Enterprise-scale businesses are often underserved when it comes to marketing strategies. Because of their size, market influence and resources, it’s easy to assume that enterprises have it all figured out.
However, enterprises face unique marketing challenges specifically because of their market share and size. Even dominating businesses need to have an effective SEO strategy for continued online visibility, website traffic and increasing sales.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into the most effective SEO strategies tailored specifically for enterprises, helping you to continue your established search engine presence and stay ahead of the competition.
We’re defining an enterprise as a business that has the resources and influence to overwhelm and dictate its industry’s market. Even if your business is an emerging enterprise–not quite a household name but close–these SEO strategies can help take your business to the next level.
Unique Challenges of SEO for Enterprises
Embedding SEO in a Larger Marketing Scheme
The size of enterprises typically makes every branch of marketing larger and impactful compared to smaller businesses due to larger marketing budgets, teams, and objectives.
For example, paid traffic is higher, social media traction is more impactful, and search traffic is more diverse.
In such circumstances, enterprise SEO has a stronger effect on other marketing departments and other marketing departments have a stronger impact on SEO. For example, increased digital ad expenses facilitates more analytical data about behavior and conversion potential of certain pages, which, in turn, can inform better SEO content decisions.
Another example would be optimizing SEO pages at scale, which might lead to an influx of support tickets, social media inquiries from website visitors, or conversions.
Always make sure to sync major SEO campaigns with other marketing departments to gauge their potential effect in the enterprise setting.
Managing Scale Of SEO Optimizations
In enterprise SEO, many SEO optimizations happen at scale: updating the structure of hundreds of pages at once, updating CMS code, website layout, website navigation can have drastic effects on your SEO performance.
This is a snowball effect: even when you update the smallest things, search engines still try to crawl every page on your website, so, depending on the scale of optimizations, you might be effectively changing hundreds or thousands of pages at once.
For that reason, in enterprise SEO, testing and tracking the impact of SEO changes, even the smallest ones, becomes crucial.
If you plan to implement some changes to the website pages, try and test the impact of these changes on a smaller number of pages first: roll out changes manually and track the changes in rankings and impressions over several weeks as often the result of your optimizations in SEO is delayed by that long.
Track Your Competition
The scale of enterprise companies usually entails having a lot of competitors, big and small, competing for the same slate of keywords and rankings.
Often the SERP (search engine results pages) will be changing a lot, especially for your most commercially-lucrative keywords.
For that reason, set up a few real-time dashboards to track your competitors and their rankings to always be aware of significant changes in their SEO strategy.
Sometimes a complete website overhaul of a competitor or their very successful PR campaign can change SEO status quo significantly, taking over some of your important rankings, and you always need to know what happened and how to work through that.
Because enterprise-scale businesses’ websites can be hundreds of pages–each designed to meet a specific geographic region’s needs–it can be difficult to optimize each page efficiently and effectively without a strategy in place; And because enterprises are typically already well-known within their market, marketing practices like SEO can appear superfluous.
Let's explore some effective SEO strategies tailored specifically for enterprises.
1. Perform Encompassing Keyword Research and Optimization
Keyword research and optimization are the bedrock of an effective SEO plan. Keywords within search queries are overwhelmingly responsible for triggering paid advertisements as well as organic content within search results.
Attaching high-volume and relevant keywords to your enterprise’s website content incentivizes search engine algorithms to serve your content over your competition’s.
For enterprise-scale businesses in particular, researching and optimizing keywords for specific regions that your company serves is vital. Typical keyword research may not account for the vast geographic span that your enterprise covers or for the unique seasonal traffic fluctuations your business experiences. When choosing keywords for your website’s content, make sure to consult any influences that geography and seasonality may have for their effectiveness.
How to conduct keyword research and optimization for enterprises:
Identify the terms and phrases potential customers are currently using to search for online. Keep in mind that these keywords may change from region to region and from one season to the next.
Focus on long-tail keywords that are specific to your products or services, such as "eco-friendly roofing materials" or "durable flooring options." Aim to be as specific as possible while capturing the largest, high-intent audience.
