When it talks about online business, search engines show the key metric of how the business works. Over 8.5 billion searches, only Google processes every day, which is about 99,000 searches per second. This shows that Google (and other search engines too) provides a wide landscape of opportunities to grow B2B companies, which solely rely on SEO consultants. So, you can say that a B2B SEO company is a marketing firm that helps businesses improve their online visibility and attract qualified leads through search engines.
As one of the most effective strategies for long-term growth in this digital age, SEO requires a more specialized and strategic approach. And this is where a B2B SEO company can make a significant difference.
So, let’s clear out the concept of business-to-business SEO and how it differs from the business-to-consumer model. Then we’ll move to see why a B2B SEO firm seems a backbone of the B2B model.
First, clear out the whole concept of B2B SEO!
What is B2B SEO?
At its core, B2B SEO is a digital marketing strategy that aims to improve the visibility of a business’s website in search results by optimizing it to attract other businesses as clients or partners.
Unlike B2C, where the focus is on appealing to individual consumers, B2B SEO strategies must cater to a more discerning and research-oriented audience, often involving decision-makers from other companies.
In 2024, B2B companies need to be visible on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to engage with the right audience. The ultimate objective is to increase organic traffic, improve visibility, generate qualified leads that convert into paying clients, and increase sales.
What is a B2B SEO Agency?
A B2B SEO agency is actually a company that specializes in optimizing business-to-business (B2B) websites to improve their visibility and ranking on search engines, specifically customized for B2B clients.
These agencies understand the ins-and-outs of business-to-business marketing, including long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and high-ticket purchases. Thus, these companies can help businesses find the right balance between their business goals, their target customer’s needs, and what Google wants to see.
What are B2B SEO Services?
Business-to-business SEO services are basically a collection of strategies and techniques that help businesses improve their online visibility and search engine rankings. The goals of B2B SEO is to increase organic traffic, generate leads, and improve a business’s credibility.
A top B2B SEO company must offer 👇 services:
✔ Keyword Research: Focuses on industry-specific terms to target decision-makers and searchers within other businesses
✔ Content Creation: Creates high-quality content that addresses the needs and pain points of business clients
✔ On-page Optimization: Improves the structure, content, URLs, heading tags, internal linking, and metadata of a website
✔ Off-page Optimization: Focuses on earning high-quality backlinks from reputable sources in your industry.
✔ Technical SEO: Ensures a website is fast, mobile-friendly, and functions optimally for search engines
✔ Conversion Optimization: Design landing pages and calls-to-action that turn visitors into qualified leads
✔ Local SEO: Promotes client’s products or services to local customers when they’re searching for them online
✔ Social Media Marketing: Utilizes social media to help businesses achieve search engine rankings
All of these SEO management services lead to client-focused results who offer businesses in the digital realm.
Why do B2B Companies Need SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t just for consumer-facing businesses. It’s a key component of B2B companies’ digital marketing strategies because it helps to:
- Be visible online: Most B2B buyers begin their purchasing journey online. Without SEO, your business may not be visible to these potential clients, resulting in lost opportunities.
- Generate qualified leads: SEO attracts targeted traffic because of targeting specific keywords. When it’s done correctly, the visitors coming to your site will be high-quality leads looking for your services.
- Build trust and credibility: Ranking higher on SERPs ensures your site is reliable. B2B clients are more likely to engage with companies that appear at the top of search results, as it signifies authority in the industry.
- Stand out in the competition: SEO can help B2B companies beat the crowded and competitive market.
- Drive long-term results: Unlike paid advertising, the results of SEO compound over time. A well-optimized site can continue to generate traffic and leads long after the initial investment.
If a digital marketing company claims to ensure these outputs, you’ve landed a great spot.
How a B2B SEO Company Scales Your Business in 2024? Get B2B SEO Best Practices Here!
So now, you’ve understood why SEO is crucial for a business-to-business model company. But the thing to think about is HOW?
Let’s solve this query with some valuable insights!
Keyword Research Focused with B2B
Keyword research is the most underrated step in digital marketing. But at the same time, it makes the foundation of a successful SEO strategy. In the case of business-to-business, keyword research seems a complex process because it involves identifying the right keywords to align with the buyer’s journey.
For this, B2B SEO companies don’t just focus on high-traffic keywords; instead, they concentrate on high-intent keywords that attract decision-makers in no time.
Let’s clear it with a simple example!
