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Laura Norup-Boyer

<p>We’re excited to share that BlackBean has been acquired by <a href="https://sitepartners.ca">SitePartners</a>, a well-known industrial agency based in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. This acquisition marks a significant step forward in expanding our resources, enhancing our service offerings, and strengthening our commitment to serving our clients with world-class marketing solutions.</p>
<h2><strong>Deepening Our Industrial Marketing Expertise</strong></h2>
<p>It&#8217;s rare to find agency talent who truly understands and is passionate about the industrial sector, but that’s exactly what we found in SitePartners. Both BlackBean and SitePartners have built their reputations on deep expertise in the industrial and B2B space, making this acquisition a natural fit.</p>
<p>Clients trust BlackBean because we specialize in industrial marketing—we speak the language, understand the challenges, and know what drives results. That trust remains stronger than ever, as SitePartners shares this same specialized knowledge and commitment to delivering value. Together, we are even better positioned to provide innovative, results-driven marketing solutions tailored to the evolving needs of industrial businesses.</p>
<h2><strong>Strengthening Capabilities and Expertise</strong></h2>
<p>The addition of BlackBean Marketing’s talented team brings specialized expertise in content strategy, lead generation, SEO, web design, and tactical marketing services. This not only enhances SitePartners’ capacity but also expands our ability to provide comprehensive digital marketing solutions that drive results.</p>
<p>We are thrilled to be welcomed to SitePartners, including <a href="https://sitepartners.ca/team/laura-norup-boyer?referrer=TeamLink">Laura Norup-Boyer</a>, former CEO of BlackBean, who will take on the role of VP of Client Success. In this position, she will lead our account team and ensure we continue delivering outstanding service to our clients.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-3486 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19-1024x576.webp" alt="Laura Norup-Boyer at SitePartners" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19-1024x576.webp 1024w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19-300x169.webp 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19-768x432.webp 768w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19-1536x864.webp 1536w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-19.webp 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h2><strong>A Look Toward the Future</strong></h2>
<p>This acquisition marks an exciting milestone for SitePartners with the establishment of a formal office in Kelowna. With a dedicated presence in the BC Interior, we are now better positioned to serve industrial businesses in Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, and beyond. As we continue to grow, our commitment remains the same—delivering impactful marketing solutions that drive success for industrial businesses across North America.</p>
<h2><strong>What This Means for Our Clients</strong></h2>
<p>This acquisition is about more than just growth—it’s about delivering greater value to our clients. With increased resources, enhanced expertise, and expanded market reach, we are even better equipped to support industrial businesses in achieving their marketing and business development goals. Whether it’s branding, content marketing, digital strategy, or multimedia production, our combined expertise will ensure that our clients receive best-in-class marketing support tailored to their unique needs.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://sitepartners.ca/team/andrew-hansen?referrer=TeamLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Andrew Hansen</a>, CEO of Site, shared his excitement about the acquisition:</strong></p>
<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;We are excited to welcome new talent to our team, expand our service offerings, and strengthen our market reach with a new office in Kelowna. The expertise and industry knowledge that the BlackBean team brings will allow us to create even more value for our clients in the industrial sector.”</em></p></blockquote>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-3487 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2-1024x576.webp" alt="Andrew Hansen, CEO of SitePartners" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2-1024x576.webp 1024w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2-300x169.webp 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2-768x432.webp 768w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2-1536x864.webp 1536w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean_2.webp 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<p><strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-c-boyer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laura Norup-Boyer</a>, former CEO of BlackBean and now VP of Client Success at SitePartners, emphasized the natural alignment between the two companies:</strong></p>
<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I have long admired the quality of creative work produced by SitePartners and was excited to find that we share a deep passion for the industrial sector and a commitment to delivering value to our clients. This acquisition brings together BlackBean’s proven expertise in tactical and strategic marketing with SitePartners’ strengths, creating even greater opportunities for our industrial clients.&#8221;</em></p></blockquote>
<p>To celebrate this exciting milestone, SitePartners will be hosting an event at their new Kelowna office this spring—stay tuned for details!</p>
<p>With an expanded team and a formal presence in the BC Interior, SitePartners is more equipped than ever to deliver industry-leading marketing solutions that drive real results. This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter, reinforcing our joint commitment to elevating the industrial sector with specialized expertise and innovative strategies.</p>
<p>To learn more about how we can support your business, visit <a href="https://sitepartners.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SitePartners</a>.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-3488 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5-1024x576.webp" alt="Dana Hare, BlackBean" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5-1024x576.webp 1024w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5-300x169.webp 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5-768x432.webp 768w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5-1536x864.webp 1536w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/SitePartners_BlackBean-5.webp 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />


BlackBean is Acquired by SitePartners

Grant Hendricks

<p>Twitter has long occupied an unusual space for B2B marketing. On one hand, our customers are humans. Many of them are passionate about what they do. A platform like Twitter—X—offers an opportunity to engage on a human level with prospective customers. It can allow brands to respond directly to criticism and praise alike; to connect existing customers with support and resources if need be; to monitor brand awareness and market penetration.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it’s no LinkedIn. X is a big, noisy place full of political arguments, adult content, trolls, and celebrity gossip. It’s run by the most (in)famous billionaire in the world, and he’s…<em>very</em> hands-on. In light of Elon Musk’s appearance at Trump’s inauguration, where he made what can most generously be described as an awkward hand gesture (and less generously described as a Nazi salute), more and more brands and individuals are leaving X for greener, or perhaps <a href="https://bsky.app/">bluer</a> pastures.</p>
<p>It’s not the first time we’ve seen users flee X. When Musk purchased the platform, a number of celebrities announced they would leave the platform. Changes to content moderation have resulted in a sharp decline in advertising revenue for Twitter. A 2024 report revealed an 84% decline in ad revenue since Musk’s acquisition.</p>
<p>For advertisers, it’s all about increased brand risk. Although brands are less risk averse today than in previous decades, very few want to be associated with extreme politics, adult content, bigotry, or racism. As these topics became more prevalant on X, advertisers chose to scale back their ad budgets. Some of the bigger entities to abandon X include <a href="https://www.interpublic.com/">Interpublic Group</a> and <a href="https://www.groupm.com/">GroupM</a>, two ad agencies that together represent hundreds of clients across consumer and B2B sectors.</p>
<p>So where are users going, and is it worth following them to another platform? We recently saw TikTok (nearly) get banned. There’s ongoing turmoil at Meta and on platforms like Reddit. It would seem that social media marketing is in flux right now, and it’s not that clear how the landscape might look by 2030. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the top landing spots for X’s refugees and determine their viability for B2B marketing.</p>
<h2>Null hypothesis: why not just stay on X?</h2>
<p>It’s a question well worth asking. The answer is sure! Stay on X. A big portion of your audience is still there, and will be there tomorrow, and don’t care at all about platform changes, algorithms, or Elon Musk.</p>
<p>X remains the largest short format text based social media platform in the world by an order of magnitude. For many of us working in the B2B sector, our core audience remains active and engaged on X. As alluded to before, the calculation to be made is one of brand risk. Due to its lax moderation standards and arguable right-wing bent, there’s a higher likelihood that your brand’s paid or organic post will appear next to violent, adult, or extremist content on X than on other platforms.</p>
<p>I think a compelling case could be made that brand safety is overblown in 2025. The average person isn’t clutching their pearls at the sight of an unseemly social media post. One might argue that we’re leaving behind a particularly moderated era of internet discourse—that this “free speech absolutist” movement across social media is a return to normalcy in some ways, even if it’s both not that “free” and comes with some serious downsides. As advertisers continue to flee X, contrarians may be able to take advantage of expanded inventory from reduced competition.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, X’s audience is changing. Are some of your customers leaving it behind? Let’s find out.</p>
