The Forrester Research report “US Interactive Marketing Forecast 2011 – 2016” states: marketing dollars are shifting away from traditional forms of advertising (TV, radio and print) to various forms of online and interactive venues. Interactive is now cannibalizing traditional media.

Search Marketing leads overall Interactive Spend as more and more companies embrace Search Marketing tools such as PPC (pay per click) Advertising, and SEO (search engine optimization).

Forrester points out that 70% of marketers are already utilizing social media (Facebook) in various forms. Most of these companies have only “dipped” their toe into social media marketing. The next move is to monitor user activity, listen to what consumers are saying, increase engagement, and increase brand loyalty.

Mobile Marketing is gaining considerable momentum. 45% of the adult population has a smartphone or PDA with full browser capability. Apple iPhones and Google Android devices are leading the way as consumers become more comfortable using their PDA’s for practically everything – map directions, couponing, product reviews, and online purchasing.

This is indeed a major challenge for businesses because the marketing strategies they’ve executed on for the last 30 years may be totally redundant within 2 years (if they aren’t already).

The World Cup of Soccer is the largest single sporting event in the world and the opening ceremonies were sponsored by Adidas. What was particularly interesting was that the advertisement displayed on the TV screen as follows:

This was the first time that a major sponsor had used its social media page as the focal point or  marquee. It was a defining point in the advertising world.

This paradigm shift will no doubt create new business opportunities – and a  few casualties along the way.

Typically, websites are made in a very linear fashion. There is always an entry point, which is typically a home page or landing page. This is followed by a handful of single pages, all in a very clearly set row, defined by either a horizontal, or vertical navigation bar. Simple, right?

There are certainly websites that exist in an almost organic, very dynamic fashion. These include news websites (Canoe.ca, NYTimes.com, etc.), and user-driven websites (Facebook.com, Reddit.com, etc.). Search engines have been making a shift to user-generated content for years, and not just because it’s fresh and more frequently updated, but in part because of the linking structures that are built into the website architecture.

Let’s face it, most small to medium sized businesses have what are called ‘defensive’ websites. These are websites that exist purely because they want to put the URL on their business cards. These sites are also built in the most linear, straightforward way possible. Below is a depiction of one of these websites:

On these websites there exist a handful of pages, with some content here and there. The only way to access any page on the website is always done through the navigation bar… which I HOPE are not images… but that’s for another day. This, my friends, is a typical corporate website. Go look for yourself, and you will see.

One of the most effective ways of increasing the ‘importance’ of a website is by inner linking words and phrases found within the content, to other relevant pages within the website. You might ask “Why does it matter… these aren’t as good as getting links from other websites, so why bother?”. While not as valuable as a backlink from another high traffic website, inner linking has been proven to be a very effective method of increasing search rankings. It’s also making changes to your own website which you have full control over, so why wouldn’t you do it?

It’s a very simple process, but it should be done in a way that it assists the visitor. The end result will be a more connected website with highlighted content for Google and other search engines to pinpoint for future search queries. An example of an inner-linked website can be found below:

Not only are the pages connected through the website’s navigation, but since relevant keywords have also been linked, it will create a much more connected and intertwined system, boosting the authority and importance of not just specific pages, but the website as a whole. This will, in turn, increase the likelihood of pages showing up in search engine results.

Here are some other related articles that you might find interesting:

• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Think Your Website Is Too Old To Optimize? Think Again!

It’s tough these days to find the time to spend tracking down and sifting through the thousands of websites, blogs, forums and videos available online, just to receive conflicting advice.

Well, we are enamored that you have chosen our blog as your go to guide for Search Engine Optimization tips. We don’t go wild with our theories (well, we try not to), we instead take a more conservative approach. We stick with what works. Gauging how well something works mind you, is not up to us. That’s up to the search engines and their teams of mathematicians, who toil away at their ever adapting algorithms. Which, at the end of the day, are there to help you find EXACTLY what it is you’re looking for.

Anyways, enough about us!

I really wanted to keep this blog post short and sweet, by offering up a list of 20 simple things you should be doing to help improve your website. The list may seem SEO-centric, but regardless of how it’s handled, every point is there in order to help boost traffic, increase usability and ultimately, generate more leads.

