Consistently ranking high in search engine results is harder for B2B companies. If you want more traffic from search engines in 2022, you will need to change your approach to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This article will focus on critical tips and tactics for B2Bs beyond the basic SEO best practices (i.e., core web vitals, semantic markup, metadata, linking, etc.). Be sure to check out our articles on SEO Basics for more information.
Why is SEO important for B2B?
Search Engines Optimization (SEO) is essential for B2B because search engines are, by nature, a buyer-initiated channel. Buyers are looking for specific information when they search. Engaging in SEO will enable your website to show up with relevant information that will help the buyer. Beyond delivering highly qualified traffic to your website, you will also establish trust and authority with buyers.
10 B2B SEO Tips for 2022
SEO is still a critical channel for B2B marketers in 2022. Buyers are looking for help and will conduct searches at some point in their decision journey. You want to be there when they search. This allows your company to educate and share your point-of-view with buyers. Follow these 10 B2B SEO Tips for 2022 and increase your visibility, traffic, and leads. Click here for the latest SEO Ranking factors updated for 2023.
- Blog at least twice per month – Consumed content is king for B2B digital marketing and B2B SEO. Why? Fresh periodic content that focuses on educating and informing buyers is exactly what search engines like Google want to serve its searchers. For Vende Digital, 60% of visitors to our website enter from a blog. Buyers want to be informed, not sold. This is why your blog is such a valuable asset. Keep your articles between 1K-3K words.
- Optimize for the problems you solve, not the products or services you sell – B2B buyers are looking for the best ways to solve problems. They are using search engines as a way to find answers. Develop a content plan around the words and phrases buyers would type into Google while researching.
- Use a question-answer approach to content development – You have probably noticed how Google often shows answers to questions within the search results. The way to show up in these results is to write your content like an FAQ. 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. First, 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 crucial for Voice Search Optimization.
- Create Content Hubs – The Hub and Spoke content marketing strategy around developing several posts around an important topic and interlinking the posts together. By having several posts individually focused on unique key phrases related to an important issue; and then interlinking the posts together, you create a cluster of content that is irresistible to the Google crawler.
- Build FAQ or Glossary Pages – Phrase your questions/answers/definitions in the same way your customers would ask them and then provide clear and comprehensive answers
- Update old blog articles – Keep your content fresh and up to date to maintain and even grow search engine results. Start by identifying targeted pages using a key phrase position report to find pages that may be dropping in the search results for targeted key phrases. Review our content writing framework (Step 3) and see if you can punch up the copy. Leverage point 4 above and find opportunities to interlink the content with new pillar content.
- Leverage video to turbocharge results – Content can be repurposed into video and leveraged in multiple ways to improve SEO results. The primary method is by producing content that can live on YouTube, the second-largest search engine. Placing a link in the video’s comments to relevant content on your site will also deliver traffic. Finally, we have found that pages including embedded video perform better than pages without them.
- Stay away from marketing jargon – Marketers tend to come up with new ways to define what their company does to differentiate the business from competitors. It is not a good strategy to optimize for these buzzwords, but rather optimize for words that your industry has regularly used to describe your offerings.
- Technical SEO – Make sure your site is easy for the search engines to crawl, that it loads fast, is mobile responsiveness, includes security (HTTPS), and contains good use of Schema. If you are unsure if your site has these properly implemented, consider having a web analysis.
- Optimize for local business listings – Leveraging Google My Business, and the Name Address Phone Number (NAP) directories will help your search rankings, even if you only have one location. Be sure to thoroughly complete profiles and use consistent descriptions of your business, addresses, phone numbers, etc. Check out our whitepaper for more insights on how to localize your business.
Need more help? Check out our SEO Playbook updated for 2022
Key Takeaways
- Be consistent in adding content to your website that focuses on problems your prospects are trying to solve.
- Make sure your site is search engine friendly and loads fast.
- Interlink content using the Hub & Spoke content marketing strategy.
- Updating old content is a great way to improve B2B SEO and keep your site relevant to buyers.
