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Boost Your Website by Aligning SEO With Sales Funnel – DesignRush

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Each month we evaluate and recognize award-winning designs in these industries.
Browse the best designs by category:
We’ve heard plenty about the power of SEO, but it seems like the rules of the game just keep changing, even more so from industry to industry.
To better grasp how to get it right in the B2B sector, DesignRush reached out to an expert on the matter — Sam Dunning from Breaking B2B.
In our discussion, Sam unveils ways to stand out in the B2B industry and talks about emerging SEO trends and the biggest traps companies face when growing their digital presence.
Sam is a marketing and B2B SEO expert, who is a sales director and co-owner of Breaking B2B. He specializes in business growth through SEO, web development, SaaS development, and digital marketing. Sam is also a founder and host of the B2B marketing podcast “Business Growth Show.”
As a co-owner of Web Choice, Sam shares how he has managed to set himself apart in the B2B industry highlighting that he learned the hard way over the last 13 years he’s been doing SEO.
“I thought we could sell anything to anyone. However, trying to be everything to everyone means being nothing to anyone. It’s better to have a niche and be transparent about who you’re for. This approach attracts the right business prospects and repels those who don’t need your services,” Sam explains.
He says that today, Web Choice UK primarily works with B2B companies with sales teams, specializing in service-based or tech/software companies.
“We generate inquiries through SEO and conversion-focused websites. We prefer these industries because we understand them well,” he adds.
Additionally, Sam runs a podcast focused on business growth which gives him insights into the tech marketing and the B2B market. Having interviewed over 300 tech and marketing leaders, he mentions that he has a good grip on how tech marketing and the B2B market work.
“Rather than just going for vanity metrics like traffic and rankings, we understand that the result is a qualified lead. That’s the output that these companies want,” he reveals.
Sam points out that businesses, especially small or bootstrapped ones with limited cash that like to start with quick wins, should focus on the easiest and most effective channels first.
“You have to think, ‘Where are my target buyers, my target prospects, and the clients that are ideal for me? Where are they most likely going to go when they need my service right now? What are the quickest routes to market for my company?’” he explains.
A good SEO content strategy is to target specific keywords the audience uses. For instance, if people are searching for the “best proposal software tool,” create ads that appear for those keywords.
“This can be one of the fastest ways to reach your market,” he concludes.
Watch our short video below for some tips on how to convert SEO leads into customers:

Sam also believes that SEO takes time and doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. He advises businesses to consider what prospects will search for when they need your service to maximize positive results.
For tech or software companies, investing in aggregator sites like DesignRush that rank well on Google and have lower cost-per-click (CPC) compared to AdWords can quickly generate leads.
According to Sam, content that sells is all about giving your target prospects what they care to see.
He emphasizes that from a search standpoint, a business has to do a few things when creating content:
“The strategy is to make content to directly attack that, whether that’s an article, a video, or a podcast. The beauty is that the content is evergreen. That means that loads of people are searching for it every day. Evergreen content is really powerful,” Sam adds.
According to renowned SEO expert Lily Ray, with the volatile nature of Google’s algorithm updates, it’s best to use a white-hat SEO approach, prioritizing quality content while sticking to search engine guidelines to maintain a website’s integrity.
QGP Founder and SEO Lead Kosta Hristov agrees good content is a key component in a successful SEO strategy.
However, he points out that backlinking is crucial in helping websites rank high on Google, adding that without powerful backlinks, even the highest quality content may not get noticed.
“Content needs to be unique, useful, and trustworthy. But quality content is nothing without powerful backlinks pointing to it. Build links to get your content noticed, until it starts driving traffic by itself,” he explains.
Listen to the full podcast with Sam on Spotify:

When tailoring SEO strategies for different client niches, the focus should be on what prospects are specifically searching for, starting at the bottom of the sales funnel, Sam says, adding that businesses often generate content without considering user intent, leading to traffic but not necessarily leads. 
He believes that effective SEO involves understanding the exact needs of prospects who are ready to engage with sales, such as searching for specific tools if you’re a SaaS provider.
“These prospects probably want to get their question answered. Maybe they’ll sign up for your newsletter, follow your podcast, or follow you on YouTube, which is fine for the top of the funnel.
Those prospects can be nurtured over time and can eventually become customers. But you want to research several ways, such as using keywords, research tools like Ahrefs, and SEMrush, as well as sales schools.
This is something that not a lot of SEO agencies do because companies make the mistake of thinking they must go with high-traffic search terms, but you want to know what the prospect is searching for when they need your offer right now.
If you’re getting asked for something a lot and the software tool is showing it as low search volume, but you know that you’re getting asked for it, build content to match a search query that addresses it, and you could get a steady stream of inquiries from it,” he advises.
Talking about future SEO trends, Sam points out that “AI is probably one of the main things that’s up and coming in terms of an SEO standpoint.” 
He thinks that AI is going to be a huge trend, and he’s excited to see how it will impact search results and certain websites that have been too blog-focused.
“It will also be interesting to see how Google changes its ads because a big money spinner for Google is that, right now, ads show at the top and bottom of every search result. We will see how they keep that flowing when the AI instant search results come,” he adds.