Improve Your Website, One Step At A Time

1. Your corporate website is not a blog, so why are you using WordPress?
2. Your corporate blog is not a website, so why AREN’T you using WordPress?
3. If you do have a blog, use RSS to link it up to your website.
4. If you don’t know what RSS means or what it can do, spend some time to learn.
5. Hire a designer! Your website is a representation of your business. If it looks out of date, then you are as well (at least in the eyes of a potential online customer).
6. Learn HTML… even just a little. It’s REALLY not that hard, and even if you are using a CMS, it can come in very handy.
7. If you don’t already know, find out what a CMS is. You will love them.
8. Get a contact form on your website. Don’t be too pushy though, just ask for SOME information (Name, Comments, etc.). It’s not a sales tool, it’s a lead generation tool.
9. Optimize all of the graphics. Don’t know how? Use some of the tools available online, or download Gimp (think of it as a free alternative to Photoshop).
10. Look at your website in more than one browser. We know most people still use Internet Explorer, but that number is shrinking every day. Does your site look the same in Firefox, Chrome, or on an iPad?
11. Get rid of the Flash. This is more of an opinion than a written rule, but much of the work that Flash can provide, can be done in a much more search engine friendly manner through the use of HTML, CSS and images. (Not to mention it doesn’t render at all on iOS devices).
12. Make sure your website’s goals are clear. Ask yourself why people would want to be there and what you want them to do.
13. Keep the navigation consistent. When menus and buttons jump around, visitors don’t just get lost, they get frustrated. Frustration = lost revenue.
14. Update your content, whenever you can. Chances are, even if your site is only one year old, the content hasn’t changed at all. Fresh content indicates to search engines that your site is worth crawling more than once a year.
15. Make sure you don’t have any 404 pages. Broken links or removed pages can cause errors for your visitors. Minimizing and controlling how they are handled is incredibly important.
16. Make your website mobile friendly. Mobile device usage is only going to grow, so get this done now. Ask your agency or developer what they can do.
17. Promote your social media efforts. Do you have a Facebook page, Twitter account, Youtube channel, LinkedIn Company profile? Get them on your website asap.
18. If you have a single location, prominently feature the contact information (especially the phone number) on every page. This will not only help with local based organic search, but will provide visitors with an easy way to contact you, without having to hunt for the info.
19. Update your Page Titles. Look up at the title or tab bar of your browser. Having Home – Acme Company on EVERY page doesn’t help anyone.
20. Get an SEO company to help with the really nerdy stuff like META Descriptions, Open Graph, Anchor text, rel=”nofollow” and “canonical” and all of the other stuff that doesn’t make any sense.

There are hundreds of factors taken into consideration by search engines when determining where your website will be displayed for a specific search keyword. The exact list, and importance of each factor is under a higher level of security than the pentagon (maybe?), so integrating every technique possible is the only way to ensure that your website is in the best possible position.

If you found this at all helpful, please let us know in the comments. Also, there  are some recent blog posts below that you might find informative.

• Think Your Site Is Too Old To Optimize? Think Again.
• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Online Marketing : What NOT to do

So, your new website is done and it’s online. Now, you just sit back and wait for visitors, right? ….Wrong! You need to get out there and promote the heck out of it, using one or many of the ever expanding number of options available. Promotion is just as important as design, development and content, combined. Can you imagine if Ford built a great new car, but decided not to tell anyone? I’m pretty sure that sales would not be too stellar.

Speaking of promotion, two of the most effective methods of promoting any website, are by building organic search (Google, Bing, etc.) and by gaining website referrals (i.e. Site B has a link to Site A). It can be just as difficult to climb the search ranks as it is to generate a new referral, but thankfully the two methods feed off of each other in many ways. So how on earth do these things called Backlinks come in?

How Do Backlinks Effect Organic Search?

Google takes hundreds of factors into consideration when they decide who ranks high on their organic search rankings, and for what keywords. Some factors carry more weight than others, including content, url structure, page load speed and of course… backlinks! Imagine if Site A and Site B feature very similar content and have been established for roughly the same amount of time. Site has 20 backlinks from smaller, relatively insignificant blogs and forum posts. Site B on the other hand, has 50 backlinks, some of them from established online news publications, and a couple of popular blogs. It doesn’t require much thought to determine that Site B will carry more weight, thus helping to boost its ranking.

Ok I Understand, But How Do I Actually Get Backlinks?

