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.

What is Search Intent and Why Is It Fundamental to SEO?

Harry Mackin on Mar 15th, 2023
B2B Marketing, SEO

When you googled “what is search intent,” you had the informational intention to seek out an answer to your question and learn more about a topic you’ve been hearing about.

As you can see, we understood that intent and wrote this blog post to answer your question. In other words: you’ve clearly come to the right place!

Search intent isn’t a “new” concept in SEO, but it is a surprisingly overlooked concept, especially in B2B. This is a problem for a couple reasons:

First and foremost, there’s the scary reason. As SEO becomes more and more competitive and third-party cookies go the way of the dinosaur, B2B businesses really have their work cut out for them if they want to stand out. Just targeting high-volume keywords isn’t going to cut it anymore; we’ll need to reach the right audience with the right message using the right keywords.

What is Search Intent and Why Is It Fundamental to SEO?

Intent-Based Strategy is the Future of SEO

Nick Nelson on Mar 9th, 2023
B2B Marketing, Enterprise SEO, Search Marketing, SEO

As any B2B company can attest, the most vexing type of problem is that which you have a solution for … you just don’t know how best to use it.

B2B marketers face monumental challenges today, aiming to increase targeted brand awareness in crowded marketplaces with tightening budgets. We’re feeling pressure to hit stricter KPIs and ambitious growth goals by increasing trust, engagement, reach, and ultimately ROI.

Meanwhile, we face all of these challenges during a period of economic uncertainty, rising digital advertising costs, and — oh yeah, the end of third-party cookies.

The good news? There’s a solution right in front of us. Optimizing for organic search is as effective as ever in the age of content proliferation and generative AI; B2B marketers just need to be more strategic and savvy in how they approach it.

Intent-Based Strategy is the Future of SEO

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

Elevate B2B Search: Optimize Your 2023 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

Lane Ellis on Dec 26th, 2022
B2B Marketing, SEO

Search marketing has elevated and grown in numerous ways throughout 2022. 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, but to also offer relevant 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 20th year in 2023.

To help our blog community grow its search marketing knowledge, we’re thrilled to offer our annual list of the most popular search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) posts of 2022 we’ve published throughout the year.

Elevate B2B Search: Optimize Your 2023 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts

5 Top Tips To Drive SEO & PPC Fusion

Lane Ellis on Dec 20th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Enterprise SEO, Integrated Marketing, SEO

How can B2B marketers make the best use of marketing budgets in the face of economic challenges?

When it comes to online marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising weigh in as two of the most important strategies in the playbook, with their combined one-two punch acting as the kind of force multiplier that B2B brands are increasingly seeking.

SEO is the fundamental fine-tuning process that helps websites ensure that their relevant content is findable by search engines, and can help a brand’s information rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs), while PPC is the longstanding advertising method where companies pay for each click their ads receive.

When these two powerful yet decidedly different tactics are successfully combined, SEO and PPC form a cohesive tool for any business looking to make a bigger impact on its target audience.

5 Top Tips To Drive SEO & PPC Fusion

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.

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