<h2>Bluesky, X’s mirror image</h2>
<p>The X-odus hasn’t flowed in a single direction. Among several landing spots, a subset of Twitter users have made their way to upstart competitor Bluesky. Bluesky, initially backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is a carbon-copy clone of Twitter. From brand colours to overall design and functionality, it’s essentially what Twitter was ten years ago—at least on the surface.</p>
<p>Behind the scenes, Bluesky is a different beast. Where X is increasingly a “black box,” Bluesky is explicitly open source and aims to be more privacy friendly through decentralized infrastructure and a greater ability to customize ones’ feed. Robust content filters, block lists, and “starter packs” consisting of quality accounts to follow for nearly any niche give it a bit of a Reddit flavour. Users can restrict their engagement to just their hobbies and interests, or they can engage in a wider community. It’s up to each individual.</p>
<p>For now, Bluesky is ad-free. Expect that to change in the future as the platform reaches maturity and looks to monetize its product. When exactly that happens is hard to say. Recent figures suggest Bluesky has no more than 30 million users in total, and around 3 million daily active users. Compare to X’s 600+ million accounts and you can see how far the platform has to go before it’s on the same level.</p>
<h3>Marketing on Bluesky: No paid options (yet), limited and highly political userbase</h3>
<p>Speaking from experience, the new user onboarding process for Bluesky is a bit rocky. When a user first signs up, they’re asked to choose several general interests to curate their initial discovery feed. I chose some apolitical categories like sports, art, photography, and movies. What I got was a feed of left-wing content. It took extensive keyword filtering and curation to clean it up and turn it into a generally less political hobby feed.</p>
<p>The challenge is that the kind of user most likely to leave X for Bluesky is the kind of user most opposed to the direction of X. That means that few moderates and many hard-line progressives migrated over. It creates a strange mirror effect where X leans far to the right and Bluesky leans equally hard to the left.</p>
<p>A decade of experience in the B2B world has taught me that customers come in all shapes and sizes. From die-hard MAGA enthusiasts to progressive Christian evangelicals to feminist environmentalists, I’ve worked with clients across the cultural and political spectrum. Some prospects will be on Bluesky, others on X. Hell, some will be on Truth Social. The point is, Bluesky is defined by its politics in the same way X (increasingly) is. It may be most effective to use platforms like Bluesky to broadcast progressive policies and champion progressive causes. If you have a Pride or Black History Month campaign, it might do far better on a per-user basis on Bluesky than on X.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, consider overall audience size. You may be able to generate better and more authentic engagements on a smaller platform, but the overall reach is a fraction of other platforms. For now, anyway.</p>
<h2>Mastodon: non-profit, decentralized social media</h2>
<p>Other former X users fled for Mastodon. Mastodon is not as easily understood as conventional social media platforms. Instead of relying on a single, centralized server, Mastodon is comprised of nearly 10,000 individually operated servers, usually targeted to particular geographies, interests, hobbies, or other defining factors. These servers are all interconnected by what Mastodon calls “the Fediverse,” which is effectively the app’s homepage. It contains content from across the platform’s servers in a more general feed.</p>
<p>Like Bluesky, Mastodon offers no paid ads. Unlike Bluesky, it may never offer advertising. It’s a non-profit with decentralized infrastructure. It does not have the same onus to deliver value to shareholders that other social platforms do.</p>
<p>The platform is smaller than Bluesky and, somewhat concerningly, isn’t growing. Its total user count is about 10 million with about 900,000 active users, down from a peak of over 2 million. There has been renewed interest in the platform through early 2025, so it’s possible that Mastodon can break out of its death spiral and become a serious contender.</p>
<h3>Marketing on Mastodon: Talk nerdy to me</h3>
<p>When investigating Mastodon, it became immediately clear that this is a more technical audience than other platforms. Its initial pitch is quite complex. The “Fediverse” spans all Mastodon servers, but each server is also distinct and independently operated. There’s a Mastodon website at <a href="https://mastodon.social/">https://mastodon.social/</a>, but there are also regional websites that provide the same exact Fediverse feed, like <a href="https://mstdn.ca/">https://mstdn.ca/</a>. Neither of these are the main Mastodon website, which is <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/">https://joinmastodon.org/</a>. Instead of a single official app, there are dozens of competing mobile apps used to access the platform.</p>
<p>This is not a straightforward experience for new users. In fact, it’s downright confusing. It is surely an obstacle to greater adoption.</p>
<p>We see that bear out in the app’s low population as well as the nature of its content. A quick scroll of the Fediverse shows a left-wing tilt, but also a technical slant. Multiple popular posts discuss open source software, Linux programming, and other “nerdy” topics.</p>
<p>If there’s a case for marketing engagement on Mastodon, and that’s a big if, it should probably focus on direct engagement with a technical audience. It may be a great place to connect with IT professionals and engineers if you’re hiring. It could be a good place to pitch products and services to like-minded individuals. It is unlikely to be an effective spot for conventional marketing campaigns.</p>
<h2>Threads: it has the numbers, but does it have the engagement?</h2>
<p>When Meta launched Threads, it gave itself a crazy head start over other X competitors. It promoted the app to its massive Instagram userbase—some two billion users! With just a couple taps, any Instagram user could install Threads and sync their Instagram account. As a result, Threads boasts a <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/threads-statistics/">user count of over 200 million</a>, including 30 million daily active users. This makes it by far the biggest competing platform of the choices analyzed.</p>
<p>It’s not all good news, though. The average engagement time per active user is just three minutes per day, barely enough time to make a post let alone engage with others. Its usage peaked almost immediately before falling by 79% to just 10 million daily active users. It’s since recovered partially to 30 million and is once again experiencing growth.</p>
<p>Threads’ launch was underwhelming beyond the sheer volume of new users in the first week. Though many signed up for the app, they found there was nothing to do there. The platform felt deeply limited, especially given the audience it courted. What did Instagram users get out of a simplistic, largely text-based sharing platform? For many users, it felt like a step backward.</p>
<p>Today, the content ecosystem on Threads is fairly diverse. Without logging in, the main feed is a general mix of everything from recipes to soccer highlights. Political content is interspersed, but by my count less than 20% of posts were political. A far cry from Mastodon and Bluesky!</p>
<h3>Marketing on Threads: A more familiar experience</h3>
<p>B2B marketers may find a lot to like about Threads. Despite its up-and-down engagement record, Threads is more moderate, more general interest, and less reactive to X and its audience. Right from the get-go, Threads drew users from Instagram rather than relying on disgruntled X’ers to build a user base. The result seems to be a less politicized platform. For marketers, there’s a huge added bonus: while Threads is currently ad-free, it will eventually be integrated into the Meta Ads ecosystem. This provides opportunities to build audiences across the Meta network, share data between campaigns, and use tools familiar to most professional advertisers.</p>
<p>For now, Threads looks like the best for B2B marketers who want to run conventional campaigns on a platform that isn’t X. It is noteworthy that Meta is currently experiencing its own backlash due to unpopular changes to their moderation policy, as well as a number of “glitches” that seemed to suppress progressive topics in early 2025.</p>
<p>Whether or not this backlash results in a “Meta-geddon” is unclear. Meta products are so deeply baked into people’s lives that a mass exodus as seen on X is less likely. However, an increasingly privacy-sensitive general public may be inclined to seek alternatives to one of the most data-hungry businesses in the world.</p>
<h2>Conclusion: whether you stay or go, your audience is fragmented</h2>
<p>Researching this article exposed the extent to which platforms have polarized. Most platforms, including some that weren’t analyzed like Reddit, have an increasing level of cultural and political bias. Meta is perhaps the most neutral platform today due to the ubiquity of Instagram and Facebook. Musk has encouraged a right-wing culture on X. Reactionary platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon foster left-wing—sometimes <em>very</em> left-wing views.</p>
<p>As is often the case, there’s both challenge and opportunity to be found here. It’s challenging to coordinate campaigns across many channels. It’s challenging to evaluate things like brand risk when each platform has such different underlying ideologies. What plays well to the X crowd might disgust the Bluesky crowd and vice-versa.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there’s a great opportunity to learn about the evolving DNA of each of these channels and use it to enhance marketing performance. When our audience lives together in one big community, it can be hard to speak to some segments without bothering others. Now, our audience comes pre-segmented. We can flavour our campaigns based on the platform; use the language each segment of our customer base resonates with best.</p>
<p>B2B marketers owe it to themselves to consider each of these current and emerging platforms. Take a little time and immerse yourself in each. Get past the news headlines and hype. You’ll find that opportunities abound in this increasingly complex ecosystem.</p>


FAQs about AI

Is your website optimized for ChatGPT referrals?

