B2B SEO: How to Rank Your Website in Google (With Examples)

While SEO is a must-use marketing channel for virtually all industries, it’s especially potent for businesses and services in the B2B (business-to-business) space. 

Why’s that?

For one, research by Backlinko shows that internet search results are the #1 channel where decision-makers find new B2B products. 

Also, Sagefrog found that SEO is the top marketing channel B2B companies use, and that’s because it yields the best results. 

So, if you want to generate more business for your B2B company, investing in SEO is the winning move. 

The big challenge with marketing for B2B companies is they must appeal to multiple decision-makers at other businesses before they can make a sale. 

This means B2B companies have a longer sales cycle than B2C (business-to-consumer) companies, and they also need more content. 

B2B SEO entails producing compelling content for every stage of your sales funnel, all while optimizing it for targeted keywords related to your products and services. 

This is easier said than done, which is why we put together this extremely comprehensive guide. 

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about B2B SEO, including:

1. What it is 
2. Why it matters
3. How to build a B2B SEO strategy from scratch 

Stick around to learn more!  

What is B2B SEO? Definition and examples

B2B SEO is the act of optimizing your website and creating new content to improve its visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. 

The goal of any SEO strategy is to rank in the #1 organic spot (beneath the paid ads, that is) for keywords related to your business. This is because the #1 spot on search engine results pages (SERPs) receives most of the traffic, and users rarely venture past page 1. 

In the B2B space, SEO is all about creating content that appeals to key decision-makers at your target companies. 

Unlike B2C content, which is tailored to consumer buyer personas, you need to tailor B2B content for specific stakeholders and decision-makers like:

1. C-suite executives 
2. Procurement managers 
3. IT managers 
4. Mid-level managers 
5. End users (employees who will actually use your products and services) 

Of course, the exact types of professionals you target for your B2B SEO campaign will depend on your industry, but these are very common examples. 

Also, there are three main aspects of B2B SEO:

• On-page SEO involves optimizing aspects of your website to improve its relevance—title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, images, URL structures, and, most importantly, your content. Optimizing these factors is key to ranking for keywords and appealing to decision-makers.
• Off-page SEO is everything you do outside your website to increase its rankings. It includes link-building, brand mentions, and social media engagement, all of which help Google view your website as trustworthy.

Technical SEO deals with your site’s technical aspects. It involves creating an XML sitemap, improving loading speed, resolving indexing errors, adding structured data, and more.

B2C vs. B2B SEO: What’s the difference?

B2C and B2B SEO are fundamentally the same. Both aim to improve your rankings in the search results and drive more organic traffic to your pages.

However, as stated previously, there are some notable differences between the two, so let’s explore what they are in more detail. 

Search volume

First, the search volume for B2B keywords tends to be much lower than that of B2C terms.

The reason is simple. 

B2B firms have a much smaller customer base (employees and executives), whereas B2C companies can potentially market to millions of consumers.

To exemplify this, let’s use our free keyword planner tool to check out some common search terms. 

Let’s start by looking up a B2C term. For instance, “window air conditioner” gets about 135,000 monthly searches.

However, the phrase “HVAC system for commercial building” (which is a keyword clearly aimed at B2B decision-makers) only gets about 110 searches a month.

This is because B2B SEO relies on long-tail keywords to reach interested prospects. These are keywords that have low search volume but are often highly targeted in nature and boast high conversion rates. 

This means B2C content appeals to a larger audience, while B2B content is only for a small group of professionals. As a result, you may only generate a handful of monthly leads for some B2B search terms.

The implication here is clear.

You NEED to nail your keyword research to ensure you’re reaching the right prospects. Otherwise, you’ll wind up wasting your time (and money) on creating content that nobody asked for (more on how to do B2B keyword research in a bit).  

Sales cycles

Sales cycles for B2B companies are very long, while B2C purchases tend to be short. If you’re searching for a coffee maker, you’ll likely only spend a few hours (or less) researching your options before deciding.

However, sales cycles for B2B purchases tend to be significantly longer. One reason is that buying groups for B2B solutions typically involve 6-to-10 decision-makers, and they may not all see eye to eye.

