Can Government Buyers Find You? Time to Up Your SEO Game!

By Gail Bamford, Brand Marketing Manager

In the last year, B2G marketers have had to pivot from depending on live events to fill their sales pipelines. Our websites, which many of us have neglected or not recognized the true value of, have become cornerstones to growing our businesses.

Why You Should Care
A recent report from Market Connections, a leading B2G, B2B and government research company, stated that 82% of federal decision-makers rated corporate websites and search engine results as their top-rated sources for research.

Your website is where you can start building trust and relationships with potential customers and, further down the road, fill your pipeline with qualified leads. But if they can’t find you to begin with, leads are never going to materialize. This is where Search Engine Optimization or SEO can help.

How does your company rank when a potential government customer uses a search engine (Google, Bing, etc.) to research their needs? Does it show up on page 1 or page 10 of search engine results pages? Or does it even show up at all? Now, more than ever, your opportunity to get a leg-up on your competition is your website.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a structured process, driven by data and analysis, to increase the visibility of your website online. It can be tedious and time-consuming, but when done right, it can yield excellent results. But going into it, you need to realize that it is a long-term investment, and you will not see results overnight.

Insight From SEO Subject Matter Experts

I’ve had many conversations about SEO with my Government Marketing University colleagues on this topic. Kris Brinker of Ocean 5 Strategies has been particularly helpful. Her team did a mini-assessment on our website, which pointed to critical areas we needed to act on. Her company has helped many government contractors optimize their websites for SEO and recently published a very helpful blog, “Is SEO Right for My Company?” that goes into more details about the process.

Kris also let us know that now more than ever, the design and speed of your website are really going to have an impact on your website visibility. At the end of last year, Google announced upcoming changes that will increase the importance of website design and its influence on SEO. You can read more in this article “Website Design to Play Bigger Role in SEO-Latest Google Update.”

Measuring SEO Performance

If you don’t know how your website is performing now, an assessment would be a place to start. It will help you determine areas in need of improvement and establish a baseline before you begin an SEO campaign.

If you would like some advice, you can Request a Free SEO Assessment.

While there are many metrics you can use to measure the success of an SEO campaign, the end results you are most likely concerned with are:

• More sales
• More highly qualified leads
• Higher return on investment (ROI)
• Increased brand awareness

Conclusion

Hopefully, your company is already including SEO in their marketing strategy—especially as it relates to public sector audiences. Done right, SEO can make your company website more visible to potential customers, generate more leads and ultimately increase sales. By being proactive in this game, you’ll be able to gain a competitive edge over your competition and establish a strong inbound marketing channel.

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