<p>Over the past several months, we’ve noticed an increase in referral traffic coming from ChatGPT. It’s a tiny segment of our web traffic but a valuable one. Using data from sixteen of the busiest Google Analytics accounts we manage, we segmented ChatGPT referral traffic against traffic from all sources. The performance difference is stark:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-3407 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest.jpg" alt="table showing the performance differences between chatgpt referrals and all other sources" width="1920" height="555" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest.jpg 1920w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest-300x87.jpg 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest-1024x296.jpg 1024w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest-768x222.jpg 768w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/lead-gen-performance-ai-vs-the-rest-1536x444.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" />
<p>Users who arrive via ChatGPT spend more than twice as long browsing the website on average. The number of engaged sessions per user is 50% higher for ChatGPT traffic. These users generate 25% more events per visit and convert 33% more often.</p>
<p>Essentially, ChatGPT referral traffic is the gold standard for engagement in the B2B sector, outperforming any other single traffic source across most metrics. So, how do we get more of it? SEO has proven long-term ROI. Can the same tactics be applied to improve visibility on ChatGPT? Is AI Citation Optimization the next big thing for digital marketers?</p>
<p><strong>This article will explore possible tactics to improve website visibility in ChatGPT and other AI applications. We’ll explore some top-performing pages across websites we manage, identifying possible reasons why they’re appearing in AI—and why others aren’t. Then, we’ll offer our top tips for marketers looking to scale their website’s AI visibility. Let’s get started.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<h2>Chatbot referrals: what are they, and where do they come from?</h2>
<p>When AI chat tools like ChatGPT first launched to the public in 2022, they were unable to connect to the internet. Relying on prebuilt models, they were unable to provide up-to-date information or fact-check their own statements. This could lead to severe <a href="https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/why-chat-gpt-is-bad-for-seo-content-generation">‘hallucinations,’</a> particularly when queried on current events.</p>
<p>Within months, developers had patched in the ability to search the internet for context. This allows ChatGPT and similar tools to provide more accurate responses on timely topics and—at least in theory—provide credible sources for its claims. These sources appear as in-line citations—hyperlinks in the chat response linking out to relevant web pages.</p>
<p>This system is far from perfect. In many cases, cited web pages are only broadly applicable to the topic at hand. The feature has steadily improved over the past few months, correlating with a sharp increase in the amount of referral traffic observed from the platform.</p>
<p><strong>Chatbot citations present an interesting marketing opportunity. Where SEO is a crowded, highly competitive field dominated by the world’s biggest brands, AI citations seem to be a more level playing field for now.</strong> How to rank for them isn’t fully understood, but it seems that small and mid-sized websites and brands have more opportunity to capture citation links than to rank first overall in Google.</p>
<h3>Search engines vs. answer engines?</h3>
<p>Some marketers are beginning to refer to AI chat tools as “answer engines” and the process of optimizing websites to appear on them as “answer engine optimization” or AEO.</p>
<p>It points to a key difference in the functionality of these so-called answer engines versus conventional search engines.</p>
<p>A search engine’s job is to find websites relevant to your search query. Users search simply and act quickly, often relying on volume (clicking several results to find the right answer) over specificity.</p>
<p>An answer engine’s job is to actually provide the answer, potentially supporting it with supplementary information and citations. While a search engine is part of a user journey, an answer engine may itself be the destination. For many queries, users can get their answers directly from ChatGPT without ever leaving the chat window.</p>
<p></p>
<h3>Different user intent on ChatGPT vs. Google</h3>
<p>The average Google search term is four words long. The average Google search session <a href="https://backlinko.com/google-user-behavior">lasts for less than fifteen seconds</a> before the user clicks a result. Nearly all Google searches result in a click on one of the first ten results. This means a Google search is unspecific and conducted quickly.</p>
<p>The average ChatGPT session <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/chatgpt-statistics/">lasts over six minutes</a>—24X longer than the average Google session! A chat format is conducive to deeper, more thoughtful searching. Users on ChatGPT don’t input four words and choose from one of ten results. A user who clicks on a ChatGPT citation may have been discussing the topic for five minutes beforehand, digging deep and searching for a highly specific answer.</p>
<p><strong>All this is to say that traffic from AI platforms is warmer and more engaged than search traffic. Both are high-intent inbound platforms, but ChatGPT is on a different level of engagement.</strong></p>
<p>Generative AI may have gone public about two years ago, but it’s still an emerging technology. A much smaller portion of internet users are on ChatGPT than on Google. This smaller audience is of higher quality than the general population and is more likely to consist of working professionals and tech early adopters.</p>
<h2>Best practices to increase AI referrals</h2>
<h3>A note on data limitations</h3>
<p>Before we dive into our recommendations, let’s talk about the data we have available to us—or, perhaps more importantly, the data we don’t have.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>SEO benefits from a really <a href="https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/google-algorithm-leak-what-it-means-for-your-b2b-seo-strategy/">high level of visibility</a> from search platforms and website analytics.</strong> We have data and attribution from end to end. In many cases, we know which search terms resulted in traffic to which pages, along with all kinds of demographic and engagement data along the way.</li>
<li><strong>AI chat applications don’t give us this end-to-end visibility.</strong> When a user clicks an AI citation link, we do not receive any data regarding the nature of the conversation that led to the click. All we get is the referrer value—where the click came from in a general sense.</li>
<li><strong>There are also many AI models, all of which work somewhat differently.</strong> None have released specific guidance on how to optimize web content for citations. In short, we cannot say that improving this metric or that will directly increase your ChatGPT referral traffic. We can only observe and report on the factors and conditions that top ChatGPT referral pages share. These attributes are like best practices by proxy: it’s not always clear that they directly contribute to visibility in AI platforms, but it’s likely that by improving the following metrics, your pages will be more attractive to AI chat applications.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Internal linking: higher PageRank correlates to more AI referrals</h3>
<p>Our analysis shows that pages with strong internal PageRank are considerably more likely to get cited by AI. PageRank is a well-understood component of SEO. It’s a score generated by Google based on the number and quality of links to a given web page. If a page is considered highly authoritative, other websites will likely reference it, providing backlinks to the content. If those other websites are themselves authoritative and high-quality, they will pass on higher PageRank scores with their links. It’s fundamental to how Google and other search engines rank websites.</p>
<p>Internal PageRank is just what it sounds like. Rather than measuring external backlinks, it measures internal link structures on your website. The same principles apply: High-quality, high-traffic pages confer more PageRank than lower-quality pages.</p>
<p><strong>Improving internal PageRank must be done mindfully. Trying to boost a specific page by having every single page on your website link back to it will not be very effective. Internal linking should be logical and focused on user intent:</strong> does adding a link help users access your most important content? Are interlinked pages relevant to each other? These are powerful internal links that may boost your visibility on AI platforms. Less relevant links may confer little PageRank.</p>
<p>Our recommendation is to audit your internal link structures, looking for gaps and inefficiencies. What information on your website is crucial for customers to understand? Are you sure that users will encounter that information in a typical visit, or is it possible that they will miss it?</p>
<h3>Content length: word count matters, but not as much as the topic</h3>
<p>We found a moderate correlation between word count and AI chat visibility. Though some pages that received referral traffic had as few as one hundred words, the average word count for ChatGPT referral pages was 1128. A typical website’s average word count per page is far shorter than that, often between 200 and 500 words.</p>
<p>In most cases, shorter pages that <a href="https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/google-algorithm-leak-what-it-means-for-your-b2b-seo-strategy/">received referral traffic were homepages.</a> The longer pages tended to be blog posts, service pages, news articles, and case studies. Top performers are niche informational articles, often with a focus on educating readers. This is intuitive; ChatGPT and other AIs excel at answering highly specific questions and will often rely on citations to back up their assertions.</p>
<h3>Home pages get top billing on ChatGPT.</h3>
<p>Of the sixteen websites we analyzed for this article, eleven saw their homepage receive the most referral traffic from ChatGPT. For five other websites, their homepage was the second-most visited referral page. Only one website did not receive clicks to the home page from ChatGPT.</p>
<p>This may reflect a particular and seemingly common type of query on AI chat programs. Many users report using ChatGPT to generate lists of products or services that suit their needs. For instance, users might ask ChatGPT something like:</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>“I’m looking for the best suppliers of eco-friendly building materials for kitchen renovations. They need to ship to Arizona. Give me five options to choose from.”</p></blockquote>
