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Google ushers in the era of Marketing 3.0

March 16th 2011

Jon Hallowell

Jon is Group Creative Director at Marketecture. One of the most awarded Creatives in b2b. Over the last five years, Jon has won around 50 National and International creative awards. Including two CIPR Grand Prix, four Roses and quite a few UK B2B Marketing Awards. Which is nice!

Online marketers & website designers take note, Google has changed the way that it ranks websites, again.

Google, the firm that became a search term, regularly tinkers with its search algorithms, but said that this latest tweak should improve the quality of its results wholesale and push and low quality sites well down into the second division of its returns.

“Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time”, wrote Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer.

According to Cutts and Singhal this change is not slight, and will dramatically improve the way that Google delivers search results by getting rid of shoddy, low quality websites.

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Are you wondering how the recent news in the SEO world might affect you? I will outline the announcements in simple terms and provide some tips for the B2B Marketer to ensure all your hard work pays off in the form of inbound traffic to your personal blog or company website.

Why Is This Important?

Because Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is everything. It’s the difference between having your website, or your company’s face to the world look like a supermodel on stage or a bum in a dark alley. I realize “Search is hard.” But from the content your team produces to the paid search programs you run, SEO should drive all that you do. And understanding how it works is key to being a successful marketer today.

Let me repeat that: Understanding how SEO works is key to being a successful marketer today.

I would even argue that it is key to running a successful business today. And notice I didn’t say that SEO is key to being a successful digital marketer. This true for all of us. Too many marketers today still do not understand their way around keyword analysis and cost per click and meta tags. And it is affecting their ability to be effective and succeed in today’s digital world.

What Does This Mean For B2B Marketers?

You need to understand how SEO works and use it to drive your marketing (and your whole business’) results. Content is still king. Relevance is key. And social is very important.

  1. Speak to your customers and put customer insights at the center of everything you do.
  2. Create great content and refresh regularly. Lee Odden has these great tips on content marketing.
  3. Use the free Google Keyword suggestion tool to inform everything you do. Change all your content to reflect the keywords people use when searching for you.
  4. Titles are more important than you think. Title tags on your website, blog post article titles, email subject lines. When these resonate with your audience, you will see more engagement, more links and more shares.
  5. Fill out a Google Profile for you and your key executives linking to your company blog and other social profiles.
  6. Allow social sharing on your website for all the major social channels. Mack Collier recently wrote this amazing post on how SEO and Social Media sharing can combine to produce dramatic effects.
  7. Put a corporate blog at the center of your website, say Heidi Cohen. The content is more dynamic and will be shared more than static pages.
  8. Remember to incorporate the use of video and graphics to enhance your article copy and keep your readers more engaged.
  9. Remember to write for your audience and not the search engines. Keywords are important but quality content must always be written in a natural way without forcing the use of keywords and phrases.
  10. Remember that consistency counts and this requires a commitment within your organization to maintain and frequently update your website/blog.

To see what they have been up to recently check out this infographic.