The following chart shows how buying groups spend their time:

B2B buying decisions are often complex and involve extensive research. Before negotiations, decision-makers delve into case studies, product demos, and detailed specifications. 

This lengthy process demands diverse content tailored to each stage, nurturing potential clients with valuable information and guiding them toward a purchase (more on this later!).

Content

Finally, content types and distribution channels differ for B2C and B2B SEO. While B2B content is aimed at appealing to professionals, content for B2C audiences tends to be more fun and even downright absurd.

As an example, Blinds.com posted a video to its Facebook page where its blinds survive a battery of tests (including one where they get run over by a pickup truck!):

(Image Source)

The durability test video is great entertainment, but it’s not exactly the type of content that B2B decision-makers are looking for.

B2B buyers are looking for more informative content like articles, white papers, and case studies. This type of content demonstrates expertise and thought leadership, which is what you want for B2B SEO content.

Here’s an example of a case study that FreshBooks published targeting small business owners:

(Image Source)

You need to figure out who to reach within the businesses that fit your ideal customer profile. For example, if you offer IT management software, you’d create a buyer persona for an IT director or other decision-makers.

Gather as much information as you can about your prospects. What are their demographics? What are their pain points? What platforms or channels do they use?

Then, create multiple customer avatars representing different segments of your ideal customers.

This will come in handy as you start researching keywords and creating content.

How to create B2B buyer personas 

Here are some tips for developing buyer personas for your specific B2B company. 

Conduct Research

The process begins with thorough research, so you should gain insights by:

• Interviewing current customers: Speak with your existing customers to understand their pain points, goals, and the factors that led them to choose your product or service.
• Analyzing sales and customer data: Look at past interactions, purchase patterns, and feedback from successful and unsuccessful deals.
• Engaging with sales and marketing teams: Your teams likely have direct insights into what types of clients are the best fit and what motivates them.
• Checking industry reports and competitor analysis: Research common challenges in your target industries to gather more insights into what your personas might face.

Identify key characteristics 

Next, you need to determine the types of positions you need to appeal to, so you should check things like:

• Job titles and roles: Define what positions within a company your product appeals to. These could include decision-makers (CEOs, CTOs, VPs) or influencers (managers, IT specialists).
• Company size and industry: Note the size (small, medium, or large enterprises) and the sectors (technology, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.) of companies that make up your target audience.
• Challenges and pain points: Identify the specific challenges your ideal buyer faces that your product or service can help solve (e.g., inefficiencies, compliance issues, lack of automation).
• Business goals: What are your potential clients trying to achieve? Their goals include improving operational efficiency, increasing ROI, or scaling business operations.

Create detailed profiles

The final step is to use the information you’ve gathered thus far to create a detailed buyer persona, which means adding things like:

• Name and job title: Give each persona a name and job title for a more realistic representation (e.g., “IT Manager Mike” or “Procurement Director Paula”).
• Demographics: Include company size, industry, geographic location, and other relevant factors.
• Behavioral traits: Document how they approach decision-making, their preferred communication channels (email, phone calls, in-person meetings), and how they consume information.
• Key pain points: List their main challenges and how your solution can solve them.
• Content preferences: Identify the types of content that resonate with them (case studies, product demos, white papers).

Here’s an example of a B2B buyer persona: 

2. Conduct keyword research

Keyword research is a critical aspect of any SEO strategy, and that’s certainly true for B2B websites. 

However, the keywords you target will be different from B2C keywords, so avoid common B2C keyword research guides. 

B2C companies target extremely common keywords that receive high search volumes. 

For example, if you’re selling video games, common keywords to look up would include things like video games for sale, buy video games now, and game stores. 

As mentioned before, you want to target long-tail keywords in the B2B world.

These are longer search terms that are highly specific in nature and don’t have a particularly high search volume. 

So, if you sell HVAC systems to offices, you’d want to target long-tail keywords like ‘best hvac system for office buildings.’

If we enter this keyword into our free tool, we can see that it has a very low search volume of 10. 

However, we know that the 10 people searching for it are in the market for what we’re selling (which is another benefit of the specific nature of long-tail keywords). 

Also, as represented by the search trend line graph, the keyword is gaining popularity. 

