SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an especially important asset for businesses to utilize in today’s digital world. Regardless of if your company sells physical goods or services or operates online it can benefit from a sound SEO strategy.
Broadly speaking there are two main types of SEO – B2B and B2C and in this guide we dissect the former and look at why it is vital for certain businesses.
B2B SEO - An Introduction
B2B = Business to Business
B2C = Business to Consumer
That’s the key difference and pretty simple to understand.
B2C SEO is the process of optimizing your web content so consumers can easier find your products and services. Common examples include online retail stores, supermarkets, and online streaming services. All of these businesses sell directly to the end customer and thus their SEO strategies revolve around that.
B2B SEO is the process of optimizing your web content so other businesses can find your products and/or services. This applies more to companies within a supply chain such as a raw material distributor who sells items to a manufacturer, not the end customer. The basic strategies and elements involved are essentially the same for B2C and B2B SEO – you are just targeting a different customer.
Key Elements of B2B SEO
To create an effective B2B SEO strategy there are four key elements to consider and this is something B2B SEO agencies could help with. You start by looking at your target audience and researching relevant keywords.
With a solid keyword strategy in place you can then create optimized web content that promotes those keywords. This is complemented by a series of internal and external links to boost their effectiveness. Going forward the hard work isn’t quite done and from then on monitoring and continual adjustments are required to make improvements.
Keyword Research
The first step is to understand your customers and research relative keywords that they may use to find your business and/or products.
Keywords form the basis of B2B SEO and these are the words or phrases that businesses type in their Google searches to find information.
ClickSlice for example provides SEO services to other companies in a variety of industries. Our customers might search for “SEO agencies London”, “SEO auditing services”, or “Shopify SEO agency” and these could be keywords that we choose to base our strategies.
This might seem like a daunting task but there are some fantastic keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs Keyword Explorer. You can also take it back to a basic level and try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would you search for on Google if you wanted to find your business?
Whatever the approach you need to build a list of keywords and phrases to base your B2B SEO strategy and without the keywords you can’t optimize your web content.
Keyword-optimized Content
You should now have a list of keywords that you want to rank for on Google – perfect. The aim is to now optimize your existing web content and any new material for those keywords. The main types of web content to optimize includes:
- Blog articles
- Website landing page
- Product category pages
- Product pages
Blog articles have a two-fold purpose where they can give useful information to customers to enhance their understanding of your products/services. At the same time the blog content can be used to target specific keywords.
After this, the other main content to optimize is your product pages and anything related to what your business does.
SEO optimization is an entirely separate subject and beyond the scope of this article but it includes things like META tags, headings, URL slugs, content layout and more.
Effective Link Building
So you have a list of keywords and your web content is now optimized for those phrases – things are starting to come together! It’s now time to build links to your web content as a link portfolio is an important aspect of B2B SEO.
The aim is to get your content linked on high-ranking relevant websites as Google looks favorably on this. Examples of links include guest blog posts, broken links, and resource page links. It’s also a great idea to have internal links between your content.
Performance Monitoring and Adjustments
I get that this is a lot to take in but you are nearly there with your B2B SEO strategy – just one more thing. It’s important to know that B2B SEO isn’t something you can just leave and forget about.
The online world is continually evolving and what worked today might be completely irrelevant a week later. Don’t despair – this doesn’t mean that you can’t have an effective B2B SEO strategy it just means you need to be proactive and monitor its performance.
There are some brilliant tools available like Google Search Console and a host of WordPress plugins like Rank Math and YOAST SEO that make the job easier and allow you to monitor your SEO strategies.
Once you have finished the keyword research and content implementation it could be a great idea to schedule regular meetings to analyze your B2B SEO performance and take further action if required.
Google Search Console for example has numerous reports so you can see how your content is ranking and how businesses are accessing your website. Information like this is invaluable and can help you refine your B2B SEO going forward.
Attract the Attention of Key Businesses Today With a B2B SEO Strategy
Implementing a B2B SEO strategy could be the difference that takes your company to the next level and it’s something we urge you to consider.
By researching keywords and creating SEO-focused content together with a sound link strategy you can improve your rankings on Google. Companies within your industry and supply chain should then be able to find you easier and see what you have to offer.