Optimize your website's meta tags, headings and content with these targeted keywords to improve your website’s chances of ranking higher in search results. While online users’ search queries influence search engines’ results, backend algorithms also crawl websites looking for relevant keyword signals.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, SEMrush and Answer the Public to identify and target high-volume, relevant keywords.
2. Implement Strict Content Quality Guidelines
All content from your enterprise needs to cater to two audiences: your enterprise’s potential customers and the search engine algorithms. Valuing one audience over the other will result in poor-quality content that will get penalized and disregarded by both audiences in different ways.
Here’s how to create high-quality content for your enterprise:
- Create content that addresses the immediate needs and interests of your target audience. Before drafting a content calendar complete with topics, take time to research what keywords are currently performing and how your business can offer a new take on a trending subject.
- Develop shareable blog posts, articles, how-to guides and product reviews related to, construction techniques and industry trends. Content is considered “shareable” when it offers actionable value and is technologically easy to share across internet platforms.
- Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your content while ensuring readability and value for your audience. Avoid the black-hat SEO strategy of “keyword stuffing.” Keyword stuffing is overfilling your website’s content with competitive keywords in an unnatural and spammy way. Both online users and search engine algorithms know how to spot keyword stuffing right away and the practice will result in empty traffic and clicks for your content.
3. Mobile Optimization
Researching with a mobile device is now second nature for every consumer within any industry. Even if your enterprise boasts an established and easily recognizable brand, optimizing your website for mobile devices is crucial for continued SEO success.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when optimizing your website for mobile:
- Ensure that your website is mobile-responsive, meaning it adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. An experienced web developer working with a state-of-the-art website hosting platform can easily test this.
- Mobile-friendly websites are favored by search engines and provide a better user experience, leading to higher rankings and increased traffic.
- Make sure that your website loads just as quickly and the navigation is just as user-friendly on mobile as it is on desktop.
4. Local SEO
Enterprises often serve specific geographic regions or markets. Leveraging local SEO tactics can help you target customers in your business’s area effectively.
Local SEO strategies involve creating local search engine listings, complete with business information like hours of operation, customer reviews, photos, address and contact information. It also involves creating a Maps listing and optimizing content for “near me” and “local” search queries.
Here are a few ways to continue optimizing your enterprise for local SEO success:
- Consistently collect and respond to customer reviews on your search engine business listings.
- Make regular posts via your search engine business listings. These posts can highlight new products, local events that your enterprise sponsored, satisfied customer testimonials and more.
- Keep all business information updated. Include new photos, make sure holiday business hours are correct and that any attached links are working.
5. Link Building
Link building is a collaborative SEO practice. It involves generating outside links that connect back to your enterprise’s website pages. The more backlinks from other reputable websites your enterprise can acquire, the better its SEO rankings will be.
Enterprises typically have no problem generating a strong arsenal of backlinks due to their large influence and widespread, trusted reputation. Oftentimes, backlinks to your website will happen without too much strategy and effort on the business’s part (aside from publishing high-quality content). However, implementing a strategy to continuously generate reputable backlinks is the best way to ensure stellar SEO.
Here’s how:
- Reach out to industry influencers, bloggers and authoritative websites for guest blogging opportunities or collaborations.
- Create valuable content that others in your industry will want to link to, such as industry reports, case studies and expert guides.
- Offer up your enterprise’s website and media channels as a space for other reputable businesses to communicate their knowledge and value so they are incentivized to share the content with their audience and link to your enterprise’s site.
6. Social Media Integration
While social media signals may not directly impact search engine rankings, maintaining an active presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can indirectly support your enterprise’s SEO efforts.
Social media is often a first or second stop in a consumer’s research journey. If your enterprise doesn’t have a strong social media presence, there’s a chance your ideal customers will pass your business by and choose one of your competitors that is leveraging social media. This can result in lower website traffic and thus lower search engine rankings.
Here are a few social media post ideas for your enterprise:
- Share your website’s content (blogs, podcasts, infographics…etc.) on social media channels to increase visibility and engagement, driving traffic back to your website.
- Engage with your audience, respond to comments and messages promptly and encourage social sharing of your content to expand your enterprise’s reach.
- Host livestreams, create shoppable content and follow social media trends to capitalize on what the algorithms are currently serving and pushing to larger audiences.
