.png)
7 B2B SEO Best Practices to Creating a Winning Strategy
October 1, 2024
.png)
Google's recent SGE updates have led to an increase in no-click searches. Most B2B businesses are worried that this will make SEO irrelevant. We're here to tell you that's not the case. AI has only enhanced the role of SEO and it remains a vital part of inbound marketing strategy.
Since AI offers surface-level answers to queries within the search engines, base your SEO strategy on a deeper understanding of intent and write quality content that offers actionable strategies, expert insights, or unique opinions.
In this guide, we will talk about all things B2B SEO and how marketers can adapt their SEO strategy to tackle this recent shift in search engine algorithms.
Here’s all that we’ll cover in this guide:
Here are four main reasons why you shouldn't ignore your SEO strategy:
B2B is notorious for its long sales cycles. There are 4 different stages of the buying journey—awareness, interest, consideration, and conversion. SEO helps capture intent at every stage of this funnel. In fact, 47% of B2B buyers consumed 3-5 content pieces before engaging with a sales representative.
Hence, investment in SEO amplifies multiple touchpoints in this journey. Given its contribution throughout the customer journey, SEO has a high ROI.
But that's not all. For long sales cycles in B2B, the CAC is always very high. SEO has a long-term, snowballing effect which reduces CAC over time. This could be due to the direct impact of the low-maintenance engine that yields results for a long time, or also in the form of reduced CPC for PPC ads.
As stated above, no-click searches answer surface-level queries for users. This means that TOFU (top-of-the-funnel) keywords may not see as many click-throughs. However, MOFU (middle-of-the-funnel) is still highly dependent on SEO as potential customers will compare different solutions/vendors, their offerings, price points, and reviews through search engines.
SEO-driven resources like case studies, comparison pages, and whitepapers ensure that your brand is considered when buyers assess options closely, significantly increasing conversion potential.
A well-optimized website that consistently ranks high in search engine results pages (SERPs) demonstrates expertise and authority in your industry. This visibility builds trust and credibility among potential customers, positioning your business as a reliable and knowledgeable source of information and solutions.
As a result, you're more likely to attract and convert qualified leads, establishing your brand as a leader in the competitive B2B landscape.
Search engine queries indicate some intent at every stage of the funnel. SEO helps you target and nurture potential customers at every stage of the funnel, acting as a strong channel for demand-generation efforts.
With good UX and strategically placed CTAs, blogs can help increase conversion actions throughout the funnel. They act as valuable touchpoints throughout the customer journey, supporting your ABM strategy.
The difference between B2B and B2C SEO lies primarily in the target audience and the marketing strategies employed to reach them.
B2B keywords have a low search volume compared to B2C keywords. However, B2B searches are more motivated by specific business needs.
B2C keywords, on the other hand, typically have a higher search volume but may be related to broader and more generic topics.
B2B audiences are decision-makers within other businesses. Their search queries are often formal as their intent is to find solutions to specific business challenges.
B2C audiences are individual consumers and may look for entertaining content when searching the web. Their keyword searches are often more conversational and casual.
B2B sales cycles are usually longer, involving multiple touchpoints. Therefore, B2B SEO must focus on nurturing leads throughout the buying process.
B2C sales cycles are often shorter, emphasizing immediate conversions. That's why a B2C SEO strategy aims to drive quick sales.
Here's a seven-step strategy that will help you create an effective B2B SEO strategy:
While SEO does play an integral role in online visibility, it is not synonymous with traffic and visitors. Different companies at different stages of their growth journey can use SEO to meet a varied set of goals.
For a business that is just starting out, revenue matters most- it keeps you on your feet. In instances like this, SEO strategy should target MOFU and BOFU keywords with the goal of driving conversions.
Companies in their growth stage can aim for engagement and conversions, looking to publish more in-depth resources like ebooks.
For enterprises, it makes sense to try to expand their market and move past their ICP. In this instance, they will aim for top-of-the-funnel content with an emphasis on traffic and views.
