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A B2B SEO strategy is a plan for optimizing a business-to-business (B2B) company’s website and online presence to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). A B2B SEO strategy typically combines on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and content marketing tactics.

By following a well-planned and well-executed B2B SEO strategy, businesses can improve their website’s visibility, drive more qualified traffic, and ultimately increase their revenue. It’s important to remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and it takes time to see the results.

B2B SEO Marketing Explained

B2B SEO Marketing is optimizing a website for search engines to improve the online visibility of a business that sells products or services to other businesses. This can involve optimizing website content, improving site structure and navigation, and building high-quality backlinks.

The goal of B2B SEO is to increase its organic traffic’s quality and quantity from search engines like Google to generate leads and sales for the business.

B2B SEO vs. B2C SEO: How are they different?

B2B SEO and B2C SEO are two different types of search engine optimization strategies that are designed to meet the specific needs of businesses that sell products or services to other businesses and businesses that sell products or services to consumers, respectively.

While there are some similarities between B2B and B2C SEO, there are also several key differences. Here are a few of the main differences between B2B and B2C SEO.

• Target market:

B2B SEO is focused on reaching other businesses, while B2C SEO is focused on reaching consumers. This means that the target audience for B2B SEO is typically smaller and more specialized, while the target audience for B2C SEO is much larger and more diverse.

• Keywords:

The keywords used in B2B SEO are typically more technical and industry-specific, while those used in B2C SEO are more general and consumer-focused. This would mean that the keywords for B2B SEO tend to be low-volume keywords.

• Content:

B2B SEO content is often more informative, tactical, and educational, while B2C SEO content is more focused on persuading consumers to purchase and thus emotional.

• The buying process and sales funnels:

The buying process for B2B products and services is often more complex and involves more decision-makers than the buying process for B2C products and services.

As a result, B2B SEO strategies need to be more comprehensive to address the specific needs and concerns of the decision-makers. Thus B2B SEO has low conversion rates in the range of 3% – 5% compared to B2C SEO conversion rates.

Overall, B2B and B2C SEO strategies are designed to meet different businesses’ specific needs and goals. While they have some similarities, there are also several key differences that businesses must consider when developing their SEO strategies.

Common B2B SEO Challenges: Why is B2B SEO tricky?

With so many differences between B2B SEO and B2C SEO, creating a B2B SEO strategy can be challenging for several reasons. Here are a few common challenges that B2B companies may face when it comes to SEO:

• Low TAM: The Total Addressable Market (TAM) in terms of the number of unique businesses is low compared to B2C, so targeting the right audience becomes more challenging.
• Competition: The B2B space is often highly competitive, with many companies receiving significant funding and investments in recent years. With so many companies vying for the same customers, the top spots in search results have become harder.
• A more complex sales funnel: B2B products and services often have a longer sales cycle than B2C products. Organizations take their time to research multiple competitors before making a final commitment. This means that it may take longer for SEO efforts to impact sales and revenue.

Overall, B2B SEO requires a well-planned, targeted strategy and a long-term commitment to see results. It can be a challenging but ultimately rewarding process.

Why should you focus on B2B SEO?

By implementing various B2B SEO strategies, a business can improve its search engine rankings, attract more qualified traffic to its website, and ultimately drive more revenue.

Benefits of a B2B SEO strategy

• Improved search engine rankings: One of the main benefits of B2B SEO is the ability to improve your search engine rankings. Optimizing your landing page can increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can lead to more organic traffic to your website and more potential customers.
• Increased website traffic: A well-executed B2B SEO strategy can significantly increase organic traffic to your website. Search engines like Google will recognize your website as relevant and valuable to users, ranking it higher in search results.
• More qualified traffic: An adequately implemented B2B SEO strategy can also attract more qualified traffic to your website. This is because users who search for keywords related to your business are more likely to be interested in your products or services. As a result, these users are more likely to convert into customers.
• Higher conversion rates: When you attract more qualified traffic to your website, your conversion rates are likely to increase. This is because users interested in your business are more likely to purchase or take other desired actions on your website.
• Increased brand awareness: A B2B SEO strategy can also help increase your brand awareness. More users will become aware of your brand and what you offer by ranking higher in search results. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and long-term growth for your business.