This means we can expect the search volume for the keyword to increase, so it’d be the perfect time to create content based around it, like a buyer’s guide comparing the best HVAC systems for office buildings (already has the keyword in the title, too). 

Here are some other tips for conducting B2B keyword research. 

Brainstorm seed keywords

A seed keyword is a broad, general term that’s relevant to your business or website. It’s usually short (1-3 words) and represents a core topic or theme.

Keyword research typically begins by typing a seed keyword into a research tool like ours. From there, the tool will provide you with lots of related keywords. 

Seed keywords are not only great for ranking higher on search engines, but they’re also great ways to find relevant long-tail keywords. 

To find your seed keywords, start by listing the core products/services you offer and the problems they solve. The best way to do this is to think like your customer. Put yourself in their shoes and brainstorm how they would search for your offerings.

Lastly, include technical terms and acronyms commonly used in your industry. For example, If you sell CRM software, your seed keywords might be “CRM,” “customer relationship management,” or “sales automation.

Leverage keyword research tools

There are a range of keyword tools that offer comprehensive keyword data, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and competitor analysis. Some are free, while others require a paid subscription to gain access to. 

Here’s a look at the most common tools.  

Google

Google is a good place to start. Start typing your seed keyword, and you’ll see a list of autocomplete suggestions.

You can even search for each letter of the alphabet to get even more suggestions.

Next, review the SERPs (search engine results page) and look at the “People also ask” section. Here you’ll see a list of common questions that others have asked.

This is a really great place to find relevant long-tail keywords related to your business. Remember, none of these suggestions are random. Instead, they’re all real keywords from Google’s index that users actively search for.  

Competitors

Your competitors are another great source for valuable B2B keywords.

Type in your seed keywords and look at the sites that rank on page one. Then, with our free rank checker tool, you can see the terms that your competitors rank for on Google.

As an example, we typed in ‘used office furniture’ into Google and added one of the top results into the tool.

These are all keywords that you can consider targeting, so it’s definitely giving the tool a whirl. 

The HOTH Google Keyword Planner tool

Now, let’s take a more in-depth look at our free keyword planner. 

Here’s how it works. 

Enter one of your seed keywords to view data like search volume (how many users search for the keyword), CPC (cost-per-click for paid ads), number of search results, and more.

Here’s an example for the term ‘commercial freezer’:

Here’s an insider’s tip: pay close attention to CPC when evaluating keywords.

Why?

Because a high CPC indicates high buyer intent — it means that companies are willing to spend more money to advertise for those specific terms on Google Ads.

Here’s why CPC is so valuable.

A keyword with a high CPC means that advertisers are spending a lot of money on it. Companies don’t spend big on just any keyword—they only invest heavily in keywords they believe will convert into sales or leads. 

These are often keywords with high buyer intent, meaning that people searching for these terms are likely closer to making a purchasing decision.

For example, the keyword ‘enterprise project management software’ has a high CPC. This suggests that businesses targeting the keyword know that users searching for the term will likely convert into paying customers. 

These users are likely already familiar with the software market and are actively looking for a solution, so companies are willing to pay more to appear in search results.

Map Keywords to the Buyer’s Journey

A well-rounded SEO strategy will have content tailored for every stage of the buyer’s journey. 

This means you need to create content not only for users looking to buy now, but also to prospects at the top of your sales funnel just beginning to learn about what you do (and why they need your products/services). 

In particular, you should make content for the following stages:

➡️ Awareness stage: Keywords related to problems and industry trends (e.g., “reducing customer churn”).

➡️ Consideration stage: Keywords related to solutions and comparisons (e.g., “CRM vs. marketing automation”).

➡️ Decision stage: Keywords related to specific products and vendors (e.g., “[your brand] pricing”).

3. Optimize your product or service pages

Once you’ve identified promising keywords, it’s time to optimize your existing pages. It’s important to complete this step after completing step 2 so that you’ll know which keywords to add to your current product and service pages. 

