Rebuilding a B2B Website? Incorporate SEO Now!

Writing by Nick Stamoulis

On-site optimization has become more important than ever to capitalize on changing user search behavior and the new search algorithm updates. Aged and established B2B sites that had never done any previous SEO have the luxury of a strong search engine trust factor, something that only time can bring. A little onsite SEO and they see dramatic results relatively quickly. New B2B sites that build SEO right into their web design get off on the right foot and don’t have to worry about scrambling to catch-up down the road. If you’re looking to redesign or re-launch your B2B website, optimize it as you go!

Here are 3 benefits of incorporating SEO into the initial design process:

Your content is ready to rank.
Optimizing your content to incorporate important keywords is one of most important components of onsite SEO. If you create your content with SEO in mind, you’re already a step ahead of the game. As the search engines crawl and index your site, they will know exactly what kind of search queries your site matches, so you can rank well for targeted visitors from the get-go. You can start collecting data on your visitors and their search behavior from the day your site launches and know what keywords are working and what keywords aren’t much sooner than if you waited 6 months to optimize your content.

You can create a strong internal linking structure.
Developing an internal linking structure helps move your visitors along through your site, as well as helps boost the SEO value of internal pages. For most sites, your homepage is going to receive the lion’s share of the links, but the search engines don’t just rank homepages. Your internal products and services pages have the potential to rank as well. By linking from one page to another, you are spreading out the link juice that first page has earned to other pages, making them more important in the eyes of the search engines.

A good internal linking structure can also help increase your conversion rate. You want to lead your visitors down a predetermined path of conversion that keeps distractions at a minimum. By linking related pages together you can provide all the information your visitors need to make a purchasing decision without ever having to leave your site. It also helps keep your visitor focused—too many links and they don’t know where to go next!

You’ll be able to build SEO friendly URLs.
I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve come across that have the worst URL structure! It’ll be a string of numbers, letters and keywords that is far too long and has no SEO value. The problem is that because the URL structure is tied directly to the way the site was built there is no way to optimize them without redesigning the entire site! Save yourself some headaches down the road and build a URL structure you’ll be happy with for the life cycle of your site.