Most websites are not likely going to go out of their way to provide you with a link, unless of course you give them a reason to. Perhaps you have some great content, or perhaps you feature a niche product or service. Or perhaps you’re an industry leader and people just want to be associated with you. There’s also the tried and tested method of asking nicely! You would be surprised to see how generous many business owners, blog writers or forum posters are, if you simply ask. Often, they may ask for you to reciprocate, which depending on your type of business and website, may not be possible, but that’s up for you to decide. Regardless of the method, having links from other websites is one of the single most powerful contributing factors for determining a website’s placement within search rankings.

Some Websites Charge For Backlinks, Are They Legit?

As a general rule of thumb, if you need to pay for anything outside of your monthly SEO fees, it’s not necessary or worse, it could hurt your rankings in the long run. Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t truly beneficial services out there. Website link farms have given paid backlinks a very bad name, by flooding pages with hundreds of links, rendering yours (that you could have paid $100 or more for) almost useless.

Look for websites directly dealing with your industry, that feature only a handful of highly relevant links. Also, sponsorships are a good way to drive relevant traffic (if you have the ad budget for it). These typically consist of a banner located in a static area of a website. They can be costly, but the returns can be significant especially for a brand awareness campaign.

So there you have it. Backlinks are helpful in a variety of ways, but most importantly, they ultimately help drive more targeted, relevant visitors to your website. So instead of sitting back waiting for viewers, get out there and secure those backlinks!

A common concern from business owners is that in order to climb the ever changing Google rankings, they will need to update their aging website, potentially spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. This may not necessarily be the case, and in fact, optimizing an existing website may be easier than you think.

While there are hundreds of factors that Google uses when determining a website’s search ranking, a lot of them are under your control. A lot of Content Management Systems (CMS) have made this process incredibly easy, sometimes even automatic, but by no means does it mean that older websites cannot be optimized. The process may require more manual adjustments, but the underlying effect can still be pushed to search engines.

Do you have access to your code?

Regardless of whether your website was developed in-house, or by another agency, you should have access to the website code, whether it’s via FTP or a control panel.  This access is critical in order to manipulate or adjust the code for Search Engine Optimization purposes.

Whether you decide to hire an SEO agency to do this work for you, or do it yourself, changes in rankings will not happen overnight. In fact, they could take weeks or even months to have a real impact. Optimizing a website however, is the first step in building a powerful online sales tool. Not only does optimizing a website help search engines effectively crawl, scan and index the pages and content contained within, but it also helps visitors and potential customers find what they need more easily. This will ultimately create more sales conversions.

Quick optimization tips

• Make sure every page has a descriptive, concise Page Title. This is what users see first when they are sorting through the hundreds of search results.
• Write informative, unique META Descriptions. These are the second part of a search result that users see when viewing search results. If you do not have a Description, you leave it up to Google to determine what it will say, which can have negative effects.
• Give all of your images ALT tags. Think about it… does prodshot126.jpg mean anything to you? No, of course not. Google sees the same thing, so renaming the image to 3-iron-golf-club.jpg instead all of a sudden gives the image value and meaning. Can’t change the name of the image? By adding an ALT tag to the image, you provide a similar value.
• Do you have links to other websites? Add this code to the links (rel=”nofollow”). Not only will the links remain, allowing your visitors access to the same valuable resources, but you will retain all page authority (the importance of the specific page in Google’s eyes).
• Content Content CONTENT! If your site is a week old or a decade old, you will always have the ability to change content. There is a gap between what makes sense to humans and what makes sense to robots. Trying to bridge that gap will pay dividends, as users will be informed with quality content, and search engines will be convinced that your website is providing content relevant to visitor search queries.

Just by implementing these few steps, your website will become much more search engine friendly. No matter how old your website is, it will still output HTML. The techniques used above are very basic, however they are also very important and powerful. Also, nothing is ever final so feel free to tweak and change content. As mentioned earlier though, be patient as organic SEO (in case you couldn’t tell, these are basic SEO tactics) can take time. Good luck!

Sure, everyone has seen them. Those funny URLs that don’t seem to make any sense. They show up in Twitter posts mostly, or even on your Facebook wall from time to time. Even Google and Youtube have joined the bandwagon. What I’m talking about, are shortened URLs. The way they work, is instead of using a standard (and long) URL such as http://www.glacier-digital.com/Internet-Marketing/Search-Engine-Optimization.html, shortening services can be used to get them down to a much more manageable, digestible size such as : http://bit.ly/ka1Qci. The reason they were originally created isn’t entirely clear, but (and this is just a theory) it seems awfully suspicious that they were introduced around the time Twitter began it’s quick ascent to the the upper elite of the social media realm. Short URLs feel right at home within those precious 140 characters.

