Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about positioning content in front of a relevant audience during the most opportune time in the buying cycle. Because 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results, SEO is an essential tactic to include in your digital marketing mix.

Recognized as a top source of information about search marketing and how it integrates with other digital marketing tactics, TopRank is dedicated to sharing our expert knowledge on SEO best practices and helping you take your optimization game to the next level. Heck, we wrote the book on optimization, Optimize: How to Attract, Engage and Convert More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing.

Browse our SEO articles to find tips, guides, news, expert interviews and much more.

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

Ongoing Optimization: Strategic SEO Tips For B2B Marketers In 2022

Lane Ellis on Mar 16th, 2022
B2B Marketing, SEO Tips

How can B2B marketers improve their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and focus in the fast and furious digital landscape of 2022?

The search marketing arena has always been one of swift changes, and keeping up-to-date with ever-shifting SEO machinations and technical search intricacies can be more than a handful even for top B2B optimization professionals.

Don’t let the complexities that SEO efforts sometimes entail deter you, however, as there are still bountiful and easy-to-achieve benefits for the B2B marketer in many aspects of optimization.

Let’s jump right in and take a look at some of the SEO tactics B2B marketers can apply and benefit from today.

Ongoing Optimization: Strategic SEO Tips For B2B Marketers In 2022

New Google Search Updates & How B2B Marketers Can Use Them To Elevate Efforts

Lane Ellis on Feb 2nd, 2022
B2B Marketing, SEO

In 2022 Google has made changes that affect what B2B marketers are able to accomplish with its search and advertising offerings, but how can these sometimes subtle changes be utilized to elevate marketing efforts in the year ahead?

Google’s recent search updates — and its plans for the year ahead — offer B2B marketers new opportunities and challenges. Here’s a look at five changes, and how they can help improve your B2B marketing efforts in 2022.

1 — Google & The Cyclical Nature of Content Delivery Evolution

Gary Illyes, webmaster trends analyst at Google, recently joined fellow Google associates John Mueller, senior webmaster trends analyst, and Martin Splitt, Google Search Relations team developer advocate, in an episode of Google’s “Search Off the Record” podcast, and the trio took a fascinating look at several areas of interest to B2B marketers.

New Google Search Updates & How B2B Marketers Can Use Them To Elevate Efforts

Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2022 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

Lane Ellis on Dec 29th, 2021
SEO

Search marketing has morphed and grown in numerous ways throughout 2021. At each of the shifts and changes in the search marketing landscape along the way, we’ve done our best to not only cover each twist and turn thoroughly, but to also offer insight and research-based strategy that will help B2B marketers meet the increasing challenges placed in front of us.

We’re fortunate to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing blog covering the state of search marketing — which will celebrate its 19th year in 2022.

To help our blog community grow its search marketing knowledge, we’re happy to offer our annual list of the most popular search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) posts of 2021 we’ve published throughout the year.

Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2022 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

How Influencers & Best Answer Content Help B2B Marketers Dominate in Search #CMWorld

Lee Odden on Sep 27th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing World, SEO

Great content isn’t so great if it’s not easy to find. And findable content isn’t so effective if it’s not trusted.

Content is the reason search engines began and yet many B2B content marketers are not taking full advantage of opportunities to attract customers that are actively looking. Instead, the content marketing function at many B2B companies is more about creating content and not so much about promoting it.

Where Has the Marketing in Content Marketing Gone?

The problem with content marketing that focuses mostly on content creation is that the marketing is missing. Sure, B2B brands can throw advertising at their new content to attract visitors – but do B2B buyers love clicking on ads?

How Influencers & Best Answer Content Help B2B Marketers Dominate in Search #CMWorld

6 Timeless SEO Tips Content Marketers Can Do Now

Lee Odden on Jul 26th, 2021
Content Marketing, SEO

Content is the research search began in the first place.

Learning about how to get customers to visit newly created websites is where my search engine optimization education began. In that journey from before there was a Google to today, many things have changed. What has stayed the same is the opportunity to grow business by connecting customers to content by being the best answer and inspiring those customers to take action.

