Search engine optimization (SEO) is the backbone of digital marketing. Sure, paid ads will get you a lot of traffic fast, but investing in SEO and organic traffic is a surefire way to set your brand up for success. Done right, SEO elevates your industry presence, attracts more buyers, and, best of all, makes the most of even the scrappiest marketing budget. 

Most SEO tips cater to business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, but what about business-to-business (B2B)? A strong online presence matters when you’re targeting high-level decision-makers, and a solid B2B SEO strategy boosts lead generation in even the most competitive industries. 

But it’s not enough to publish a blog a few times a year and call it good. You need an effective B2B SEO roadmap aligned with industry trends and best practices, boosting your odds of winning in the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

You don’t need to be an SEO savant to get results, either. Implementing a robust SEO strategy for your B2B company is the best way to make your brand more visible without overtaxing your resources. In this guide, we’ll touch on the unique challenges of standing out in the B2B space and break down five must-have ingredients for a B2B SEO strategy that gets results. 

The Challenges of B2B SEO

SEO isn’t hard, but it has a lot of moving parts that can be tough for a small business to manage. If you want a truly future-proof SEO strategy, plan for these common B2B SEO challenges to make the most of your marketing strategies: 

1. Identifying the right audience: One of the biggest hurdles for B2B SEO is understanding your target audience. B2B businesses cater to very specific niches, which makes keyword research and persona development a must. 
2. Creating excellent content: Anybody can make content, but it takes a true marketing wiz to create excellent content. Blog posts are a great start, but in B2B, you also need to create more technical content like use cases, case studies, and white papers. It takes time, effort, expertise, and energy to create these, which is why so many B2B companies struggle to see SEO gains. 
3. Overcoming long sales cycles: There’s no way around the fact that the B2B buying cycle is loooooong. The median B2B sales cycle is just over two months long, but some cycles last nearly six months. Your SEO efforts have to keep up over that period of time. Your content has to engage potential clients at every stage of the sales funnel, which requires more in-depth content over longer periods of time.

5 Ingredients for a Solid B2B SEO Strategy

You don’t need to be a professional marketer to win big with B2B SEO. All you need is the right strategy to go from zero to SEO hero. Combine these ingredients to cook up a robust B2B SEO strategy that turns heads.

1. Targeted Keyword Strategy

A well-defined keyword strategy is fundamental to any B2B SEO campaign. The process kicks off with keyword research, where you identify relevant keywords that potential customers are searching for. 

Use keyword research tools like Semrush or Google Keyword Planner to find popular terms and niche-specific, long-tail keywords your competitors might overlook. Some of these are low-volume keywords with less traffic, but hopefully, the traffic will have enough search intent to take action, making up for the smaller numbers. 

You need a list of target keywords before you so much as write a single blog. Keyword list in hand, you’re ready to start optimizing for SEO. 

2. Optimized Content

Quality content improves search engine rankings and supports marketing efforts by converting more leads. But content creation takes a lot of work, so it’s no wonder businesses outsource content to Growth Machine’s team of SEO experts. If you don’t have 10+ hours a week to devote to content creation and optimization, consider working with a professional agency to get SEO wins in less time. 

Whether you go the DIY or professional route, you can create optimized content by: 

• Building a scalable content strategy: Your content should align with your list of target keywords. Build a list of topics aligned with these keywords, creating different pieces of content like blog posts, white papers, and case studies. You also need to write copy that addresses different buyer personas and pain points at every stage of the sales funnel, so get to writing!
• Creating buyer personas: Buyer personas reflect the characteristics of your real and ideal customers. Aligning your content with the pain points of a buyer persona could make your content more relevant and engaging, netting more traffic and conversions for your hard work. 
• Delivering on search intent: Why are people looking for this content? Give them exactly what they’re looking for. Sure, that means sprinkling in a few target search terms, but the real goal is to deliver value so they’ll come back and continue to engage with you. Deliver as much value as possible, offering insider tips, free tools, or recommendations that keep people coming back for more. Search engines will take notice after a few months of regular engagement, so don’t overlook the power of delivering on search intent!

3. Backlinking

Backlinks are an important but misunderstood part of off-page SEO. Some people think they need as many links as possible to rank higher on Google, but that’s not really the case. Search engines look at backlinks as a vote of confidence in the quality of your site. But if your backlinks come from sketchy or less-than-trustworthy sources, it could actually do more harm than good. 

Earn backlinks the old-fashioned way by:

• Creating high-quality content people want to link to (statistics, infographics, and original research are a great way to do this)
• Requesting guest posting opportunities
• Scoring media features
• Sending backlink request emails to targeted site owners

4. User-Friendly B2B Website

User experience is everything in SEO. If users encounter a slow, buggy site, search engines will eventually notice and demote you in the SERPs. You’re putting a lot of work into your B2B SEO strategy, so don’t let website problems hurt your progress. 

On-page SEO requires improving your website to be as user-friendly as possible. Follow this checklist to build an SEO-optimized site: 

• Boost site speed: Slow-loading web pages increase bounce rates, which lowers conversion rates and SEO rankings. Use SEO tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix slow page load times.
• Use internal linking: Internal links chain your site’s landing pages together into a cohesive experience. Internal linking makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages. It also improves user navigation, helping searchers find related content and spend more time on-site. 
• Fix broken links: Broken links are conversion-killers. Check your website analytics or audit your website to find and address broken links. You may need to create SEO-friendly redirects, too. 
• Add meta information: This is an essential technical SEO strategy, which requires tweaking your site code to stand out in search. Search engine crawlers rely on meta information, like title tags and meta descriptions, to rank your B2B content. Include relevant keywords in this meta data to help search engines better understand your content. Just make sure each page has a unique title and description that accurately reflects the content—nobody likes keyword stuffing. 

You can do some of these things on your own, especially if you have a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. If that’s not your cup of tea, you may need to hire a web developer to fix these issues. 

5. Consistent Social Media Presence

Did you know that social media has an impact on search engine rankings? Social media is a great organic traffic source that puts your name in front of the right people. It’s a critical traffic source, so don’t overlook the power of consistently posting on social media. 

As a B2B business, you probably post on platforms like LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and maybe Instagram. Use a social media scheduling tool to reshare your new content on social media, at a minimum. Schedule at least one hour a day to comment on other accounts’ content and engage with your followers. It takes time, but eventually, you’ll build an organic following that funnels traffic to your website, ultimately boosting your SEO rankings. 

Attract B2B Buyers With Pro-Level Content Marketing

B2B marketing can be cutthroat, but having a sophisticated B2B SEO strategy gives you a serious advantage. From understanding the nuances of targeted keyword strategies and optimized content to executing advanced technical SEO tactics, you’ve got what it takes to stand out in organic search. 

The challenge, though, is finding the time to do everything yourself. Between managing employees, products, and customers, it’s tough to dedicate the proper amount of time to your B2B SEO strategy. 

That’s where we come in. Growth Machine takes the weight off your shoulders with a team of seasoned SEO experts who manage, track, and fine-tune every aspect of your SEO content for success. We deliver measurable results that drive business growth, getting results in as little as a few months for most of our clients. 

Let’s take your business to the next level. Contact Growth Machine today to talk shop about your B2B SEO strategy.