Getting the URLs down to more manageable levels is all well and good, but there’s another reason that interests me a bit more. And this is definitely more up the alley of all the SEOs and SEMs out there. So I apologize if I get a bit nerdy when looking at charts like the one below.



The thing is, with URL shorteners, and depending on the service you are using the shorten them, you can track an abundant amount of data you might not have been able to before. This can include QR Codes scans, Video links, and basically any other type of URL. There is also the ability to install browser plugins, or use the service directly in management applications such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, allowing you to automatically shorten and track all links pasted into the tools.

Give it a try, as I mentioned, even Google is in on it. Shorten a link with Goo.gl

Or, if you want to stick around for a while, read some of our other relevant posts :

• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Why Being #1 On Google Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be

If you’ve read online offers peddling any number of ‘enhancing’ pills, NBA swag or opportunities to purchase only the most affordable iPads online whilst perusing a forum or the comments section of a blog, then the purveyor of said website is probably in need of some measure of controling spam. The common go-to controls for such precautionary measures are called CAPTCHA, or their adorable little brother SAPTCHA.

CAPTCHA is an absurd acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart” and in its essence is a humanity test; kind of like the one administered in the 1982 movie Blade Runner, but with considerably less suspense. The hope behind CAPTCHA is to stymie a spambot by confounding it with a question or task that rudimentary bot software can’t figure out, but is still something a human with fully-functional fuzzy logic can solve easily.

The most typical implementation of CAPTCHA is through a slightly obfuscated pictorial rendering of a word, such as this disfigurement of my native language below:

I have a few issues with CAPTCHA controls and I suspect most people do as well, upon reflection. On more than one level, they’re kind of offensive. Visually, they’re ugly, and they confuse many users new to the Internet (such as my wizened parents). They rely primarily on visual perception, so people with disabilities are dependent upon developers implementing the responsible version of the CAPTCHA control (such as the Internet’s most popular CAPTCHA tool: reCAPTCHA).

So. Is there a requirement for CAPTCHA or CAPTCHA-like controls on a website at all? Think about this for a moment.

• People hate CAPTCHAs
• Bots hate CAPTCHAs (they’re irrefutably effective…for a while)
• They add another layer of frustration between “spam intention” and the successful “delivery of spam”
• They ruin the design of a page and are a general annoyance for all involved

So when, if ever, does one actually use a CAPTCHA control?

Here’s my best answer:

You use them in a “lesser of two evils” kind of way…and every conditional point here is a potential deal breaker, if it doesn’t check out:

Implement CAPTCHA in any instance where: the number of users on your site, who you may potentially lose because they are offended by spam, is greater than the number of conversions (where conversion is measured as the accepting of user-based website content contribution(value)) your site stands to lose due to CAPTCHAs road-blocking said ease of content contribution delivery.

Or in a less wordy way: use CAPTCHAs on user creation forms or in public forums and then ONLY when that forum allows anonymous posting. Otherwise don’t. You are not a focused target for spammers.

If you roll a CAPTCHA onto a site for any other reason you are potentially limiting conversions and weakening your ROI. Period.

Do not use CAPTCHA on:

• Login forms
• Email forms, where the email is delivered to a single business representative (i.e. NOT a mailing list)
• Authenticated user accounts
• When you have a moderator vetting value from trash before content is published to a user base.

My main point here is that CAPTCHAs have very limited applications to begin with.

But it gets worse.

Despite their limited practical application, CAPTCHAs are less and less viable with each passing day. Since, theoretically, CAPTCHAs are only routinely beaten by a human, all spammers need do to subvert the system is apply an abundance of (presumably affordable) human brainpower. Enter India.

A 10-second Google search will reveal “DeCaptcher” and “Death by Captcha”, which offers an army of human CAPTCHA solvers to you for as little as $1.39-$2.00 USD per 1000 CAPTCHAs, with typical response times in fewer than 30 seconds. For “numbers people” these services also offer reporting on failures, redeemable for credit; however, success rates are typically so high that most do not bother with this, erm…courtesies.

These services work really well with the most common types of CAPTCHA on the Internet, namely reCAPTCHA (remember them?), with slightly lower success rates on some more difficult CAPTCHA styles such as the kind used on the Wikimedia sites.

