If you’re a B2B marketer, it’s often difficult to know how to use B2B SEO to its fullest potential. Do you focus on blog posts? Videos? Key service pages? And how does this compare to B2C? For a long time, marketers across industries used similar strategies to boost sales. There was little differentiation between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Whilst a B2C SEO strategy may just focus on product category page optimisation, a B2B SEO strategy should typically address the following practices:
The B2B marketing experts at Tiga review some key B2B SEO stats to influence your SEO strategy and give you a competitive edge in your niche.
Research shows the first five organic results on Google account for 67.60% of all the clicks. This means that in order to generate clicks, your site should be ranking in these first 5 positions. This may seem like a no-brainer, however, we’ve often heard marketing professionals state that they would like to be on the first page of Google for a particular phrase. Whilst this is a good aim and a great achievement, the top half of the first page should always be the aim when maximising clicks.
Research shows the first five organic results on Google account for 67.60% of all the clicks. ”
If you’re not using video, you're missing out on an incredible opportunity for growth. A study by Smallbiztrends has predicted that by 2019, global consumer Internet video traffic would account for 80% of all web traffic. With Youtube becoming the second most popular search engine in the world, this prediction may well be true.
Video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo have grown while social media platforms from Facebook, Twitter, to WhatsApp are now optimised for video. Research now shows that web pages with embedded videos enjoy a 53x better chance of ranking on Google's first page.
A similar study by Unbounce shows the impact of using videos on your landing pages. You can increase conversion on your landing pages by 80% just by adding video. If you leverage video visuals across your website, and digital platforms, you can enjoy better conversion, visibility, and ranking on search engine result pages.
When doing your keyword research for your B2B SEO campaign, don’t neglect the long tail keyword focus. These terms have an impressive click-through rate. You can get 3% to 5% higher click-through than when using short-tail keyword phrases.
Long-tail keywords can boost your SEO campaign because they're less competitive, boost conversion and increase the chance of your content being seen. These keywords can help optimise your blog strategy, increase the chances of ranking for short-tail keywords, and help you personalise your content and build authority in your industry.
On which search engine should you focus your efforts? This again may seem like an obvious question, but with the emergence of new search engines, it’s a question that is often asked. With Google controlling a market share of 87.76%, this is where your focus should be. Whilst this figure has eroded over time, it’s still a huge chunk of overall search volume. You need to understand the Google platform and leverage the multiple tools offered for marketers.
These include Google AdSense, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Trends, Google My Business, and Google Marketing Platform among others. More importantly, you have to optimise for Google search engine. Google should be at the core of your SEO campaign
This is a hotly debated topic amongst SEO professionals - but content length matters if you want to rank well on Google. The top ranking articles on Google's SERPs contain 2,416 words. It’s been proven time and time again that content that provides the most value in search engines ranks very well. This often means providing as much detail about a topic as is reasonably possible, which naturally leads to longer, more in depth content that ranks very well.
B2B content marketing offers you multiple benefits such as lead generation qualified leads, gaining targeted website traffic, increased conversions, gaining a competitive edge by dominating industry keywords, increased customer loyalty and brand affinity, good online reputation management and boosting search engine optimisation efforts.
Besides the higher ranking, long-form content means more authority and visitors stay on the page longer. The longer blogs or articles have higher social engagement. Longer Content also has the potential to earn more backlinks as you’re providing value to your readers.
Text has always been the foundation of search so it’s so important that your service pages are optimised correctly. Remember that Google can’t ‘see’ what your website looks like - so just because your site is designed well, this doesn’t mean it will rank well - especially if you have thin content. Your written content should capture the reader’s interest and also meet the SEO best practices. You can optimise your content by adding visuals/images, thorough keyword research, proper structuring, making it mobile-friendly and responsive, and internal links.
If you’re looking to find out more about B2B SEO or marketing, get in touch with B2B marketing agency Tiga today. We’re B2B experts who work with leading corporations such as Mitsubishi, Sony and Clevertouch.
This post was written by:
Stuart is the Managing Director of Tiga Creative Marketing. He founded the agency over 30 years ago.
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