What is B2B SEO?

B2B Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a type of marketing technique implemented to drive organic traffic to a B2B website by ranking better on search engine results pages of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Unlike B2C SEO, which focuses on a larger audience, B2B SEO focuses on lesser volume keywords that key decision-makers of a company would search while they are at work.

How Does B2B SEO Work?

Before getting into how B2B SEO works, let us first understand the factors that affect your website’s ranking. These factors are called ranking signals. They exist on and off your website page that affects the SEO performance. You would be surprised to know that today Google’s algorithm considers 200 ranking signals that can be broadly divided into 3 categories. That is:

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization refers to all the optimizations done on the website page, such as keyword optimization, meta tag optimization, alt tag optimization, body tag optimization, Title optimization, URL optimization, website design, etc. All these practices fall under the On-Page Optimization category.

Off-Page Optimization

Any strategy or changes done outside the website to affect the ranking of your website is known as off-page optimization. Mostly off-page optimization deals with the backlinking process, and its quantity and quality.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO deals with the technical aspects of a website such as optimizing the load speed of your website, integrating a mobile-friendly design, structured data markup, SSL, enhancing XML sitemap, AMP, and many more.

How is B2B SEO Different than B2C SEO?

Well, there isn’t a huge difference between B2B and B2C SEO, the fundamental principles of SEO remain the same but there is a certain amount of uniqueness you will find in B2B SEO when compared to B2C SEO.

The main objective of implementing an SEO strategy is to reach your target audience through SERPs. In a B2B infrastructure, this means getting the key decision-makers from within your target company to find you through SERP.

As mentioned above, there is an extent of uniqueness when it comes to B2B SEO, so let’s look into them, shall we?

Targeting Decision Makers

The products or services sold in the B2B space are completely different than the ones sold in the B2C space. Generally – not necessarily always – B2B products are more expensive than B2C and are typically considered to be a longer-term investments.

Organizations often tend to involve many decision-makers before deciding to purchase any product. The committee decided to purchase a product might consist of different job roles and titles such as directors, managers, staff, or a high-end professional from the finance department, who will google stuff with different search intents.

So, while implementing B2B SEO, you will have to target all these professionals with different search intents. This can be done by developing different buyer personas and designing a content strategy that target all these different personalities. The more defined the roles are, the more effective your B2B SEO strategy will be.

Less Conversion Rate

Compared to B2C infrastructure, the conversion rate is significantly low. Because the number of general audiences is comparatively very high than Key decision-makers working within your target companies. For example, the number of people searching for the Nurses Email List will be enormous compared to the new edition of the marketing automation tool.     

High-Value Keyword with Low Search Volume

By now we have established an understanding that the B2B environment is way smaller than B2C. a lot of people might look up Snapchat but very few for CRM software. Hence, Businesses must pay attention to high-value, hyper-targeted, low search volume keywords. Unlike B2C, wherein keywords that have 10,000 or even 100,000 search volumes, keywords with just 10 or 15 search volumes may prove to be very precious.

What Should be your Strategy for B2B SEO?

Keyword Research

Regardless of B2B or B2C keyword research is the most important step to start implementing your B2B SEO. Keeping that in mind, you should do your keyword research based on the following parameters:

• The keyword must be relevant and famous for your target audience. This can be determined by monitoring the monthly search volume.
• Not every keyword that is popular for your target audience will have relevance with your product/services. Hence, find a keyword that is relevant to your product/service which is popular for your target audience.
• Find the right balance between the popularity of the keyword and competition. Since, the more popular a keyword is, the heftier the competition.

Lucrative Content

Your B2B SEO strategy is completely reliant on the quality of your content. Your SEO will perform well only when you publish content. No matter how much you optimize your website pages, your website will not rank better on Google’s SERP if you have weak or low-quality content on your website. Sometimes, good quality content might alone help your website rank better without any SEO optimizations.

How do you figure, if a content piece is good SEO-wise? The answer is simple, rather than trying to please Google, focus on providing something valuable through your content. And voila! Your website will climb the ranks faster than you could ever think.

Content development for B2B can be aced by following these simple steps:

• Start by looking up your target keywords in google, and whatever website ranks first on the first page of Google’s SERP, they are going to be your competitors. Analyze their content and other aspects and try to write better content than them keeping in mind your target audience.
• Ensure that your content is clearly structured. There is a standard content flow you need to take care of while developing content like first goes the intro, then comes the challenges part, followed by solutions and conclusion. Try to keep it less promotional, your content must narrate your brand’s story and not try to push your products or services in the reader’s face.
• Include the target keywords throughout the content naturally, the standard percentage of using keywords throughout the content is 2-5%. Remember to keep it natural, it is not supposed to like keywords being stuffed forcefully in your copy.
• Remember to include internal as well as external links to prove the credibility of your point.
• Try to increase your target audience’s engagement by providing graphical illustrations, images, videos, infographics, and other enticing illustrations to keep your target audience engaged.

Technical SEO

Another important Aspect about B2B SEO which you can’t afford to ignore is technical SEO. Make sure that your website and all the pages therein are performing well so that your target audience shall be able to consume content without any hassle. And, Google will not index you until you have optimized the technical aspects of your website.

Well, technical SEO is a vast subject to get into, but here are some best practices of technical SEO that you can keep tabs on:

• Include the target keyword in the page’s title, Meta description, and URL naturally.
• Make sure your website loads quickly because site visitors tend to bounce off when the website loads slowly.
• Your website should be mobile-friendly, this means that your website must be clearly visible without disorienting in a mobile browser. Reports suggest websites that are not mobile-friendly generally have higher bounce rates.
• Make sure to use HTTPS in your website URL, if not, Google will label your site ‘unsecured, and chrome will end up restricting access to your site.

Backlinking

For the people aware of the backlinking process, gone are those days wherein the number of backlinks would determine the rank of your website. Nowadays, the quality of your backlinks is more important than quantity. Hence maintain a balance between quality and quantity is absolutely necessary.

So, how to do it?

First of all, give people a reason to use your content’s link, what is called a link hook:

• Absolutely unique data like statistics, research papers, case studies, etc.
• Visually pleasing elements such as infographics, engaging pictures, etc.
• Captivating original stories.
• Information tips and tricks that are not available elsewhere.

Promote your content in every possible marketing platform like social media platforms, guest posting, and other channels to publish or promote your brand through your content. No matter how good of content you have written, it will be useless if not promoted properly.

Conclusion

Implementing SEO for B2B is no rocket science that requires advanced degrees or breakthrough innovations. But what it requires is consistent efforts and perseverance, give your SEO your best shot and be patient about the results for SEO results are not visible overnight. Follow these best B2B SEO practices to gift your website the organic traffic it needs. Remember, to provide value to your target audience through your content, and you will start seeing results at a steady pace.