See where this is going?

I look at the rise and fall of CAPTCHAs as akin to Steve Jobs’ recent denunciation of MobileMe (to be superseded by iCloud). It’s an inevitable replacement to a languishing predecessor. CAPTCHAs had their time when most spam was being blocked successfully; there was a short period where we tolerated the inconvenience and CAPTCHAs enjoyed a bloom of adoption. Then the global economy kicked in and it became affordable for humans and bots to work together in relative harmony whilst spamming the planet: a marriage, of sorts, between the application of human intellect and the toilings of a looping subroutine…each fulfilling their collaborative role to annoy the world.

Simply put, there are some quick SEO tricks and optimization techniques that you could perform on an otherwise slow Friday afternoon (or a busy Monday morning, it’s up to you!). Keep in mind that there are hundreds of factors that come into play when  Google and other search engines determine where and how to rank your website. Focusing efforts on a few relevant, valuable keywords is a great idea as well. See a competitor coming up for a keyword? Chances are, you will want to do the same. Follow some of these quick search engine optimization tips and they will go a long way in growing your website’s online presence and overall relevance/importance.

1. Anchor text
   This is another word for link text. How about, instead of having the words Read More as a link at the end of your article or blog post, create a link with some text such as: more ways to improve your golf swing. They are not only more relevant to the user, but they can help everyone in the long run. It helps build relevance on your website, and if another website is linking to yours, it will help build your authority and relevance for that search key phrase.
2. Page titles
   Way too often I see websites with either the exact same Page Title for every single page, or something meaningless such as : Home | Company Inc. While there is a limit to what search engines will display, use the space to your advantage. Something such as: Golf Clubs and Golf Bags | Golf Manufacturer Inc. is much more useful to a potential visitor. NOTE : Also, if their search keywords are in your Page Title, they will be bolded, which is a big plus.
3. META description
   The text found immediately under the Page Title is what is known as the Page Description and it’s purpose is precisely that. It is meant to describe the content located on that page. Many, MANY websites miss the boat entirely and either let Google decide what to insert, which can have detrimental effects, or even worse, have the same description on every page, rendering them useless.
4. ALT tag for images and media
   You see a great flowchart, or a fantastic photograph. Google sees… well… nothing. Help search engines figure out exactly what your images are, by applying an ALT property to them. ALT=”2011 Revenue Chart” is better than just providing the file name: revcht2011.jpg.
5. Optimize images
   Besides the obvious benefit of decrease page load times for users, Google has gradually increased its impact on calculating search rankings. It makes perfect sense. If Website A loads faster than Website B, it should be rewarded. As with all of these other tweaks, don’t expect it to shoot you to #1 in the rankings, but optimizing images is something that should always be done.
6. Proper content formatting
   Not all text on a page is of equal importance. For instance, the title on this page ’10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tricks’ has a level of Heading 2 associated with it. This tells search engines that this is more important than something contained within the ‘paragraph’ level.  is  This one is tricky, because it might require SOME html knowledge. In fact, if you use a CMS such as WordPress or our own system Aumbry, flipping over to code or html view will show you exactly how your articles and pages are laid out. Visit this page for a good representation of which tags are important and in what order.
7. Inner Linking
   If your website has multiple pages, covering a range of topics, products or services, inner linking can be very beneficial. Instead of relying on the navigation alone, provide useful, relevant links for visitors within an article or product page that lead them to another page within your site. It doesn’t only help them, it can aid in the search engine crawling process. Make sure you follow my#1 tip of using good anchor text though.
8. Avoid duplication
   This is more of a general rule than anything, however it goes hand in hand with nearly every tip on this list. Whether it’s content, page titles or page descriptions, ensuring things are unique from page to page is imperative in order for search engines to effectively crawl and index your website. There are certainly exceptions to this rule, such as navigation, RSS feeds and embedded media, but it’s best to keep things fresh from page to page.
9. Relevant URLs
   What makes more sense to you? www.site.com/product.php?id=1235&sort=2 or www.site.com/golf-clubs/callaway/9-iron.html? The answer is rather obvious. However, not only do you see the 2nd URL and immediately know what you’re looking at, but so do search engines. This plays a role in their calculations and is a feature offered by many CMS tools out there, either by default or as a plugin. The ability to customize the URL is even more useful.
10. Quality, relevant content!
    I’m pretty sure I’ve stressed the importance of content in every single blog post written so far, but I cannot say it enough. Good content = Search Results = Website Visitors. It’s then up to the sales funnel, navigation, etc. to convert those visitors into leads and eventually into customers. Set aside time to write good content, and if you aren’t happy with it a week later, or if it is not producing the results you expected, change it! Nothing is set in stone on the web, so if something isn’t working, try something else.