Because SEO takes a low monetary investment, most businesses take the liberty of casting a wide net and hoping something sticks. But just like your performance marketing works better with well-defined segments (and doesn't burn a hole in your pocket!), your market research to make an SEO strategy that appeals to your prospective customers and converts into a sale.
For example, You can use your USPs, and market positioning research to understand what features and messaging appeal to your audience the most and use it throughout your content and SEO strategy.
B2B SEO is a highly targeted approach, so you must understand your audience before diving into keyword research. As we've stated above, search volume and other such metrics are not strong arguments to base your B2B strategy on. They may help further refine your list of keywords but to connect intent to your SEO plan, you need to start with customer research:
Start by defining your target audience. Create a buyer persona for each audience segment that you wish to target. Understand the behavior of your audience, and their psychological motives to buy. Add demographics and firmographic information that helps narrow down intent and add a layer of buying signals to the mix.
The JTBD framework is a customer-centric approach that focuses on understanding the underlying reasons why customers choose to buy a product or service. It emphasizes identifying the specific “jobs” that customers are trying to get done- they want to promote team collaboration, they want to save money on SaaS subscriptions, etc.
By comprehending customer motivations and the context in which they seek to accomplish these tasks, businesses can develop more effective strategies.
Here's an example of a JTBD framework TripleDart created for Freightify:
By identifying the challenges and problems your customers face, you can create content that directly addresses their needs and provides valuable solutions. This approach not only improves user experience but also enhances your search engine rankings.
By analyzing your product, positioning your brand, and competitor analysis, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your business and develop effective marketing strategies. This information helps you tailor your messaging, choose the right channels, and optimize your efforts for maximum impact.
For example, you can use your competitor analysis to create content for comparison pages, listicles, or landing pages once your audience moves down the funnel.
Keyword research is the foundation of a B2B SEO strategy. It helps you know about the keywords that you must target for your business-to-business search engine optimization campaigns. It helps you reach people who are relevant to your business.
So, what are some of the things to consider when doing keyword research for B2B SEO? Let's take a look at some proven strategies:
The first step in B2B keyword planning is to identify the primary topics and themes around which your content will be written. These are the overarching categories that will guide your content strategy and help you attract your target audience.
For an e-commerce help desk software, some potential core topics could include customer service, help desk software, BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday), customer support automation, etc.
When choosing your core topics, ensure relevance, and intent and assess the level of competition for keywords related to each topic. You may want to focus on topics with lower competition to improve your chances of ranking.
Creating content pillars and clusters is a very successful SEO strategy that can help you improve your search engine rankings and engage your audience.
Search engines like Google reward websites with well-structured content that is easy to navigate and understand. The pillar and cluster model helps you create a clear hierarchy of topics, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content. This strategy also helps you provide a better user experience. Visitors can easily find the information they need and navigate your website with ease and this can lead to higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction.
Start with a primary keyword to target and then look for related secondary or long-tail keywords. For the Pillar Topic "Customer Relationship Management (CRM), keywords for cluster topics can be CRM Integration, CRM Analytics, CRM for Sales Teams, CRM for Marketing Teams.
Use a keyword overview tool showing low-volume keywords, keyword difficulty, and search volume. Tools like Moz, Google Analytics, and Semrush to narrow down the list of keywords for your strategy.
Once you narrow down your keyword list, start creating content around it. Follow these tips to make high-quality content:
To maximize the impact of your content strategy, ensure alignment across all channels. This is completely optional but amplifies your SEO efforts. By coordinating your messaging and themes across platforms like your website, social media, and email marketing, you create a cohesive brand experience. This reinforces your key messages and helps your audience connect the dots.
Bonus Tip: For even greater synergy, align your content strategy with product launches, sales initiatives, and customer success efforts. This ensures that all teams are working towards the same goals and can share resources and insights to enhance overall effectiveness.
To effectively engage your target audience at each stage of the buyer's journey, it's essential to tailor your content format accordingly. For example, informative blog posts and whitepapers can attract top-of-the-funnel prospects, while case studies and product demos resonate with decision-makers in the consideration stage. By conducting thorough keyword planning, you can identify the most relevant search terms for each stage and create content that aligns with buyer intent. This targeted approach not only improves your search engine rankings but also enhances lead generation and conversion rates.
