B2B Seo Tactics - Alex MacLennnan
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B2B SEO requires a different strategy than B2C SEO. It is important to understand the B2B sales process and be visible at each stage of a customer's research. Key aspects of a successful B2B SEO strategy include engaging different types of buyers within an organization, carefully selecting relevant keywords, creating comprehensive content on the website and beyond, and getting other sites to link back to your content. The goal is to establish expertise and be found throughout the customer's research and buying process.
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B2B Seo Tactics - Alex MacLennnan
- 1. B2B SEO Strategy . . .Why you need to apply SEO tactics to your online content.
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Editor's Notes
- Same for big companies like Amazon and b&b in Lakes And the sales cycle can be as little as a couple of minutes
- This is highly unlikely to happen in the b2b sales process I’m afraid we all have to work a little harder
- We will look at this sales process in more detail as we consider the various strategies you need to adopt in order to establish a strong sustainable SE presence As you can see, it’s a long process, but one that every company that wants to move forward has to take seriously. Awareness = there initial search Consideration = putting together the consideration set Intent = start collecting more colateral on company (contact usually comes in here) Unfortunately there are one or two CEO’s who do not realise the potential negative connotations of not having a high SE ranking
- People can find us, just type our name into Google People who are aware of your company and what you specialise in will no doubt find you in this way, however, there will also be a large number of people who do not. When people are considering a business purchase the SE are their 1st port of call when researching online, even if they have a company in mind they will wont to see what other people are offering. If you’re not visible during this stage of the purchase process, you give yourself no chance of a sale. You need be visible during this early stage of the research process to make the consideration set. If you’re not found at this stage the chances are you’ll never be. I don’t care where we rank in the Search Engines This is a personal choice and one your competitors will be very happy about A 1 st page presence will make you look like an expert in your field, so your position not only affects your ability to generate business but also your brand perspective So even if you are a bit player in the industry, what is to that over time you’ll not be viewed as much more? We don’t need to be there, we don’t sell anything through our website. This may be true, however, your website is selling your company, brand and philosophy, it is selling the reason for the customer to choose you over a competitor. We already know who are customers are You might know who your core audience is, but can you be so confident that you know everyone who is entering the market knows about you? And more importantly you will be able to engage this audience at the exact point they are looking to make decisions? Our customers already know who we are Again this might well be true, but they are still going to draw up a consideration set from the SE. So you not only need to be visible at the start of the sales process, but also at each stage there after
- So even people looking to purchase over a year away, are beginning their research online 12 month before, this is where you enter into the consideration set
- Purchasers will not make snap decisions The buying process unfolds over time They need to know about you early in the consideration process, and start shaping perceptions before being asked Also just as important, you need to be visible through every stage of the buying process
- By all means use PPC to “plug the gaps” of an SEO campaign, but it shouldn’t be your major source of traffic
- So, we’ve established that the S.E are rather important in the B2B purchase process, now, how do we ensure that we give ourselves the best chance of appearing at every stage of the customers buying cycle?
- This is much the same as B2C, however, the devil is in the detail as we shall see.
- Your audience is not confined to 1 person You have to remember you are not selling your services to just 1 person and each of these people or departments will have a different view on what information is important
- Your audience is not confined to 1 person You have to remember you are not selling your services to just 1 person and each of these people or departments will have a different view on what information is important With all these different departments getting involved in the purchase process, there is not much emotional involvement in the purchase, people are looking for answers to their questions, therefore . . . You need to sell the solution not the aesthetic beauty of your product
- So who are all these different hands you need to fill with information?
- The Economic Buyer Therefore you need to ensure pricing pages are well ranked as well as linking to any positive review sites or testimonials The Technical Buyer Make sure any manuals, product lists are accessible The User Buyer User manuals, pdf’s, reviews, testimonials, tutorials The Coach Buyer Everything that is positive Each of these decision makers will need to find your site and your collateral using different keyword variation at different points of the sales cycle.
- As we have seen it is vital to ensure the right people can find you at the right time, what you now need to consider are the ST they will use to find you and that each of these ST’s point to the collateral that is most relevant. B2C searchers already have a good idea of what they want to buy, they simply want to find the best source for it, and there tends to be little variance in the terms they use. B2B SEO presents much more complexities when it comes to keywords. Lets take a look at this presentation All of these will return a different set of results
- Don’t focus on the keywords that are important to you, think about what your prospect will be using Make sure you take the time to fully explore and select the terms searchers are likely to use in the purchase process. And don’t confine your research to your product and services Be aware that people search for solutions, problems and fixes, not always products Think about the solutions your product offers and the problems it remedies and try to build your keyword list around these Get my site higher up the S.E My website doesn’t show up on Google Etc Quantity isn’t necessarily king To often people look to the keywords that are driving the most traffic, if these are industry specific they will provide a rich source of leads, however, make sure you are picking your fights wisely There is no point competing against a B2C site, as you will not win.