Top 4 B2B SEO trends in 2023: What do they mean for your B2B business?

Now that you understand the different benefits of a B2B SEO strategy, it is crucial for businesses to stay up-to-date on the latest B2B SEO trends to remain competitive in the search landscape. While E-A-T and YMYL principles are here to stay, here are a few potential trends that you may want to look out for:

• Video content in search: Video is expected to grow in popularity, and businesses may need to incorporate more video content into their SEO strategies to stay competitive. This could involve creating video content to post on YouTube or other video-sharing platforms or optimizing existing website content with relevant video.
• Mobile optimization: Mobile optimization will continue to be a critical factor in search in the coming years as more and more users access the internet via mobile devices. Businesses must ensure that their mobile-friendly websites rank well in mobile search results.
• Local SEO: Local SEO, or optimizing a business’s online presence to rank well in local search results, is expected to become increasingly important for search engine algorithms in the coming years. This will be especially important for businesses that rely on local customers or have multiple physical locations.
• Death of 3rd party cookies: Firefox and Safari have always blocked third-party cookies. Recently, Google announced that from late 2023, Google Chrome would not support third-party cookies. In the future, B2B organizations will have to focus on first-party data. They will have to build their own data hubs for their digital marketing strategies.

Factors affecting B2B SEO

Businesses can use several types of SEO to improve their online visibility and drive sales. Some common types of B2B SEO include:

Keyword strategy

Keyword strategy is an essential part of SEO for B2B companies. It helps you to understand the terms and phrases potential customers use to find products or services like yours, and it can also give you ideas for content creation and link building.

When you’re picking keywords for your business, you should pick out keywords based on

1. Target Client Profile: What does your target client like to search for?
2. Relevancy: Are these keywords relevant to your targets?
3. Difficulty and Effort: How hard is it to rank for these keywords?

A keyword strategy for a business typically includes the following pieces:

Keyword research:

Identifying relevant keywords and phrases that potential customers are searching for. This can be done using tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.

Competitor analysis:

Analyzing the keywords that your competitors are targeting to identify gaps in your own keyword strategy.

Target audience:

Understanding the demographics, interests, and behavior of your target audience to identify the keywords that they are most likely to use.

Long-tail keywords:

Identifying long-tail and low-volume keywords that are more specific and less competitive, but still relevant to your business.

Depending on the stage of SEO, your keyword strategy should change. If you’re just beginning, you should take a look at bottom-of-the-funnel keywords (BoFu). BoFu keywords and content help with “purchase intent”. These keywords help drive conversions and are usually searched for when someone is trying to make a final decision regarding a purchase. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up a bottom-of-the-funnel keyword strategy:

Identify your bottom-of-the-funnel keywords:

These are keywords that indicate a high level of purchase intent, such as “buy,” “pricing,” and “comparison”. Use keyword research tools to identify these keywords, and also consider the specific products or services that you offer.

Optimize your product and landing pages:

Incorporate your bottom-of-the-funnel keywords into the product and landing pages, including in the page title, meta description, and throughout the content. Make sure that the pages are optimized for conversions and include clear calls to action.

Use retargeting campaigns:

Use retargeting campaigns to target users who have previously visited your website and shown an interest in your products or services. Bottom-of-the-funnel keywords in the ad copy to create a sense of urgency and encourage users to make a purchase.

Utilize paid search:

Use paid search campaigns to target bottom-of-the-funnel keywords and drive targeted traffic to your product and landing pages.

Monitor and adjust:

Regularly monitor the performance of your bottom-of-the-funnel keywords and make adjustments as necessary. Use tools such as Google Analytics to track conversions, bounce rates, and other metrics to determine which keywords are driving the most sales.

Test, Test, and Test:

Continuously A/B test your landing pages, ad copies, and other elements to see which one is working the best and make changes accordingly.

You will find a larger and more detailed keyword research process in the following sections.