A B2B SEO company will target search terms that businesses use when researching potential vendors or service providers. Keywords like ‘best project management software for IT companies,’ ‘SaaS project management tool for remote software teams,’ or ‘how to improve project tracking for remote software developers’ are more likely to generate leads for the companies of these tools and software that convert into paying customers.
In addition, B2B SEO agencies employ advanced tools to identify LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords, which are semantically related to your primary keywords. LSI keywords help search engines understand the context of your content, improving your site’s relevance for broader search queries.
Here are the golden tips for conducting B2B keyword research:
- Understand the market of your target niche by exploring forums and reviewing customer feedback
- Brainstorm relevant synonyms and variations of core terms
- Analyze your website content and gather insights from your sales team and customers
- Find out what keywords your competitors are using
- Utilize keyword research tools like SEMrush to explore Google Autocomplete and Related Searches
- Evaluate keyword opportunities by considering volume, difficulty, relevant, and intent
- Personalize your research to the buyer’s journey by considering the pain points, motivations, and language preferences of each persona
- Make sure you don’t consider the same keyword multiple times
Tidbit: Some common examples of keyword modifiers that B2B marketers include in their keyword lists are ‘services,’ ‘solutions,’ ‘development,’ ‘management,’ ‘maintenance,’ and ‘procurement.’
Optimize Content Creation with respect to B2B
In 2024, content is still king. Having the potential to make or break the whole B2B game, content plays a key role. Although, B2B content must be created targeting a specific audience, so it needs to educate, inform, and demonstrate value.
A B2B SEO company can help businesses by crafting SEO-friendly as well as user-friendly content that directly resonates with your target audience.
The major forms of B2B content entail:
- Blogging to share valuable insights that answer specific business challenges
- Case Studies to showcase successful collaborations with other businesses
- Email Newsletters to promote products or services, build brand awareness, and foster long-term relationships with customers
- White Papers and eBooks to provide in-depth analysis of industry trends
- Product Use Cases to demonstrate how your products or services solve common problems in your industry
- Infographics as the content collateral to represent concepts and data in a visually appealing way
On-Page SEO Optimization
The best B2B SEO company will be the best if it is optimized your website for search engines by focusing on various on-page SEO elements, such as:
- Title Tag: As this is the first thing a user sees in search results and browser tabs, so include the focus (primary) keyword in the title to help users and search engines understand the page’s main point.
- Meta Descriptions: It’s actually a short extract of the whole web page that appears under the title tag. It should be optimized with the relevant keyword and an actionable CTA that help readers to decide whether to visit your site.
- Heading Tags: Structure your content with appropriate heading tags H1, H2, H3, and so on. This will make your whole page in a good, readable format to easily understand for readers.
- Images: Use high-quality, original images that are relevant to the page’s content. Also provide contextual info and relevant details in image captions, but try to add focus keywords in the image alt text.
- URL Structure: Make sure URLs are optimized with relevant keywords (if possible) so that search engines can easily assess your website easily and swiftly.
- Internal Linking: Use internal links to direct users from one page to other valuable pages on your site to boost SEO performance and spread the link juice across your site (where internal links are embedded).
- Keywords: Integrate relevant keywords throughout your site to help search engines rank your site higher. BUT make sure to avoid keyword stuffing and keyword injecting.
Once you optimize these on-page elements, it helps search engines better understand your content, ensuring that your website appears in relevant search queries.
High-Authority Link-building
Along with a backbone of the whole SEO efforts, backlinks remain one of the most important factors in SEO. Here is a myth that more backlinks can quench the thirst of the website. But actually, the quality matters a lot over quantity, especially in B2B SEO.
A B2B SEO company focuses on acquiring backlinks from high authoritative websites (with high DA PA) within your industry. These high-quality links signal to search engines that your website is a credible source of information.
In addition, B2B SEO agencies often have relationships with industry publications, allowing them to secure guest posts and mentions that provide valuable backlinks.
Let’s take a look over the best workable strategy of link-building!
Create high-quality content for sure
First, you have to figure out whether your site content is well-written, well-structured, and well-optimized. Remember, high-quality content provides a strong base on which you can build your empire with backlinks.
The quality of content ensures what type of links you can acquire because everyone demands value. If you’re unable to sync valuable content, who will link his site with yours..?