- If you run PPC campaigns use your Analytics to identify the phases people are clicking through with (there’s an AdWords report that will give you this information) If you are appearing for a broad match term (SEO) have a look at the exact phrases people are typing into the search engine Review competitor content Have a look at what your competitors are emphasising throughout their site, the meta data is a good place to start, but be wary that this might have been entered by the IT people and not necessarily an SEO specialist Use Social Media monitoring tools to identify tags and phrases Listen to what people are saying and how they are saying it online, because if they’re talking about it, they are searching for it Speak to your clients, find out how they would describe your business and offerings Also, how they would describe the problems they have and the solutions your product or service offer.
- Never before has web content needed to influence the S.E and user in equal measure B2c sites can afford to run a fine line between what the search engine likes and what the user likes, more often than not airing on the side of the search engine to achieve rankings. In the b2b arena the information is of such importance, you don’t have this luxury You need to establish a confidence and your credentials through copy and content Your website and collateral has to become the primary tool for portraying you as a valuable supplier, first impressions of your site and the content it contains is critical Needs to engage the audience at every level The objective of the site is not to drive traffic through a conversion channel, but to establish trust and give the purchaser a clear message about the company, services and values Ensure all your content can be indexed by the S.E’s It’s normal for b2b content to not necessarily be placed in the normal text format (webpages) and be found in pdf’s or white papers behind password protection. However, it’s vital in establishing your credentials that this information is easily accessible to your potential customers. Each new page or digital asset needs to be optimised and indexed so it can serve as a potential entry point for prospects
- Each page of your site could be a possible entry point and needs to be treated as such Revisit your title tags to ensure they contain the relevant Keywords You will be surprised by the amount of sites that contain default title tags, these are rich source of ranking collateral that will get you some quick wins. Keep a keyword density of about 4% Ensure Heading contain the keyword This not only helps tell the user what they should expect but also the search engines Internal links directing the user to further content
- As I’ve been stressing throughout, it is important to use all your available collateral to position yourself as a leader in your field, and link all this collateral together to ensure as many points of entry and research opportunities for your prospects. Obviously this means creating a culture of SEO within your organisation and even further afield if you use a PR company to ensure all content is methodically structured and released to achieve the same goals. Video – create a youtube channel, embed these videos into your site. Great source of content and link generator Pdf’s – make sure they can be indexed (no photocopies) upload them into your site and link to them from the appropriate page where you have identified they will be important to the sales cycle White Papers – Look back over all your whitepapers and apply SEO content strategies to them (keyword density, titles, headers etc) Press Releases – Keywords, keywords, keywords, also recreate the pr on a section of your site (good pr practice) Get your PR company involved, explain your strategy and get them to work with you. Inclusion in Google / Yahoo News Make all this accessible to the SE and your prospects, don’t hide it behind a password protection, or if you do, release it at a later date.
- A blog serves as another touchpoint for your brand Lets the customer hear what you think and see your personality Host on a separate platform Make sure Blog Home page only contains an excerpt from each post
- The result of optimising all this content can also lead to the domination of the search results for your brand keywords, so when the potential customers look for you using these terms, you will have all your collateral available, and the more of the 10 links you can occupy means the less competition there is squatting on your bland land.
- Less linking opportunities than in b2c This means there is less opportunity for your competitors too, so there is a wonderful opportunity for the company that gets it right to see significant gains Don’t be scared to share your knowledge You need to weigh up what is important to keep in-house against what information will make you stand out from the crowd Invest in video and create collateral that solves a problem Creating content that people will want to share. No matter how dull your product might seem, there will always be someone who needs this information (otherwise you wouldn’t be in business) Engage in forums This is not about adding links to the comments section, but more about building a reputation as an industry expert and in doing so getting people to link naturally to you an your collateral (video etc) Blog about your niche and share news and link-worthy content Submit articles to reputable Article Distribution sites This will allow you 2 or 3 anchor links per article and might just give you that extra little kick
- Less linking opportunities than in b2c This means there is less opportunity for your competitors too, so there is a wonderful opportunity for the company that gets it right to see significant gains Don’t be scared to share your knowledge You need to weigh up what is important to keep in-house against what information will make you stand out from the crowd Invest in video and create collateral that solves a problem Creating content that people will want to share. No matter how dull your product might seem, there will always be someone who needs this information (otherwise you wouldn’t be in business) Engage in forums This is not about adding links to the comments section, but more about building a reputation as an industry expert and in doing so getting people to link naturally to you an your collateral (video etc) Blog about your niche and share news and link-worthy content Submit articles to reputable Article Distribution sites This will allow you 2 or 3 anchor links per article and might just give you that extra little kick