It’s a given. In today’s world, a business without online visibility is nonexistent. SEO is, therefore, a necessity for any B2B or B2C company.
While search engine optimization remains an enigma to many, it’s a tool for driving ROI, traffic, and conversion generation. When maximized with adequate strategy, it can yield remarkable marketing results.
Is B2B SEO different from B2C SEO? How can you create an offsite B2B SEO strategy? This article seeks to answer these questions. It also provides proven steps to help you build a B2B SEO strategy and stay ahead of your competitors.
It’s ranking time! Let’s get started.
What Is B2B SEO?
Let’s start with the basics. SEO means search engine optimization. It’s a process that involves optimizing your website to improve the quantity and quality of traffic it garners. The aim of SEO is simple. To increase growth, revenue, and organic ranking on SERPs.
B2B SEO, short for Business to Business SEO, is the same as regular SEO. It provides better ranking results and revenues. A B2B business’s target audience are business leaders and company decision-makers.
As you may expect, the way a B2B SEO operates differs slightly from the regular B2C (Business to customer) SEO.
We’ll explore that in a bit. But first:
What Are The Similarities Between B2B and B2C SEO?
The fundamentals of B2B and B2C SEO remain the same. They are still broken down into three components:
Technical SEO: Optimizing the technical side of your website to make sure Google can crawl, index, and render the page.
On-page SEO: It’s the optimization factors that occur on your webpage. For instance, writing relevant meta descriptions and creating new internal links.
Off-page SEO: This entails getting backlinks from authority websites to improve your domain’s credibility and authority.
The Difference Between B2B SEO And B2C SEO
The primary diversity is their audience. B2B business buyers’ personas are business leaders, while B2C focuses on direct customers.
Of course, the disparity in the audience necessitates the need for different SEO tactics. Other striking differences include:
Presentation: Thought Leadership Vs. Great Ads
Direct customers are peculiar. They may patronize a brand because their favorite TikTok influencer endorsed it. Or because your ads are the new internet sensation that creates the perfect “vibe.”
However, a B2B company doesn’t have such a luxury. Your audience needs one thing from you: confidence. Thought leadership comes in handy to prove expertise in the industry. Your audience needs a business that can solve their current needs. If you can’t prove that you are a perfect fit for them with stats and facts, they will move on to your competitors.
Keywords: High Intent & Low Volume Vs. High Volume
A B2B company’s audience is smaller than a B2Cs’. That means you need keywords that are more specific and less generic.
For instance, a keyword like “virtual desktops” has generic searches on the web from different customers. But a more specific keyword like “Desktop-as-a-service” might have a lesser search volume but connect more with your target audience.
B2B companies focus more on keywords that reflect their audience’s search intent. As expected, these keywords have fewer search volumes but are more specific.
Sales Funnel: Longer Decision Time Vs. Impulsive Decision
Making a sale in a B2B business takes more time. Companies generally need to deliberate and research thoroughly before buying any product from a B2B business. On the flip side, a B2C business’s customer can simply buy products impulsively.
How To Build An Offsite B2B SEO Strategy
You understand how Offsite B2B SEO strategy works. It’s time to learn how to build an effective system that facilitates brand growth.
Define Your SEO Objectives
Your SEO objectives shouldn’t be entirely focused on leads and keyword generation. Don’t get us wrong; this is a critical part of SEO. But in the long run, it’s all about how your SEO strategy affects your brand.
For example, a definite SEO objective like: “converting 1000 leads over 6 months” contributes to your company’s growth.
Create Buyer Personas
After setting your objectives, the second step is to know to who you are catering to. Creating buyer personas for your target buyers helps you streamline your strategy to suit their needs.
Understand who your customers are, their immediate needs, and why they would demand your services or product. You may pinpoint this information with the help of quantitative and qualitative research.
Note that your business may have several buyer personas.
Conduct Intent-Focused Keyword Research
Using precise keywords in your content portrays you as an expert in the field. As a result, every offsite B2B SEO strategy should be preceded by detailed keyword research.
B2B buyers aren’t as generic as other customers with their search intent. Here’s what we mean: a B2B customer won’t search “Air conditioning units”. They want to know “what’s the best virtual event management software for a large company.”
Focus on their search intent to find the keywords that interest your readers. A competitor’s analysis can help in this regard. You may also use keyword research tools to find low-volume keywords with higher intent.
Note: B2B company keywords are often long tail.
Use Keywords Not Buzzwords
Regardless of how intellectual buzzwords make you sound, they may hurt your SEO strategy. Buzzwords are technical names or product names. Chances are that your buyers won’t search those words.
So, focus on getting the keywords right instead of loading your content with several complex buzzwords.
Run A Domain Audit
Auditing your website with a keyword research tool is a way to stay ahead of the curve. Using keyword research tools like Ahrefs, you may decide the keywords you currently rank for. And discover the contents you can tweak to get better SEO results.
A website audit exposes you to opportunities that are otherwise not visible to you. Take advantage of this while building your SEO strategy.
Assign Keywords To Each Stage In The Sales Funnel
B2B buyers are meticulous with buying decisions. Hence, it’s no surprise they have a longer buyer’s journey with more stages than the B2C buyer.
In this light, you need to conduct keyword research for each stage. Monitor their journey; ensure you have content that addresses their needs and answers their queries at each buying level. That way, you can walk them through their sales funnel without losing a potential customer.
Conduct An SEO Audit
SEO audits are intense site-wide reviews of your website. It helps you detect any SEO errors or areas of improvement. For better results, you should run an audit for technical SEO, off-page SEO, and on-page SEO.
You may rely on Google tools like Google Search Console or SEMrush & Ahrefs. These tools deliver unrivaled data insights to help you discover slacks in your SEO strategy.
Syn Your SEO Efforts With Offline Marketing
What has SEO got to do with offline marketing? Everything! You can boost your SEO efforts and results by ensuring they align with your offline marketing plans. While it may demand extra supervision and deliberate actions, it’s achievable! But first, you must work on a sales enablement plan to set the wheels in motion.
Track metrics And Test Tactics
To succeed in search engine optimization, you need patience. It’s a waiting game, and it only rewards diligence and patience.
It doesn’t mean you have to wait redundantly. In the interim, you need to track your metrics and create new tactics worth testing.
Hence, while your SEO strategy provides data and metrics, you should analyze them to decide what works for you.
You need to track metrics like:
- Keyword rank: it helps you determine if you are focusing on the right keywords.
- Domain Authority: This means using reliable keyword tools to reveal your site’s health and the quality of your backlinks
- Bounce Rate: It alerts you when your visitor’s dwell time drops on your website. This helps you improve on keeping them on your website.
- Organic Traffic: it answers the question: “is my website reaching my audience?”
- Pages Per Session: This gives you insight into the average time visitors spend on your website.
Wrapping Up
As a B2B business, building an offsite B2B SEO strategy is important. Creating an effective strategy may seem challenging. But with the tips in this article, it’s a breeze.
The most common misconception about SEO is that they are a one-off. However, SEO continues even after you hit the top spot on Google. So, when your SEO strategy works for you, you must keep tracking the metrics to ensure your B2B keeps thriving.
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