Utilize guest blogging
Among a number of link-building ways, guest blogging seems the ideal one. Because it help improve B2B SEO by extending reach along with building backlinks. Generally, you’ll get:
✔️ Backlinks: Guest posts can include links to your site which can help pass PageRank from one site to another.
✔️ Reach: Through guest blogging, you can reach new audiences beyond your current readership.
✔️ Expertise: It can also help establish your expertise in that particular field (as which business you’re offering).
Now get some golden tips for guest blogging for B2B SEO:
- Research the website’s target audience, branding, and tone
- Read the website’s posting guidelines and customize your pitch accordingly
- Include an attention-grabbing headline, data and examples, and incorporate SEO tactics
- Most guest authors receive credit for their work with a byline and at least one link
- Always look for similar or higher Domain Authority (DA) site than your own site
- Explain in the pitch why you think their readers will benefit from your post and why you’re the best person to write it
Follow these guidelines and get strong backlinks from authority blogs.
Partner with influencers
Influencer partnership is another powerful tool in the world of B2B marketing. It helps build trust and credibility, increase brand awareness, and ultimately generate leads.
But it’s not as easy as it seems. You’ve to keep the following points in your mind:
- What are the goals of the partnership, and how will success be measured?
- Does the influencer’s expertise align with the brand’s, and do they use and believe in the product or service?
- Is the relationship authentic and transparent, and do both parties trust and honor each other’s strengths?
- Research the target audience’s demographics, interests, pain points, and preferred channels of engagement.
First, figure them out and move accordingly!
Implement email outreach
Like above-mentioned techniques, email outreach is also a great way to acquire backlinks from authority sites. It mainly involves sending personalized emails to the potential link sources with the hope of acquiring the backlink in response to those emails.
But again, email marketing is a proper market. Around 77% of B2B buyers prefer email as a contact channel. This ratio highlights the more demands of email marketing in business-to-business growth.
The same way, getting links via emails is not a big deal if you craft emails that generate desired results. For this, create a targeted email list by keenly analyzing the competition utilizing tools, then craft an effective and engaging outreach email.
Remember, the email response ration depends on how effective your email is. The more effective email; the more chance of acceptance and acquiring backlinks in return.
Tidbit: For result-driven B2B marketing, the average email ratio is 3–5 per week.
Use social media platforms
Social media handles play a crucial role in B2B link-building. But there should be the right platforms, depending on your target audience and business goals.
For instance, LinkedIn is the most professional platform that offers networking, brand building, job-hunting, client-seeking, and much more options. That makes it a popular choice for B2B marketers. You can easily link your site in your LinkedIn posts or newsletters to attract visitors.
Similary, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook are other sought-after social media channels that allow you to share your website content with respective URLs.
Whereas, there are some Q&A channels like Reddit and Quora with built-in scale and community infrastructure. You can share your insights for relevant questions and embed your site links to expand your business reach to a wider audience.
Also consider some specialized niche networks with hyper engaged user bases, such as tappedin.com for education or github.com for developers.
Grab some useful tips for B2B link-building via social media:
- Incorporate relevant keywords in your social media profile and posts to define your business clearly
- Connect with industry influencers active on social media for possible collaborations
- Create blog (as LinkedIn offers to write article) or social media posts featuring multiple products in the same category
- Leverage HARO to provide expert insights and gain backlinks from journalists and writers
Explore niche directories
As far as the niche directories are concerned, they are also considered as a valuable tool for business-to-business link building. It’s because they can help businesses reach a targeted audience and gain credibility in their industry. Niche directories are more curated lists of businesses, which can lead to higher quality backlinks.
How can you find and use niche directories for B2B link building? See below!
- Use keywords related to your industry or niche to search for directories on Google. You can also use online tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify directories that your competitors are listed on.
- Evaluate the directory by considering factors like domain authority, relevance, and the number of businesses listed.
- Before finalizing your choice, check the directory’s history and authoritative reviews of its performance.
Here it’s important to mention that B2B link building is different from B2C link building because B2B companies often target a more niche audience with specific needs and pain points. A sustained and consistent link-building strategy is important for B2B companies because of their longer B2B sales cycle.
Technical SEO Improvements
A well-optimized site doesn’t only have great content but also performs well technically. Technical SEO for B2B websites is typically a set of practices that help search engines find and index a website, and improve its search rankings.
Some technical SEO best practices for B2B websites are:
Site Speed
This is the most important technical aspect of a website because low loading speed will not sustain the traffic and ultimately bounce rate of the website will increase (and it’s a red signal for a site).
