A Comprehensive Guide of SEO Strategies for B2B Organizations

Whether you deal with B2B or B2C, SEO strategies are integral part of digital marketing. 

Now, we all know that SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It technically means improvising and developing your website so that Google crawlers find and rank it organically on the first page whenever there is a relevant search query. 

But we are aware of SEO strategies for B2B, how it works, and its basics. So, today we shall look into what businesses practice to rank on the first page of search engines. We will provide in-depth knowledge of what they do or how they have learned to sustain and capture the first page positions.

So, read on to find solutions and ideas for building better SEO Strategies for B2B organizations.

What Is a B2B SEO Strategy?

Successful SEO Strategies for B2B implies putting forth your business website for other businesses to avail of your products/services. In addition, it includes optimizing your website to increase organic search engine traffic. This, in turn, helps to rank better. 

You must have heard the phrase “optimize your website” very often. And you know that it means transforming your webpage so that crawlers determine its relevancy and rank them on top in organic searches. Thus, besides content, there are three essential aspects of B2B search marketing for ranking organically. Let us go through them briefly.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is optimizing your website technically for an easy search for crawlers. It involves many aspects such as:

• Site architecture

You can keep it simple and easy to navigate. Also, fix crawling errors if any.

• XML sitemap

This sitemap is not essential but surely helps crawlers to easily find your site and navigate through it. You can build an XML sitemap with the help of a sitemap generator.

• Mobile-friendliness

Cell Phones generate more than 52% of browsing. Hence it makes search engines happy to rank you higher if your website is ready for every screen size.

• No duplicate content

Duplicate or thin content is a big no-no if you rank or list your site in search engines.

• Speedy and Secured websites

Websites with these qualities enhance the ranking and ensure that the audience spends more time on your pages as the site is a trusted one. 

Besides the above, there should be no broken links or unstructured data on the website.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is to enhance your content and deliver precisely what the audience is looking for. The more relevant the data, the more audience it attracts.

Thus, even on-page SEO has its pillars to ensure that your pages rank organically in search engines. These are:

• Use appropriate and correct target keywords
• Keyword stuffing is a big no-no
• Incorporate keywords in titles and headings for a better SEO optimization
• Use simple, understandable, and keyword-relatable URLs.
• Update your content at regular intervals
• Build quality content
• Double-check your content by running a content audit.

 Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is everything that you do to promote your website everywhere else rather than your website. This form of SEO helps in building the credibility and popularity of the website.

Some examples of off-page Seo includes:

• Link building
• Blog posting
• Influencer Marketing
• Customer reviews

Why Do B2B Organizations Need SEO?

Search engines give people what they are looking for, and the same goes for businesses. There are B2B organizations that need other businesses to promote them or ease out their tasks. And one of the best examples is when the HR of the company searches for an HRIS system that suits their organization.

Thus, B2B companies also require SEO as much as B2C do. The SEO strategies for B2B may be somewhat different, but the importance is the same!

Design your B2B Search marketing to answer these three basic questions.

• What are your target businesses searching for?
• How much value and quality can you provide to your customer?
• How to convince Google that you are providing the most relevant answers?

Basic Difference Between B2C and B2B Search Engine Optimization

The backbone of B2B and B2C SEO is on-page, off-page, and technical page SEO. But there are different approaches to SEO strategies for B2B based on the requirements of clients and businesses.

Here is a list that differentiates B2B and B2C SEO.

• Target Audience

A B2B targets CEOs, marketing managers, or SMBs for conversion. And a B2C targets a massive consumer audience looking for the same product.

• Marketing Goals

A B2B SEO strategy is to convert leads for long terms. The businesses want their clients to download whitepapers, sign up for newsletters or fill out lead forms. But a B2C SEO strategy is to get a consumer on board and buy a product or service from them.

• Keyword Selection

A B2B content marketing needs transactional, technical, and informational keywords whereas a B2C sector needs keywords from the consumer’s point of view.

• Link Building

The link-building process for B2B is more complex as it needs to track the online behavior of its clients. Plus, an in-depth research is required to have the most trustworthy backlinks to their page. But a B2C has an easy link-building process as it can link to e-commerce websites.

What Are the Reasons Behind Low Conversion Rates?

It gets frustrating when you implement everything possible for successful SEO Strategies for B2B but still find that the leads are not getting converted. If it is the same case with you, don’t worry, it happens to almost everyone. 

Here are a few reasons that could be behind your low conversion rates.

• CTA

Ensure that you have attractive CTAs. For example, “sign up for a newsletter” can be replaced by “more exciting offers” or so on.

• Long forms to fill

According to a Hubspot survey, forms with five fields or less tend to get filled up immediately than the forms with more fields. So try to keep the lead forms limited to essential fields.

• Lack of Quality Content

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, there is a lack of quality content. So use SEO tools and ensure that your content is up to the mark. Also, make it a habit to incorporate infographics, images, and flowcharts in your content.

• Your Website is not responsive/Mobile-friendly

Your website needs to be responsive and mobile-friendly for an enhanced user experience. If it is not mobile-friendly, there are chances that search engines won’t index them.

• Badly Designed Website

Ensure that your website does not have too much, too little, or misaligned information. Also, a website that is easy to navigate leads to higher conversion rates.

