Why Spend Money on SEO for B2B
Recently, I have been getting questions from new clients and prospective clients on the value of SEO when it comes to B2B businesses. Why would a B2B business pursue SEO if they get most of their business through referrals and other means? Isn’t SEO just for B2C companies? Well, let me ask you a question: do you think a B2B company like salesforce got to where it is today without an optimized website? Having a huge brand helps too…
There is a reason why SEO has grown exponentially since its inception and that reason is not limited to B2C companies. Lets go over some quick statistics before we look at the differences between B2B and B2C SEO strategies:
• 60% percent of B2B companies use SEO as a form of marketing
• Organic Search remains the dominant source of trackable web traffic and in the dominant position as a channel, with 53% of traffic.
• B2B companies generate 2x more revenue from organic search than other channels.
• Almost 60% of B2B businesses said that SEO has the most impact on their lead generation efforts.
• 68% of B2B businesses have strategic landing pages specifically for lead generation.
B2B SEO Strategies - what are they?
The biggest difference is going to be the target audience and the content geared toward that audience. The sales funnel and KPI’s may be different. B2B businesses tend to buy items that appeal to the efficiency of a business where as the consumer tends to buy things at a far less scale and is more impulsive. This means every stage of the sales funnel is more critical when it comes to B2B marketing.
B2B SEO strategies follow targeted keywords that are lower on search volume and have a highly specified audience. Keyword targeting and on-page optimization is critical for attracting your target audience. For example a B2B campaign might target something like “best CRM software” only has a monthly search volume of 4,400 and a keyword difficulty score 87% according to Semrush. B2C
B2B marketers need to be authoritative and experts on their content. Google’s algorithm uses the acronym E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness). Marketers need to show that they are worth their salt in a manner of speaking. What separates a good piece of authoritative content and a poor performing piece of content is on-page optimization, whether that content is endorsable, is it being linked to and is it linking out. Is your content answering B2B questions about your service or product.
Some similarities between B2B and B2C strategies is asking yourself what does your ideal customer look like? Understand the journey a business is going to take on your site and how your content will guide them into execution. Mapping out keywords at different stages of the funnel is important to guide your audience to make a critical decision.
Still not convinced that you need a B2B SEO strategy for your website? Consider this, 95% of search traffic goes to the first page (SERP) (search engine result page)
Here are some SEO case studies that might peak your interest
At West Loop SEO we have a wealth of experience with B2B, B2C and government business entities. Let us help build your SEO strategy and grow your KPI's.