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Why Isn’t Google Showing The Sitelinks I Want? Ask An SEO – Search Engine Journal

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Download your copy of SEO Trends 2025 and discover what to be hopeful about in a changing search world.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Download this guide and learn how to optimize and manage Google Performance Max campaigns, with expert insights and actionable strategies to ensure your campaigns are effective.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Join us as we dive into exclusive survey data from industry-leading SEOs, digital marketers, content marketers, and more to highlight the top priorities and challenges that will shape the future of search in 2025.
There’s no direct way to make Google show the results you want. Use these tips from Kayle Larkin to help influence which sitelinks show up.
If only we had full control over our website’s appearance in Google Search properties.
Sadly, that’s not the case, as someone discovered recently.
Today’s Ask An SEO question comes from Marwan from England, who asks:
“How do I remove transactional landing pages such as “Restaurant branding agency” off my Google organic sitelinks and instead have main pages of my website such as ”about” ”services” “contact”, and blog?
I have implemented all the instructions to influence sitelinks, but I haven’t managed to change them so far.”
Google is trying to make it easy for people to find what they’re searching for.
One of the ways Google does this is by displaying organic sitelinks.
Organic sitelinks are four links displayed under the primary organic listing that go to other pages on your site, or jump directly to content within pages using fragment (#) links.
Here’s an example:

But what happens when Google chooses content such as a transactional landing page that we don’t want front and center?
Is there anything you can do?
Google automates sitelinks.
Site owners and web admins cannot directly demote or remove an unwanted sitelink.
As of February 28, 2022, Google hints that it may incorporate site owner input in the future.
Marwan notes that they have implemented all the instructions to influence sitelinks with no success.
As we don’t know which changes were implemented, it bears repeating.
Here are four best practices, supported by Google, that may influence your sitelinks.
While “Services” is compact, it is not as informative to the Google search user as “Restaurant branding agency.”
This may explain why the transactional landing pages are being pulled over the website’s main pages.
What if “Services” became “Branding Services?”
We don’t know the structure of this website and how it links to relevant pages within, but we know that Google places great emphasis on site structure.
Google Search Central documentation explains that it looks at the structure of your site (how your pages are linked together) to find shortcuts that will help users quickly find the answer to their query.
Are you interested in learning more about site structure and internal linking for SEO?
Jesse McDonald, Global SEO strategist at IBM, wrote an in-depth article to help you establish a strong SEO foundation.
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link.
Mindy Weinstein, SEJ author and Founder at Market Mindshift, shares how she removes unwanted sitelinks in the steps below.
Crawl your website to find all internal links to the page you wish to remove (“Restaurant branding agency”).
Review this list and update the anchor text of internal links going to the unwanted sitelink.
Resubmit in Search Console, wait for crawling, and recheck your search listing.
The last tip should only be used if the landing page is no longer in use.
Noindex or remove the page from your website.
Doing so will effectively remove the organic sitelink, because it removes the page from Google’s index.
While there is no direct control that allows website owners to select or remove sitelinks, we can use the information above to influence which sitelinks show in Google’s search results.
More resources:
Featured Image: Ribkhan/Shutterstock
Editor’s note: Ask an SEO is a weekly SEO advice column written by some of the industry’s top SEO experts, who have been hand-picked by Search Engine Journal. Got a question about SEO? Fill out our form. You might see your answer in the next #AskanSEO post!
Kayle Larkin has been designing search marketing campaigns since you had to be invited to Gmail. She started a white …
Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.
Join Our Newsletter.
Get your daily dose of search know-how.
In a world ruled by algorithms, SEJ brings timely, relevant information for SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs to optimize and grow their businesses — and careers.
Copyright © 2024 Search Engine Journal. All rights reserved. Published by Alpha Brand Media.