Best SEO Practices for a Successful Conversion

Now that you know the reasons behind low conversion. Let us look in detail at the best SEO practices for a successful conversion.

We will provide you with essential insights while executing these SEO Strategies for B2B. But keep in mind that SEO takes time and practice to lead to conversions. So be patient and do not stop experimenting.

Here is the list of the 5 Best SEO practices that will lead to successful conversions.

Quality Content

Creating high-quality content is the backbone of successful SEO strategies for B2B. Also, adapting the pillar and cluster form for B2B content marketing can accelerate the view of your pages. In addition, this strategy helps in link building, keyword optimization, and gaining the authenticity of search engines.

A high-quality content strategy should consist of:

• Relevant information
• Recent use or statistics of the topic
• Addressing the pain points of the targeted industry
• Ideas of industry leaders with their success examples
• Providing solutions rather than explaining the problem

B2B Keyword Strategy

“Think about what the user is going to type.” - Matt Cutts, Former Head of Team Web Spam, Google

Thus, you can use the right keywords when you understand the audience's intent. Talk to your customers and understand what they are looking for. Also, use the autofill suggestion on SERPs to add to your list of keywords. 

Here are few things to keep in mind while designing the B2B keyword strategy.

• Understand the intent

Know what your audience is looking for. Understand that there is a massive difference between “What is marketing automation?” and “ Buy best marketing automation software.”

• Map your content

Use appropriate keywords for landing pages and blog posts. Ensure to know the difference between closing a sales pitch using target keywords and informational keywords for blogs, whitepapers, and more.

• Know your audience

Your audience is looking for terms directly related to their field of work. So try to provide them with solutions rather than information.

• Optimize your website

Imagine what a negative impression it creates when a CEO or marketing head visits your website and notices it is not loading fast or is poorly designed? Plus, it is a big turn-off if the website is not optimized for different screen sizes or mobile-friendly.

Hence, it is essential to upgrade your website and ensure it works efficiently on all platforms. The search engines have algorithms to determine the technical aspects of the website. Thus, the more updated your business technicalities are, the better your website will rank.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Implementing your SEO strategy becomes easier once you know your audience is and what they are looking for. Always remember you enhance the customer experience when you deliver content and answer the questions of your target audience. This, in turn, builds customer trust that leads to conversion, sales, and retention.

When it comes to the B2B target audience, personalization plays an important role. Try to make the sales pitch more about them and less about you. It means that you know their challenges and provides solutions for the same. It will also help you in building the keyword funnel.

Importance of Blogs and link building

Blogs and link building are important factors in ranking your pages on SERPs. For example, if you attract a CEO to your blog and connect to the content, there are 80% chances of conversion. 

Also, when you follow the pillar-cluster strategy, you may get more clicks on your links, and your audience will trust you for delivering what they are looking for.

Similarly, try to get links to your content from trustworthy sites. These links let the search engines know relevant and trustworthy information on your site, thus improving your ranking.

Examples of Successful SEO B2B Strategies

We have curated a list of successful B2B SEO strategies. Take a look and learn from their SEO tactics.

Ahrefs: Included videos in their SEO strategy

Ahrefs created blogs for SEO-related queries but also YouTube videos for each topic. Thus if a person has less time or doesn’t want to read, they can watch the video and understand it.

The American Egg Board: Generated 22% organic traffic by revamping the website

The American Egg Board revamped its website and optimized it for all types of screens and mobile devices. As a result, it noticed an increase of 22% in website traffic and 87% in mobile traffic.

Windowsreport.com: Generated almost 1 million new organic users every month

Windowsreport.com is a publication site in the UK. After noticing a decline in their online traffic, they redesigned and organized their content using the entity-based content model. It included updating content, clearing broken links, changing page titles, using relevant keywords, incorporating links and graphics, etc.

It resulted in generating 1 million new organic users every month!

Questions to Be Answered to Assess B2B SEO Strategy

Here are some of the questions that you should answer to assess your B2B SEO strategy. 

• Do you know your target audience?
• Have you conducted a backlink analysis? Is your link building impactful?
• Is your content well-written and authoritative?
• Does your site have the correct contact info? And does that person have the authority and required industry experience to reply to the queries?
• Is your site getting links from high DR sites?
• Is your website mobile-friendly?
• Are all the elements of on-page SEO up to date?
• Are you enhancing your presence on sites such as Quora, QuestionDB, and Answer The Public to stay ahead in the competition?
• Are you investing in an audit to get your technical SEO correct?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you will know where you lack SEO building and which strategies work wonders for you!

Wrapping Up

Hope you have all the insights for a successful B2B SEO strategy. Thus, get ready to amplify your business traffic and revenue with the best SEO tactics and practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SEO successful in B2B marketing?

Yes, SEO has proved wonders in B2B marketing. You will gain the trust of your clients if your content is crisp and clear and the website adheres to all SEO guidelines. Building the right SEO strategy also builds trust and reliability in the minds of the clients.

What are the ways to improve B2B SEO?

• Personalize your content
• Create high-quality landing pages
• Ensure to leverage schema
• Optimize your website
• Perform the correct keyword research

How can SEO strategy be improvised?

• Publish authoritative content
• Update content regularly
• Ensure your site is link-worthy
• Use correct meta descriptions, headings, and sub-headings
• Use alt tags