<p>This type of query will inevitably result in a list of links, and those links will be to the homepage of each identified company.</p>
<p>There’s little to be done to increase the visibility of your homepage beyond <a href="https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/want-better-seo-focus-on-brand-awareness/">typical SEO best practices</a>. Instead, consider how your homepage might be adjusted to better address the needs of this type of AI user. We know that your homepage is the most likely page on most websites to appear in a chat citation, so the goal is more about optimizing the conversion rate of visitors from AI. Perhaps more social proof elements above the fold would put this user’s mind at ease? Maybe your homepage could do a better of job of communicating your unique selling propositions to new users?</p>
<p></p>
<h3>If ChatGPT is an “answer engine,” ensure your content has the answers!</h3>
<p>In the age of the answer engine, marketers may want to rethink their approach to content production. We find that direct, instructional content—including case studies and Q&amp;As—is more likely to be cited by ChatGPT. Consider what AI chat users love about AI: quick, easy-to-read answers on almost any subject. ChatGPT wants to reference things you know about. Do you have that type of content on your website? Consider your existing content paragraph by paragraph. Ask yourself how well each section answers a user’s possible questions. Clarify and expand upon thin content. Remove or replace unclear, vague, or low-effort content.</p>
<h2>The Citation Ceiling: AI links are unlikely to deliver traffic volume</h2>
<p>While we’re big believers in the potential of ChatGPT as a referral channel, it’s unlikely to become a top referrer by traffic volume for your website.</p>
<p>Not every chat response provides citations. Not every citation in a chat response gets clicked. As of writing, a typical response with citations may have anywhere from two to five links—not the effectively infinite choices offered by a Google search. In short, even if ChatGPT completely replaced Google Search tomorrow, you would see far fewer users from ChatGPT than you do from Google today.</p>
<p>AI referrals are and will likely always be a quality-over-quantity play. While AI should be prioritized in your marketing strategy, don’t expect to grow your website user count through AI.</p>
<h3>AI citations are a level playing field…for now.</h3>
<p>Anyone who’s used AI for long enough knows that it can generate some amusing or even disturbing hallucinations. From telling people to eat rocks or put glue on pizza to making eerie claims about sapience, AI gets things wrong.</p>
<p>If a user requests a list of the top five industrial marketing agencies in the world, AI doesn’t actually know anything about that. It’s going to perform an internet search on your behalf, using criteria we don’t directly understand. The list it delivers isn’t arbitrary, but it’s also not necessarily true.</p>
<p>It’s somewhat reminiscent of earlier days of SEO. Over the course of decades, the internet and its search engines matured together. While many early winners of the SEO battle don’t even exist anymore, others are entrenched. Websites like Forbes have a kind of SEO critical mass that’s unshakeable. They rank on the first page for millions of queries spanning every topic imaginable. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to take a top ten search ranking from these entrenched websites.</p>
<p><strong>At least for now, we control our narrative in ChatGPT.</strong> It uses—some would say steals—our content to generate its responses. Whatever ranking factors it considers aren’t as biased toward top websites. What we discuss on our websites and the tone in which we discuss it materially affects how AI will describe us.</p>
<p><strong>Be aspirational, bold, and upbeat about your company and its offerings. Write authentically but energetically. Present yourself as you’d like to one day be seen. Right now, there is a golden opportunity for businesses to establish themselves in the answer engine economy. It probably won’t last forever.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Lead Generation with ChatGPT: The Power of AI Referrals

<p>In the United States, it’s another big election year. It has me thinking about gaffes. Remember gaffes? Remember when politicians could do something incredibly stupid, and it would, ya know, end their careers?</p>
<p>I remember Howard Dean in 2004 and his infamous “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0">Dean Scream.</a>”</p>
<p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binders_full_of_women">binders full of women</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket_of_deplorables">baskets of deplorables</a>, sometimes all it takes to lose an election is a stupid turn of phrase. It’s perception in action. Even if it’s meaningless in the grander scheme of things, a gaffe can infect a candidate with negative public perceptions, dooming them to irrelevancy.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>How the sausage gets made</h2>
<p>Consider the humble hot dog.</p>
<p>The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (because, <em>of course,</em> that’s a thing) maintains a <a href="https://www.hot-dog.org/resources/Hot-Dog-Ingredients-Guide">glossary of hot dog ingredients</a> on its website. Many people love the taste of a good dog, but we’re all pretty aware of the fact that they’re gross.</p>
<p>Lips and assholes, they say. That’s what’s in your hot dog. The NHDSC begs to differ. It describes the types of meat used quite clearly. For beef dogs, it claims that the meat used is “most commonly pieces of meat cut away from steaks or roasts.” It clarifies that “organ meats are not typically used in hot dogs or sausages, and if organs are used, the specific organ will be included in the ingredients statement.”</p>
<p>Looking into it some more, I see that it is indeed true. Most hot dogs aren’t made from lips or assholes or anything else grotesque. At least, nothing more grotesque than trimmings from an animal carcass.</p>
<p>You know what <em>is</em> made from lips and assholes? Chorizo sausage.</p>
<p>Ok, maybe not assholes. But traditional chorizo is made from lymph nodes, salivary glands, and pieces of pig head. You can look it up. Or don’t; just check the ingredients list on this package:</p>
<p></p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-3299 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/chorizo.jpg" alt="" width="895" height="416" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/chorizo.jpg 895w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/chorizo-300x139.jpg 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/chorizo-768x357.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 895px) 100vw, 895px" />
<p>The intention here is not to make you eat more hot dogs, nor is it to stop you from eating chorizo tacos. It’s an exercise in branding—in perception. Hot dogs have a reputation for cheapness and low quality. Chorizo is seen as something gourmet. So hot dogs get the old lip/asshole treatment, while we turn a blind eye to chorizo.</p>
<p>If this section was a bit much, here’s a palate cleanser. A photo of former U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry getting frisky with a corn dog:</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Howard Dean gets lampooned for getting a little too enthusiastic during a speech, but year after year we not only permit but encourage presidential candidates get intimate with corn dogs. Make it make sense.</p>
<p>Anyway, let’s get back to it.</p>
<h3>Isn’t it offal? Rebranding “gross” meat products</h3>
<p>Particularly in our sanitary (and sanitized) western world, there aren’t that many die-hard fans of organ meat. Elsewhere in the world, palates lean a bit more adventuresome. But North Americans are a squeamish sort. We like our chops, our steaks, our chicken wings. Hearts, feet, gizzards? That’s dog food, right?</p>
<p>Over the past decade, some epicureans have tried to challenge that perception. There’s a bit of a culinary resurgence focused on the overlooked cuts, the organs, the offal. The so-called “snout to tail” movement advocates for processing and enjoying the entire animal.</p>
<p>It’s presented as a boon across several dimensions that speak to different concerns among consumers:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Efficiency.</strong> For those who bemoan the horrific resource inefficiencies of meat production, it makes good sense to maximize the value we get from each harvested animal.</li>
<li><strong>Flavour.</strong> Those with adventurous culinary leanings may appreciate the novelty of “exotic” cuts.</li>
<li><strong>Nutrition and health fads.</strong> It’s been said that there’s a sucker born every minute. On a probably unrelated note, there seems to be a new health fad born every minute. Some of those fads rely on unconventional sources of nutrition like I dunno, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_King">liver.</a></li>
</ul>
<p>In the end, “snout to tail” reframes a disgusting product like organ meat and connective tissue and makes it…I was going to say <em>sexy</em>, but that’s just wrong. Palatable. Let’s say palatable.</p>
<p>It elevates lips and assholes beyond their station. Hot dogs continue to catch strays for a crime they aren’t even guilty of, while the same hipsters that dismiss them line up at butcher shops to get their hands on fresh <a href="https://castandspear.com/nose-to-tail-cooking/">lamb brains.</a></p>
<p></p>
<h2>Coffee breaks and Kleenex: context and messaging matter</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-3301 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/covfefe-1.jpg" alt="" width="454" height="576" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/covfefe-1.jpg 454w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/covfefe-1-236x300.jpg 236w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px" />
<p>If you’re reading this, there’s a fair chance you’re doing it on your coffee break.</p>
<p>If you were a time traveller from 1940 reading the previous line, you might ask yourself (among many other questions), “What is a coffee break?”</p>
<p>Workers have always had breaks in their day, but the notion of a coffee break is inorganic. Before the 1950s, Americans perceived coffee as a treat to accompany a meal. You had a cup of coffee for breakfast. Maybe a pick-me-up with supper if you were so inclined.</p>