The best SEO practitioners stay on top of what’s current, always experimenting and evaluating what works for topics in a particular industry for the websites and content they’re in charge of attracting customers to. At the same time, the best SEO advice isn’t worth much if it doesn’t get implemented. That’s why many marketers with long term SEO experience emphasize the fundamentals.

6 Timeless SEO Tips Content Marketers Can Do Now

5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

Lee Odden on Jun 28th, 2021
Enterprise SEO, SEO

Large scale search engine optimization projects are often viewed as a golden egg career opportunity for many SEO professionals. Big budget projects and well-known brand names can look great on a resume. Unfortunately, many search marketers quickly realize that the golden egg actually came from a large, slow moving tortoise.

Many Search Marketers are accustomed to optimization projects where the advice they are paid to give is communicated directly and for the most part, actually implemented. Those same marketers may not be prepared to adapt SEO processes to accommodate the operational and communication needs of large, complex organizations. Successful enterprise SEO projects require a unique combination of creative and mechanical SEO expertise as well as large company political savvy.

5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

Content Marketing Optimization Audits – Find Where SEO Can Boost Content Marketing Success

Lee Odden on May 17th, 2021
Content Marketing, SEO

SEO and content marketing intersect in more ways than optimizing web pages with keywords.

Answering the question, “How does SEO and content marketing strategy interact?” starts with understanding customers, behaviors and preferences for information discovery, consumption and sharing. Knowing what customers care about and how those concerns and interests manifest as search keywords and social topics folds very well into the keyword research practiced by professional SEOs.

Keyword Glossaries and Editorial Plans can be valuable tools for marketers to aid in creating relevant content that is inherently optimized for customers and target audiences alike. Specific keyword optimization is appropriate as well, but the end content product becomes much easier to find, consume and share if an understanding of customer questions is translated into topics and keywords from the start. This is the core of how brands can become the best answer for what customers are looking for.

Content Marketing Optimization Audits – Find Where SEO Can Boost Content Marketing Success

Trust and the Search for Answers: How Influence Optimizes SEO Performance

Lee Odden on May 3rd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO

According to the annual Global Digital Overview Report from We Are Social and Hootsuite, 81% of internet users search online for a product or service to buy and 74% have purchased online. Without question, digital engagement and commerce is the new normal and is as relevant for B2B companies as it has been for B2C.

During the pandemic, search engines have become even more important as B2B brands and buyers alike digital transform to virtual engagement for information discovery, consumption and interaction. As a result, many companies have invested more in search engine optimization in order to capture the fast-growing opportunities to be the best answer for customers at the moment of need – when actively searching for solutions.

Best practices for SEO abound on the web including this list from SEMrush:

Trust and the Search for Answers: How Influence Optimizes SEO Performance

Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2021 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

Lane Ellis on Dec 23rd, 2020
Search Marketing, SEO

Search marketing has matured in many ways throughout this pandemic year of 2020. At each shift and change along the journey, we’ve done our best to not only cover each twist and turn thoroughly, but to also offer insight and research-based strategy to help savvy B2B marketers meet the challenges this year has placed in front of us.

We’re lucky to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing blog — which will celebrate its 18th year in 2021 — including our CEO Lee Odden, Joshua Nite, Elizabeth Williams, Anne Leuman, Nick Nelson, Debbie Friez, Birdie Zepeda, the author of this post, and Alexis Hall, among others.

Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2021 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

12 Top B2B SEO Trends & Predictions for 2021

Lane Ellis on Dec 2nd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Search Marketing, SEO

What will search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) look like in 2021, and where will it take B2B marketers and brands when a post-pandemic world eventually arrives?

To help answer these questions and more we’ve gathered 12 top B2B search marketing insights from both industry experts and our own team, and present our annual look at SEO predictions and search trends for 2021.

When I first went online in 1984 operating a 300-baud bulletin board system, it would be six years before Archie’s FTP site search arrived in 1990, followed three years later by Excite and the other early web search engine innovators, and if there’s one aspect of search that has remained constant throughout the ensuing decades, it’s been unending change.

12 Top B2B SEO Trends & Predictions for 2021