Corporate SEO – How to Market SEO to a corporation? – Part 2
In previous article we mentioned some basic ways of getting into corporate SEO. In this one let’s touch the architecture of the website.
One thing you notice after looking at a couple of industry leaders with most corporate SEO and PPC accounts – their sites are quite empty. Not to say they do not have content, it is just their content is not too remarkable(except 1 site, you figure out which one!). Website copies for the most part have regular corporate babble like: “we are committedâ€, “cutting edge†and other pre determined phrases of the corporate speak.
But there’s 1 big difference that sets them apart though – the expertise. Most industry leaders stick it out to the face.
- Coverage by respected publications
- Big clients
- Research papers
As opposed to talking links and keywords, they show their expertice with big names. Just look at 5 top big SEO companies; you will see what I mean.
So for you as an SEO the task is to gain “respectâ€. Respect in the eyes of corporate officers with your client list, research and awards.
Client List
If you do not have at least one big recognizable brand that you can feature on the homepage, try getting one with offline methods. If you did have one, place the logo on the homepage. It is going to be juicy.
Awards
By I awards we are talking “Forresterâ€, “IDC, etc. The awards people know. If you are an SMX speaker, or got an award from search engine watch, rarely will anyone care. Key here is again – recognition. (feature them too though 
)
Media Coverage
Same old story – respect. They will want to see “Wall Streetâ€, “NY Timesâ€, “CNBC†etc. Those publications are “respectedâ€, but like all big media are bought out, so if you have a budget, buy a couple of articles.
If you write for SEM industry respected sites such:
Feature your articles in a column: “our professionals write for the most respected search engine marketing media publications such as …†etc with “blank†links to the source.
Another good way of getting more corporate SEO is having good unique selling proposition.
The Information Structure
The actual content has to be first for the C-level guys, who could not care less for links, keywords and rankings. The writing has to be focused on benefits that your services brings: such as increase in customer traffic, more conversions due to targeted nature of SEO(link to another page and explain), reduced cost per acquisition of customers, etc… The regular marketing stuff taught in every class: forget the features and talk about benefits. Also explain briefly how it is achieved. The detail is not necessary but it has to make sense. If you are full of pops they’ll take notice.
For every person involved in the decision making process, there has to be a number of pages. In corporate SEO it is the CEO, marketing head, IT head(not always), CFO and some lower ranks who do the manual labour of checking all the strings, so prepare for a lot of pages and a lot of writing.
The page length has to be short for each page. I aim for 300 – 400 words. This is because they are in a hurry. A brief article, full of benefits and easy explanation of how those benefits are achieved, with links to other sections within content will do it. It is very important to forget navigation and rely on content links. Navigation is important, but focus on content funnel and then do the navigation to the juiciest pages.
If you explore SEO leaders and guys who get it, you will notice some of them do not have many pages. Don’t try to copy them. If you do not have those “respect†builders in abundance, do heavy writings and site structuring.
Another thing you will notice is that all SEO leaders have case studies. Those are 400 – 700 word articles, showing what they did for clients. Some of them are convincing, some seem phoney. Case studies show what was achieved in perspective and are powerful is you feature a big name and $ values. Study some of them on the net, there are plenty. Don’t sound fake though, as there are some.
To find out more about architecture, read some more of our articles:
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