Developing a Formal B2B SEO Process

MarketingSherpa highlighting the 2011 SEO benchmark report revealed that 20 percent of organizations surveyed had no process for performing SEO and 46 percent of marketers only had an informal process they randomly performed for their SEO programs.

The numbers actually declined in SEO marketing maturity among organizations surveyed.

• 21 percent of companies had no formal SEO process.
• 48 percent had an informal process; sporadically checked.
• Respondents with a formal process, with guidelines and routine initiatives declined 5 percent (from 34 percent to 29 percent)

After reviewing marketer insights with respect to each SEO maturity phase, I would argue a significant percentage of the “informal process” respondents were much closer to the “no process” side of the scale as well.

What is a Formal B2B SEO Process?

If your organization is struggling with the development of a formal SEO program, this article provides eight questions B2B marketers must answer when considering process implementation. These questions address critical components of SEO strategy, which need to be considered when developing a formal SEO process.

1. Do you have agreement on core keyword targets?

Key stakeholders must be in agreement with keyword strategy and core keyword themes that SEO campaigns will revolve around. Keyword research provides the basis for establishing effective keyword targets and eliminating (or at least compromising) on vanity terms, that aren't driven by data.

2. Do you have your arms around the online assets already developed?

It isn't uncommon to find stray domains, microsites, or orphaned pages on a website, when auditing SEO strategy for a new client. B2B search engine marketers need to take inventory of the following online assets:

• Web pages on primary websites (and SEO properties such as HTML titles, meta descriptions, etc.)
• Domains (and sub-domains)
• Marketing and media collateral online
• Microsites and landing pages

While organizations should have centralized internal resources for domain administration and marketing collateral, free and premium tools like Xenu, Screaming Frog, and A1 Website Analyzer help crawl and organize website page assets and SEO properties.

3. Does your team understand the competitive landscape?

It's critical to realize your competition for SEO is often a mix of traditional and online organizations. You aren't only competing with product marketing initiatives that add a competitive advantage in the sales cycle, but content marketing initiatives that help websites acquire links and establish keyword strategy.

4. Do decision making personnel understand how their role and department can impact SEO?

While the website development team is an obvious first start, don’t forget the impact other departments can have on a SEO formal process.

• Marketing communications and social media for link acquisition and traffic building.
• Product marketing integrated with competitive SEO analysis.
• Strategic leadership must support SEO initiatives and keyword strategies.

5. Do you have performance KPI’s in place?

Search engine marketing benchmarks are critical for establishing business value. B2B marketers need to consider a combination of metrics that should incorporate keyword visibility, organic search traffic, lead generation, and overall campaign productivity.
These metrics need to be measured on a consistent basis. My suggestion is a combination of monthly, month-to-month, and year-over-year analysis and review.

6. Are your reporting metrics universally accepted?

This might seem like a no-brainer but in larger organizations, with several sites and site owners, web metrics may be run under different programs and priorities. Be certain to review web reporting tools, and the KPI’s which will need to be derived from them, across departments and business units.

7. Do you have internal communication strategies established?

Communication needs to be set with applicable stakeholders with respect to:

• Performance check-ins and status meetings
• Developments in product marketing and communication strategies
• SEO program review and refinement

The best B2B SEO programs keep all applicable parties aware of ongoing initiatives and program successes (and challenges), and provide communication back for continued development.

8. Do you have the proper support structure internally and externally?

Lastly, an SEO program is doomed to fail without the right support structure, which may include upper management and outside vendors and partners. At best, it is “difficult” to run a comprehensive SEO program for even a small organization as a solo practitioner (let alone if other responsibilities are on one’s plate).
The last piece of MarketingSherpa data I will leave you with is that while 84 percent of organizations surveyed ran at least portions of SEO strategy in-house, 30 percent recognized the need to leverage specialized resources (agencies and consultancies) when internal SEO resources were exhausted. SEO for B2B organizations rarely falls on the shoulders of just one individual anymore.

Final Considerations

While this list of questions should be a good start, it is difficult to cover every aspect of a formal B2B SEO process, since organizations have individual requirements and processes already in place, that need to be considered. For example, some B2B organizations blend lead generation and e-commerce in their website experience, which would necessitate a much broader set of requirements.
Hopefully being able to answer (or find answers) to these questions will be a good starting point however, in shifting your organization from running an SEO program that is largely hit or miss, to one that can impact long-term business results.

Things to Remember When Selling SEO Services

 By Ray Comstock(SEW)

Over the last six years, I've been fortunate enough to be part of a number of successful SEO sales pitches to a wide variety of companies, from startups to the Fortune 100. And I've also been part of a few that weren't so successful.
When I analyze all the pitches, three common elements become apparent as the keys to successfully selling SEO services. Keep in mind the following three things to help you win new SEO business.

1. Keep it Simple

When selling SEO services, it’s important to remember that most of the time you aren't talking to an SEO geek like yourself. You’re talking to a digital marketer who knows just enough SEO to be dangerous, but not usually enough to follow along with your rant about canonical tags and PageRank sculpting.
While you certainly want to let people know that you’re qualified to handle the job, you don't want to confuse your audience and alienate them by talking over their heads.
Explain your process at a high level. Talk about the opportunities that you have identified for their site. Then speak a little about the success that you’ve had in the past for similar clients.

2. Have a Plan

Always do your research for a prospective client's site and identify which opportunities will be the most impactful before pitching SEO services.
It's kind of like going to Midas to get your car looked at. They check out your car, figure out what's wrong with it, and then tell you how much it will cost to fix it.
You don't want to give away solutions in your pitch, obviously, but you should be able to point out to your prospective client where they are currently falling short in their SEO efforts and a general plan on how you will approach fixing it. This allows your prospective client to understand the opportunity on the table and it gives them confidence that you’re the person (or agency) most capable of fixing their problem.

3. Be Passionate About What You Do

Being passionate about SEO is easy for me because I love what I do. And so do many of the folks reading this article.
Make sure your passion and enthusiasm are evident to your prospective client in the way you talk, the way you carry yourself, and the energy in your presentation.
While there is a balance between passion and professionalism, you want to be sure to convey how excited you are to work with the prospective client. It goes a long way in making someone feel confident that they’ve hired the right person for the job.
Good luck!

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