Is B2B SEO (Business-to-Business) any different than regular B2C (Business-to-Consumer) SEO?
Yes, definitely.
While the principles of search engine optimization are the same, the approach to keywords and other SEO elements will be different for a B2B SEO project. After all, you'll be targeting other businesses and not consumers.
Research and selecting the best keywords for your SEO strategy is extremely important for B2B. Target specific sets of keywords: those that will educate your potential customer and keywords that will result in transactions.
For example, let's say your company manufactures handles. Unfortunately, targeting the basic keyword "handles" is extremely broad. The audience is too wide and would include consumers (B2C) seeking to replace the handle they broke on their lawnmower over the weekend.
Potential B2B customers will be seeking a manufacturer or supplier of thousands of "handles" and not just a replacement handle. Therefore, keywords such as "handle manufacturer" or "handle suppliers" might be a good place to start for B2B keyword research.
Awareness and education will help set your your B2B company apart from competition. Write amazing content including articles, white papers and other information for your website. Write a blog. If you have one, make it better. Content is definitely king in B2B SEO as well as an opportunity for potential client engagement. Great content sets you apart from your competition and helps develop industry, service and product expertise.
B2B companies must utilize Google Analytics and spend time reviewing traffic and other statistics, such as how much time visitors spend on your website; returning visitors, and how visitors found your site., etc.
B2B companies should also give strong consideration to creating and monitoring Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns in Google, Bing, Linkedin and other sites. Utilize retargeting programs to keep your company and products in front of prospects who visited your website, but didn't convert into a sale or lead.
Your website needs to be as easy as possible for buyers to engage with you such as completing a simple form for more information or a helpful download. B2B firms need to test different offers; consider a free trial for prospects; create videos or a demo.
There are huge opportunities with B2B search engine optimization. However, companies need to invest in time and technology in order to implement stronger SEO and PPC strategies.
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Purple Trout, LLC specializes in B2B SEO, PPC, online reputation management and international/multilingual search engine optimization.
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