One of the most important channels for acquiring new customers for a B2B company is SEO. Through strong organic visibility throughout the buying cycle, growth can be accelerated.
What is the best place to start when putting together a B2B SEO strategy?
A B2B company’s organic growth process presents its own unique challenges. The SEO strategy for a B2B business differs from the SEO strategy for a B2C business. You must understand how to approach the channel with these differences in mind in order to drive success.
In this article, we’ll examine the elements of a comprehensive B2B SEO strategy and explain how they differ from B2C strategies.
- What Is B2B SEO?
- How B2B SEO Differs from B2C SEO
- SEO Success Stories for B2B
What Is B2B SEO?
B2B SEO (Business-to-Business) aims to increase organic search engine traffic and rankings. When a company’s B2B SEO strategy is successful, it places its website in front of people who are actively looking to engage the services or buy the products they provide.
The SEO basics remain the same whether it’s B2B (business-to-business, where businesses buy from each other) or B2C (business-to-consumer, where consumers buy from businesses). SEO success is based on these four pillars:
- Technical SEO
- Content
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
The audience you’re targeting is one of the most important factors to consider when developing a B2B SEO strategy.
Business-to-business or business-to-consumer, people buy from people. However, people who purchase on behalf of a business have different purchasing habits than those who buy for themselves. Now let’s explore these differences and consider what you need to know.
How B2B SEO Differs From B2C SEO
The biggest difference is the audience when you compare B2B vs. B2C. It’s critical to recognize that the way professional services and products are bought is, in most cases, very different from consumers.
This means how you approach B2B SEO will differ from a B2C strategy. B2B SEOs face a number of unique challenges that help to summarize the key differences:
A complex sales funnel
The sales funnel for a B2B company is typically far more complex than for a B2C company. When it comes to B2B sales funnels, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Here’s what you need to know…
Think about the consideration, research, and thought that goes into buying a pair of sneakers as a consumer versus investing in a new CRM system for your organization.
It’s pretty easy to spot which one will be more complicated, isn’t it?
For a B2B company to be visible on the SERPs at each stage of the sales funnel, there are distinct requirements. During the awareness phase, when prospects interact with you for the first time, to the action phase, when a sale is made.
It is important for a B2B marketer to know their audience inside and out, which means going to a greater depth than B2C marketers.
However, you shouldn’t view this as a negative. From an SEO perspective, complex sales funnels offer more opportunities to earn targeted traffic.
A low volume of keywords
When a sales funnel is more complex, prospects search for suppliers using many different search terms. A B2C marketer is likely to target keywords with a lower volume than the keywords a B2B marketer would use.
Keyword research is one of the most important skills for B2B SEOs. To find search queries that align with their audience’s intent and stack across the sales funnel, they must adapt to the audience they’re serving.
Finding specific keywords that target a specific audience allows you to generate content that pushes them through the funnel to the next stage.
Conversion rates are low
In addition, B2B SEO has low conversion rates, at least in comparison to B2C.
We’re talking click-to-sale conversion rates here, not click-to-inquiry conversion rates.
The sales that do close are usually of a much higher value than what B2C marketers are accustomed to. Having the right traffic on your website who are looking for your products or services is the key to a successful B2B strategy. You’ll find success if you narrow your focus, know your audience, and demonstrate how your offering solves their problems.
Think of Leadership as a Way to Demonstrate Your Expertise
B2B buyers shop differently even though consumers pay attention to who they’re buying from (don’t underestimate the power of branding).
It is important to B2B buyers that they feel confident that they are buying from the best company for their needs, even before contacting them. Before picking up the phone or filling out a form, they want to know that whoever they speak to can provide the right solution.
During the evaluation phase, the prospect is considering their options before making a final decision, which is part of that complex sales funnel we discussed earlier. Your company is hopefully one of these options.
It is important, however, to be in a position to demonstrate your expertise; you need to demonstrate that you’re a leader in the field and that you are the right company for the job. With thought leadership, you can accomplish this goal.
According to Marketing Insider Group:
Content marketing that utilizes the talent, experience, and passion within your company or community to answer the biggest questions on a particular topic for your target audience is thought leadership.
There are many ways you can position your people (remember, people buy from people, and personal branding is essential in B2B) as experts:
- Writing blogs
- Public relations
- Posting as a guest
- Marketing on LinkedIn
- A podcast appearance
- Video Marketing
- Organizing conferences (or webinars)
Make sure your people are associated with your industry and incorporate thought leadership into your SEO plan.
SEO Success Stories for B2B
Investing time into the search engine optimization strategy of websites performing well on the SERPs is a great way to learn what’s working (and what’s not).
When you analyze what’s working for sites that have grown rapidly, you can get a better idea of what tactics you should be paying attention to. You can do this using tools such as SEMrush’s Traffic Analytics, Organic Research, and Backlink Analytics.
HubSpot and Canva stand out from the crowd when it comes to B2B SEO success stories. These are two B2B companies with very different strategies, but they have both grown in a super-smart way.
HubSpot :
The HubSpot site receives more than 15.9 million organic hits every month, and this figure keeps growing.
There is no doubt that this is one of the best examples of B2B SEO success, especially within the SaaS, sales, and marketing sectors.
On the SERPs, the site ranks no. 1 for terms like “branding,” “market research,” and “webinars.”.
Canva :
There’s a good chance you’re familiar with the Canva design platform if you’re a marketer. It is very likely that you have used it in the past many times.
Every month, they receive 38.7 million organic hits from SEO.
What are they doing?
They rank well for terms such as “brochure,” “template,” and “YouTube banner.” They offer a solution to their audience, which is why they rank well for these high-volume keywords.
If someone searches for “YouTube banner,” there’s a good chance they’re looking to create one. This can be done for free using Canva.
You’ll find excellent SEO success if you know your audience and create the content that deserves to rank, whether that’s tools, written content, video content, or even commercial pages.
Make sure your business is positioned as a solution to your audience’s problems and their needs!