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Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google August Core Update Done, Google Interview, Google Ads & Merchant Center News & The YouTube Algorithm SEO – Search Engine Roundtable

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This week, the Google August 2024 core update finished rolling out, a bit earlier than expected. There is still search volatility, a lot of it, days after the core update completed. I also posted a huge interview with Google’s Danny Sullivan on the core update. I posted the big Google Webmaster Report for September 2024. Google updated its canonical doc to say do not specify fragments in your canonicals. Google Search finally supports AVIF images. Google is testing a new forum display for its search results. Google is testing a new shopping search design. Bing Knowledge panels has this table of contents that is interactive. Google Business Profile may be dropping the Q&A feature in some regions. Google is testing new map pin shapes. Google Trends email subscriptions are going away. Google will automatically link Google Ads and Google Merchant Center accounts. Google Ads now has a merchant products tab for images. Google Ads will opt out new accounts from serving ads on parked domains. Google Ads product category level insights is live. Microsoft Advertising announced a bunch of new features. Google Analytics 4 has new benchmarking data. I posted a bunch of videos from YouTube algorithm and SEO questions and answers. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
Sponsor: BruceClay one of the founding fathers of the SEO space, doing search marketing optimization since 1996. Bruce Clay is big into SEO training, check out seotraining.com to learn more and check them out at bruceclay.com. Also, check out their new product, Prewriter.ai – this tool empowers writers to write better and more efficiently, so check it out.
Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast player to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed. For the original iTunes version, click here
Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe on YouTube or subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
The content at the Search Engine Roundtable are the sole opinion of the authors and in no way reflect views of RustyBrick ®, Inc
Copyright © 1994-2024 RustyBrick ®, Inc. Web Development All Rights Reserved.
This work by Search Engine Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Creative Commons License and YouTube videos under YouTube’s ToS.

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Video: Google November 2024 Core Update, AI Overview Hyperlinks, SEO, Ads, AdSense & More – Search Engine Roundtable

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For the original iTunes version, click here.
Google launched the November 2024 core update earlier this week, and we are now starting to see movement and ranking shifts because of it. Google AI Overviews is testing using real hyperlinks, instead of paperclips. Google cautioned about using Google Trends for content development. Google told SEOs not to over focus on URL structure. Google spoke about SEO advice for version history pages. I spoke a bit about term drift and why it matters. Google Search now supports C2PA metadata for images. Google Maps launched products nearby. Google Merchant Center added sale events promotion types. Google is testing an AI chat sales assistant feature in Search. Google Ads is updating is customer match policies. Google Ads is testing subheadlines in a big way. Google Shopping Ads can show both seller and product ratings. Google Ads turned on election ads again. Google Ads Editor version 2.8 is out. Google AdSense launched collapsible anchors. Google AdSense changed its first-party cookie controls. Bing added rich entity cards and popular search refinements to its autosuggest feature. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
SPONSOR: Wix Studio – Did you know the Wix Studio SEO Course is live. It covers topics like keyword research, technical SEO, local SEO, SEO reporting, link building and more. Learn more at wix.com/seo/learn/course.
Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast player to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:
Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe on YouTube or subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
The content at the Search Engine Roundtable are the sole opinion of the authors and in no way reflect views of RustyBrick ®, Inc
Copyright © 1994-2024 RustyBrick ®, Inc. Web Development All Rights Reserved.
This work by Search Engine Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Creative Commons License and YouTube videos under YouTube’s ToS.

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5 Ways to Advertise Your CBD Brand Online – Search Engine Journal

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Download your copy of SEO Trends 2025 and discover what to be hopeful about in a changing search world.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Download this guide and learn how to optimize and manage Google Performance Max campaigns, with expert insights and actionable strategies to ensure your campaigns are effective.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Join us in analyzing 3 case studies that show the importance of driving brand search behavior and engagement, and how to do it in months, instead of years.
Join us as we dive into exclusive survey data from industry-leading SEOs, digital marketers, content marketers, and more to highlight the top priorities and challenges that will shape the future of search in 2025.
Almost all major online advertising channels restrict brands from promoting CBD products. But brands can advertise CBD products online. Here’s how.
The North American cannabis industry is expected to reach $16 billion by the end of 2019.
CBD is one of the most profitable product categories in the industry and is projected to bring in total revenue of $1.6 billion in the U.S. within the next couple of years.
As one of the fastest-growing trends in consumer goods, it’s difficult to ignore the growing presence of cannabidiol (CBD).
Despite this, almost all major online advertising channels including Facebook, Instagram, Google, Amazon, and Snapchat don’t allow brands to promote CBD products. Thus, CBD companies need to find other ways to generate awareness and build their brands online.
Facebook has recently relaxed their policies somewhat, but brands are still unable to advertise products or posts referencing CBD on their site.
Here at Hallam, we’ve been approached to develop market penetration strategies for a number of CBD clients. These often encompass creative SEO strategies to target long-tail searches, alongside content and PR campaigns designed to gain brand recognition in what’s becoming a rapidly saturated market.
Doubling down on education and thought leadership content can also be effective as an entry point since consumers are actively searching for information on what’s still a relatively new topic to the general public.
While they are certainly worth investing time in, relying purely on organic and earned media strategies will take time to generate traction for a new brand.
Like any other industry, CBD brands should still have an eye on paid media as an acquisition strategy.
But how can you advertise CBD brands despite the current restrictions on most major ad platforms?
Just because Google has barred CBD ads doesn’t mean that display advertising isn’t possible.
Outside of the Google Display Network, there is a range of platforms available to advertisers looking to access display inventory on websites that will allow CBD-related ads to run on their sites.

