SEO Tips for White Papers and Case Studies

If you are responsible for lead generation campaigns at a B2B company, white papers and case studies would always be your best SEO tools.

Assuming that you have already done your keyword analysis, here are some of the things you need to do in order to achieve good SEO results with your white papers and case studies:

1. Try to get your site to contain as many static pages as possible (indexable URLs)
2. Arrange all files in as many directories as you can, do not place them all in the root.
3. Name your directories and your files using your most desired keywords (separate words with underscores)
4. Include your keywords in all Page Titles
5. Include your company name in all Page Titles
6. Do not worry about META tags if you don't know how to add them, your Page Title is your most important tag
7. Include your keywords in H1s, H2, and H3s. Make sure you use these tags!
8. Create a style format where each title of a PDF document is accompanied by a short abstract, as opposed to being a simple link, and use keywords
9. Add both an 'abstract' and a 'summary' component to your white paper template, this will allow you to use your keywords multiple times without annoying your readers
10. Add a 'table of contents' component to your white paper template, this is a great way to repeat your keywords again
11. Add a 'company name' component in the footer of your white paper template and provide your website URL
12. Interlink your site's internal pages as often as you can (e.g. use margins and place "Related Info" boxes with links to other pages on your site)
13. Your links should have your keyword embedded within, do not use “click here”
14. Try to ensure that each page (i.e. each URL) has approximately 500 words on it with your most important keywords repeated 10-12 times per page
15. Make sure all your press releases contain your most important keywords and are published in full on your website
16. Give out your white papers to your partners and customers and try to get them to post it on their websites
17. Add an RSS component to your website and place each white paper there
18. Register your RSS feed in as many RSS directories as possible
19. Convince your management to allow you to distribute your RSS content via PRweb.com or PR.com. Do this in addition to using your company's official PR firm.
20. Use PayPerPost and similar services to earn back links on the cheap (bloggers will publish comments about your company and a link to your website on their blogs; make sure to request permanent links)


Good luck and call me if you need help with your SEO and Internet Marketing projects, remember your first 30 minutes is free of charge: http://www.annatulchinsky.com

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SEO Guidelines for the Production of White Papers and Case Studies

If you are responsible for marketing lead generation campaigns at a B2B company, white papers and case studies would always be in the center of your attention.

White papers and case studies is something your site's visitors (aka potential customers) will always read if they are serious about buying your type of product or services. Every purchasing decision is accompanied by research of prospective suppliers and basic price/feature comparison. It does not mean that lower prices always win, companies buy "value", but they do shop around before they pick up the phone or click on the "contact sales" link.

Most companies ask users to provide basic registration information before allowing them to download white papers. Case studies are usually available onclick, without registration, but users take case studies less seriously than white papers. Case studies are often written like infomercials and are therefore perceived as being purely of sales value, whereas white papers are more product oriented and perceived as more neutral.

As a rule, white papers and case studies are produced collaboratively by Engineering or R&D departments and Marketing & Sales. Engineering describes the product whereas Marketing explains why customers love it. Every document undergoes a few revisions and the final version usually gets approved by the company CEO (for companies under 100 people).

Marketing managers participate in the white paper production process by making stylistic edits, providing additional illustrations and examples, obtaining customer and partner quotes, and above all by coordinating activities between all parties involved, including external graphic design firms. Once the final version has been approved, marketing managers seldom have freedom to make even minor changes to the document.

So what does a marketing manager need to do in order to maximize the effectiveness of white papers and case studies for the purposes of high SEO ranking and lead generation?

The good news is that if your company has a narrow specialization, SEO optimization of your marketing collateral should not be difficult or very time consuming. First of all, you need to ensure that all your site's content is SEO optimized. Below is a how-to list. Then, you need to create quite a bit of content, i.e. create many web pages, including your PDFs. Then, you need to earn as many back links pointing at your site form external sites as possible. Then, you need to interlink your internal site's pages as often as possible. And you also need to include outgoing links to relevant large websites in your industry. While doing all this, you need to be sure to repeat your selected keywords in the exact same way everywhere.

Start by typing your company's most important keywords on Google and check to see how many search results your query has generated. Avoid using generic one-word or two-word combinations. Adjust your keywords to reflect your company profile as closely as possible.