<p>A concerted effort by the <a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/sep-keyword/pan-american-coffee/">Pan-American Coffee Bureau</a> in the early 1950s created the coffee break. Citing improved productivity and worker happiness, they ran a $2 million ad campaign to encourage workplaces to adopt a coffee break. Coffee’s popularity exploded as a result. To this day, it’s found in break rooms and offices around the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleenex">Kleenex</a> was initially sold in the 1920s as a product for removing cold cream and makeup. Over the next decade, Kleenex manufacturer Kimberly-Clark realized that consumers preferred using Kleenex as a disposable handkerchief. They rebuilt their brand around this concept, and the rest is history. A moderately popular cold cream remover became the broadly accepted colloquial term for an entire category of products.</p>
<p>In the case of both coffee and Kleenex, the product itself didn’t change. The message did.</p>
<h2>Are you in an ugly industry?</h2>
<p>No matter what you do, there’s someone out there who hates you for it.</p>
<p>Chemical? Check. Manufacturing? Yep. Mining? Affirmative.</p>
<p>What it comes down to is that everyone wants to drive their car over to paradise, but they get angry when we put up parking lots. It’s having your cake and eating it, too. All sunshine, no rain.</p>
<p><strong>The harsh reality is that an ugly industry allows for the existence of clean industries.</strong> The powerful magnets used in renewable energy turbines rely on minerals like dysprosium. There is no replacement for it; it’s not terribly abundant, and mining it is rather dirty. But if we want to “electrify America,” as many people do, we have to keep mining it. Those open pit mines and leaching pools that environmentalists so despise are absolute necessities for their brighter, greener future.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean dirty industries cannot do better, but there are limits. A mine is a deep chasm carved into the earth. That’s simply how it has to be. No amount of legislation, commitment to environmental standards, or corporate social responsibility policy will make mining clean and green.</p>
<p></p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-3302 aligncenter" src="https://blackbean.wpenginepowered.com/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/iStock-1362567340-1.jpg" alt="" width="1254" height="836" srcset="https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/iStock-1362567340-1.jpg 1254w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/iStock-1362567340-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/iStock-1362567340-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://partners.blackbean.marketing/blackbean2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/iStock-1362567340-1-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1254px) 100vw, 1254px" />
<h2>The unique challenge of marketing in the industrial sector</h2>
<p>The further removed people are from something, the less consideration they give it and the less they tend to understand it. Industrial processes are out of sight and out of mind for the majority of people. Not without reason: the industry is indeed polluting. It can be disruptive to local communities. In some cases, it can be dangerous.</p>
<p>None of this takes away from its necessity. Lack of visibility of industry is part of the broader context of marketing primary and industrial sector goods and services.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, marketing for industry deals with three major challenges:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Small addressable markets.</strong> There’s great benefit in gaining traction with the general public (more on that later), but most industrial businesses have a niche, highly specialized target market. Contrast that with typical B2C goods and services. Everyone needs shoes or pants. Only a select few need industrial chemical blending services by comparison.</li>
<li><strong>Commoditization and industry consolidation.</strong> Many industrial companies operate in a highly commodified, highly consolidated vertical. Chemical suppliers compete against Dow and DuPont to sell products with tight margins and difficult-to-parse unique selling propositions—if there are any. Other industries like oil and gas and mining deal with commodities quite literally. There’s no way to sell premium copper by the ton or bespoke barrels of crude.</li>
<li><strong>Negative reputation and social/political opposition.</strong> Industrial companies rarely get spotlighted in a positive way. Visibility in the primary and manufacturing sectors often centres around protests, job losses, strike action, environmental impact, and other negative stories. Generally, negative perceptions toward industry can result in onerous regulatory environments, smaller hiring pools, and even workplace disruption due to politically motivated protests or acts of sabotage.</li>
</ol>
<p>It should be made clear that there’s a big difference between advocating for a fair regulatory environment and free market absolutism. Industrial companies that operate in bad faith, lie to and mislead the public, or hide their environmental impact contribute to the negative perceptions that affect industry at large. Honesty and transparency are pillars of ethical marketing. Companies that make a good-faith effort to meet or exceed social and environmental best practices can actually help their industry avoid sledgehammer legislation that eats into profitability.</p>
<p></p>
<h3>Messaging: your secret weapon in B2B industrial marketing</h3>
<p>When the products are commodities, the directly addressable market size is small, and the marketing landscape is tilted against you, what’s left for industrial companies to grow their influence?</p>
<p>In many cases, the answer is messaging. Even in commodified industries, someone wins public bids, gets first dibs on mineral rights, or gets their new facility fast-tracked for development. Sure, that’s a lot of personal network at play. Growing and leveraging that network will always matter. But there’s more to every deal than just who you know.</p>
<p>B2B deals, particularly those with a public component, get approved by committee. Everyone knows that things done by committee are always great and more than the sum of their parts, but I digress.</p>
<p>You might have an in with the primary decision-maker, or you might not. It’s unlikely you have a personal connection to everyone involved in a complex B2B deal. It’s also probable that effective strategies like gift-giving are regulated in your industry, either by government or by corporate policy. This is where your marketing steps up to help grease the wheels.</p>
<p>In B2B marketing, the pitch never stops. Your message continues to work for you after the proposal is submitted for review. Messaging is how you show your customers who you are and why they should choose you over your competitor.</p>
<p>Consider the three major challenges faced by many in the industrial sector:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>You may deal in a commodified market.</strong> You can compete on price, but is that the best idea? It’s a race to the bottom, sacrificing margin to close deals. Companies run themselves out of business chasing competitive pricing. Isn’t it better to compete on, well, <em>anything else?</em></li>
<li><strong>Your market size is small, which also makes it distinct.</strong> With a solid understanding of target market <strong>characteristics, you know what they value and how to communicate those values back to them.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Many industrial business deals hinge on political support across one or more levels of government.</strong> This creates a broad audience of tertiary stakeholders—voters, local residents, politicians, and city staff—that can either be friends or foes, depending on what they believe about your project.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>Sales teams are a critical component of communicating the message, but they’re targeted to your prospects. A salesperson can’t pitch to every stakeholder at once, especially if we consider broader political support and all the tertiary stakeholders involved in political processes. It’s your marketing material, your messaging, your <span class="notion-enable-hover" data-token-index="1">brand experience</span> that can influence a broad range of stakeholders. In a more limited marketing environment, these elements matter more, not less.</p>
<h2>Change your fortunes by changing perceptions.</h2>
<p>Perception management in industry gets a bad rep. Dishonest messaging results in accusations of greenwashing and propaganda. These criticisms actually highlight the effectiveness of perception management via brand and messaging. Such tactics would not be derided as they are if they weren’t effective. There’s no need to lie or deceive to receive benefits from messaging-based marketing, either. As we’ve discussed, industrial goods and services are absolutely necessary. Whether it occurs in our communities or gets offshored to the developing world, we rely on heavy industry and manufacturing to live our modern lives.</p>
<p>It’s all about selecting the right angles. Building a new pulp mill might result in a serious and unavoidable increase in local air and water pollution. What if it adds a hundred well-paying, stable jobs to a struggling small town? Calculate the broader impact of that job creation—all the money that flows into that local economy, in turn creating more jobs in unrelated industries, improving tax revenue for the municipality, and potentially funding a community revitalization.</p>
<p>Selling heavy equipment with high carbon emissions may run counter to decarbonizing the economy, but what if that heavy equipment gets used to protect communities from floods and wildfires? Tell <em>that</em> story. Make it human and relatable.</p>
<p>Industrial marketing is the discipline of finding silver linings in every cloud. Industry is at a disadvantage in the messaging battle; its benefits are underappreciated, and its necessity is misunderstood. Many of your competitors don’t care.</p>
<p>That’s why <em>you</em> should.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

From Hot Dogs to Heavy Industry: The Power of Public Perception

The “Privacy Sandbox:” breaking down upcoming changes to analytics tracking

<p>On May 27, 2024, SEO experts <a href="https://ipullrank.com/google-algo-leak">Mike King</a> and <a href="https://sparktoro.com/blog/an-anonymous-source-shared-thousands-of-leaked-google-search-api-documents-with-me-everyone-in-seo-should-see-them/">Rand Fishkin</a>, among others, revealed that Google’s search ranking API documentation had leaked. An automated system published the documentation to a public code repository under an open source license in March. Although the leak has since been removed, copies of it have been distributed around the internet.</p>
