Where do the majority of B2B decision-makers start their buying process?
Online. If you aren’t leveraging search engine optimization (SEO), your company could be losing out. SEO is knowing how to get your web pages to show up when people use search engines, whether it is a facility director searching for a lawn care company or the founder of a startup searching for accounting software.
SEO is one of the most powerful yet underrated techniques for acquiring new customers. Just remember, while they might be using a search engine to find something for their business, the one doing the searching is still a person. Search Engines are a buyer initiated media, meaning that the buyer is using search to find information. This makes search a great channel for generating sales qualified leads. That means your SEO strategy should focus on the people you are trying to reach. You can improve your B2B SEO with these 5 tips.
5 Ways to Improve Your B2B SEO
1. Featured Snippets
Featured Snippets are a type of Google search results that show a summary of a webpage directly answering a query. These Featured Snippets usually answer questions, and they appear at the top of a search results page. There are a few types of Featured Snippets, including Definition Snippets, Paragraph Snippets, List Snippets (both bulleted and numbered), Table Snippets, and YouTube Featured Snippets.
A snippet bait is usually placed at the beginning of an article, making it easier for search engines, like Google, to pull up a summary from your article to show to users. To begin, you need to identify what type of Featured Snippet you’re looking at. Then you can add a snippet of content to your page that’s designed to fit inside that Featured Snippet box. Not only do Featured Snippets help improve SEO, but they are also important for Voice Search Optimization.
2. Optimize Content For User Intent
It’s simple; buyers want personalized content. While you are doing keyword research and content creation, you have to be thinking about buyers’ needs and their pain points. This is essential for demand generation marketing. Part of B2B SEO is matching your content to a user’s search intent. No matter how great your content is, if it’s not what searchers want, you won’t rank for it. However, when your page makes users happy, you can increase your search rankings.
Optimizing content for user intent doesn’t just apply to new content either. Take a look back at old content and see what can be optimized to better draw in users. Specifically, look for content that previously performed well, but for which organic traffic has started to drop. This is a great way to improve your conversions with SEO. When you optimize for your users, you can improve your SEO results.
3. Repurpose Content
Finding new ways to recycle your existing content has a number of benefits, including reaching a new audience, making the most of your efforts, and keeping great content front and center. There is no reason to start from scratch every time you sit down to create content. Reformat a blog post into an infographic, turn a YouTube video into a blog post, even turn your internal data into case studies.
Take a look at what your most popular posts have been over the last year. Determine why those posts performed well, and then make a plan for how to repurpose that content into something new. Make sure that the content is still largely relevant, and take the time to update any outdated references.
4. Target Brand-New Keywords
One main reason a lot of keywords are competitive is simply because there are lots of sites trying to rank for them. But if you’re targeting new keywords, you’re competing with fewer people. A great way to find new keywords is simply by tracking the queries that are currently driving traffic to your website. Create a simple spreadsheet, and start keeping track of queues by clicks, discovering the specific pages on your website, driving the most organic traffic. When you know what users are looking for when they come to your site, you can create the type of content they are looking for.
5. Improve Dwell Time
Longer dwell time usually indicates a positive user experience, and for that reason, it’s something search engines take into account. Dwell time is the time a user consumes your content before coming back to the search results and looking for more. It’s a way to tell a search engine how well your content satisfied a visitor’s needs.
If you want to increase the time a user spends on your site, you need to provide an excellent user experience, and you must create engaging content. One key way to create engaging content and improve dwell time is by using media. Whether you add images, infographics, or videos, media are great tools to emphasize what you are talking about and break up your content.
Your B2B SEO strategy needs to focus on answering the questions people are looking for. Once you discover what your market is searching for, you can create content that satisfies their searches. Finally, when a user is satisfied, search engines will see that you provide quality information, and your B2B SEO will improve.
How Can We Help You Improve Your B2B SEO?
If you are a B2B CMO or marketing leader, B2B SEO should be a critical part of your B2B Marketing Strategy. Does your business need a hand creating a SEO strategy? We offer strategic planning, persona development, and content marketing services that can help. If you are ready to improve your business’ standing in search results, then sign up for a complimentary initial consultation/discovery meeting. Schedule yours today, and let’s see if we can help.
Key Takeaways
- The majority of B2B decision makers are starting their buying process online.
- If you aren’t leveraging search engine optimization (SEO), your company could be losing out.
- SEO is one of the most powerful yet underrated techniques for acquiring new customers.
- When was the last time you had your website audited for SEO?
