SEO can be tricky sometimes. Statistics keep changing, and the things people look at are never static. There are plenty of reasons for this, like changing algorithms and user behavior, industry innovations, and new platforms.
If you’re in B2B, you always want to be on top of these factors so that you can improve the quality of your leads, relationships ,and overall business.
However, with SEO, the devil is always in the details. Just one change in a word or a phrase search can already show dramatically different results for users, which is why there is always a massive competition between brands to ensure that they are on the top of everybody’s search results.
1. Adapting the content for B2B buyers
As opposed to business-to-consumer (B2C) buyers, business-to-business (B2B) buyers are more “in the know.”
They are more aware of the nuances of products they buy and likely won’t settle for fancy marketing talk about features.
They’ll want more data, such as testimonials and spec sheets. They’ll also be expecting deep knowledge from the sellers regarding the product or sales cycles of the products.
SEO for B2B is a vastly different world compared to SEO for B2C, which is why you should tailor your content to be more educational and more in-depth because these aspects are what B2B buyers are looking for.
2. Knowing the different roles from a B2B SEO perspective
When it comes to B2B, you should expect different selling points for different company roles. A company’s sales department will be looking for different product points compared to the same company’s finance department.
For instance, those in sales or marketing will be mostly concerned with lead flow and how the product will help generate, qualify, and funnel leads for the sales pipeline.
On the other hand, those in finance will be more focused on product costs, payment terms, and how your receivables line up with the company’s payment processes.
Knowing your customer is essential for SEO, but you’ll have to double down on it when you’re in B2B SEO.
3. Understanding how the B2B sales process works
SEO for B2B is more than just keywords and content creation. Your buyers’ needs will differ from the average consumer, so your SEO campaign should be designed to support the sales processes of B2B companies.
Let’s have a quick look.
The B2B sales process flows (along with what consumers are looking for at each stage) like this:
- Awareness (knowing what the product is and how it works)
- Marketing-qualified lead (comparing the product with competitors)
- Sales-qualified lead (looking at price, reviews, discounts, and demonstrations)
- Opportunity (engaging with the customer through email or chat), and
- Customer (addressing product-specific concerns and providing support).
The top B2B SEO companies understand this sales process and tailor their campaigns to support this, creating a better professional relationship with their clients.
4. Creating content that answers queries instead of just ranking for particular keywords
As search engines like Google evolve to become more intelligent, users’ search queries tend to become more sophisticated.
This evolution in keyword use should be matched by B2B companies in their keyword research process.
According to Lee Odden, when B2B marketers create content, they should create actual content that directly addresses users’ pain points instead of just looking to fill the content with high-ranking keywords, which is usually enough for B2C.
5. Keeping updated with the latest Google changes
B2B marketers and companies can optimize their content for search engines all they want, but at the end of the day, SEO is just one-half of the searching process.
The other half is controlled by Google or other search engine companies, whose algorithms dictate what users see on their results page.
A single change in Google’s algorithm can drastically change what users see, and if your meta tags were carefully curated with outdated SEO in mind, your keyword strategy could be ruined instantly.
Google’s algorithms are usually based on what it thinks are the most important to users, and this is always changing to give users the best experience.
As a B2B marketer, one of the small things you can do to give your keyword research process a big boost is to stay on top of Google’s algorithm changes. If Google starts displaying the product name first in title tags, it may mean that important information should already be included there.
Staying on top of Google’s changes means that you give yourself the best chance to continually stay on top of the results pages, leading to more visibility for you and your brand.
6. Adapting page layouts for mobile design
There’s an increasing amount of users who look for things on their phones. Gone are the days when all searches were done with a huge screen in front of you; nowadays, searches can be quickly done on the phone, where most users are.
No matter how impressive your SEO may be, and no matter how high you rank on Google’s pages, users will instantly leave the page if they’re on their phones and your site’s layout is not optimized for mobile.
This is where things like font size, media content, loading times, and even the site structure come into play. Most websites nowadays have different layouts for mobile and desktop users, so if you want a bigger slice of the pie, you should make sure that your layouts are both intuitive and responsive for mobile users.
Transition to HTTPS to make your website more secure, have your site ranked higher, and give your users less hesitation before visiting your site.
7. Use more video
Video might just be one of the most underappreciated aspects of SEO.
Sure, it might leave less space for keywords (which means less space for SEO), but for B2B marketing, it works wonders.
Video-focused articles have been shown to lead to an increase in social media referral traffic, and according to Firebrand, around 85% of marketers have had positive ROIs by using more videos on their platforms.