One platform clearly capitalizing on the current restrictions placed on CBD ads is FieldTest.
The platform has struck deals with premium publishers across the web and made them available to CBD advertisers through their platform.

From syndicated content to high-end ad placements, using platforms like FieldTest can prove a great way of gaining brand awareness and traffic via premium inventory outside of the Google Display Network.
Influencer marketing allows CBD brands to bypass advertising restrictions in place on popular platforms such as Facebook and Instagram by tapping directly into the organic following of relevant influencers on each platform.

Need all the energy I can get for this stadium workout, meaning a good night sleep.. good thing I had my @chiefcbd last night 🤩😛 #cbdoil #tuesday
A post shared by Madison Emery (@madisonkayfit) on

Partnering with influencers enables CBD brands to reach a wider audience through organic social posts by tapping into individuals who already have a large community of followers.
Choosing the right influencers is essential to ensure a strong brand fit.
It’s also important to keep in mind that sometimes influencers with smaller audiences can actually be better options for brands than influencers with larger reach but less engagement in the CBD niche.
Native advertising is classified as a type of digital ad placed on a publication where the advertisement does not disrupt the user experience. Here, ads are embedded in the content or in some cases, are the content.
This strategy usually revolves around placing sponsored content on third-party websites, billed on a CPC or a CPM basis.
Many native platforms have restrictions on the type of content that’s able to be promoted. That said, there are strategies available to navigate the restrictive policies of many native platforms as explained in this post on the native platform StackAdapt.
By placing sponsored content into publications like Forbes, for example, with millions of monthly active users, you can leverage the scale of their audience to grow awareness of your brand.
Because affiliate fees are based on performance (% commission based on sales of your products), working with affiliates is a low-risk method of generating qualified traffic.
There are already a number of CBD companies signed up to major affiliate networks such as affiliate window, while other trusted affiliate networks include ShareASale, CannAffiliate and Clickbank.
This is a strategy available to any CBD brands looking to get support in driving online sales for an agreed commission.
Podcast ads aren’t widely used as part of a digital strategy but they are being used by CBD companies to boost brand awareness considering other advertising restrictions currently in place.
Platforms such as Midroll exist purely as a go-between for Podcast producers and advertisers, enabling CBD brands to deliver ads in partnership with podcasts they feel will attract relevant listeners.
CBD advertisers can expect to pay $18-50 per thousand impressions (CPM) for podcast ads. These ads are measured (and billed) by downloads: how many times an episode that contains an ad is downloaded.
Podcast advertising is certainly a unique approach to finding a highly engaged audience. It should be considered by CBD brands who aren’t currently able to invest in brand awareness through mainstream digital advertising channels.
Despite extremely limiting restrictions on traditional advertising platforms, there is a range of alternative options available to CBD brands looking to invest in paid acquisition.
Indeed, it’s highly likely Google, Facebook and other major players will lift their restrictions on CBD ads in the year ahead.
For now, CBD brands can also invest in building a solid organic foundation through informational content and creative PR activity to:
The CBD space is becoming more saturated by the day, so it’s important to get your ducks in a row before unleashing your advertising budget.
Ensure you’re able to differentiate your brand and clearly articulate through the power of persuasion why potential customers should choose you over the multitude of alternative CBD brands already on the market.
More Resources:
Image Credits
All screenshots taken by author, November 2019
Ben Wood is the Strategy & Innovation Director at Hallam, voted Best Large Integrated Agency at both the Global and …
Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.
Join Our Newsletter.
Get your daily dose of search know-how.
In a world ruled by algorithms, SEJ brings timely, relevant information for SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs to optimize and grow their businesses — and careers.
Copyright © 2024 Search Engine Journal. All rights reserved. Published by Alpha Brand Media.

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