In a web 2.0 world, it is becoming a continuous struggle to stay on top of SEO best practices. Staying at the basics, companies need to understand that SEO is moving more to quality as opposed to quantity.

In the past many companies got on the SEO bandwagon by focusing primarily on Meta data. Between meta tags and meta keywords, companies spent more time and effort on the meta information than on the web content itself.

Businesses need to understand that the SEO landscape is constantly evolving. No longer are web spiders just looking at meta data. They’re looking at more important information about a site to determine how high it should rank. Here are some basics for business to business marketers.

Consider focusing your meta descriptions and keywords around solutions and not just hardware. Traditionally, customers are looking to solve problems, not just to look at equipment. Consider focusing on an issue like cost savings, energy efficiency, long-term reliability, etc. Take a step back from what you think you know and ask yourself these questions: “How would I find me?” or “what is my audience really looking for?”

Add long tail keywords to your SEO list. Back to my previous point, consider using “Energy Efficient Air Conditioners” as a keyword instead of just “Air Conditioners”, or “Improving Home Humidity Levels” instead of just “Humidifiers”.

Next, pay close attention to your site’s “Link Equity”. Links on your site to other sites are good, but if you want to rank higher in search results, make your site valuable enough for other agencies, companies and organizations to link to yours. This will show spiders that your site should rank higher in importance. And the better the organization that links to your site the better. Universities, news, government, and industry organizations tend to get some of the most traffic and will certainly improve your link equity.

Lastly, remember that content is key. If your site isn’t giving your audience what they're looking for then they will spend less time on your site and jump away quickly. This is another key factor in determining your site ranking. Web spiders track how long people stay on your site. If visitors jump away too soon then the spiders know that your content is not as valuable to their search audience. You have to remember that Search Engines are in the service business. If they can’t lead their customers to what they are truly looking for then they aren’t doing their job.