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There are so many shady characters that will try to sell you how to become #1 on Google searches, this episode isn’t one of them. Instead, we talk to Tony Patrick, who is the director of Digital Marketing for Influence & Co., a midwest content marketing specialty firm. One of Tony’s colleagues wrote this piece in Sales & Marketing.com on SEO tactics and we explore some of the suggestions mentioned in that piece on how B2B marketers can become better SEO practitioners and vet potential content marketing partners to deliver the best and most useful content. The article mentions several tips, including doing keyword research and then implementing them in your content and metadata, placing content in external publications and then doing back links on your site, and also complementing textual pieces with video and podcasts. The basics behind the SEO industry haven’t changed much in the past decade, but it helps to hire someone like Influence&Co. that specializes in this particular area to make sure your website gets traction and well, influence.

We discuss how to understand how SEO operates, why inbound links matter, and how to vet and steer clear of scammers and their “guarantees.” WE also get his suggestions on the best tools to use to track your search results, including Semrush, Hubspot, Ahrefs, and Moz.com.

About David Strom

David Strom is a former editor-in-chief of Network Computing and Tom's Hardware who has written two computer networking books and thousands of articles about B2B IT.

About Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin, host of FIR B2B, is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Full bio