Technical SEO:

A technical SEO audit analyzes and improves a website’s technical aspects to improve its visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You can perform an audit once your website and company have been present for a while (3+ years). Here are a few factors to consider before doing an audit of your website.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization, also referred to as on-page SEO or on-site SEO, refers to optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engine results pages (SERPs). Specific techniques include:

• Use relevant and targeted keywords in the title tag, meta description, and throughout the content of the page.
• Ensure that the content is of high quality and provides value to the reader
• Use appropriate header tags (H1, H2, etc.) to organize the content and make it easier to read.
• Optimize images by using descriptive, relevant file names and alt text
• Ensure that the web pages are mobile-friendly and have a fast loading speed
• Use both internal and external links to improve the user experience and link to other relevant resources.
• Optimizing these and other elements of a webpage can improve its search page rankings and help with lead generation.

Off-page SEO:

Off-page SEO refers to improving a website’s visibility and authority through actions taken outside the website itself. Here are some specific techniques for off-page optimization

• Link building: This involves acquiring high-quality “backlinks” from other reputable sites. These links act as “votes of confidence” for your website, telling search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant.
• Content marketing involves creating content of high quality, like a blog post or a landing page. This is meant to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience. This can help drive traffic and backlinks to your website.
• Social media marketing involves promoting your website and its content on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. This can help drive traffic to your website and increase its visibility.

Some other factors that you need to consider for technical SEO

• Crawlability: Ensuring that search engines can easily crawl and index the website’s pages
• Mobile-friendliness: Making sure that the website is optimized for mobile devices
• Page speed: Optimizing the website’s loading speed to improve the user experience
• Website structure: Ensuring that the website has a clear hierarchy of pages and a sitemap
• URL structure: Using descriptive and relevant URLs for each page
• Schema markup: Adding structured data to the website’s HTML code to help search engines understand its content.

Optimizing these and other elements of your online presence can improve your website’s visibility and authority and attract more leads to your website.

B2B Local SEO (only if your business is in a particular geography)

B2B local SEO is the process of optimizing a business-to-business (B2B) company’s website and online presence to improve its ranking in local search results. This typically involves optimizing the website’s content and technical elements for specific local keywords and building local backlinks and citations.

B2B companies that offer services or products to other businesses usually have physical locations, and therefore, it’s important to rank well in local search results in order to be found by potential clients or customers in their area. According to Google, 28% of searches for “X nearby” or “X near me” result in a purchase.

Benefits of B2B Local SEO:

A well-executed B2B local SEO strategy can provide a number of benefits to a business, including:

• Increased visibility in local search results: By optimizing your website and online presence for local keywords and building local backlinks and citations, you can improve your visibility in local search results.
• Improved brand awareness: A strong local SEO strategy can help to establish your business as a reputable and trustworthy provider of goods or services in your local area.
• Increased foot traffic: A good local SEO strategy can help drive more customers to your physical location if you have one.
• Increased sales and revenue: By attracting more qualified traffic to your website, you can ultimately increase your sales and revenue.
• Cost-effective: Local SEO is an affordable way to drive traffic to your website vs. traditional advertising methods.
• Better targeting: By focusing on specific local keywords and topics, you can attract more qualified leads who are likelier to convert into customers.

How do you improve your local SEO rankings?

Here are some specific techniques that can be used in a B2B Local SEO strategy include

• Optimizing Google My Business (GMB) profile: GMB is a free listing service provided by Google which lets businesses manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.
• Creating localized content: Develop valuable and informative content that is relevant to your local target audience and optimized for local keywords. The translation is the first piece to localization, and later personalizing it with the regional flairs helps a lot.
• Optimizing the website’s technical elements: Make sure your website’s technical elements, like schema markup and meta description, include accurate local information.
• Link building: Link building in local SEO refers to the process where you build backlinks from other websites to your website in order to improve its visibility and authority in local search results.

Here are a few steps to follow for link building as part of your local SEO strategy:

• Local directories: Create a listing for your business in local directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Google My Business. You should also try to get links from industry-related sites, partner sites, national organizations, and, if possible, reputed newspapers’ sites.
• Guest blogging: Write and publish articles on other local websites and include a link back to your website.
• Sponsorship and partnerships: Partner with other local businesses and companies to create mutually beneficial opportunities for link-building.
• Social media: Build a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and include links to your website on your profile.
• Online reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on websites such as Google Reviews or TripAdvisor that include a link to your website.

