The EDGAR database is a goldmine for understanding how executives think about search.
EDGAR is a database of documents from publicly traded companies.
In these documents they’ll give insights into their financials, company growth, strategies and more.
As SEOs, we can search the database to better understand how key executives think about search.
When I performed a search for “SEO”, I found there were over 6,000 documents that referenced the term, said Chris Long.
Now what we can do is dive into specific reports to understand how the C-Suite thinks about search.
Here’s an example from the cannabis company Leafly.
They talk about how their robust “content library” helps “attract an audience” and increase their “brand profile”.
Here’s another from Cars.com
Here they reference how SEO drove market share gains, enabled by organic traffic.
Here’s another from Pinterest.
It’s actually talking about diversifying traffic but refers to SEO as a “growth channel”.
Here were some common ways these documents referred to the benefits of SEO:
- Diversifying Growth Channel
- Grow Market Share
- Attract An Audience
- Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
- Increase Brand Profile
Notice what they’re not talking about as well.
No mention of:
- Domain Authority
- Backlinks
- Improved E-E-A-T
- Crawl budget optimization
- 404 errors
I’m not saying those things aren’t important, but we need to know how to tailor our message to the right audience.
The CEO doesn’t need to understand the nitty gritty of search.
If we have the opportunity to present in front of her/him, we need to be speaking their language.
Use the EDGAR database to this.
It’s an insight in their world and how to communicate your value.
