For me, SEO has always been about marketing, or online marketing. It is not just about rankings (I’ll discuss my thoughts on rankings later in this series) but SEO is more about trying to help people find the information that they are looking for. Those of us who have been involved in the world of SEO for some time have witnessed a number of changes over the years. We have seen different KPIs and metrics come to rise while others have faded into oblivion. We have seen new tools become available for use in monitoring SEO success and progression. But where are we with SEO in late 2008, as we move into the next decade?

SEO in 2009: Four Elements of Change

There are four SEO-related areas where I see change happening in 2009. Many would say that we have already started down this path during the past couple of years, but I think that we will experience even more marketers going down this path.
 

1. Refocusing on Metrics that Matter
2. Understanding that SEO does in fact provide value
3. Shifting of Budget towards SEO
4. Personalization and Blended Search Results

I think that we are starting to see a shift in the understanding of SEO. Large companies are learning about the value of SEO as part of their online marketing strategy and as part of their overall marketing strategy. The greatest part about SEO is that, when done properly, SEO is a cost effective way of driving business to your company and improving your bottom line. Yet marketing managers continue to pour money into sponsored search and Pay Per Click efforts. Ask yourself this, how many of you feel that you have a proportional budget between SEO and PPC? How many of you have actual line items for SEO?

In these tough economic times, it only makes sense that marketers take a long hard look at SEO and the benefit it can provide. SEO is a relatively cheap and cost effective way of promoting your products, your services or your brand. When marketing budgets are cut, SEO may just be what the doctor ordered. As mentioned in our series on Organic Search: What is in it For You? series, SEO (or organic search as it is sometimes referred to) tends to provide longer lasting results in the search engine results pages that you do not have to pay for unlike PPC. Strong organic visibility once achieved can provide a fantastic return on your investment.

This series on SEO in 2009 is continued over at SEO-Space.

So from an online perspective, how do you determine whom you should be measured against?  Well the easiest way is to perform a query in Google or your search engine of preference and see who occupies the real estate on the SERP for your important key phrases.  Depending on the type of search that you do (i.e. a search for a more general "head" type keyword or a more focused "long-tail" keyword), you may see the same sites showing up or you may see completely unique site showing up.  You may see entirely different sites come up than what you expected.  The reason for this?  Well you can thank SEOs, bloggers, online marketers for this.  The process of "optimizing" a web page has allowed Webmasters and site owners somewhat position sites in the search results.  The search engines are trying to communicate the most relevant result based on the query, but  unfortunately the most relevant results do not always show up. 

Before we proceed, we need to define online competiton and offline competition.

Online Competition – these are websites that show up in the search results for a given query related to your busineess or your industry.  For example a search for "plumbing supplies" returns sites such as plumbingsupply.com, plumbersurplus.com, and showerbuddy.com.  When in fact the user may have been looking for something more along the lines of a plumbing retailer such as Lowe’s or Home Depot.  Lowe’s or Home Depot, may not consider "plumbersurplus.com or "showerbuddy.com" a competitor per se, but in reality if Lowe’s or Home Depot is trying to rank for "plumbing supplies" all of the above mentioned sites are examples of online competition.

Offline Competition - offline is the more traditional way we think about a competitor.  For Coke it’s Pepsi, for Home Depot it’s Lowes etc.  Your offline competitors tend to be the businesses that you are trying to obtain market share from (not that you are not from an online competitor) but think of an offline competitor as the "traditional" competitor of a given business.  Depending on the keyword searched for, your offline competitor may or may not show up in the results. 

It should be noted that there are also "category killers" in the search results that also become a form of online competition.  These might be directories, blogs or sites like Wikipedia that come up for a given term.  If they are frequenting the search results space that you should be in, then consider them an indirect online competitor.

Well now that we have defined what an online competitor is, what does this mean for your marketing effort?  Well from an SEO perspective it means being aware of the competitive landscape on a search engine results page.  Understand who else is positioning for your key phrases that are of interest to your business or your industry.  From an SEO perspective there are some simple steps that you should follow in identifying and dealing with your online competition.

1. Identify Your Online Competition - know who you are competing with for a given set of queries.  Start with Google and look at who is showing up for a sample of keywords that you are attempting to gain visibility for.
    
2. Identify Relevant Keywords - continue to refine your keyword list to ensure that you are focusing on the keywords that your customer or your prospect will be searching for.
    