Follow these tips to optimize your on-page SEO:

• Include your primary keyword in your title tag, header, the first 100 words of the content, and in subheader tags
• Write a compelling meta description that entices users to click (Discover which HVAC system will work best for your office building)
• Add descriptive ALT tags to your images. These are brief lines of text that describe what images display. They’re for seeing-impaired individuals and for Googlebot to understand how your images relate to the content (since it lacks computer vision). 
• Use short and SEO-friendly URLs (www.yoursite.com/blog/best-hvac-systems-for-office-buildings)
• Include internal links to important content. This keeps readers engaged in your content loop and spreads link equity (ranking power gained from backlinks) across all your web pages. 

Of course, make sure that you optimize the content itself. We’ve provided everything you need to know in our SEO content optimization guide, but here’s a short breakdown:

Satisfy the user’s search intent 

Search intent is the goal that a user has when searching for a keyword. Types of search intent include navigational, informational, transactional, and commercial. Examine the search results for a chosen keyword to identify search intent.

Publish long-form content

Long-form content (anything over 1,000 words) generally ranks better than short-form content. Aim to be as comprehensive as you can with each piece of content. Of course, don’t add fluff to your content just to increase the word count.

Format and structure your content 

No one wants to read large blocks of text. Break your content up with headings and subheadings to improve readability and user experience.

Don’t stuff your content with keywords 

Finally, don’t use the same keywords repeatedly, as it will make your content sound robotic. Include semantic keywords (variations and related words) naturally, but don’t go overboard.

4. Create content for the entire buyer’s journey

79% of B2B buyers indicate that a winning vendor’s content significantly impacts their buying decision.

As we mentioned above, sales cycles for B2B purchases tend to be quite long. If you want to drive results with your B2B SEO, then you need to consider the entire sales cycle.

A solid B2B content marketing strategy that covers each stage of the buyer’s journey will help bring your prospects one step closer to making a decision.

Here are some types of content to create for every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Awareness: Prospects realize they have a problem but aren’t aware of your solution yet

Common content formats for the awareness stage include:

• Blog posts (how-to’s, ultimate guides, educational posts) 
• Whitepapers
• Ebooks

For example, this guide on coil thread inserts offers an excellent example of content that targets prospects in the awareness stage.

Image source 

Consideration: Prospects are considering different solutions, including yours

Now, it’s time to convince users that your solution is better than the rest. Content types for this stage include:

• Webinars
• Case studies (past client success stories, harp on the value you added to their business) 
• Reports
• Product comparisons
• Videos (product reviews and demos) 

The following video from Slack offers a good example of a video that targets prospects in the consideration stage.

[INSERT VIDEO] 

Decision: Prospects are ready to make a purchasing decision

At this point, your potential customers are ready to spend their money. This type of content will help ensure they choose you:

• Case studies (they work for this stage, too) 
• Vendor comparisons
• Landing pages (free trials, demos, etc.)

Here’s a chart that Pingboard made comparing its organization chart software to other vendors.

(Image Source)

Creating amazing content that reaches and engages your target audience can be challenging. If you need help with content creation, check out HOTH Blogger.

5. Promote and build backlinks to your content

Backlinks from other websites are one of the most important ranking factors on all search engines, especially Google.

A backlink is a hyperlink on another website that directs back to one of your web pages. It’s kind of like another website is giving you a shout out, letting others know that you have a valuable resource worth sharing. 

You should think of them as votes of confidence — authoritative backlinks tell Google your content must be valuable and worth ranking in the search results.

Here’s how you can promote your content and get backlinks.

Conduct outreach

Outreach involves getting in touch with site owners and journalists to build backlinks on other websites. There are tons of ways to approach outreach, such as targeting guest post opportunities or fixing broken links. 

We’ll talk about guest posts specifically in a bit. 

For now, a great way to find websites to target for outreach is to find partner pages on competing websites. 

Here’s an example of a partners page from Viseo, an IT consulting firm:

Image source

If you were in the IT space, you could target each of these companies for link outreach. 

Guest blog

Guest blogging is when you publish content on other websites. Building backlinks this way requires more effort, but it can improve your rankings and drive more traffic to your site.

Also, you should create an original post each time you write a guest blog on another website. 

While it may seem tempting to republish one of your existing posts, and you can definitely do that, you’ll find more success with writing original content. 

Besides, if you’re interested in getting more value out of existing content, you need to focus on content syndication instead. 