It’s important to note that link building should be done in a natural and organic way, and avoid using any manipulative or spammy tactics. Search engines tend to penalize sites that engage in these practices.

Mobile search optimization:

According to a report by Statista, 64% of worldwide search traffic comes from mobile devices. Ensure that when you create content that is relevant to your business, it’s optimized for mobile searches.

Conversion Rate Optimization in B2B SEO strategy

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) in B2B SEO refers to the process of making changes to a website in order to increase the percentage of visitors that convert into customers or leads. This can involve a combination of technical, design, and content changes aimed at improving the user experience and making it easier for visitors to take the desired action.

Some specific techniques that can be used in CRO for B2B SEO include

• A/B testing: Testing different versions of website elements such as headlines, call-to-action buttons, and forms to see which performs best.
• Heat maps: Use heat map tools to see visitor activity on your website and identify areas that may need improvement.
• Usability testing: Watching real users interact with your website to identify areas that may be causing confusion or friction in the conversion process.
• Optimizing the checkout process: Make sure the checkout process is fast, easy and secure to make sure that visitors are not dropping out before completing their purchase or contact form.

Overall, CRO is an integral part of B2B SEO strategy, as it helps to increase the number of visitors who convert into leads or customers. By understanding your target audience, using data and testing, you can improve your website’s conversion rate and drive more revenue for your business.

In conclusion, there are several factors that can impact the success of B2B SEO efforts. Additionally, Search Engines continue to be updated regularly, and it’s best to monitor these changes frequently.

Tools to help you optimize B2B SEO

If you’re a B2B company looking to rank on the first page or improve your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, there are various helpful tools that can assist with optimizing your website, researching relevant keywords, tracking your rankings, and more. Here are some of the top tools, other than Google Analytics, to help you optimize B2B SEO and drive qualified traffic to your website.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an incredibly powerful keyword tool that can help you understand and improve your website’s SEO performance.

Some of Ahref’s key features include:

Keyword Explorer:

Ahrefs provides data on the search volume of your target keywords, the keyword difficulty, common keyword searches and related keywords, which can help you identify the best possible keywords to target as part of your SEO efforts.

Site explorer:

Ahrefs allows you to see the websites that are linking to your competitors and the specific pages on your own website that have the most backlinks.

Site audit:

Ahrefs’ site audit tool analyzes your website for technical SEO issues, such as crawl errors, duplicate content, and broken links, and provides recommendations for how to fix them.

Rank tracker:

Ahrefs’ rank tracking tool allows you to see how your website’s keywords rank in search results nationally and locally.

Content Explorer:

Ahrefs’ content gap tool shows you the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, but you are not. This can help you identify opportunities to improve your SEO efforts and help in creating the best content strategy for your business.

Webmaster tools:

Their Webmaster tool is equivalent to Google’s Search Console. This is a free product with limited Site explorer and Site Audit access.

Pricing:

Ahrefs is one of the best SEO software in the market today, so their pricing plans are on the upper side of the range.

2. Semrush

Semrush is an Ahrefs alternative and comprises a comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools that can help you improve your online visibility and performance. Some of the features offered by SEMrush include

• Keyword research: Semrush provides data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and related keywords, which can help you identify the most effective keywords to target in your SEO and PPC campaigns.
• Competitor analysis: Semrush allows you to see the keywords, ads, and backlinks of your competitors, which can help you understand their online marketing strategy and find opportunities to differentiate your campaigns.
• Site audit: Semrush’s site audit tool analyzes your website for technical issues, such as crawl errors, duplicate content, and broken links, and provides recommendations for how to fix them.
• Rank tracking: Semrush’s rank tracking tool allows you to see how your website’s keywords rank in search results nationally and locally.
• Local SEO: You can use Semrush’s suite of Local SEO tools to help you perform better. These include tools to help you manage your local listing better, an on-page SEO checker to help you prioritize the SEO changes for your website, and a social media toolkit to enhance your social media posts for better conversion.
• PPC analysis: Semrush provides data on the performance of your PPC campaigns, including cost, clicks, and conversions. This can help you optimize your campaigns for better ROI.

