B2B SEO Strategy Guide for 2022
Today’s business-to-business (B2B) buyers’ traits, as well as their expectations of working with suppliers and partners, have transformed. B2B vendors are increasingly expected to give the same content, services, and experiences that their customers enjoy on a regular basis as B2C consumers.
Essentially, SEO for business and for consumers is the same. In other words, the end goal is to increase revenue and sales. And to make sure that anyone looking to buy your services or products, sees your website. Also, Google’s algorithm will not distinguish between B2B SEO and B2C SEO. The various elements of SEO we focus on remain the same; namely, technical SEO, content, on and off page SEO. However, the way you approach SEO for business is very different to SEO for consumers. In this blog post we take a look at how B2B SEO works and how to approach an SEO campaign for business.
The Business Buyer vs the Consumer Buyer
Before you embark on a B2B SEO campaign, it is worth looking at how the business buyer differs from the consumer buyer.
The consumer buyer is generally more straightforward than the business buyer. There is usually just one person involved and the buying process from word search to purchase is pretty quick and often takes place within one transaction. A consumer buyer is likely to be interested in product information and possible price promotions. Other than that, the buying process for a consumer should be very simple and effortless. One would expect a higher conversion rate from a B2C website. Consumer purchases tend to be cheaper, much more instinctive and often happen quickly.
On the other hand, the business buyer is much more considered. For a start, there may be a whole procurement process involved in buying, which involves several different people. A B2B purchase is likely to take much longer from start to finish than a B2C one. The purchasing decisions often involve more money. For that reason, the decisions are often bigger and more research required before the final commitment to buy. The business buyer will want reassurance that the company they are buying from is the right one for their purchase.
We will look at how to approach B2B SEO below. It is important to remember, that the business customer’s first search is likely to be an informational one, rather than instantly transactional. This should be kept in mind when choosing keywords and we look at this in further detail below.
Customer Persona
Before embarking on any marketing exercise, it is important to understand your customer persona. When devising a B2B SEO strategy it is imperative. Understanding your audience will help you to target your keywords. You need to work out who the decision maker is in the business. And who will be searching for your services or products.
When establishing your customer persona, you will need to dig really deep. What is their job title? Should you just be targeting Chief Financial Officers, for example? What sort of businesses do they work for? What size of organisation does your customer persona work for? Who do they report to? Where are they likely to look online and what sort of things do they search for in Google?
Once you have a clear idea of who your customer persona is, it will help you to develop your B2B SEO campaign more effectively.
Choosing Keywords for your B2B SEO Campaign
Now that you have established who your customer persona is, you can start to build your keywords around that character.
As we have already mentioned in our business vs consumer buyers section above, B2B clients do not buy like B2C ones. They often take a lot longer to make their purchase. Bear this in mind when selecting your keywords.
First off, look at those keywords, which will potentially lead to an immediate sale. Just be aware though, that these will likely have a low search volume as business customers are less likely to be looking to buy immediately. Don’t let this deter you. Those few people who are looking to buy exactly what you are selling, will be high value. Try to get into their heads. If you were them, what keywords would you use to search Google?
You can see why it is so valuable to do your research properly and to make sure you have completely captured the essence of your customer persona. Something to bear in mind: when looking at keywords, Google’s autocomplete function can be very helpful. By generating predictions it gives you a good indication of what people are searching for, around your keywords.
It is important to have a long term strategy for your B2B SEO, as well as a short term one. It is also valuable to attract those customers who are in the research and information phase of their purchase cycle. They may not be ready to buy immediately, but once you have them in your sphere, you can gain their trust and add value, by presenting yourself as an expert and knowledgable in your field. Definitely, someone they will buy from, when they are ready. To be able to nurture these customers through the sales cycle, you must make sure you capture their details. Once you have these, you can email them a newsletter every month. Send them details of your blog. Keep them informed of any deals or new products you are offering.
The Difference Between Keywords at the Beginning of the Sales Process & those at the End
We touched on this above. The more general, generic searches and keywords used at the beginning of the sales process are likely to have a much higher search volume than those at the end of the process. However, they are still worth working with. As long as you capture the details of these customers, so you can market to them. We will describe below, ways in which you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry, as well as improve your SEO. So they know you are there when they are ready to buy.
