If prospective customers don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you.
If prospective customers know about you but can’t find you online, they won’t buy from you — because most B2B buying decisions happen online.
MarketingProfs.com shares that 71% of buyers prefer to conduct research and purchase on their own, with an access to a sales representative only if needed.
Today, your website is arguably the most important part of your sales and marketing effort. But if your website has not been optimized to achieve top search rankings, it’s wasting time and money. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important to all industries and all marketers, including aerospace.
We notice that SEO is a term that gets tossed around a lot. But what does it really mean?
Let’s say you are a mid-size MRO provider working to increase sales. Your brand is fairly well known, but you aren’t one of the really big guys, and you have a lot of competition. If you Google a relevant phrase, like “helicopter engine overhaul” and your business name does not appear on the first page (preferably in the top three positions) your prospective customers won’t find you, but they will find your competition.
You need great SEO, and here’s what you need to know to get started.
- Google rankings are based on more than 200 different factors, but essentially they all come down to content and credibility.
- The more frequently you add relevant, quality content (blogs, white papers, videos, photos, links, news) to your website, the more your rankings will improve.
- Building links to your site from other trusted sources, and updating search directories, social media and other website promotion tools to establish credibility will also improve your ranking.
- Finally, address basic optimization activities, such as updating meta titles and meta descriptions, creating a proper URL structure, and optimizing internal links.
Achieving better rankings does not have to be complicated, and you don’t necessarily need an SEO consultant to be successful, you just need the dedication to producing a quality website that your customers care about. As with all good things, there are no short cuts, and the cheaters get caught — and punished — by Google.
Don’t be afraid of SEO. You just need to get started, stay focused, and update your site. It won’t happen overnight. When it comes to SEO, slow and steady wins the race, the rankings, and, ultimately, the customers.
For more information, take a look at this graphic. It’s a BDN favorite for explaining SEO.
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