The Complete B2B SEO Search Engine Optimization Strategy Guide for 2022 - ARTICLE GATE

The Complete B2B SEO Search Engine Optimization Strategy Guide for 2022

Are you curious how B2B SEO (Search Engine Optimization) works? Search engine optimization is holistic and requires you to build a layered content network to increase your site's relevancy. This article will help you understand:

• ·         How to improve the ranking and conversion rate of paid pages.
• ·         Know what you need to do for SEO.
• ·         Eliminate reliance on paid growth.
• ·         Shorten sales cycles and maximize B2B SEO results.
• ·         Learn "how" to create the content you need.

What is B2B SEO?

B2B SEO is a long-term marketing strategy used by B2B companies to improve the ranking of their websites. SEO as an organic growth strategy is very attractive to B2B companies who do not want to continue to rely on paid advertising or PPC (Pay-per-click, pay-per-click). Unlike B2C SEO, B2B companies tend to have lower search volumes and more specific target audiences.

B2B SEO vs B2C SEO

Technically, B2B and B2C SEO are the same. Because Google does not change the algorithm based on user categories. But technical discussions aside, there are some key differences between them.

The main difference is that the target customers of the two are different, and the reasons or intentions of these target customers are also different. In B2B, your target audience is a small group of decision makers, they might be a sales executive, a VP of marketing, a CEO, etc...they have their own specific needs. See the table below for specific differences:

As can be seen from the table, another major difference between the two is the difference in search volume. B2B companies usually have much less keyword search volume than B2C companies. This means that as a B2B company, you might want to focus on keywords that have fifty searches per month instead of thousands. But the combination of these keywords can still get a lot of traffic.

A Successful and Replicable B2B SEO Strategy

Next, I'll walk you through a comprehensive strategy that will set you up for success in B2B SEO.

1. Know your customers

In B2B, understanding the customer thought process is very important. Because then you can judge for yourself who your potential customers are and find opportunities to convert them into loyal customers.

The composition of user portraits of B2B buyers is much more than simply the addition of demographics (Demographics) and corporate statistical structure (Firmographics) data. The real opportunities are hidden in the challenges they encounter and the goals they need to achieve every day. You need to consider both their identities as ordinary individuals and as decision makers of the company.

That's why the first step in a B2B SEO strategy is to conduct customer interviews or surveys. The format of the interview is better if you can, because most of the time, busy customers will only respond briefly to the questionnaire.

 

During the interview, you can ask them the following 5 questions:

• ·         What do you want to achieve before you start using [product/service]?
• ·         What setbacks or challenges have you encountered in achieving this goal?
• ·         What are your goals for the next 3-6 months?
• ·         How would you describe [product/service] to a friend or colleague?
• ·         What is your greatest benefit from using [product/service]?

The answers to these questions will help you understand what content is helpful to them.

B2B decision makers are bombarded with different sales messages and content every day. So the only way you can stand out is to make sure your content reflects their real needs.

Not only does this process prevent miscalculations of your target audience's needs, but it also lets you know how those decision makers think. That said, it simultaneously gives you the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel mindset from which to build your content.

Speaking of the funnel, the next step in this step-by-step strategy is finding the keywords at the bottom of the funnel.

2. Research keywords at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

In this step, you need to examine the words that are at the bottom of the funnel, that is, the words your customers will use when searching for product content and making decisions. Here are some ways to research it:

Reviewing findings from interviews: Go through your customer interviews. Find the words they use to describe your product and check it in your keyword tool.

Expand your keywords: You can use some keyword tools to get some long tail keywords.

Do a check on your competitors: Use an SEO tool to find out which B2B keywords your competitors' sites are ranking for.

Don’t just focus on keywords with high search volume: For B2B companies, most keywords that are really valuable are not high in search volume. So don’t ignore the words that are actually useful by focusing too much on search volume metrics.

3. Optimize your product or service page

Once you have a list of B2B keywords at the bottom of the funnel, it’s time to check to see if your feature or service page is optimized for valid keywords. If you haven't built pages for each individual piece of content, do so first.

Remember not to put all your functions or services on the same "solution" page, but each function or service should create a separate page for targeted optimization in the future. Link them in the menu and footer.

As you start creating more content, remember to link that content to featured pages to build topical relevance and help you rank better for those keywords.

4. Conduct long-term B2B keyword research

Once your basic SEO is done, you can focus on growth, and that growth comes from your content.

Your keyword research should focus on building topical relevance, identifying search intent, and building content for each part of the funnel.

Build topical relevance

Have you ever wondered why some B2B companies write about something that isn't directly related to their product, or report on features that their product doesn't have?

In fact, a huge mistake most B2B companies make is to only write about what is directly related to the product. Not only does this dry out your site content, it's not good for building your brand or driving traffic. The reason is that Google ranks websites related to the topic at the website level. Not your single blog post, so no matter how good the post is, it won't earn you a higher ranking.

Identify search intent and purpose

When choosing your keywords, be sure to look beyond search volume and word click cost. Understanding search intent is critical. Sometimes, a keyword that you think is great isn't what you think it is.

For example, if you want to rank well for the keyword "community engagement," you think you're writing about social media communities, online communities, and marketing, but in fact, people searching for this keyword are interested in social movements and communities. Welfare is more interested.

5. Create topic clusters for your B2B blog posts

When you’re building topical relevance, it’s a good idea to organize articles on the same topic into topical clusters or content silos. Large topics can be decomposed into subtopics, and then all subtopic pages are linked to the home page of the topic cluster. The more content you create around a big topic, the better you'll be able to find customers with a specific purpose and intent, populate your site with content, rank higher for keywords, and better dominate search engine results for relevant keywords Page.

6. Strengthen your internal links in your B2B content

Internal links to your website are just as important as external links. Internal links are links from one page on your website to another page on your website. It helps your website visitors and crawlers navigate your website better. It also helps Google understand your site structure and hierarchy.

7. Integrate pages with similar keywords

If you already have a lot of content on your site, this strategy is your shortcut to victory. In your website, there are some pages that have a high probability of having the same keyword. And when multiple pages on your site compete to rank for the same or similar keywords, it can hurt your site's overall SEO performance.

Therefore, you need to double-check your content and, if necessary, re-optimize similar pages.

8. Build backlinks to your B2B website

Aside from networking with other sites, growing your business, and investing heavily in link building, a great way to get backlinks is to build data-heavy content where people can cite your page in their own content .

Summarize

In the B2B space, branding is everything, and SEO-optimized content is one of the best ways to build your brand. If you understand your customers' needs at every stage of their buying decision, have a long-term brand vision, and can look at your B2B SEO holistically, then your strategy can easily succeed.

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