So make sure all the web pages load quickly for better user experience and search engines rank the site higher. For this, use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to monitor site speed.
Mobile-friendliness
In 2024, a mobile-friendly site is non-negotiable. 80% of B2B buyers use mobile devices to research and interact with vendors. This increases the importance of mobile-friendly websites.
So, make sure your site is easy to navigate and view on mobile devices. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help with this.
Clean URL Structure
We’ve already discussed URLs in the on-page optimization section, but here in technical SEO, it’s also important to mention. Make sure the URL hierarchy is simple, clean, and easy to read for both users and search engines.
Secure Connections
Prefer HTTPs protocol instead of HTTP to ensure your site has a secure connection. Because it’s a common practice to see that Google may penalize the sites that aren’t secure, and Chrome may block them from users. That’s why, secure connection is essential.
Duplicate Content
This step is very crucial to tackle because duplicate content can hurt a website’s ranking. So, identify and fix any issues with such content on the site.
Here are some effective ways to eliminate duplicate content:
- Use canonical tags to prevent search engines from indexing duplicate content
- Use 301 redirects to remove duplicate content, especially if a website has been redesigned or the domain name has changed. However, if not done correctly, users may receive a 404 error.
- Use rel=canonical – a metadata element points Google to the original source of content, which can help prevent duplicate content.
- Apply no-index HTML tag that allows Google to crawl duplicate content, but instructs it not to index the page.
- Consolidate content when there are multiple posts on similar topics. (but make sure it’s not pillar content that may have relevant topics)
- Check indexed pages by searching for the website name in Google with the “site:” command to see the total number of indexed pages.
XML Sitemaps and Robot.txt
These files are both important for optimizing a website’s visibility in search engines and are often used together to improve SEO. Mainly these files help search engines direct to the correct pages.
Follow 👇 guidelines to use XML sitemaps and robot.txt files:
- Include XML sitemaps in robot.txt
- Use XML sitemap generator tools online
- Update XML sitemaps when there are changes to pages
Structured Data Markups
Use schema.org to provide structured data to search engines. This implementation helps search engines like Google understand the different elements on your site. In Particular, it understands content of the site and displays rich snippets, which can increase click-through rates (CTRs).
Crawlability & Indexability
Make sure that search engine bots can easily crawl and index your site without issues. For this, you’ve to accurately optimize all the technical elements, mentioned above 👆.
Regular Monitoring
Check technical SEO metrics on a regular basis in order to identify and fix the issues that affect search visibility and rankings. Make sure to conduct a site health check (broken links, pages that aren’t indexed, and pages that search bots can’t access) at least once a month.
Stay Informed
Keep up with the latest SEO industry trends and algorithm updates from Google and other experts.
A B2B SEO company handles all these aspects and ensures your site performs well technically, giving it the best chance to rank high on SERPs.
Local SEO for B2B Companies
For B2B businesses with a physical location or those that serve specific regions, local SEO is crucial. Because it’s a great way to generate leads for such businesses and rank them higher for local keywords.
Mainly, B2B SEO agencies optimize your website for local searches by:
- Creating and optimizing a Google My Business (GMB) profile
- Ensuring your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information is consistent across all directories
- Encouraging and managing customer reviews to build trust and credibility
Incorporating these local SEO strategies can help your business attract nearby clients in your locality and build a strong local presence that makes it hard to compete for others. But it doesn’t mean, your competitors don’t compete with you…You have to keep your local SEO efforts going on to stay visible and competent.
Creating a Winning B2B SEO Strategy
What do you think a winning B2B SEO strategy should be? It must:
- Create Buyer Personas: Identify the ideal customer profiles to understand their needs and pain points.
- Understand Your Sales Funnel: Analyze how leads move through awareness, consideration, and decision stages.
- Conduct Keyword Research: Research keywords that align with your personas’ needs and search intent.
- Map Keywords to Funnel Stages: Align specific keywords with each funnel stage to guide content creation.
- Create and Optimize Landing Pages: Design landing pages focused on targeted keywords to convert visitors into leads.
- Build a Scalable Content Strategy: Plan and create content consistently to attract and nurture leads over time.
- Promote Content for Backlinks: Share and outreach your content to earn high-quality backlinks and authority.
Eager to win in the B2B game? Do follow this win-win strategy!