Pricing:

Semrush has three pricing plans, all of which are paid only. It also has the following add-ons that you can attach to your plan if needed. Semrush offers a 7-day free trial and also has a limited free plan.

Which tool should you choose for your initial B2B SEO strategy?

It depends, but to give a summary.

1. Semrush wins by an extremely small margin for Keyword Research and Analysis.
2. When it comes to link building: Ahrefs wins.
3. For Technical SEO audits, Semrush is the clear winner.
4. If you’re running Paid ad campaigns, Semrush is better designed to help you improve their performance.
5. Regarding pricing, you can get most of the basic keyword research and backlink analysis features in Semrush’s $120 plan, while you need to get the $199 plan for Ahrefs to get the same set of features.

So, if you didn’t have a choice, I would suggest going with Semrush, though Ahrefs is extremely close. Finally, you need to consider factors like your budget, team size, usage, etc.

3. Surfer

Surfer SEO is a powerful tool that can help you optimize your website’s content for search engines. It’s specifically designed for SEO professionals and content creators who want to understand and improve their website’s performance in search results. Here’s what you need to know about Surfer SEO strategy.

• Competitor website analysis: Surfer SEO analyzes the content of your competitors’ websites and provides data on the keywords and topics they are ranking. This can help you identify opportunities to optimize your website’s content and improve its visibility in search results.
• Existing content analysis and optimization: Surfer SEO recommends optimizations for your content based on the analysis of your competitor’s websites. These recommendations include the use of specific keywords and the length and format of your content.
• Content performance audit: Surfer SEO tracks the performance of the content in your web pages in search results, providing data on the keywords you’re ranking for and the traffic you’re receiving. This can help you understand what’s working and areas you need to improve.
• Content Editor: You can use Surfer SEO’s Content Editor and Content Score to create blog articles for a particular keyword that are guaranteed to rank high and provide high conversion rates. It scrapes other websites that rank for your target keywords and provides relevant search terms, which you can use in your own content to create high-performing SEO posts like landing pages or blog posts.

Pricing:

Surfer SEO offers four paid plans with a 7-day full refund guarantee. If you’re a startup, I suggest using the $120 plan. For larger enterprises, the $240 plan is more suitable.

4. Clearscope

Clearscope is a powerful SEO tool that can help you optimize the technical aspects of your website to improve its ranking in SERPs. Here’s what you need to know about Clearscope:

• HTML Code analysis and audit: Clearscope scans your website’s HTML code and provides recommendations on optimizing it for organic search. This includes optimizing tags like title tags and header tags and using structured data.
• Content optimization suite: Clearscope provides recommendations on how to optimize the content of your website based on the keywords you’re targeting. It also helps you identify and fix content that may negatively affect your SEO performance.
• Website performance audit: Clearscope tracks the performance of your website in search results, providing data on your rankings, traffic, and other key metrics. This can help you understand what’s working and areas you need to improve.

Pricing:

Clearscope is best suited for enterprise companies that already have enough content and want to optimize it further for better results.

5. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a desktop-based website crawling tool that can help you analyze and optimize the technical aspects of your landing pages and website. It’s particularly useful for SEO professionals and website administrators who want to identify and fix technical issues that could be impacting the website’s visibility and ranking in SERPs.

Here’s what you need to know about Screaming Frog:

• It crawls your website: Screaming Frog crawls your website and analyzes its technical aspects, including the HTML code, the website structure, and the use of tags like title tags and header tags.
• It helps you identify technical issues: Screaming Frog provides data on any technical issues it finds on your website, such as crawl errors, duplicate content, and broken links. It also provides recommendations on how to fix these issues.
• It provides data on your website’s performance: Screaming Frog tracks the performance of your website in search results, providing data on your rankings, traffic, and other key metrics. This can help you understand what’s working and what areas you need to improve.

Pricing:

Screaming Frog has a free-forever version and a paid version. The free version supports up to 500 crawls. The paid plan allows you to crawl more than 500 URLs and gives access to advanced features.

Screaming Frog is not a tool suggested for beginners and is better used by technical SEO experts who can help fix the issues that bug your website.

6. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools) is a free web service provided by Google that helps website owners understand how their site is performing in Google search results. It provides a range of tools and information that can help website owners optimize their website’s visibility in search results and troubleshoot any issues that may be impacting their site’s performance.

Some of the features include:

• Indexing: You can get information on which pages of your website are being indexed by Google, as well as any issues that may be preventing certain pages from being indexed.
• Search traffic: It gives data on how many clicks, impressions, and click-through rates your site is getting for specific queries.
• Performance: You can see how your website is performing in search results, including which keywords and queries are driving the most traffic to your site.
• Security and Manual actions: Google Search Console alerts you if it detects any security issues on your website and if your site has been penalized by Google’s algorithms.
• Structured data: It helps you understand if Google is able to understand the structure of your website, and if there are any errors in the structured data on your site. This can help you implement structured data in the future.

Google Search Console is a valuable resource for any website owner looking to optimize their website’s SEO performance.

You can also check other helpful tools like Moz and Frase.io.

Implementing your B2B SEO strategy:

Whether you’re an enterprise moving top-down or a startup trying to grow faster, here are a few steps you can implement as part of your B2B SEO strategy.

Buyer Persona research: Create your Ideal client profile

An Ideal Customer Profile is basically a paper version of a client with the best possible factors that would make them the best possible fit for your product. It is basically a top-level construct of an organization/person using variables like geography, employee strength, industry, etc.

This helps you in conducting campaigns where you can target only these accounts. But for the sales teams to actually go and talk with these potential buyers, they should know what and how exactly they think. This deep behavioral dive into the buyer is called the Buyer persona. Usually, it’s better to create the same number of personas as there are types of product users.

A very simple method of creating buyer personas is creating a hierarchy of users. Something like this

1. Budget holder
2. Champion
3. Daily user

To expand on these profiles, you have to get their demographical, behavioral, and psychological profiles correct. You can do that

1. By speaking to existing customers, understanding their job profiles, and checking the same on Linkedin
2. By talking to the sales teams
3. By looking at the existing customer data in the in-house CRM
4. Looking at the descriptions of these roles on job search websites.

The first three give a good idea regarding the type of customers who love the product. The last one corroborates the same and helps translate it into sentences. Creating Buyer personas involves a lot of market research of potential customers and understanding your existing customers.

This should answer questions around

1. Their pain points (from sales teams, Linkedin profiles, job search role descriptions)
2. The value points they care for (from Linkedin profiles, Job search role descriptions)
3. The metrics they measure (you can get from sales and sales engineering teams)
4. Currently used software or the ones they prefer – Competitor data (you can get from sales and customer success teams).

By creating detailed buyer personas, businesses can gain insight into their target market and tailor their marketing strategies to better appeal to their ideal customers. This can lead to more effective campaigns and increased conversions. Additionally, buyer persona research can also be used to optimize the customer journey, improve product development, and inform content creation. ICP research should be regularly reviewed and updated to keep pace with changes in the market and customer behavior.

2. Sales funnel 

B2B sales funnels are an essential part of any B2B SEO marketing strategy. A sales funnel a visual representation of the journey a potential customer goes through before they make a purchase. The goal of a B2B sales funnel to guide potential customers through the buying process and ultimately convert them into paying customers.

The first stage of the sales funnel is building awareness.

At this stage, potential customers are introduced to your company and products or services. This is where lead generation comes in, such as through content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), or social media. By creating valuable content and making it easily discoverable, you can attract potential customers to your website.

The second stage is generating interest.

At this stage, potential customers have learned about your company and are interested in what you have to offer. This is where lead nurturing comes in, such as through email campaigns, webinars, or free trials. By providing additional information and resources, you can continue to build interest and establish trust with potential customers.

The third stage is evaluation.

At this stage, potential customers are considering your company as a potential solution to their problem or need. This is where the sales team comes in, such as through demos, product presentations, or case studies. By providing potential customers with detailed information about your products or services, you can help them evaluate whether your company is the right fit for them.

The fourth and final stage is the purchase.

At this stage, potential customers have decided to buy your products or services. This is where the closing process comes in, such as through contracts, payment processing, and onboarding. By making the purchase process as easy and seamless as possible, you can increase the chances of closing the sale and retaining the customer for future purchases.