3. Review your Online Competitor’s Websites – specifically the site(s) that are rnaking strong efforts and are gaining a presence in the online space.  Look at what they are doing right from an optimization point of view.  Examine things such as their meta data, page copy, on-page headings and interlinking strategies to identify ways to improve your own web properties.
    
4. Monitor the Search Engine Results Pages - the Internet is a dynamic environment.  The search engines results are just as dynamic.  Make it a habit to periodically check the search results for a sample of yout key phrases.  This will help you determine which sites are making the effort to succeed online.  If you are able to identify such sites, you will be able to better compete with this online competition.

When asked about their competitors, many site owners or more importantly C-Suite executives will refer to their traditional offline competition.  However the focus needs to change to include being aware of those web sites that have gained great visibility on the Web; the competition that one may not think of as a traditional competitor.  Online competitors are websites that are taking eyeballs away from your site and if not addressed, can collectively obtain prospects and customers that you are seeking.  Failure to optimize and promote your website in an organic manner could mean that you are missing an opportunity to maintain or gain a competitive edge in your industry.   Your online marketing efforts need to target both the offline and online competition.  The Internet is a hyper-competitive environment.  Understanding who you are competing with for online real estate is something that 10 years ago we never had to worry about.  In this day and age, understanding your online competiton is becoming as important as understanding your traditional competitor.

1. Consider Creating an Online Community of Interest Around Your Solution – social marketing continues to be an effective method for reaching new prospects and can provide access to leads that may have otherwise been overlooked.
2. Make use of Online Video or a Video Blog with Product/Solution Demos – with the surging popularity of online video with YouTube and Google Video, creating a video blog with a series of your solution demos or interviews with key company personnel is a great way to generate top of mind awareness and build trust with your potential prospects.
3. Use Mobile Marketing to Compliment your Online Presence – the number of cell phone users continues to increase.  Having a mobile marketing strategy through mobile ads can help promote traffic to your web properties.  Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia.
4. Have Dedicated Resources for Search Engine Marketing – whether in-house or outsourced, the organizations that realize search is here to stay have dedicated budgets for online marketing.  Dedicated online marketing staff can keep on top of the latest online strategies and evaluate which strategies can be of the most benefit.
5. Check out the Competition – what are they doing?  What are they not doing?  Are they using some new online marketing strategy that you can leverage and make better use of?
6. Live and Breath Relationship Marketing – The longer, more complex buying cycle means that relationships have to be cultivated and grown over a lengthy period of time.  Having plans in place for building a long-term relationship for prospects through your website is critical in creating top of mind awareness and building the relationship between your organization and your prospects.
7. Learn, Understand and Utilize Widget Marketing – with a surging increase in the use of widgets, widget marketing can help help promote your product or solution as widgets are all about providing your users with the tools to promote your B2B business or any business/online property.
8. Determine your most important and actionable KPIs – Being cutting edge means that realizing that not all leads should be treated as equal.  Successful lead generation will rely on multiple KPIs to keep the online marketing program focused and effective—and to keep you from wasting time and money on leads that just don’t matter.  Three KPIs to live by: Leads Generated (This metric is very high level and should be considered a long-term trended KPI. As traffic fluctuates, leads will naturally fluctuate.), Lead Conversion Ratio (the conversion ratio is generally influenced positively by incentives including offers and negatively by barriers like poor navigation or onsite security concerns), Cost per Lead (Cost per Lead is a ratio and strategic metric, should never be managed independent of revenue)
9. Prepare for the Personalization of Search – the switch from a universal Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to a somehwhat unique results page for each and every user who performs a query for one of your keywords.  Ensuring that you have the relevant content to be found in "personalized" search results can improve your chances for consideration as your prospect goes through their buying process.
10. Have an Interactive Site – providing avenues for user generated content can help enhance the user experience and improve your presence in the search engines.  Updating your site to be search engine friendly and to allow for user interaction is a great way to generate traffic, interest and leads for your business.

In the end what does it mean for B2B Marketers?

According to the Direct Marketing Association, by 2008 online marketing efforts will be the dominant media for business-to-business initiatives.  Today’s B2B marketers need to keep up with the demands, and identify emerging trends before they impact efforts.  Becoming an early adopter is key if business to business marketers are to become cutting edge with their online marketing efforts