150%. That's the difference in conversion rates between organizations that have thorough strategic SEO plans in place and those that don't. In a report published by MarketingSherpa, respondents that had a detailed process for performing search engine optimization and inbound marketing not only had 2 and a half times more leads than companies that didn't, they also rated the leads they received as being 900% more likely to be "highest quality". In fact, organizations that have a proven process for inbound lead generation have almost completely filtered out low-quality leads altogether. Having a road map for your SEO efforts will radically improve the quality and conversion of inbound leads for your company, and as such it's... Read More

What does it take to get the most out of search marketing? It definitely takes being at the top of search results, but it hardly ends there. 88% of searchers click on a link if their exact searched for term appears in the results. 48% click if a brand appears more than once on a search results page. These statistics, from a report by ROI Research and published at MediaPost, show how vital it is to understand what your customers are looking for and what they're finding. An in-depth understanding of your targets makes the ROI on your search efforts significantly higher. Read More

The average return on investment seen by B2B advertisers using search marketing is 7:1, according to research by McKinsey & Co. No wonder so many B2B companies are considering starting or have started a search marketing program. Search marketing becomes even more critical when you realize, as Google did in an impact study, that as much as 89% of search advertising traffic cannot be replaced by organic search while ads are paused.Diving head-first into the search advertising world can be daunting though. While the average advertiser spends just under $4 per click (according to the DMA), many end up spending significantly more and converting at a rate much lower than the national average of 3.8%. Bottom line:... Read More

As a company that specializes in search marketing, we know how integral search is - especially for B2B companies. Being the first Google result for a keyword or phrase can boost your traffic by 34.5%. That's the percentage of searchers who click on the first result, and it's almost as much as the combined results of number 2 through 5, according to a study released by Chitika. What this means for businesses is that if you are not showing up on top, your potential customers don't know you exist. Even with B2B businesses, 70% of buyers begin the process by searching for information. While it's possible to pull a potential customer in later in the sales process, missing out on catching him in the very... Read More

According to SearchEngineWatch.com, B2B companies are spending an estimated 33% of their online marketing budgets on SEO. Numerous sources, from business analysts to surveys of marketing professionals, are forecasting this number to grow quickly over the next several years, both in terms of total budget and SEO as a percentage of marketing budget. Even more interesting, many sources are beginning to suggest that SEO should be a part of every marketing budget item, rather than its own category. Why? Because as the rules of being found change, more and more separate fields are becoming linked to the search optimization process. From using Paid Search for organic keyword research to using banner ads as backlinks, now more than ever,... Read More