<p>The leaked content is dense, highly technical, and limited in important ways. While we have more visibility on which factors Google uses to determine search rankings—some of which are surprising—we don’t know the weighting of these factors. It’s like having a recipe that lists every ingredient but doesn’t provide the quantities or method to complete the dish.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, we’ve gained new and unexpected insight into Google’s ranking system. Let’s look at some of the more surprising insights gleaned from this leak, and how they might impact your B2B SEO strategy going forward.</p>
<h2>Clicks and sessions inform performance: user behaviour as a primary ranking signal</h2>
<p>It’s long been suspected that clicks impact search rankings. It’s something of a feedback loop that can cement top results. A website ranks highly, gets clicked on, the number of “good clicks” improves their performance, it ranks higher, it gets more clicks…</p>
<p>This leak (as well information exposed during the ongoing Google antitrust case) proved that clicks aren’t just a signal, but a major one.</p>
<p>I’ll reiterate that we don’t know the precise weighting of clicks, but clicks, users, and sessions <em>come up a lot</em> in the docs. We can infer that the number of references to these topics mean they’re particularly important when it comes to assigning rankings.</p>
<h3>Insights from the leak</h3>
<ul>
<li>Clicks definitely get used to evaluate search rankings, despite some official statements from Google to the contrary</li>
<li>Not all clicks are created equal. Google’s docs show ranking factors such as “bad clicks,” “good clicks,” and mysterious “Unicorn clicks.” We can guess that bad clicks hurt rankings, while good and “Unicorn” clicks likely help them.</li>
<li>What users do <em>after</em> the click matters as well. SEOs have claimed that metrics like “dwell time”—how long users actually spend on-page after clicking a result—may be a factor in ranking. While dwell time isn’t explicitly described in the report, other factors related to session duration are.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Our analysis</h3>
<p>This is something of a worst-kept secret in SEO, but getting confirmation is always good. What intrigues us most is the way clicks get defined. What entails a bad click? A “Unicorn” click?</p>
<p>Bad clicks might be easier to define. If a user clicks your listing but immediately bounces, it suggests they didn’t get what they wanted. That might be a bad click. Given that Google <em>also</em> appears to define good, bad, and Unicorn <em>users</em>, it could be that “badness” follows you around the internet like a bad odour. For instance, known bots and malicious users might be permanently designated as “bad” to prevent them from manipulating search results.</p>
<p>Unicorns are more intriguing. In sales, a unicorn is a prospect that checks off every single box. They’re best-fit clients that are so rare, they’re unicorns. What makes for a unicorn user?</p>
<p>At this point this is just idle speculation, but what if a unicorn user is one that “plays ball” with Google to the greatest extent possible? Someone who never uses an ad blocker, always stays signed in, and otherwise acts as a model citizen within Google’s tracking ecosystem?</p>
<p>This user would provide Google with the most complete picture of their online behaviour. Perhaps this is what Google means by unicorns?</p>
<h3>Next steps for B2B SEO</h3>
<p>Confirming the importance of clicks and on-page behaviour might refocus your SEO strategy away from content creation and toward <em>experience optimization.</em> SEO should never be about producing low-value content—we’ve always wanted to engage and delight audiences. Sometimes this user-first focus gets lost in the mix of content calendars and technical tweaks. In a click-focused SEO paradigm, we need to grab users with effective headlines, then convince them to stick around once they’ve clicked. For some SEOs, this might be an inverted way of thinking about the challenge.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Browser-based user tracking and Privacy Sandbox: Chrome is king?</h2>
<p>Google Chrome is the number one (desktop) web browser in the world. In fact, its underlying framework—Chromium—powers most competing browsers, from Edge to Opera.</p>
<p>It’s a good thing for Google that they have such browser supremacy. As we approach the death of third-party trackers in 2025, the <a href="https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/the-privacy-sandbox-and-its-impact-on-b2b-marketing">Google-led Privacy Sandbox initiative</a> aims to provide advertisers with tools to target users in a more privacy-friendly way, such as the “Topics API.” Some of these methods depend on tracking tools embedded in Google Chrome. A user in a different browser may not be assigned any topics based on their browsing behaviour, making them less visible to advertisers reliant on the new Topics API.</p>
<p>Within the leaked documents, we see reference to Chrome-specific signals like the total number of views for a page from Chrome users. It’s unclear what the significance of Chrome usage is, but in the context of Privacy Sandbox, it seems like Chrome users may provide higher-quality data to Google. Is it possible that a Chrome user is worth more to your website than users from other browsers, all else being equal?</p>
<h3>Insights from the leak</h3>
<ul>
<li>Google explicitly analyzes Chrome users differently than they do users on other browsers.</li>
<li>The emerging Privacy Sandbox initiative depends on Chrome usage for some tracking and targeting features.</li>
<li>Chrome users may therefore be perceived as higher-value from Google’s perspective as they have a clearer picture of their behaviour and interests.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Our analysis</h3>
<p>Privacy Sandbox will strictly limit the amount of cross-site tracking that advertisers are capable of. Given Google’s interest in user behaviour when assigning organic rankings and their separate tracking of Chrome users, it raises questions about the importance of Chrome users across all forms of search marketing.</p>
<p>Are Chrome users weighted more heavily? It seems plausible. The separation of Chrome users from others suggests there’s something important about them from Google’s point of view, and I doubt it’s pure brand vanity.</p>
<p>When we discussed user quality in the previous segment, it may be the case that user behaviour across sessions informs their quality. On-device processing like the Topics API is one of the methods Google proposes to balance privacy and trackability, but it <em>only works</em> if browsers support it.</p>
<p>So the question becomes, which browsers will support it and why? Microsoft and smaller browser publishers like Mozilla really don’t have a reason to add Google’s tracking tools to their software. For many, not having these trackers might be a reason to switch! Apple and its Safari browser may have some incentive, as Google pays Apple billions to ensure it’s the default web search for Apple devices.</p>
<p>Watch for a flare-up in the browser wars in 2025. Google will push hard for Chrome usage, while other browsers may push back, suggesting a higher degree of privacy and security as a major selling feature.</p>
<h3>Next steps for B2B SEO</h3>
<p>Consider exploring browser and device splits. At this point we simply don’t know enough to verify whether there’s something different about Chrome traffic and its impact on SEO. We also can’t really assign particular behaviours or user attributes to Chrome users specifically, making it hard to optimize content and experiences for Chrome. However, knowing is always half the battle. As Chrome usage becomes more significant for digital marketers in the year ahead, tracking Chrome usage is a good first step to understanding what’s to come.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>All pages are equal, but some are more equal than others</h2>
<p>Fairness, or at least perceived fairness, is crucial to the SEO industry. We want to know that if we do better work than another company in our niche, we’ll reap the reward. Equally, we want to know that others can’t cheat their way to the top and expect to stay there. The whole idea of a search engine is merit-based. The cream must rise to the top!</p>
<p>In practice, it doesn’t work that way. It’s not a completely rigged system, but there are thumbs pressing on scales. Google doesn’t weight every page according to the same rules.</p>
<p>For example, homepages are exceptional in Google’s eyes. They see a homepage as a logical “front door” to your website, a declaration of precisely what you are. Google appears to temporarily apply its ranking score for website homepages to newly published pages on the website until the page ranks on its own merit.</p>
<p>There are also broader content classifications that get handled differently. You may be familiar with “YMYL,” or “Your Money or Your Life.” Google attempts to identify particularly sensitive or risky content, like content that advises on medical treatments or financial advice, handling it with more care and attention than general informational or entertainment content.</p>
<p>YMYL pages (as identified by Google) get subjected to more scrutiny. It’s an attempt to prevent Google from serving dangerous information—a problem they’re dealing with right now as their AI results have been telling users to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd11gzejgz4o">eat glue</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/technology/google-ai-overview-search.html">jump off bridges.</a></p>
<p>In bygone eras, SEOs harped about content and title lengths as though they were legitimate ranking signals. What we see in this leak is that longer content gets truncated, prioritizing the first few paragraphs of an article. Shorter content gets evaluated for uniqueness. Even elements like font size and weight may be ranking factors, albeit likely minor ones.</p>
<p>The leak shows that Google has quite a number of specific categories that contribute to their rankings. Small personal websites are one such category, but we don’t know to what end. Is Google punishing small websites in favour of big and noteworthy brands? Are they trying to make it easier for small websites to grow, creating a more dynamic results page? Whatever the case may be, they track these websites in a separate category. They’re treating pages differently according to each page’s context. That’s meaningful.</p>
<h3>Insights from the leak</h3>
<ul>
<li>Google prioritizes your homepage. Your homepage’s score appears to be a stand-in for newly published content until it ranks on its own merit.</li>
<li>Small websites, websites featuring “risky” content, and other specialized website categories get classified separately. It is not known how these categories affect rankings.</li>
<li>Google summarizes long pages, using the first segment of the page to determine its topic.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Next steps for B2B SEO</h3>
<p>Work on your homepage. Make sure it’s a great entry point for your website, imbued with relevant context. Consider how you can grow brand awareness—and try to track the SEO impact of any new brand awareness campaigns you try.</p>
