Industrial brands and marketing require SEO … FIRST.
In the world of search, mobile, social and AI, SEO is now the very foundation of all marketing tactics to follow. It is the most cost-effective way to reach your industrial buyers at the critical moment they need information about your products and services.
If you are thinking about raising the bar on your online marketing efforts, start by thinking about SEO first. In fact, in today’s world if you are thinking about upgrading your other marketing assets before taking a deep dive into best SEO practices you are wasting your time.
Many of your marketing successes moving forward will cascade from a solid SEO foundation.
The statements above hold true for just about any business today. But the above statements are especially true for the mid-size ($10 million to $1 billion) industrial market because of the current lack of SEO competition. The lack of SEO expertise in the mid-size industrial market provides a huge window of opportunity for the savvy industrial marketer.
10 Reasons why SEO is the backbone for all industrial marketing to follow?
- PROVIDES A SIGNIFICANT HEAD START: Having a head start in any competition is always a good thing. Given the fact that most mid-size B2B industrials lack the skill sets and patience to master SEO, starting your SEO activities immediately should be top priority. We all know that Google rewards longevity and a well architected or structured website. So the sooner you get started the bigger the sustainable head start.
- PRIMARY SOURCE OF TRAFFIC: Organic search is the primary source of your website’s traffic and therefore your industrial brand’s visibility. GlobalSpec’s recent 2023 State of Marketing to Engineers tells us that the technical crowd will now search through 5 pages of search engine return pages to find the answers they need. If our sales and marketing materials are not there, you are not even in the game.
- BUILDS TRUST AND CREDITABILIITY: Great SEO builds credibility and trust in your industrial brand with both Google and your online prospects. Google will share the love with your brand overtime by measuring natural links, positive user behavior, machine learning signals and well optimized and strategically deployed topic-specific webpages. Good SEO also requires that you architect a well-designed website that Google easily indexes. Following Google’s lead and best design practices ensures your buyers will love your website and find it helpful. For example, Google likes to see a robust search feature on your website. If your buyers come to your site and easily find the content they are looking for by using an embedded search feature, both Google and your web visitors spread the love.
- PROVIDES AMAZING INSIGHTS INTO THE VOICE OF YOUR BUYERS: If your industrial website is designed by knowledgeable SEO professionals, they will no doubt use top-of-line SEO research tools such as SEMrush and others. A well optimized website along with quality data from SEO research tools provides the best possible insights into the voice of your industrial buyer.
- PROVIDES LOCAL SEARCH ADVANTAGES: If you start with SEO best practices you will ensure that your SEO tactics include the most overlooked online marketing tactic for B2B industrial marketers, local search. With the rise in mobile traffic, having your website optimized for local searches is critical … especially for regional industrial suppliers and service companies. Almost all the companies I have worked with have ignored this most important marketing tactic.
- INSTILLS A MORE FORWARD-LOOKING MINDSET: SEO is constantly changing. If your online marketing strategy starts with an SEO mindset your industrial brand’s visibility has the best chance of remaining at the top of our online industrial niche … the most cost-effective brand tactic there is.
- PROVIDES THE BEST POSSIBLE FIRST IMPRESSION: What is the first thing your buyers do if they meet you personally? They immediately go to their phones and search for you, your company and its products. If your company’s brand is not well optimized, you lose credibility … instantly. This dynamic holds true with a first encounter on social, email, trade shows, printed materials, etc. As they say, first impressions are critical. Make it a good one using SEO.
- GOOD SEO IS MEASURABLE. As our old friend Edwards Deming said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. SEO is not as easy to measure as online paid advertising, but with today’s improved analytics platforms such as SEMrush you can measure almost everything with proper tracking and analysis. No longer do you wonder if our marketing dollars are wasted.
- ABILITY TO BE AT THE TOP OF GOOGLE FOR YOUR MOST CRITICAL INDUSTRY TOPICS: If you’re not on page one, you are not in the game. A recent study tells us that the first 3 positions on Google’s SERP result provides 50% of your brand’s traffic. This fact is obvious to most folks that use Google. What is not obvious is most mid-size industrials have an opportunity to dominate the top 3 positions due to the lack of competition in the mid-size market.
- FUTURE PROOFS YOUR WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: Artificial intelligence, voice recognition and other technologies are here to stay. Using an SEO professional ensures the structure of your website is built to be future proof and way ahead of your online competitors.
Want to know more about the opportunities mid-size industrials now enjoy, GRAB my ebook, Do Your Brand & Sales Materials Greet Your Buyer on the 1st Page of Google? In this 11 step outline you will learn how to dominate your industrial niche now and for the future.
