B2B companies occupy a large niche. They tend to bring in large and steady revenues, but often struggle to find potential customers. That’s when SEO can come in handy.
B2B marketing requires a slightly different approach to traditional search marketing, but the tools and fundamental principles remain unchanged. We’ll cover a few tips that can help any B2B business gain more traffic and inquiries.
Advantages of SEO for B2B
Search engine optimization provides several unique benefits for B2B companies:
Greater traffic – One of SEO’s primary benefits is to get more “eyeballs” on the website. More visitors mean more potential customers. By following the best practices of SEO, a website can make a few tweaks to their website and digital strategy to climb the rankings on Google and other search engines.
Brand awareness and credibility – B2B companies are challenged by a lack of public awareness- their name and logo are not typically on product packaging, storefronts, or online services. Businesses that reach the top five ranking spots are able to grow their brand’s visibility and reputation.
Learn about the audience – Even though B2B companies target other businesses, there’s a surprising amount to learn about them through SEO. Check out our previous blog post on how SEO can inform businesses about their customers.
More inquiries – At the end of the day, developing leads is the objective of any B2B marketing campaign. Statistically, great SEO strategy leads to higher conversions.
Quick, Useful Tips on B2B SEO
Conduct better keyword research
Keywords are at the heart of a solid search marketing strategy. That’s what users type into the search bar after all. The problem is that many businesses either don’t use relevant keywords or don’t use them frequently. This results in useful brand pages and blogs that are seldom seen by the audiences they’re meant for.
Align the buyer’s journey with the website’s design
For a B2B company, SEO goals must match its overall business goals. This may manifest in the form of a downloadable app, mailing subscription or a contact us form. Every other page on the website should foster visitors along a journey made of three main phases:
- Awareness – guides, how-to blogs, articles, about us pages.
- Consideration – comparison infographics, reviews, FAQs.
- Decision – purchase guide, contact us pages.
For example, a B2B company focused on business consultancy may require blog posts on the importance of a consultant for new visitors. But when it comes to a customer deciding on which consulting group to partner with, a benefits list or plan comparison page may incite the customer to click on the contact page.
Aligning each customer’s journey to the flow of your website will not only lead to more organic conversions but will also help yield more analytics into the surfing habits of your visitors. But always make sure the end goals always match or reflect your overall business’s goals.
Tighten your AdWords campaign
B2B companies may find it difficult to manage their AdWords effectively. CPCs can become expensive due to the high competition and low search volume.
Do not make the mistake of spending thousands on ineffective ads. Instead, start by finding the relevant keywords that actually trigger ads searches.
Add snippets of information to your ads using extensions, as this can also help push your ad on top of search results.
You can also challenge competitor keywords using paid keyword research tools, but these can sometimes be costly and confusing for inexperienced marketers.
Monitor your SEO efforts
Tracking an SEO campaign can be tricky for B2B companies because the SEO campaign will constantly evolve and efforts will need to be re-prioritized. But for a campaign to improve, it needs to be frequently checked.
Every month, revisit your Analytics and Adwords dashboards. Analyze which ads and pages are performing best in terms of visits, session duration, bounce rate, and conversions. This will give you a better idea of which content to focus on producing, and which topics to cut back on or re-frame. Analytics can also give you a better idea of which channels lead to more visitors and engagements.
Partner with a search marketing agency
B2B companies are often busy with operations and logistics- marketing is usually placed on the backburner. Instead of hiring a few interns or dumping responsibilities on a single person, partnering with an agency will yield more professional results and a more profitable ROI.
Find out how partnering with an award-winning search marketing agency like Arcalea can benefit your business. Contact us today.