<p>When producing long-form content, focus on your introduction. Make sure the first paragraph or three provide enough context for Google to understand your article, because after that it stops reading!</p>
<p>It may be a good idea to classify your own website and frame future competitive analysis by website category, knowing how distinctly Google views each type of website.</p>
<h3>Our analysis</h3>
<p>Homepages seem to serve as something like a benchmark for your overall search visibility. It’s interesting to consider the implications of the high value of clicks and on-page behaviour combined with the high volume of branded search clicks received by homepages. Clicks seem to matter quite a lot to page rankings, and homepage rankings matter quite a lot to overall visibility.</p>
<p>If we connect the dots, it puts branding and brand awareness front-and-centre. Brand keywords have high CTR and tend to have good engagement. We see the potential for other marketing disciplines to contribute meaningfully to SEO performance by boosting brand awareness.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a focus area to work on, consider improving your homepage experience. Ensure it’s perfectly relevant to your niche. Create easy-to-navigate pathways from your homepage to key converting content so that users and search engine crawlers alike understand what your site is and how to navigate it.</p>
<p>Long articles are great, but SEOs can’t afford to bury the lede. Consider blog and article formats that up-front useful information so both Google and your users can quickly verify what it’s about.</p>
<p></p>
<h2>Content freshness and author profiles</h2>
<p>Another finding from the leak is the likely importance of content freshness and author attribution. Both are considered best practice for SEO anyway, but the scope of their import became clearer.</p>
<p>For instance, an article’s date property gets inspected in three ways, comparing the returned value for each. Google checks for a date value in the article, compares it against date values in the URL, and derives further date information from metadata and other sources. This could mean that ensuring alignment across all potential date values will impact page rank.</p>
<p>SEOs are well familiar with a concept Google calls E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust. Until now, it’s been unclear how such a thing could be gleaned. With insights from the leak, it seems that Google really does care about authorship and may use author metadata as a major E-E-A-T signal.</p>
<h3>Insights from the leak</h3>
<ul>
<li>Dates seem to matter quite a lot, as Google verifies article dates via three separate techniques.</li>
<li>Authorship is a tracked signal, pointing to the importance of maintaining good attribution and schema</li>
</ul>
<h3>Our analysis</h3>
<p>We don’t really know how deep this authorship and content freshness rabbit hole goes. If properly structured, authorship attribution might be able to follow you around the internet. Can Google understand that your social media posts are part of your E-E-A-T profile, contributing to the value of your authorship page? It’s an intriguing thought.</p>
<p>To be frank, authorship and content freshness are signals we’ve been lazy about, and we plan to change that. It’s easy to become complacent about tagging and structured data that often feels ineffective in terms of moving the meter. If nothing else, this report shows that at least some of that schema directly impacts search rankings.</p>
<h3>Next steps for B2B</h3>
<p>If you aren’t already, get serious about author schema, author pages, and attribution. Move from publishing articles by [Company Name] or “Contributed” and toward publishing articles by thought leaders at your business, tagged in such a way that Google and your users both know who wrote what. As with any SEO update, take note of what upgrades you made and when. Compare YoY and month-over-month data to see whether it’s made an impact.</p>
<h2>Conclusion: SEO is all around us</h2>
<p>If we learn anything more about SEO from this huge leak, it will be through the hard work of the industry’s leading analysts and thinkers. Given that we’re missing so much context, all we have today is a list of what-ifs and maybes. In time, and with a commitment to research and testing, the industry may be able to uncover novel, specific, and prescriptive methods for growing search visibility.</p>
<p>For now, we’re left with questions. Leading questions, but questions nonetheless.</p>
<p>One truth that seems evident already is that Google’s ranking factors go well beyond what they’ve publicly disclosed in the past. The official line from Google has always been—and continues to be—to produce good content and the results will follow. Bear in mind that most of the exposed metrics involve identifying quality content. Factors like authorship, content relevance when compared to the rest of your website, and user engagement all speak to better quality making for better SEO results.</p>
<p>As of writing, our leading hypothesis—and our suggested advice to fellow B2B SEOs—is that SEO happens everywhere. It’s not just your website, your backlink profile, and the thoroughness of your content. Offline brand awareness ought to improve SEO performance. In the near future, events that occur in your users’ browser might inform your results, independent of anything you can control directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.</p>
<p>So listen, watch, test, and analyze. Wait for Google’s response to the leak, then take their words with a massive grain of salt. If this API documentation has indeed exposed Google’s “secret sauce,” the SEO world ought to get very interesting through the remainder of 2024.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Google algorithm leak: What it means for your B2B SEO strategy

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From Insight to Action: A B2B Conversion Rate Success Story

<p>One of the tricky parts about conducting research is knowing where to start. Market research projects can be open-ended. Insights aren’t always forthcoming. How do researchers know they’re on the right track? How do they avoid overcommitting resources to what may end up being a dead end?</p>
<p>Let’s look at common ways that B2B market researchers tackle projects. This article will describe two classifications of data collected during market research and outline some popular approaches and techniques used in market research projects, including pros and cons for each and expert insights into challenges that new researchers may face.</p>
<p>If you need expert B2B market research services, consider connecting with our team. We help industrial companies throughout North America understand their market position and plan for future success.</p>
<p>Without any further ado, let’s get started.</p>
<h2>Differences Between Quantitative and Qualitative Data</h2>
<p>There are two broad categories of market research: quantitative and qualitative. Most research projects will include elements of each, though there are cases where a business may request one or the other.</p>
<p>Quantitative research is “stuff you can count.” That is, hard facts and figures with opinions and emotions removed from the equation. Examples of quantitative research include technical competitor analysis of online presence such as comparisons of follower count and growth rate between brands on various social platforms, or customer behaviour analysis based on website metrics. Note that even “opinionated” data like survey responses <em>may</em> be quantitative. If survey questions are close-ended and may be boiled down to numbers, it could be considered quantitative data.</p>
<p>Qualitative data is “the soft stuff.” This is data that cannot be directly quantified, like interviews with customers and business partners, long-form text responses to open-ended survey questions, and other forms of subjective analysis. Qualitative data is sometimes considered weaker or less-than when compared to hard facts and figures, but it’s just as crucial to understanding the big picture as quantitative data. It guides researchers and analysts toward the correct story, offering human context to otherwise impersonal quantitative data. Where quantitative data provides the rigor and backbone, qualitative data fills in gaps and uncovers hypotheses that guide further research and analysis.</p>
<h2>Qualitative analysis: the power of thought experiments</h2>
<p>When we think of scientific discovery, it’s easy to believe that it’s all hard facts and figures. Scientific rigor demands such data, right?</p>
<p>The truth is, any scientific innovation begins with ideation—qualitative analysis. Let’s consider some examples.</p>
<p>Albert Einstein is widely celebrated as the most important physicist of his age. His most famous innovation may be his theory of general relativity, which began as an idle thought experiment: what if a person could run at the speed of light? What would they see? How would they experience reality around them?</p>
<p>Einstein built upon this early ideation to develop the theory of general relativity. Without this theory, technology like GPS would not be possible.</p>
<p>Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. Prior to its discovery, bacterial infections like scarlet fever that we now consider easily treatable were deadly threats. His discovery occurred due to a mix of happenstance and ideation. He noticed that one of his petri dishes of cultured bactiera had been contaminated with mold. Instead of immediately replacing the sample, he inspected it further, noting that bacterial growth seemed to slow or even recede around the mold-contaminated regions.</p>
<p>Further exploration would lead to the discovery of the first antibiotic treatments. By the time of Fleming’s death in 1955, it was estimated that his innovation saved up to 200 million lives worldwide.</p>
<h2>Building a quantitative foundation</h2>
<p>Qualitative information may serve as a guide for uncovering deeper insight, but it’s just the first step.</p>
<p>Einstein and Fleming didn’t leap from hypothesis to formal conclusion. Their postulations required confirmation that could only come through quantitative research and analysis.</p>
<p>In both of our examples, experiments had to be devised, tested, and repeated. Peers from the scientific community needed to challenge and test assumptions. Consensus required a volume of reliable, accurate, and unbiased data.</p>
<p>Consider that Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but its first widespread use as a medical treatment wouldn’t occur until the second world war over a decade later. Qualitative analysis produces ideas, but only quantitative data can confirm those ideas as fact—or at least, widely accepted theory.</p>
<h2>Qualitative research and ideation methods</h2>
<h3>In-depth interviews</h3>
<p>Contrasted with surveys and questionnaires, in-depth interviews tend to provide more qualitative data. An interview may be done remotely (phone or video call, or even via correspondence like email) or in person. It typically consists of a series of open-ended questions, with the interviewer expanding on suggested topics and following up on answers as needed.</p>
<p>When conducting in-depth interviews, don’t stubbornly stick to the game plan. While the interview must certainly be done with intention and structure, remember the role of qualitative research. Allowing an interview to “wander” like a natural conversation can unearth exciting and unexpected insights. Interviews don’t offer final confirmation. They help shape the research and strategy to come.</p>
<h3>Focus groups and panels</h3>
<p>Focus groups capture diverse perspectives and offer in-depth feedback on products or services. Compared to interviews, focus groups include a level of collaboration or groupthink. It can be valuable to see what a group of people feel (or express) about a product as compared to what similar people may say in a one-on-one interview setting.</p>
<p>When conducting focus groups, understand that no small sample will be perfectly representative of a wider audience. Use focus group data to establish context and strengthen assumptions but be mindful not to overcommit to findings.</p>
<p>Be mindful of warnings about “design by committee.” Products and services designed to satisfy a focus group can and often do miss their mark if other angles of analysis are not also considered.</p>
<p>An interesting example of this “design by committee” challenge is the release of New Coke in the ‘80s. Although New Coke performed well in blind taste tests—beating out both Pepsi and “Classic” Coke—its launch caused outcry from Coke fans across the world, who demanded a return to the formula they knew and loved. It’s possible that the market testing conducting by Coca Cola was flawed, as sweeter beverages tend to score higher when sampled in small quantities but aren’t enjoyed as much in larger quantities, like a full can or bottle. The heart of the problem was a lack of respect and deference to brand identity and customer loyalty as opposed to quantitative data from taste tests. This is a good example of the importance of interdisciplinary analysis and qualitative data.</p>
<h3>Observational research</h3>
<p>Some say that marketing is equal parts science and art. Observational research may be one area where market research skews toward artistry. Artists are, after all, observers first. Observational research entails recording and analysis of behaviours and interactions in normal settings. For example, shadowing a sales team to understand the practicalities of selling an industrial product may be one form of observational research.</p>
<p>You may be familiar with the diary of Samuel Pepys, a decade-long account of life in 17th century London, including the most thorough and accurate first-hand account of the 1666 Great Fire of London. While this certainly isn’t a good example of market research, it’s an excellent example of observation, and the recording of observations.</p>
<p>During qualitative research, we’re concerned with storytelling and ideation. When conducting observational research, be a diligent scribe. Look for patterns in what you observe, but don’t be afraid to record seemingly trivial details and interactions. You may benefit from such observations later in your research project!</p>
<p>Also note that there are many ways to observe and record information. You are not confined to Pepys’ shorthand. Video and voice recordings, photographs, and even illustrations and sketches may all play a part in observational research. Do be sure to clear any recordings—particularly voice, photograph, and video recordings—with all parties involved to ensure ethical and legal standards are upheld.</p>
<h2>Quantitative approaches to research</h2>
<h3>Surveys and questionnaires</h3>
<p>Surveys and questionnaires overlap significantly with interviews. Though in-depth interviews tend to skew more toward qualitative analysis, they may also provide quantitative data in some cases. The reverse is true for surveys and questionnaires, as they may include open-ended questions to provide qualitative insight.</p>
<p>A survey typically involves a set list of questions that may accept short form responses, multiple choice answers, or a ranking or score like a satisfaction ranking from one to five. The purpose is to turn a normally subjective thing—customer’s perceptions of a product or service, for instance, into a measurable and consistent dataset.</p>
<h3>Competitor Analysis</h3>
<p>Competitor analysis certainly involves subjective information-collecting, but at its heart it is a quantitative research activity. The best way to make fair comparisons between companies is to use a scoring system that turns subjective analysis into objective numbers. Additionally, many attributes analyzed among competitors are hard figures like total sales, market share, and other financial or operational data.</p>
<h3>Industry Analysis</h3>
<p>Competitor analysis typically focuses on the most direct and relevant competitors rather than the overall market. Industry analysis provides the wider view by focusing on numerical comparisons and metrics that characterize the industry as a whole. Evaluation of data like the number of relevant establishments within a geographic market, the average number of employees per establishment, or other general industry information fall into this category.</p>
<h3>Demographics research/market segmentation</h3>
<p>Tools like focus groups help collect opinions and qualitative input from a range of stakeholders. Demographics research involves analyzing the overall customer base, finding ways to categorize it into useful subsets. For example, identifying the age, gender, and location combinations that result in higher conversion rates and better closing prices on average. Conversely, identifying underperforming demographics can provide value as well. Once market segments have been established, clients can use this research to tailor experiences to each.</p>
<h3>Secondary research</h3>
<p>Research doesn’t need to rely solely on first party data. A good researcher will tap into existing sources of relevant data. Perhaps studies have already been conducted on your target market, or a special census report accurately reflects a particular customer segment. Using existing data to supplement first-party findings is a great way to flesh out your report. Third party data from trusted sources can make your report more compelling, backing up qualitative suggestions and assumptions.</p>
<h2>B2B market research example: go-to-market strategy for equipment supplier</h2>
<p>Trying to enter a new market can be daunting. In fact, it can be rather risky. Consider the case of Target Canada. The popular American retailer attempted to enter the Canadian market, purchasing retail space from struggling Canadian department store Zellers. They launched over 100 locations across the country in March 2013. By April 2015, Target pulled out of Canada, abandoning its plans for expansion in what analysts deemed a “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/target-admits-it-missed-the-mark-but-what-does-it-mean-for-canadian-retail-1.2906830">spectacular failure.</a>”</p>
<p>The issues at play with Target’s expansion seem obvious in retrospect. The American brand focused on good value offerings. The Canadian stores were significantly more expensive, failing to compete with other budget stores like Wal Mart and Superstore. Target’s rapid expansion across a massive country resulted in supply chain issues. Eager shoppers arrived to find empty shelves.</p>
<p>B2B businesses are equally vulnerable to risk when they choose to expand. We recently worked with a Canadian heavy equipment supplier looking to break into the US market. Before they committed their resources to expansion, they wanted to know how to do it safely and effectively.</p>
<p>We helped uncover economic and demographic insights about their existing markets, find best-fit markets in the United States for early expansion, and reveal intriguing opportunities and threats impacting the future of heavy equipment sales in the United States.</p>
<p>Combined with partner research that uncovered qualitative insights directly from equipment dealers and end users, we helped the client enter a new market with confidence.</p>
<h2>Tips for new researchers</h2>
<h3>Begin with an open focus</h3>
<p>In research and analysis, it’s easy to jump the gun. Begin your research journey with as wide a focus as possible. Take note of interesting narratives that emerge, but don’t head too far down one path too quickly. A researcher must see both the forest and the trees. This isn’t easy! Take time at the outset of the project to ensure you’ve explored adequately. Realizing you’ve missed something crucial once you’re deep into a project is a bad feeling, and can result in backtracking and blown budgets.</p>
<h3>Presentation matters as much as data</h3>
<p>Market research should be driven by data, but merely collecting and interpreting the data is only half the job. Every market research project has an intended audience. The audience must be persuaded, intrigued, and ultimately convinced by your findings. Without proper presentation, this will not happen.</p>
<p>Consider the data literacy of your audience; their personal communication style; their interests and the things that excite them. Each market report should be tailored to suit each client.</p>
<h3>Assume there’s no correlation</h3>
<p>The human brain is a wonderful pattern recognition engine. It’s how we learn so effectively. Humans seek out patterns in everything they perceive, whether said patterns exist or not. Did you know that a blank screen is more mentally stimulating than a simple, familiar pattern or shape? The brain wants to perceive a pattern, even if none exists.</p>
<p>This is why we must be diligent as researchers. Not every data point or finding is significant. Completely random or circumstantial information can lead us down fruitless rabbit holes if we let it. Instead, default to a null hypothesis. Until you can confirm your suspicions, assume every pattern is insignificant. In research, if not in life or love, a suspicious mind is a very good thing to have.</p>
<h2>Get the most out of your marketing spend</h2>
<p>Businesses want more from their marketing than ever. Gone are the days of unattributed marketing money pits. The increased expectation of attributed marketing performance in the B2B sector makes preparation and planning crucial. Without a solid foundation of knowledge, your campaigns may be based on faulty assumptions. Expert market research can help B2B marketers reach their performance goals by deepening their understanding of their customers, competitors, and overall market.</p>
<p></p>

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