B2B sales funnels are a powerful tool for guiding potential customers through the buying process and ultimately converting them into paying customers. By understanding the stages of the funnel and tailoring your strategies to each stage, you can increase the chances of closing sales and growing your business.

3. Conduct keyword research and implement a strategy:

Keyword research will help you understand what users are searching for and how you can best optimize your website to rank well in search results.

Here are some steps you can follow to do keyword research for B2B SEO:

Identify the initial keywords:

The initial keywords are the first step of your research. They represent your category and also your competitors. For example, “CRM” is a potential initial keyword. Once you figure out these basic keywords, it’s usually better to move to the next keyword research step.

• Find which keywords your competitors rank for:

You can use one of the previously mentioned tools or free tools like Wordstream’s Keyword checker to give you a list of keywords that your competitors rank for. You need to input your competitor’s URL to find the keywords that work for them.

For example, I analyzed “intercom.com” – Intercom being one of the leading conversational engagement software companies. Here are the results

Make a list of relevant search queries and phrases:

Sometimes researching competitors is not enough. You should also find keywords you might be missing out on. It’s always better to use a keyword tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to help generate more keywords.

Research your target audience:

First, consider whom you want to reach with your website and what products or services they are interested in. Then go to communities, Q&A forums, and Quora, where you will find members of your target audience to be highly active. Sometimes publicly available community spaces like Reddit work for B2B as well. Going through the interactions and discussions in these communities will give you a list of topics your target audience wants to know about. For example, here’s a screenshot from r/hubspot, the Hubspot subreddit.

Even though it’s low on the number of upvotes, it has 92% upvotes out of the total viewers and five comments, which means “Hubspot WhatsApp integration” is a possible keyword that you should keep an eye out for.

Check keyword difficulty and search volume:

Now that you have a keyword list and topics best suited for your niche, the question is, which keyword do you begin with?

There are three factors that you need to consider.

• Search volume:

Suppose your company is new and has had dominant competitors around for some time. In that case, it’s better to target low-volume keywords, usually called “Long-tail keywords.” After a certain period, it’s better to start targeting high-volume keywords too. It’s always recommended to keep an eye out for keyword trends using Google Trends for a sudden rise in keyword searches.

• Keyword difficulty(KD):

Use Ahrefs’s Keyword Explorer tool to understand the KD of each keyword. It’s better to target low KD score keywords first and then target high KD keywords, as you’re less likely to rank for these keywords when beginning.

• Cost per Click (CPC):

If you have a Google Ads account, you can check the CPC value for keywords. CPC can act as a proxy or an alternative for KD. The higher the CPC, the higher the KD.

Prioritize your keywords:

After you’ve identified the keywords with the highest search volume and lowest difficulty, prioritize them based on relevance to your business and how well they align with your target audience.

It would be best if you bucketed your keywords into

1. TOFU keywords (Top of the Funnel)
2. MOFU keywords (Medium of the Funnel)
3. BOFU keywords (Bottom of the Funnel)

TOFU keywords will have high search volume but low conversion rates, while BOFU keywords will be the opposite.

4. Perform a Technical SEO audit:

Here are a few steps you can follow to perform a tech SEO audit for your B2B website:

Check for crawl errors:

Make sure that search engines can easily crawl and index your website. You can do this by using tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs to check for crawl errors and see which pages are being indexed.

Check the website’s page speed:

Slow loading can negatively impact your organic search rankings. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to check your website’s loading speed and identify any areas that need improvement.

Review your website’s structure:

Make sure your website has a clear and logical structure, with a hierarchy of pages and a sitemap. This will help search engines understand the content on your website and how it is organized.

Check for duplicate content:

There might be some long-form content pieces that rank for the same keyword. Ensure there’s no duplicate content, as it can confuse Google, and your pages for the same topic will rank poorly.

Check whether pagination is working correctly:

Lazy load pagination and standard pagination should work correctly. Else the website will give a broken experience which is not considered good.

Check for broken links:

Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to check for broken links on your website. These can negatively impact your organic search rankings and frustrate users.

Improve your website’s title tags and meta descriptions:

These are the snippets of text that appear in search results and give users an idea of your website. Make sure they are descriptive, relevant, and unique.