If your keywords generated under 1 million (M) results, your company's website has a very good chance of getting on the first page quickly. A few million results - you are looking at a few months of work and need to prepare a project plan. Over 10 million results, you need to dive into a serious SEO project, so if your management is not ready to commission it, focus on paid PPC and keyword ad campaigns.

Let's assume your keywords are "worth" less than 1M, i.e. the number of search results returned by search engines in response to your query is under one million. Here is what you need to do ensure that your company's site appears on the first pages on major search engines and is found by your prospective customers:

- Select 2-3 keyword combinations and get them approved by upper management

- Consider those keywords written in stone and focus on them exclusively

- Try to get your site to be at least 100 pages, i.e. as simple static URLs

- Arrange all files in 2-3 directories, and name those directories using your most desired keywords

- Include your keywords in all file names, use underscore to separate words, you will have long file names

- Include your keywords in all Page Titles

- Include your company name in all Page Titles

- Do not worry about META tags if you don't know how to add them, your Page Title is your most important tag anyway

- Re-arrange content on all pages hierarchically, so that to have headers (H1) and subheaders (H2s and H3s)

- Create a style format where each title of a PDF document is accompanied by a short abstract, as opposed to being a simple link, and use keywords

- Add a 'tag' or 'keyword' component to your white paper template, maybe at the end of each section, and include your most desired keywords (a method widely used in academia because it facilitates indexing)

- Add both an 'abstract' and a 'summary' component to your white paper template, this will again allow you to repeat your keywords while also being useful for readers

- Add a 'table of contents' component to your white paper template, this is a great way to repeat your keywords

- Add a 'company name' component in the footer of your white paper template and provide your website URL (very important!). This way, in the eyes of search engines, your PDF documents, which all have their own unique URLs, will have a link pointing to your home page (for search engines, all links have value, including links interconnecting your own pages)

- Include your keywords in H1s, H2, and H3s

- Interlink your site's internal pages as often as you can (e.g. use margins and place "Related Info" box with links to other pages on your site)

- Your links should contain your keywords, use descriptive sentences if you have to ("click here" has very little SEO value, whereas "download this product feature overview" provides an opportunity to use keywords and it is also more informative and hence more convenient for users)

- Split content on each page into small paragraphs and include your keywords in each paragraph

- Use bulleted lists where possible and use keywords there as well

- Try to ensure that each page (i.e. each URL) has approximately 500 words on it with your most important keywords repeated 10-12 times per page

- Ensure that you use exactly the same keywords in your URLs, directory names, Page titles, H1s, H2s, H3s and in the link descriptions. REPEAT THEM IDENTICALLY and also repeat them as variations

- Make sure all your press releases contain your most important keywords and are published in full on your website, not only as lists (add an abstract underneath each title, use keywords)

- If your guidelines permit, include all your links in bold and/or italics

- Create a Site Map and submit it to Google; check to see how many pages have been indexed by Google (site:www.annatulchinsky.com)

- List your company URLs in all possible Internet directories

- If you browse industry blogs, post comments and specify your company URL as often as possible

- Give out your white papers to your partners and customers and try to get them to post it on their websites

- Add an RSS component to your website and produce short informative articles daily, using your keywords and including a link to your website somewhere in the text

- Register your RSS feed in as many RSS directories as possible

- Convince your management to allow you to distribute your RSS content via PRweb.com or PR.com (all you need to do is to enhance your RSS content to make it look like a press release). Do this in addition to promoting your company's official press releases

- Use PayPerPost and similar services to earn back links on the cheap (bloggers will publish comments about your company and a link to your website on their blogs; make sure to request permanent links)

Summary by priorities:

1) Keywords inside file names (i.e. static URLs), inside links, headers and copy (text), keywords must be repeated everywhere identically
2) Number of back links to your site (get as many as you can)
3) Number of pages and number of words per page, with keywords repeated 10-12 times per page

What Not To Do:
1) Do not start working on this project without getting approval from your boss(es)
2) Do not promise specific results to your management at the start of the project, wait until you actually get them (remember, you don't have a budget, so this project is not on your department's road map)
3) Do not try to do everything at once, split your tasks by priorities
4) Do not overdo keyword stuffing, never sacrifice quality of your content for the sake of SEO
5) Do not outsource link building to questionable SEO firms, or else you may find your site listed in adult directories

Good luck and call me if you need help, remember your first 30 minutes is free of charge: http://www.annatulchinsky.com/SEO_Ottawa_Registration.htm

Or contact me via my website design Ottawa site.