Search marketing has matured in many ways throughout 2019. At each twist and turn along the journey, we've done our best to not only cover each change thoroughly, but to also offer insight and research-based strategy to help savvy digital marketers along the way. We’re fortunate to have a stellar group of digital marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing Blog, with our CEO Lee Odden, Associate Director of Search & Analytics Tiffani Allen, Vice President of Client Accounts Alexis Hall, Content Strategist Anne Leuman, and others, each contributing valuable and actionable search marketing insights, tips, and tactics this past year. To help our blog community grow its search marketing knowledge, we’re thrilled to offer this list of our most popular search marketing posts of 2019.
Our Most Popular Search Marketing Posts in 2019:
1. 5 SEO Mistakes Killing Your Content Performance and a Fix for Each — Tiffani Allen
Our talented Associate Director of Search & Analytics Tiffani Allen wrote our most popular search marketing post of 2019, taking an important look at five SEO mistakes killing your content performance, and offering up an actionable fix for each. Tiffani explored how to avoid and fix keywords based solely on volume, using too much targeting, and the perils of ignoring internal link structures. Check out all of Tiffani's posts here, and follow her on Twitter. [bctt tweet="“Following SEO best practices as a content marketer can reduce performance-related headaches and set you up for long-term success.” @Tiffani_Allen" username="toprank"]
2. The Relationship Between SEO and Social Media: It’s Complicated … and Complementary — Nick Nelson
The second most popular search marketing post of the year is by our Senior Content Strategist Nick Nelson, who deftly explores the complicated yet complimentary relationship between SEO and social media, and shows how to maximize both in unison with your marketing efforts. Check out all of Nick's posts here, and follow him on Twitter. [bctt tweet="“In a sea of competing ephemeral content, you’ve really got to stand out to capture someone’s attention and compel a click.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
3. What the Future of Google Search Means for B2B Marketers — Lane R. Ellis
In the number three spot on our top search marketing posts of 2019 list, I explored what the future of Google search mean for B2B marketers, looking at how touch-free Motion Sense gestural search and other changes will affect the course of B2B marketing in 2020 and beyond. Check out all of my posts here, and follow me on Twitter. [bctt tweet="“Innovations at Google will alter how people search, learn, and lead their professional and personal lives.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
4. How A Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results — Lee Odden
Our CEO Lee Odden wrote the fourth most popular search marketing post on our blog in 2019, exploring how a best-answer content strategy can drive impressive B2B marketing results, showing its value and offering up strong examples of what it takes to be the best answer. Lee shows that being the best answer is hard, but that it's the price for being in the winner’s circle of consistent top visibility. Check out all of Lee’s 2,600+ posts here, and follow him on Twitter. [bctt tweet="“If buyers don’t see consistent, credible and engaging 'best answer' content across channels from your brand, they’ll begin to trust competitors who are.” @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]
5. The Intersection of SEO & Influencer Marketing: What B2B Marketers Need to Know — Caitlin Burgess
Our Senior Content Marketing Manager Caitlin Burgess earned the number five spot on our top search marketing posts of the year list, showing how B2B marketers benefit when SEO and influence collide, becoming a powerful keyword and topical research tool to create best-answer content that audiences and search engines crave. Check out all of Caitlin’s posts here, and follow her on Twitter. [bctt tweet="“Integration is absolutely essential for driving digital and content marketing success in the crowded, competitive B2B landscape.” @CaitlinMBurgess" username="toprank"]
6. How B2B Marketers Can Win at Search with Best Answer Content — Nick Nelson
Nick also penned the sixth most popular search marketing post of 2019, with a detailed look at how you can modernize search marketing to fit with a fully customer-centric strategy, with insight from our guide to identifying “best answer” opportunities. Nick shows how multiple disciplines — from technical SEO to creative content — can be leveraged to win the search marketing game. [bctt tweet="“When marketers make the effort to see every side of the questions their customers are asking, we can see the bigger picture and craft content to fully satisfy the extent of a searcher’s interest.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
7. 6 Cannes Revelations About B2B Marketing in 2020 — Lane R. Ellis
Another of my posts made the year's top 10 search marketing post lists, exploring a number of B2B search revelations from the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with six take-aways including diversity KPIs, real-time branding, micro-storytelling, and the rise of customer-driven search journeys. [bctt tweet="“Search taking place from smart speakers and other connected voice-assisted is poised to boom in the coming years, and podcasting is expanding to offer new ways to integrate brand messaging.” @LaneREllis" username="toprank"]
8. 10 Smart Question Research Tools for B2B Marketers — Lane R. Ellis
In our eighth most popular search marketing post of 2019, a share 10 smart question research tools and an array of savvy tactics to help B2B marketers uncover the questions your audience is asking, and provide best-answer solutions. [bctt tweet="“How can you be the best answer for your audience if you don’t understand what questions they’re asking or what problems they’re trying to solve?” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
9. Hey Alexa: How Do I Bake Voice Search Into My B2B Marketing Strategy? — Nick Nelson
With his third appearance on our search marketing top 10 list, Nick shows how B2B brands can ensure that their content strategy is aligned with the rise of voice search, and helps you find your B2B marketing voice. [bctt tweet="“B2B companies need to be less robotic, and more human. The rise of voice search is simply another trend feeding the urgency.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
10. Optimize Your B2B Content Performance with an SEO Audit — Tiffani Allen
Tiffani makes another appearance on our top 10 list of search marketing posts for the year, exploring how can you optimize your B2B content performance using a thoughtful and strategic SEO audit to help you understand your landscape by analyzing technical, on-page and off-page factors, and more. [bctt tweet="“A strategic and thoughtful SEO audit will result in a clear, prioritized and actionable plan to improve your search visibility in the ways it matters most to your business.” @Tiffani_Allen" username="toprank"] We can't thank Tiffani, Nick, Lee, and Caitlin enough for these top 10 search marketing posts of 2019 — congratulations on making the list!
Thanks TopRank Marketing Writers & Readers
We published dozens of posts this year specifically about search marketing, and plan to bring you even more in 2020, so stay tuned for a new year of the latest helpful search industry research and insight. Please let us know which search marketing topics and ideas you'd like to see us focus on for 2020 — we'd love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to leave those thoughts in the comments section below. Many thanks to each of you who read our blog regularly, and to all of you who comment on and share our posts on the TopRank Marketing social media channels at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.The post Our Top 10 Search Marketing Posts of 2019 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
In recent years headlines like ‘
Alicia Tillman @aliciatillman Global CMO at SAP 
Bozoma Saint John @badassboz CMO at ENDEAVOR 
Dee Mc Laughlin @deemclaughlin SVP, Global Brand & Creative at Capital Group / American Funds 
Jeanne Hopkins @jeannehopkins CMO at Lola 
Kathy Button Bell @Emerson_KathyBB Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer at Emerson 
Linda Boff @lindaboff CMO at GE 
Meg Goldthwaite @MegZGold CMO at National Public Radio 
Tifenn Dano Kwan @danokwan CMO at SAP Ariba 
Our CEO Lee wrote the most popular influencer marketing post of 2019 on our blog, exploring some of the most important and relevant trends to recognize for 2020. Highlighting trends including influence artificial intelligence (AI), democratized influence, brandividual media, more engaging content, integration with martech, the consumerization of B2B influence and more, Lee took a powerful look at many of the influencer marketing trends that are likely to rise in 2020. Check out all of Lee’s 2,600+ posts 
Lee also wrote our second most popular influencer marketing post of the year, offering up 10 inspiring examples of B2B influencer marketing in action, showing how B2B influencer marketing can help increase credibility by promoting to buyers using people they trust. Lee looked at how more B2B brands are realizing that while different than B2C, working with influencers in a business to business context represents a significant opportunity to create more credible content. [bctt tweet="“Trends come and go, but the value of trusted sources of information to customers looking for solutions couldn’t be any more timeless..” @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]
Offering an exploration of critical do's and don'ts for B2B marketers, Lee also penned our third most popular influencer marketing article of the year, digging in to the world of micro and macro influencers, centralized influencer operations, always-on influencer engagement, a focus shift to both quality and quantity metrics, and the rise of influencer marketing software investment. Combined with five key trends to be aware of, this is an insightful look at the power of B2B influencer marketing when done right.
In the fourth most popular influencer marketing post of 2019, our Senior Content Marketing Manager Josh shared 30 statistics to help take your influencer marketing to the next level — what we call Influence 2.0. Josh's post is a great way to upgrade your influencer marketing and get ready for what comes next. Check out all of Josh's posts 
When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, always-on is always better, and in our fifth most popular influencer marketing post of the year, our Senior Content Marketing Manager Caitlin shares why strong relationships and always-on commitment to influencer marketing combine to help you refine, evolve, and scale your marketing efforts. Featuring seasoned influencer marketing leaders at B2B brands, Caitlin's post reveals how at its core, influencer marketing is all about brands engaging and developing relationships with individuals — individuals who have relevant topical expertise, reach, and resonance that aligns with the goals of the brand. Check out all of Caitlin’s posts 
Our Senior Director of Digital Strategy Ashley Zeckman answered five common questions about influencer marketing in our sixth most popular post of the year, with answers and insight including: • What is B2B influencer marketing? • How effective is it? • How can I get leadership to buy in? • Short-term gain or long-term reward? • Who are the right influencers for your brand? Ashley explored how each influencer type holds a different value for your audience and your brand, and how finding your right influencer mix means the right tactics, the right topics and the right experts. Check out all of Ashley’s posts 
How can B2B brands benefit from collaborating with influencers? In this post Caitlin holds another spot on our top ten list for the year, sharing actionable insight from experts including 
Another top influencer marketing post of the years comes from Lee, sharing B2B influencer marketing inspiration with powerful examples of success from our clients at 3M, Dell, Oracle Dyn, Prophix, and SAP to help you visualize ways to make your influencer marketing efforts more impactful and meaningful. Lee's article makes it clear that an influencer content program can be a powerful force in your B2B marketing mix.
What characteristics do the best influencer/brand relationships share? In another top post of the year, Caitlin shows how to sow the seeds of success using elements that form stronger B2B influencer relationships, including: • The Fit Factor • A Foundation of Trust • Commitment to Co-Creation • Greater Long-Term Interaction [bctt tweet="In order to be successful, the work has to be mutually beneficial to both parties. @lucymoran on #B2BInfluencerMarketing" username="toprank"]
In the tenth most popular influencer marketing article of the year, our Senior Content Strategist Nick digs into the essentials of account based marketing (ABM) and its intersection with influencer marketing. Nick shows how ABM can bring a clearer focus to your B2B influencer marketing strategy and how it helps hit your influencer marketing targets and gain ideal customers. Check out all of Nick's posts 
