Search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google benefit from quickly providing the “right” answer. The better the user experience, the more people who use their platform. The more people who use their platform, the higher they can charge for ad space. Showing the “right” answer to an objective question is simple. But what happens when there is no “right” answer to a subjective question? Or is the information needed to determine the “right” answer unavailable? How do you design an algorithm to choose the “right” and “best” answers?

SEO can be gamed. Are you being played by it?

This is the premise of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Businesses across all industries seek to make their website and content search engine friendly to be easily read by prospective customers. And, when intended to be read by Google, it is written to fill in a blank to become the recognized answer, a question they hope their prospective customer will ask. And this works great for industries with objective answers or where subjective answers can mean slight price differences. But as there are so few of those, it creates a game between companies in these high-stakes subjective industries to ensure their website is as close to the first result as possible. So, those in the various stages of the buying cycle need to recognize that there is no direct correlation between a company’s expertise and ability to execute with their search engine ranking. So, what things do search engines look at to determine their rankings?

Technical SEO: Technical SEO relies primarily on behind-the-scenes aspects to rate the overall technological experience for people and search engines. How easy is it to navigate and read the website? How fast is it? Easily accessible via mobile? 

Off-Page SEO: Think of this as how many “roads” lead to a website. Are those “roads” quality? Do a lot of people talk about and link to your website? Are people talking about your website on social media? What are reviews connected to your website saying?

On-Page SEO: This is where the “answers” are pulled from, the website’s content. Are your “answers” easy to understand and find? Is it helpful? Are you using the URL, images, headlines, headers, title tags, and meta descriptions to communicate what the page is about clearly?

Notice anything? None of the criteria used to determine the rank was directly correlated with performance against key performance indicators or service level agreements. So, in a performance-driven industry, such as the 3PL fulfillment industry, company A dedicates more resources to its SEO presence but lacks operational execution. It may be ranked higher than company B, which does not commit as many resources towards SEO but consistently exceeds customer expectations.

How can you use SEO results to help find your 3PL? 

Finding a 3PL partner can make or break your business. 3PLs help turn their supply chains into a competitive advantage, through cost reductions, customer service impacts and more. While the traditional ways of finding a 3PL, consultants, referrals, etc…, still have their place, but they can be simplified and supplemented by SEO!

Consultants: Instead of searching directly for a 3PL, try searching for supply chain consultants. These consultants have experience with companies, possibly similar to yours, finding their 3PL partner. They know which 3PLs focus on the areas you are looking for, can help weed out non-compatible 3PLs, negotiate SLAs and KPIs and more! Want to learn more about how consultants can help maximize your 3PL experience? Check out this blog!

On Page Content: Consider the content that the 3PL in question has posted. Do they have quotes from their customers? White pages? Case Studies? Do they give tips for businesses to optimize their sales or supply chain? If they are giving away quality tips and tricks for free, it is a safe guess that they are holding even more valuable ones behind a partnership.

Being aware of SEO is essential in any modern day buying process. It allows you to add an additional layer to your criteria and add a new filter to expedite the traditional aspects. But beware of the on-going war many companies are at to ensure their results are the first seen, as there is sometimes not an easy way to tell which answer is “right” or “best”.