Answer: It Depends

Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO

Kevin Cotch
Google, Search Engines

Artificial intelligence and machine learning sound like concepts from the future. In reality, it has been used by search engines for a decent amount of time now. Most people have probably heard of Google’s RankBrain by now, but if not, RankBrain is a machine learning artificial intelligence system. RankBrain came upon us quickly, and a Google representative claims that RankBrain is the third highest ranking factor it uses now.

Artificial intelligence will change, and has been, changing how search marketers should be optimizing websites. It should make us think differently on what to optimize on a website and what experience we are providing our users. In order to optimize our websites, we need to first understand how artificial intelligence is impacting SEO.

Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO