LinkedIn Verification: what is it and should B2B marketers care?
Jennifer Esty
March 25, 2025
With great power comes great rewards
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SERP is a pretty hectic space these days and with lots of entities trying to raise their heads above the parapet
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SERPs of today
Search Engine Results Pages are evolving at a rapid pace with a diverse range of features including ads, featured snippets, ‘people also ask’ accordions, ‘sources across the web’, maps, images, video, and for some – the more recent Search Generative Experiences (SGE for short).
Safe to say, the SERP is a pretty hectic space these days and with lots of entities trying to raise their heads above the parapet, the question becomes “how do you raise your head higher than the rest?”.
But in spaces that are so competitive, trying to be top of the top just may not be realistic. So is it really a question of just PPC vs/and SEO or is there more at play?
Scanning the SERP landscape for opportunities
Okay, let’s say you’ve identified 10 priority search terms/phrases for your business but you’re particularly frustrated that one of your most important terms is struggling to rank organically despite your best efforts. What can you do?
For the purpose of this example, let’s take an Office Space provider based in Oxford who want to improve their SEO position for the phrase Serviced Offices Oxford.
Let’s have a look at the SERP
At the top you have ads and, in this instance, one from Arena Offices. The ad takes up a large amount of real estate on the page.
This space is highly competitive with organisations like Regus also appearing here regularly. As they may have large amounts of budget, this begs the question of whether you realistically can or should enter the PPC space and if you do – with which keywords?
Google Maps appear next, with an ad (hello again Arena) before a handful or organic listings.
As we know, the higher you rank, the more traffic you’ll receive but in the case of maps, often users will choose to click on ‘more places’ to refine their search (e.g. is it near the station? Is it near a main road?). Therefore, this definitely offers up an opportunity to gain some in-market traffic.
As you scroll further, you find the space dominated by:
- Estate Agent websites such as Offices.co.uk, flexioffices.co.uk, easyoffices.co.uk
- Office Space providers with multiple locations (e.g. Hubble HQ, Pure Offices)
- You’ve even got Office Space Providers providing blogs on top office spaces i.e listicles – this includes Hubble HQ & Runway East
Looking at this list, if you are an independent Office Space provider with just the one location, chances are you’re unlikely to appear on page 1 of results.
So, what do you do?
If you can’t beat them…can you join them?
In the example above, there are a few key questions to ask:
- Should you run ads? Are there other terms to focus on?
- Can/Should you get listed on Estate Agent sites?
- Can you get featured in the ‘listicles’?
- Can you improve your Google Business Profile to rank higher?
The answer will be based on a variety of criteria including:
- Cost vs return
- If considering PPC, you may need to refine keywords further for higher intent/likelihood to convert as this is a highly competitive space. E.g. should you add in more refinement – ‘small serviced office space’, ‘24/7 office space’, ‘office space with parking’ etc
- Getting listed on Estate Agent sites can be expensive so having an idea of what impressions, clicks and conversion rates you can expect from a listing will be key. Consider running a pilot test with a high ranking site as a first port of call
- PR capability
- To get featured on listicles, you’ll need an outreach plan and have the internal resource and skillsets to achieve this. Get ready to schmooze perhaps with a personalised tour of the space!
- Understanding Google Business Profile Best Practice
- Ranking well in Google Map results requires a well optimised listing. This means optimising photos, descriptions, products, services and importantly gaining and responding to reviews. Following best practice can pay huge dividends so for local searches is often the number 1 thing you should/could focus efforts on
Identifying SERP opportunities – the ‘SERP Scan’
We have pulled together three additional examples of this ‘SERP Scan’ approach to help identify how you can find new opportunities that support your wider digital marketing efforts.
Controversial…it’s not all about SERPs!
Being visible in generic SERPs for your own website is great but this shouldn’t be the only driver of what content you create.
People will discover your organisation through a mixture of channels including emails, social, WOM, events etc.
Therefore, even if particular pages of your website are never going to rank organically for a particular term, they may still be vital to include on your website in order to show prospects you are relevant to them by providing content that aligns to their role and sector.
Therefore, when it comes to considering what content to add to your website, it’s always a mix of UX, SEO and CRO.
If you want to hear more from us at Sharp Ahead, sign up for our email newsletter and keep an eye on our blog to stay in the loop.
If you want help with your SERP strategy, please get in touch!
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