B2B SEO Tools for Success
A B2B SEO company uses a variety of advanced tools to track progress and optimize your strategy. These tools include:
- SEMrush for comprehensive keyword research and in-depth competitive analysis.
- Ahrefs to track backlinks and identify new link-building opportunities.
- Google Search Console to monitor site performance and get alerts on the issues to fix.
- Google Analytics to monitor traffic with its sources and user behavior on the websites.
- Moz to track keyword rankings and performing site audits.
Using these tools, a B2B SEO company can measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and make informed decisions to keep improving your rankings.
How to Choose the Best B2B SEO Company in 2024
The simple answer is having all the capabilities (thoroughly discussed above) in a company will be credited to the best B2B SEO company.
But this is not the whole picture…
A little general but more specific to a B2B SEO company should highlight its 3 P’s:
1️⃣ People: Who’s working in the company and fulfilling its mission, mainly including SEO strategists, content creators, technical experts, and project managers who work on optimizing clients’ websites and building relationships.
2️⃣ Process: It consists of the methodology used for effective SEO campaigns; keyword research, content strategies, on-page optimization, link-building, and performance tracking to achieve client goals.
3️⃣ Performance: The measurable outcomes and results delivered to clients, such as increased traffic, higher rankings, and improved lead generations.
There are some other factors to consider while choosing the right company for your business (running one B2B model), such as:
✔ Industry experience matters, so choose an agency with experience in your specific industry.
✔ Proven track record of generating sales, so look for case studies or testimonials that demonstrate the agency’s success with other B2B clients.
✔ Transparent communication because a good company will keep you informed about the progress of your SEO campaign and explain the strategies they’re implementing.
✔ Customized solutions for unique business goals of the clients, instead of one-size-fits-all-solutions.
✔ Cutting-edge tools & techniques to stay up to date with algorithm changes and can compete well with the evolving market.
Keep all these points in your 🧠 when you need to hire a B2B SEO agency! Because your business will rely on it, so decide wisely…
Final Thoughts
In 2024, a robust B2B SEO strategy is essential for scaling your business. Whether you’re looking to increase visibility, generate qualified leads, or build trust with your audience, partnering with a B2B SEO company can help you achieve these goals.
By leveraging the expertise of SEO consultants and professionals, you can stay ahead of the competition and position your business for long-term success.
Investing in SEO is not a quick fix, but it’s a long-term strategy that can deliver sustainable growth of your business. A well-executed B2B SEO campaign will continue to drive traffic, leads, and revenue for years to come.
So, if you’re ready to take your business to the next level, it’s time to consider partnering with a B2B SEO company in 2024, just like Globials.👍
FAQs
What is a B2B SEO agency?
A B2B SEO agency is a leading body for the businesses’ success because it specializes in optimizing their websites that sell products or services to other businesses. These agencies keenly focus on increasing visibility in search engines, generating organic traffic, and acquiring high-quality leads specifically in the B2B space.
Unlike B2C SEO, B2B SEO requires a deeper understanding of industry-specific keywords and a more sophisticated content strategy in order to attract decision-makers from other companies.
Does SEO work for B2B?
Yes, SEO works exceptionally well for B2B businesses. Many B2B clients start their research process online, looking for service providers or solutions to their business challenges.
A well-executed B2B SEO strategy can help your business rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), increase brand visibility, and drive targeted traffic to your website. It also helps build trust and authority in your industry, leading to higher conversion rates.
Is SEO B2B or B2C?
Whether B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-customer), SEO can be applied to both forms of businesses. However, the strategies differ.
In B2C, SEO often focuses on quick and emotional buying decisions. On the other hand, B2B SEO is aimed at educating potential clients over longer sales cycles and appealing to multiple decision-makers within companies.
What is a B2B company example?
A B2B company is a business that sells products or services to other businesses rather than individual customers. Some major examples of B2B companies include:
- Salesforce (a SaaS brand)
- General Electric Co. (a high-tech industrial company)
- IBM (a multinational enterprise of IT services)
How do I create a B2B SEO strategy?
Creating this strategy mainly involves several steps, such as:
- Identifying your target audience and their challenges
- Conducting business-related keyword research focusing industry-specific language
- Developing high-quality, educational, and informative content
- Optimizing metadata, URLs, internal links, and content body for SEO
- Building high-quality backlinks from authoritative industry websites
- Regularly monitoring your performance and refining the strategy accordingly