Lauren
Most business owners know what search engine optimization (SEO) is and why it matters for their business. However, there are many who don’t know exactly how SEO can be used to influence their B2B online marketing strategy.
In the same way that B2B marketing is different from B2C marketing, search engine optimization works differently for B2B businesses than it does for B2C businesses.
B2B vs B2C Marketing
B2B products and services usually appeal to a different type of audience than B2C products and services. For example, B2C businesses know an individual that is not within their target audience might search for a particular product or service to buy as a gift for their spouse. Also, because B2C products tend to be less expensive and used for shorter periods of time, consumers typically make these purchases faster and without much deliberation. They may not have to check in with another member of their household before deciding to buy a product or subscribe to a service.
All of these factors go into B2C marketing and SEO practices.
However, B2B marketing and SEO strategies are not quite the same. While ultimately, a business is still marketing in order to make a sale, B2B businesses have to target the key stakeholders within their wider audience.
Consider this: Advertising a piece of office furniture to a single employee isn’t going to be an effective approach if that employee isn’t involved with purchasing decisions for the company.
B2B Timelines
B2B businesses also need to consider the likelihood that their target audience requires a longer sales cycle than traditional consumers. A company stakeholder isn’t going to visit an office furniture retailer’s website, scroll through the options during his or her lunch break, and then buy thousands of dollars worth of new chairs and desks for their company in a matter of minutes.
Because making decisions in a business setting takes time, effective B2B marketing creates and utilizes content that shows up in organic search results over time. In doing so, it gradually draws attention from members of the company’s target audience and presents the with options that will hopefully make a greater impression than what competitors have to offer.
In these ways, a B2B business’s SEO is not only aimed at driving traffic and boosting conversions. It also needs to spread brand awareness and establish a reputation that will help key stakeholders consider their products and services.
Stepping Up Your B2B SEO Strategy
Focus on the fact that it takes time and effort to finalize purchasing decisions if you’re marketing to other businesses. Because of this unique aspect of the B2B process, having a strong SEO strategy in place is a must. An effective strategy will help push your ads and pages to the top of organic search engine rankings so that your business is easy to find when your audience is looking for the products or services you offer.
Just over 50% of B2B clicks come from organic searches, and the first listing on both desktop and mobile devices receives 19% and 27% of clicks, respectively. While you don’t have to reach the number one slot, it’s a good idea to aim for the top five. Around ¾ of users never search beyond the first page of results, so beating your competitors to the first page is imperative.
To make this happen, follow these tips when you’re working on revamping your B2B search engine optimization efforts.
Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is essential for boosting your business’s SEO. When you are able to optimize your website and content to rank high for specific keywords, it will help stakeholders from other businesses choose your website over your competitors’ sites. As mentioned above, very few stakeholders want to scroll through several pages of search results to find what they’re looking for. If you can make your website easy for search engines to promote, you’ll be the easiest business to find.
Make sure when you are completing this step, you follow these best practices for keyword research:
- Choose your keywords based on what you think your target audience is keying into search engines. If you were in the market for the product or service your business provides, how would you search for it? Which words would you type into Google?
Create a list of words and phrases that are both related to your business and commonly used by your target audience.
- When you research the keywords and phrases on your list, take a look at the monthly search volume attached to each. If your audience isn’t actively searching for the words on your list, you’re going to need to adjust them. Type them into a search engine tool to find related words with a high monthly search volume. This way, you can pick options that will draw attention from your audience.
For example, if you’re selling office furniture and one of the keywords you wrote down was “new desk,” you might be recommended variations like, “office desk,” or “new office furniture near me.” - Learn from your competitors by keeping an eye on what they’re doing. Look at the keywords they use in their blog post headings, emails, social media content, and other written information. Then take note of which pieces of content are performing well and see if any patterns emerge from your analysis. If it appears that posts containing a specific keyword are doing well, try using the same keywords in your own content.
- Don’t be afraid to get specific, but know where to draw a line. You don’t want to have a keyword that is so competitive that it won’t influence your SEO, but avoid using keywords that are too narrow for most people to think of.
For instance, if your business sells organic dry dog food to pet stores, the word “dog” would not be a strong keyword because you will have thousands of other companies selling hundreds of thousands of other products using this same word. You also don’t want to use a key phrase like, “best dry organic dog food for pet stores in X City.”
Develop High-Quality Content
Using the right keywords will only get you so far when it comes to building an effective SEO strategy. If you simply intersperse your blog posts with random keywords or you use keywords in blog posts and social media posts that do not add value, you won’t have high-ranking content.
When it comes to enhancing SEO, B2B businesses must focus on the quality of their traffic over the quantity.
Far too often, businesses try to improve their SEO by focusing on attracting Google bots and website crawlers instead of their actual target audience. If your business creates content that your audience finds relevant and valuable, they will continue to visit your website, share your content with friends, and search for your brand. This, in turn, will naturally boost your SEO and allow your business to convert in the future.
Your audience is valuable, so direct the content you create toward providing them with the information they need.
When you’re writing your content, keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Center your blog posts around your keywords. Instead of throwing keywords into existing blog posts to try to improve your SEO, try writing blog posts based on the keywords you choose. This approach will allow you to use your keywords naturally and provide content that your target audience will find interesting.
- Focus on more than your products. Your audience won’t appreciate your business if all of your blog posts and social media posts are promoting your products and services. They want information that provides value, not just long-form guides telling them which of your products they should buy. While members of your target audience will most definitely explore your website to research your products and services, they’ll also look at your company as a whole. During their research, you’ll want to provide them with resources that promote your company as one of authority and experience in the industry.
Your content needs to convince them that your business is worth their time and that you are THE brand they can trust to meet their needs.
- Stand out. While it is important to look at your competitors’ content to see how they are attracting B2B buyers, you shouldn’t regurgitate the content that already exists. Not only is copying content unethical, but it will likely result in your pages being penalized by search engine algorithms (depending on how similar the two pieces of content are).
Instead, take the topic or keyword in a broad sense and find unique ways to approach them from a different angle. You want to use the same keywords, but your content should provide value that visitors can’t find anywhere else.
Optimize Your Website
Once you have a list of keywords and some strong content, you need to optimize your website so you can make the most of these tools.
It won’t do your business much good if you have great content that no one can find or keywords on a product page that takes forever to load.
Here are a few ways to optimize your website to improve your SEO:
- Create separate pages based on your keywords. It’s no longer good enough to just have a product page or a service page filled with everything you have to offer. Create separate pages for your different keyword-related products and services so that you can use the keyword within the page heading, URL, content, and meta descriptions.
- Improve your loading speed. If it takes more than two seconds for a page on your website to load, B2B buyers will close your page and shop with someone else. You can improve your loading speed by reducing the size of images, removing the AutoPlay feature for videos, and using simple, compatible plugins.
- Optimize your website for mobile users. More and more users search for new products and services on a mobile device, so making sure that all of your website’s features work for mobile viewing is a must.
- Have a neat website layout. You want your website to appear sleek and professional, not clunky or outdated. Make sure visitors to your site can easily navigate to where they want to go so that they won’t get frustrated and leave.
When you are able to keep these B2B marketing tips in mind, you will improve your ranking in organic search results and better appeal to your target audience.
For professional assistance in developing an effective B2B marketing strategy, reach out to Content Cucumber. Our marketing team can handle every aspect of your marketing efforts so that you don’t have to.