By building high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, you can enhance your website's authority and improve search engine rankings. Additionally, in today's visually driven landscape, repurposing content into various formats like social media posts, podcasts, and eBooks can extend its reach and appeal to different audiences, improving your SEO success metrics.
User experience (UX) plays a vital role in B2B marketing. A well-designed website with a seamless user experience helps build trust and credibility with potential customers. When visitors have a positive experience navigating your website, they are more likely to perceive your brand as reliable and professional. This, in turn, can lead to increased lead generation and conversions. By investing in UX, you can create a website that not only looks good but also functions effectively, driving results for your business.
Make a list of core SEO metrics that help you measure results against your business goals:
In the awareness stage, visibility matters the most and hence these are the metrics to measure your success:
Every B2B marketer wants their website's main pages and content pieces to rank on the first page of the search results. It's what guarantees high trust and credibility.
The right way to do this is to check your Google Search Console to learn if search queries are getting rankings for your website. You can also use a B2B SEO tool like Semrush to conduct an in-depth analysis of how your site is faring in the search engine results.
B2B SEO is essentially an organic channel to grow your business. How do you measure if your SEO content strategy is working? Head over to your Google Analytics dashboard to check whether your organic traffic consistently grows with your SEO efforts.
A continuous improvement in traffic is a good sign for your business.
.png)
An uptick in traffic for one of TDD’s customers
For the intent stage, you want to measure success through engagement metrics like:
Average session duration represents the average time visitors spend on your site.
This metric represents the quality of experience your site offers its users. It shows the success or failure of your technical and on-page SEO optimization efforts.
Tracking your site's backlinks is as vital as working hard on your on-page SEO campaigns. The quality and quantity of backlinks that you acquire per month add to your credibility and show that your content is shareable and relevant to your audience.
At this stage, your audience is not ready to buy, but measuring scroll depth shows how the audience is engaging with the content and if it resonates with them or if they derive value from it.
In this stage, you want customers to take some conversion actions to show they are interested in your offering.
CTR is a metric that measures the portion of searchers who click on a search result after seeing it. Precisely it’s calculated as the ratio of impressions to the total number of clicks.
A higher CTR is favorable because it shows that more people visit your site after seeing it in the search engine results.
If you're experiencing a low or reduced CTR on some of your web pages or content pages, consider re-doing their meta titles and meta descriptions.
One of the big reasons why you're running B2B SEO campaigns is leads. That's why the number of leads that get added to your sales funnel is a metric you must always track.
For tracking leads, you can measure the goal conversions on the website's relevant landing pages.
Lead generation is your ultimate goal, and you must keep a close eye on this all-important metric.
This is the final stage in the funnel and you're aiming to get conversions from your SEO channel. Demo bookings, consolation bookings, or signups are a great way to measure success in this stage.
In this section, let’s look at some of the key aspects of B2B SEO and how to use them to your advantage.
Write captivating meta titles and descriptions for each landing page and content piece. These concise snippets appear in search results and influence click-through rates.
Content structure
Organize your content with clear headings (H1, H2, etc.) and subheadings. Use relevant keywords naturally within the content.
URL optimization
Create descriptive, user-friendly URLs that include your target keywords.
Internal linking
Add relevant internal links within your content. These help users navigate your site and distribute link equity across pages. By directing users to the relevant web pages, you can allow them to consume content with ease. Moreover, internal linking makes site navigation easy and enhances user experience.
Off-page SEO is like building a strong reputation online. It's about what others say about you, not just what you say about yourself.
Here are some off-page SEO strategies that can make a big difference to your B2B website.
Authoritative backlinks from reputable sources enhance your site’s authority and credibility. Here are some tips for executing a high-quality link-building campaign for your business.
White-hat link-building practices have a tremendous potential to get you lasting results in terms of improved website rankings and brand reputation?
Ensure consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information across popular niche directories.