Depending on your comfort level, some of these tips will be more difficult to perform than others. Using a good CMS will make them very easy to manage, among many other benefits. Call us or email us at Glacier Digital, or leave a comment if you have any questions or comments. Or, if you have another quick tip, feel free to drop us a line!

Read some of our other related posts :

• B2B vs B2C SEO, is there a difference?
• Don’t need search traffic? Learn why you still need to optimize.

As you may have heard, Google recently received a bit of flack for ‘allowing’ spam to rear its ugly head into a handful of search phrases. In one case, a surprisingly large number of vague search terms that were all returning JC Penney as the number one (or very high) result. Terms such as ‘furniture’ or ‘home decor’. Quite a few people noticed something fishy was going on, so an investigation was shortly underway.

This isn’t specific to JC Penney, as a large number of other websites have partaken in similar tactics, and a few years ago BMW was caught red handed (or, as an SEO might say… black-handed…. *ahem*… ok sorry, that was bad).

What has happened to make this possible, is that websites known as “link farms”, which feature highly irrelevant content, have been used to generate seemingly genuine links to a specific website. These links appear to be highly relevant to the destination website, for example: a link may appears as Deals On Shoes, which when clicked, would link to www.Sears.com. However, this link is often surrounded by highly irrelevant text offering nothing of value to visitors, and only serving the purpose of artificially increasing the domain authority for www.Sears.com. If 500 very weak websites link to one website, they can artificially increase the website’s value to search engines, whereas only 10 very high quality, incredibly relevant websites offering links could theoretically produce a similar result (however, are VERY difficult to attain, this the reason some search firms might tend to shy away from it).

Google, who are always striving to provide the most relevant and highest quality search results for its users, has taken a hard stance against these link farms and as of March 8th, have eliminated more than 1 million of them from their search index. This has caused a very large stir in a number of search results and has effected some legitimate search results, both positively and negatively. While it is indeed an uphill battle, it is one that must be done, as hundreds of thousands of websites will, over time, hopefully be rewarded for offering more relevant, quality information for web users worldwide.

B2B SEO requirements are quite different versus B2C SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is changing the way companies market their products. According to Vanessa Fox, author of “Marketing in the Age of Google”, Search Marketing (which didn’t exist 10 years ago) is dramatically impacting traditional methods of advertising, brand awareness, and new customer acquisition causing many companies pain and discomfort. The companies that understand this new form of marketing will have competitive advantage over their ‘laggard’ competitors who continue with the status quo who still may rely on yellow pages, outdated websites, and traditional advertising for awareness.

One of the key growth areas for the Internet is B2B (Business to Business). It is popular misconception to think that SEO is just for companies marketing in the B2C sector. SEO for B2B is extremely important and is gaining considerable traction and attention in online business circles.

Differences

Typically in the B2C sector, the sales cycle for purchasing a product (electronic device) is relatively short – anywhere from three minutes to three hours. The decision process is relatively simple – online search, cost, availability, looks great – therefore I need it! – click on the shopping cart and the product is billed and shipped.

However, companies that market to other companies encounter more complex purchase attributes namely:

1. Engagement of Multiple Decision Makers
2. Longer Buying Cycles
3. Corporate Reputations
4. Research on Capabilities, other product lines
5. Case Studies – reliance on 3rd party research assessments
6. Demonstrations (ie. video clips on new manufacturing process)
7. Tradeshow Attendance

Typically the prospective B2B customer is looking for alternatives and is driven more by “risk avoidance” than price, when selecting new vendors.

It is important for companies who operate in a B2B environment to fully understand their prospective customer base. Companies need to know what these prospects will be searching for and make the necessary adjustments in their SEO keyword search and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising programs.

The buying process is longer; however, when a new customer is acquired the return can be in the millions of dollars.

In summary, companies who compete in a B2B marketplace (huge) – need to consider a sound B2B SEO coverage program to ensure their online digital footprint is attracting new customers and retaining their existing customers.