The Importance of SEO for B2B and How To Get Started

Search engine optimization uses high-quality content to boost your company’s search rankings for target keywords. Online retailers rely on SEO every day to attract new customers, but what about companies such as distributors, manufacturers, commercial contractors and SaaS developers? Considering that the vast majority (~80%) of B2B marketers use it, the importance of SEO for B2B is impossible to deny.

The Importance of SEO for B2B Companies

When you get down to it, SEO is about creating a website that delivers exactly what your potential clients are looking for. Business owners who need commercial products, services, equipment or raw materials usually search online for the best options. SEO is essential for your business to stand out in the top search results. It plays a part in virtually every step of the B2B customer journey, from lead generation to sales.

Incredible SEO Statistics for B2B

Do you want to see the hard data? Try these amazing B2B marketing stats on for size:

• SEO delivers at least twice the revenue of other marketing channels for B2B
• Organic search is the main driver of online traffic for B2B industries
• Search optimization brings in roughly 65% of B2B page visits, compared to 15% for pay-per-click advertising
• SEO is one of the marketing avenues with the highest return on investment for B2B

What makes SEO so important for B2B marketing?

A Smart Investment With Major Benefits

SEO content is always a valuable investment for businesses:

• Increases your clicks, traffic and visitor engagement: Good content keeps attracting traffic for years because it answers the questions that B2B owners have and provides the solutions they need.
• Contributes to valuable leads: SEO can help your business attract the specific type of potential clients who are most likely to purchase your products.
• Builds your online reputation: Ranking higher on Google searches can increase your company’s credibility, helping you become a respected industry leader online and making a great impression on website visitors.
• Expands your sales possibilities tremendously: The power of SEO goes beyond local sales, giving you access to the whopping 6 million businesses in the U.S. or the over 330 million companies around the world.

At BKA Content, we’re experts at creating search-optimized blogs that make a real difference for your clients. Take a few minutes to see the difference for yourself.

6 Steps for Getting the Most Out of SEO for B2B Leads

Knowing the importance of SEO for B2B success is only half the battle. Your business needs to use search optimization the right way to maximize results.

1. Become a Trusted Resource With High-Quality Blogs

High-value content is vital for a B2B audience. Business clients spend a long time weighing the pros and cons before committing to a supplier. If your website features detailed buying guides, blog articles with technical SEO, whitepapers and informational videos, it makes a positive impression.

2. Optimize Your Website for SEO

The heart of search optimization is choosing the right keywords for your content. To do that, you need to know what terms your target audience is searching for. You have at least four ways to find out:

• Review your customers’ purchasing habits.
• Check out the keywords your competitors are targeting.
• Use a keyword research tool (Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, etc.) to see search terms for your industry.
• Study the pages on your site that consistently get the most traffic.

After you have a list of keywords that B2B leads are likely to search for, you need to build your content around it. Web pages should use search terms naturally and provide real value to visitors.

3. Refresh Your Content

There’s plenty of evidence showing the importance of SEO for B2B marketers. In one survey, 53% of professionals said that updating content improved user engagement and 49% saw search rankings and website traffic shoot up.

Refreshing your most effective web pages can deliver similar results for your business. Follow this checklist:

• Make sure the information is up to date.
• Revise statistics with current figures.
• Check all links.
• Expand articles with new content.

We generally recommend updating key blogs and website content every year or two.

4. Perform Periodic SEO Audits and Maintenance

Like any business endeavor, SEO requires flexibility and responsiveness. To stay one step ahead of competitors, measure your website’s performance periodically. Audits are important in SEO for B2B because they reveal missed opportunities and show which tweaks can improve traffic, total leads, lead quality or sales.

Keep in mind that for B2B, some low-volume search terms are better for conversions, while high-volume keywords may generate more total leads. Niche keywords such as “manufacturing workflow platform” may only get a few hundred hits a month, but those searchers have a strong interest. “Business accounting software” appeals to a larger variety of small businesses, but you also have more competition.

5. Work With Link-Building Experts

Link-building provides huge dividends in terms of website authority. When your content draws from respected sources for statistics and information, it tells search engines and visitors that you’re trustworthy. Over time, other websites may link to your blogs for reference, boosting your search rankings even more.

For long-lasting results, only partner with reputable SEO companies (like us). Beware of $49.99 “link-building” services, which use cheap content, keyword stuffing and disreputable techniques that actually hurt your website’s reputation.

6. Give Social Media Leads the Attention They Deserve

LinkedIn is home to over 57 million businesses and over 65 million owners, managers and decision-makers. That’s exactly the audience you want as a B2B company.

Social media marketing for business leads involves three main goals:

• Building a profile on the platform your target audience frequents
• Reaching out to leads and interacting with past clients
• Posting high-quality content regularly

Finding the time can be challenging if you’re a small business owner, but we’re here to help. We can coordinate content, posting schedules and more.

Discover the Importance of SEO for B2B Companies of Every Size

At BKA Content, we can help with every step of your business’s SEO strategy, from keyword research and industry-specific blogs to website SEO audits and social media management. We have over a decade working with major brands and small businesses in countless industries. Learn more about the importance of SEO for B2B marketing from our content experts.