7. Monitor and Analyze Performance
As your enterprise employs these SEO strategies, regularly monitor your website's performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Use the data to make evidence-based decisions about what to do next or what to change with your enterprise’s marketing and SEO.
Here are a few ways to effectively analyze performance data:
- Track key metrics such as website traffic, keyword rankings, conversion rates and user engagement to assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is an excellent resource.
- Use this data to identify areas for improvement and refine your SEO strategy over time, staying agile and adaptive to changes in the search landscape.
- Make analysis a routine element of your enterprise’s operations. Prioritize data-backed findings over hunches or even what’s worked in the past.
Advanced SEO Strategies for Enterprises:
1. Schema Markup Implementation
Implementing schema markup on your enterprise’s website can improve its visibility in search results by providing search engines with structured data about your products, services and business information. A crawlable website schema makes website indexing and understanding content easier for search engine algorithms, incentivizing them to serve your content in search engine results.
Here are a few other things to know about schema markups:
- Utilize schema markup for different types of your enterprise offers, technical data and pricing information (not just your overall website’s structure).
- Schema markup helps search engines understand the context of your content better, resulting in rich snippets and enhanced SERP features, which can increase click-through rates
2. Voice Search Optimization
With the rise of voice-activated virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, optimizing your enterprise’s content for voice search is becoming increasingly important. Your business likely rose to enterprise level without the help of voice search and voice assistant bots. However, continuing to thrive as an enterprise and gain more ground will necessitate voice search optimization.
Here’s how to optimize web content for voice searches:
- Add conversational keywords and phrases that people are likely to use when conducting voice searches, such as "best roofing materials near me" or "where to buy sustainable flooring" to your content.
- Create FAQ pages and optimize them for long-tail, question-based keywords to capture voice search queries effectively.
- To capture leads voice searching on the road, make sure your Maps listing is optimized and any paid advertisements are geofenced.
3. Video Content Strategy
Video content is currently the top-performing style of online content–especially in industries like construction and home improvement. Your enterprise doesn’t need to create video content like HGTV or long-form television series to be competitive with the medium. While it can certainly help for the content’s video quality to appear professional and high-production, the best measure of a video’s success will be the value it adds to its viewers.
Here are some things to keep in mind when creating video content for your enterprise:
- Create informative and engaging video content showcasing your installation techniques, customer testimonials and project showcases. Remember to make the content customer-focused, highlighting how your business’s products and services can add tangible value to their lives.
- Optimize your video titles, descriptions and tags with relevant keywords to improve visibility on YouTube and other video-sharing platforms.
- Don’t shy away from utilizing humor and adding personality into videos–especially videos meant for social media. Adding value via video can look like education, entertainment or direct sales pitches.
4. Technical SEO Optimization
Technical SEO refers to the optimization of your website's technical elements to improve its search engine visibility and performance.
Here’s how to optimize technical elements:
- Ensure that your website is properly indexed by search engines and directories by submitting an XML sitemap and resolving any crawl errors. Tools like Yext can help here.
- Optimize page load speed, fix broken links and ensure proper backend canonicalization to avoid duplicate content issues and improve user experience. Thorough testing and superior organization will keep these issues at bay.
- A clean backend experience translates into a clean frontend experience. Invest in a powerful CRM and a responsive development team.
5. Continuous Content Optimization
SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and optimization of your website's content.
- Regularly update and refresh your existing content to keep it relevant and up-to-date with industry trends and developments.
- Conduct regular content audits to identify gaps, opportunities and areas for improvement, and make necessary adjustments to improve search visibility.
Need a Reliable SEO Partner?
Mastering SEO is essential for achieving long-term success and growth for your enterprise. By implementing the SEO strategies outlined in this guide, you can enhance your enterprise’s online visibility, attract more targeted traffic and, ultimately, drive higher sales and revenue for your business.
Stay focused, stay informed, and stay ahead of the competition with a robust SEO strategy tailored to your unique needs. With dedication, patience and continuous optimization, you can dominate search engine results and further position your business as a leader in the industry.
Venveo specializes in marketing for businesses and our proven growth strategies can take any company to the next level. Contact us today or view the rest of our website to learn more about how we can help.
