Search engine optimisation is vital for any B2B organisation, especially in highly competitive markets such as technology. You don’t want to risk falling behind your competitors, so you need your website to perform well in searches and generate leads. So what are the key considerations for B2B SEO?
1) B2B SEO involves several stages and elements
Technical Optimisation
On-Page Optimisation
Off-Page Optimisation
Technical SEO. The quickest win in SEO is for an experienced and skilled technical website team to have a look at your website. Unless your website is extremely well-tuned they will find some low hanging fruit that will please Google and co. They will also be able to identify some longer-term technical objectives.
On-page optimisation. Use your keywords effectively by implementing strong website content, both visible on the page and in the metadata. Consider headings, bold or linked text, metatags and more. Write quality content with people who know how to write for B2B digital application.
Off-page optimisation. Using third party sites to drive awareness and referral traffic is a great way to boost your SEO. For example, you may have heard about backlinks. These are external links on other websites linking back to your own. This SEO tactic is about quality rather than quantity, so industry websites with high credibility are the best. The better your article or press release content, the more influence it will have.
2) Keyword research and planning are the backbones of good B2B SEO
Good keyword research is well worth the effort and can make a huge difference to your B2B SEO. Invest time into it, and use the right tools for insights into what the competition are doing. Avoid picking the most-searched-for keywords. Instead, consider where you can make the most strategic impact.
Once your research is complete, it’s time to put a keyword allocation plan together. Allocate keywords to each of your key website pages. Evaluate it, check it, and consider where you need to improve first.
Make sure you are working with people that understand your business and what it does for the best results. For a more in-depth guide click here >
3) Find your differentiation, then focus to achieve the best results
You cannot do everything at once with SEO development unless you have a big budget, so you need to focus. From your keyword analysis, find the keywords that have strategic business value, solid search numbers, relevant to your content, potentially are different to the competition and have lower competitive difficulty ratings – then focus.
Improve your web pages, and write blogs or articles around the subject. Can you create a relevant press release or case study? Maybe consider some paid content delivery, and of course, get your technical website team to consider things.
Organic SEO results do not come overnight, so if you dip in and out of different focus keywords, you will never get them to the top of the search results. So resist the temptation, or increase the budget to cover more keywords. Don’t jump around.
4) Your SEO and content creation are fully intertwined – good content makes a huge difference
At the start of your B2B SEO journey, there is plenty of research and evaluation of data to be done. But that soon changes. When you have allocated keywords and finalised your strategy, it is time to write content. It is important that those involved with the SEO research and those that are writing the content understand your industry and can influence the wider marketing strategy, otherwise, results could be poor.
Weekly and monthly content creation are needed if you want success. It needs to be well written, informative and published correctly on your website. The more content you can produce, the greater chance you have of driving up the search engines. That said, work effectively to your budget by focusing on quality over quantity.
Fluffy marketeer content may help a little, but exactly like your technically influenced target customers, search engines also likes solid, well researched high-quality content. Don’t just write for SEO. Consider how your target audience wants to be educated and enabled, as this is also likely to please in the SERPs. Remember that writing only for SEO may get you more website visitors, but if they reach your site and are unimpressed, they will head straight back to the search engine. A balance is needed.
5) B2B SEO is not a black art – it simply takes logic, the right know-how and time
Yes, there are a few tricks of the trade when it comes to B2B search engine optimisation, but most elements are logical and structured. To get results you need SEO knowledgeable people (technical and commercial), the right tools, strong content writers, and then the key component, time. If you reduce the time allocated to SEO, the experts will not have the hours needed to deliver. Treat it as an ongoing process. Every month, you need to allocate hours to SEO analysis and quality content writing. The more competitive your market, the more you need to get to the top.
As a B2B SEO agency, we have both the technical skills and experienced technical content writers to provide you with a solid SEO strategy to gain results for your business. If you’re looking for help with your SEO, contact us to talk to our experts.