Check your website’s mobile-friendliness:

More and more users are accessing the internet from their smartphones, so ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is vital. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your website’s mobile-friendliness.

5. Creating the right content marketing strategy

Creating a successful content marketing strategy involves several key steps:

• Set specific goals:
  Determine what you want to achieve with your content marketing, whether it’s driving website traffic, generating leads, or increasing sales.
• Develop a content calendar:
  Plan out the topics and types of content you will create, and when you will publish them.
• Create a variety of content:
  Create a mix of content formats, such as long-form content pieces like ebooks and guides, blog posts, landing pages, videos, infographics, and social media posts to appeal to different types of learners.
• Optimize for search intent: Use keywords and other best practices to help your content rank well in search engine results.
• Promote your content: The most important piece after creation is promotion and distribution. Use a variety of channels to promote your content, such as social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
• Measure your results: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content and adjust your strategy as needed.
• Continuously refine and improve:
  Keep an eye on the performance of your content, revise or refocus on what’s working, then incorporate new ideas, channels as it evolves.

6. Consult an SEO agency:

Well, you can implement all of this yourselves, or you can connect with an SEO consultancy that can take most of the effort away in exchange for the best possible results. There are several reasons why you may want to consider working with an SEO consulting agency.

• Expertise: SEO consulting agencies have teams of experts with a deep understanding of the industry and the latest best practices. They can provide you with strategic guidance and advice that can help you achieve better results than if you were to try and implement SEO on your own.
• Resources: SEO consulting agencies have the resources and tools necessary to conduct extensive research, analyze data, and monitor your progress. They can provide you with in-depth analytics and reporting that can help you make data-driven decisions and measure the performance of your SEO efforts.
• Scalability: SEO consulting agencies can provide you with customized solutions that are tailored to your specific needs and goals. Whether you’re a startup or an enterprise, they can scale their services to meet your requirements.
• Time savings: SEO can be time-consuming and requires constant monitoring, testing and optimization. An SEO consulting agency can manage your SEO efforts on your behalf, thus freeing up your time for other important business functions.
• Cost-effective: Working with an SEO consulting agency can be a cost-effective way to achieve your SEO goals, especially if you don’t have an in-house team. They can provide you with a dedicated team of experts at a fraction of the cost of hiring and maintaining an in-house team.
• Specialized Focus: An agency can have teams that specialize in specific areas like local SEO or e-commerce optimization, which can provide you with a focused, specialized approach that targets the areas that need improvement the most.

It’s essential to research and finds an agency that has a good reputation, a track record of delivering results, and experience working with businesses similar to yours. It’s also important to check the agency’s credentials, like if they are certified by Google or Bing and check their client’s testimonials.

Betterzilla: The Best B2B SEO Agency

Well, you can call us a little biased, but at Betterzilla, we help brands of all sizes – be it startups or enterprises scale their organic traffic in months. We help with link building, drive incredible MQL growth and work with your SaaS marketing teams as a consultant to drive rapid growth without you having to burn your pockets.

One thing that we believe is that the right time to start working on creating content pieces for your B2B SEO strategy was yesterday. We’ve seen that a lot of startups miss out on so many opportunities by not executing their SEO strategy earlier. Why do we think so?

For instance, consider Google Ads; the average Cost Per Click (CPC) is around $2. So just to get 1000 people on your website, you have to spend $2,000. And this flow of leads stops the moment you stop spending. With content marketing, this isn’t the case. You’ll likely spend more on your initial investment, but you’ll find that it is way cheaper in the long run.

Here’s an example of our own website.

We started 8 months ago. Right now, we are ranking on page 1 on 56 bottom-of-funnel keywords like competitor review, pricing, and alternatives. Our investment in SEO already paid off after 2 months of investment.

It’s not just our website, we’ve worked with companies where we fought the likes of Clickup, Asana and built 12K in monthly traffic in just 4 months. We’ve helped companies like Cliently build their organic traffic to 80K monthly searches and helped them net an additional $5K – $7K MRR just from SEO.

The proof is in the pudding and the only way to test it, is by connecting with us. Contact us today and we can chat all things B2B SEO strategy that will drive rapid growth for your organization.