Customer reviews
Good reviews on platforms like Google My Business and industry-specific sites boost your reputation. Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews.
Your website must be technically sound and free of SEO issues to consistently rank on search engines.
You can use an SEO auditing tool to check your website for any such errors and resolve them as soon as possible.
Here are some fixes that most websites need:
A slow-loading website causes poor user experience and drives users away. It leads to low average time on site and increases your site’s bounce rate.
Hence, it’s ideal to fix your site’s load speed and ensure it loads quickly across devices and browsers. Here are some actionable tips to improve your B2B website’s load speed:
Don’t forget that many of your target prospects visit your website on mobile devices.
Hence, you must ensure that your users can easily navigate the website across different devices, such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops.
Start with a mobile-first approach: Design for mobile devices first, then adapt for desktops.
Use a responsive theme: Choose a mobile-responsive template that adapts to varying screen sizes.
Remember that addressing error pages contributes to a smoother browsing experience for visitors and helps search engines index your site correctly.
Regularly audit for broken links and redirect dead URLs to maintain a clean site structure.
Well-researched, informative content marketing establishes niche authority. It builds trust with potential clients.
Also, quality content marketing attracts natural backlinks from reputable niche sites. These links improve your site’s credibility and its search engine rankings.
In-depth and audience-centric content marketing is an asset for your business as it continues attracting relevant people to your website.
How do you publish high-quality?
Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines help you write and publish quality content that resonates with users and search engines.
Experience: It's ideal to focus on creating content that demonstrates your personal experience with a topic. This authenticity helps validate your topical authority in your niche.
Expertise: As an author, you must possess relevant expertise, qualifications, and credentials to provide reliable information.
Authoritativeness: Consider your overall reputation within your industry, especially among experts and influencers.
Trustworthiness: Users should trust your content. Factors include the creator’s reputation, content accuracy, and website reliability.
Here are some other key elements of high-quality content marketing that should be integral to your B2B SEO strategy.
B2B content should be helpful and guide readers toward understanding and solving their problems. Ensure your content provides actionable steps or solutions.
Simplify complex B2B topics for better content consumption. To make your B2B content easy to understand and digest, you should avoid using jargon and technical terms in your content.
Here are some best practices to follow:
To ensure a steady stream of visitors to your B2B website, it's crucial to diversify your traffic sources. Relying solely on organic search can be risky, as search engine algorithms can change unexpectedly. Consider these strategies:
Understanding your target audience's search intent is paramount for successful B2B SEO. Instead of focusing solely on keyword rankings, prioritize creating content that directly addresses their needs and pain points. This approach will lead to higher engagement, better user experience, and ultimately, improved search engine rankings.
While backlinks are essential for SEO, quality matters more than quantity. Focus on building relationships with reputable websites in your industry and securing high-quality backlinks that are relevant to your content. Avoid low-quality or irrelevant backlinks, as these can harm your website's reputation.
At TripleDart, we believe in making every dollar of your marketing investment count. Plus, we have experience creating and executing high-ROI SEO strategies for B2B businesses like yours.
Our case studies are a testament to this feat. We helped increase Rezolve.ai's organic traffic by 99% and leads by 136% using our SEO strategies. We've built robust sales pipelines and generated traffic for our B2B clients with the help of search engine optimization.
Still not convinced that we’re the B2B SEO agency your business needs? Talk to us.
SEO is indeed significant for B2B businesses as it helps to enhance your business's online visibility and drives targeted web traffic.
It's a strategic approach that focuses on keywords that decision-makers within companies search for to find answers to some of their most burning questions.
An effective B2B SEO strategy can increase a company's credibility and establish it as a thought leader in its industry, contributing to a consistent flow of customers.
Creating a winning B2B SEO strategy in 2024 involves understanding the unique needs of business decision-makers and reaching out to them with tailored SEO campaigns.
The key elements of a B2B SEO strategy include audience persona development, keyword research, content strategy, backlink strategy, a thorough competitive analysis, and outcome analysis.
Join 70+ successful B2B SaaS companies on the path to achieving T2D3 with our SaaS marketing services.