If you are also conducting a Google PPC campaign in tandem with your B2B SEO campaign, it is worth noting that, the keywords at the end of the sales process will have a much higher CPC (cost per click). The reason for this, is that a lot of people are using this word to search and to buy. Understand that you may have to pay more for your keywords, even though they have a low search volume, but rest assured the quality of that click will be high, as it is so targeted and specific.
When researching your keywords, it is always worth looking at what your competitors are doing. Particularly the very successful ones! There are various tools available for you to do this.
Create a Business Blog
One of the best ways to demonstrate your business expertise is to create an informative and interesting blog. Not only will this establish you as an expert in your field, it will also help to nurture your leads through the sales process. A blog will also show up in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and contribute to a successful B2B SEO strategy.
Content creation is key to a successful SEO campaign for business. When you are planning what topics to blog about, it is important to focus them around your keywords. As well as the services you offer. However, don’t make them too sales driven as this will just put people off. Try to imagine what sort of questions your customers want answers to. Your blogs should be useful and informative and add value for your visitors. As we have already discussed in detail, the sales process for business is a long game and a blog is a real opportunity to establish yourself as someone worth listening to, early on in the customer relationship.
As a business, your blog is often your main marketing tool as part of your SEO plan. Make sure your keywords are in the title and that they are strategically placed in the text.
Backlinks
Backlinks are an important aspect of SEO. They are the links that are created when a website links back to yours. Sometimes they are referred to as incoming or inbound links. Google views these links as an indicator of the quality of your content and they will help you to rank higher in their results pages.
To maximise your backlink potential, you should ensure that your content and your blogs are easily sharable. This includes posting them on social media so anyone reading them, who finds them interesting can easily link back to your blog and website.
Your previous work, identifying your customer persona, will again become useful when writing your blog. If you write your blog so that it is directed and aimed at your customer persona, you can be sure you will be adding value. Try and get into their head, so that you can produce something, which will answer any questions they have and keep them coming back for more. The more useful it is, the more people will want to share it and provide valuable backlinks from their websites to yours. So, not only is writing a business blog a very effective way of building your reputation. It will also build and improve your search engine optimisation (SEO). And help you to rank higher up in the search engine results pages (SERPS).
And remember..
When writing your blog there are some SEO best practices to factor in as well.
Your title should contain the keywords you are blogging around. It should also be relatively short so that the whole title appears in the search results.
Make sure the meta description is as strong as you can make it. This is the description, which will show up in the search results and lets the searcher know, what the post is about. You want to encourage the person searching to click through to your post and ideally to share it with a wider audience.
Each blog you post should be as informative and useful as possible, but it should also be optimised for Google’s search algorithm, so that you are creating organic search traffic for your website.
Optimise your Website for Local SEO
Any business, which has a physical office or shop, or whose business is relevant to the local geographical area, should have a local B2B strategy.
There are various ways in which you can do this. If conducting a PPC campaign you can direct your ads at a particular geographical area. For organic SEO, there are some tips you can follow.
For example, you can focus on local keywords and use these where possible and relevant. You can use these in the content for your website as well as in your blogs. When deciding what subjects to blog about, look for local events and topics. Is there anything local that you can blog about, which will both interest your readers as well as come up on local searches? Local link building is also an effective way to rank for local SEO. Try to build a network locally, which is mutually beneficial. Use location pages. In your “About Us” page you can include content, which mentions your local area and physical location.
Optimise your Whole Website
As with all strategies, whether it be for B2B or B2C, your whole website should be optimised for SEO. Pay attention to both your on-page and off-page SEO. Your website should render just as well on a mobile as it does on a laptop. Nowadays, people are just as likely to search for something on their mobile. You should also ensure that your pages load as quickly as possible. There is nothing more frustrating for a busy business person than to have to wait for a website to load. All of these factors, will influence Google’s algorithm and boost your rankings in their search engine results pages.
User experience is vital for your website. If a searcher finds what they are looking for on your site and they stick around for long enough, Google’s algorithm will pick up on this and view your website as an authority. This will also boost your ranking in the SERPs. Remember, if you need help or just want to have a chat about a B2B SEO strategy, then Veksa is here to help.