For more tips on guest blogging (and where to find opportunities), check out this guide. 

Social media (LinkedIn) 

Interacting with your target audience on social media is an off-page SEO must, but it looks a bit different for B2B companies. 

Instead of producing lighthearted content for TikTok and Instagram, you’ll want to focus almost all of your efforts on LinkedIn. 

This is because LinkedIn is the holy grail of B2B marketing. 

Here are a few stats to prove this claim:

• A study by LinkedIn found that 4 out of 5 of its 900 million members actively drive business decisions, meaning they’re who you want to get your content in front of. 
• 82% of B2B marketers claim they find the most success on LinkedIn. 

To capitalize on LinkedIn’s popularity for B2B decision makers, you should:

• Engage in LinkedIn groups. Join LinkedIn groups directly related to your products and services, and participate in discussions with users there. This will help you forge new relationships and drive traffic to your website. 

• Publish articles. You should share thought leadership articles and other content you create on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to include links back to your website (without going nuts). 

Build a resource

Finally, creating a helpful resource is another way to build quality backlinks. An interactive app or calculator is often a good choice.

For us, we have our suite of free SEO tools, and they constantly generate valuable backlinks for our website. 

Here’s an example of a freight calculator from Freightos:

Image source

Digital PR and media coverage

One of the main goals of digital PR campaigns is to generate backlinks, and they tend to contain some creative strategies. 

In particular, digital PR link-building strategies include the following:

• Appearing on podcasts. The great thing about podcasts is they give you the chance to generate a backlink (usually in the podcast’s description) while spreading awareness for your brand. 

• Distributing press releases. Whenever something newsworthy happens at your organization, it’s perfectly acceptable to distribute a press release for it. The best part is you can include a few links back to your website. However, you should ensure your topics are truly newsworthy, such as onboarding a new C-suite member or adding a new department. 

• Guest posting on relevant websites. Digital PR is also big on guest posting due to its effectiveness for generating referral traffic and backlinks. You can use Google to find relevant guest post opportunities by searching for things like ‘your niche “guest post”.’ 

As a bonus, all these techniques will help you generate more traffic and spread brand awareness. 

Get listed on industry directories

Being listed in high-authority industry directories drives referral traffic and contributes to your SEO efforts. Make sure to:

• Submit your business to relevant B2B directories.
• Ensure that your business information is consistent across all listings (NAP: Name, Address, Phone number).
• Depending on your industry, use high-authority directories, such as Clutch, G2, or Trustpilot.

6. Optimize technical SEO factors

To quickly recap, technical SEO helps Google crawl and index your B2B website and provides a better browsing experience for your visitors.

Here’s a quick checklist to optimize the technical components of your website:

• Improve loading times. You need to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals test in order to achieve the highest rankings. 

• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so your site needs a functioning mobile version (or a responsive design). 

• Create an XML sitemap. An XML sitemap is a list of all your URLs in XML format so that Googlebot can read it. This leads to much smoother crawling and indexing. 

• Fix any crawling errors. Speaking of crawling, there are lots of errors that can occur during the crawling and indexing process. Checking the Page Indexing Report on Google Search Console will provide a complete list of any errors that you need to fix. 

Want to see how well-optimized your site is? 

In the past, you’d have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to an SEO firm to get an audit.

Today, you can use our free SEO report tool instead and get comprehensive feedback in seconds.

Enter your name, email address, website URL, and phone number, and the tool will generate a detailed report for your site.

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The tool will check your technical SEO and look for issues with usability, security, and accessibility.

Final Thoughts: B2B SEO

There you have it — a complete B2B SEO guide to improve your visibility in search engine results.

This guide wasn’t exactly short, so here’s a recap of the main points:

1. B2B SEO is different from B2C because you have to appeal to various decision makers at companies. 
2. You should create multiple buyer personas to represent each decision maker you need to appeal to at your target companies. 
3. Thorough keyword research (including long-tail keywords) will help ensure the success of your B2B SEO campaign. 
4. You should optimize all product and landing pages with relevant keywords you uncovered during the research phase. 
5. Create compelling content for each stage of the buyer’s journey to capture leads and increase conversions. 
6. Build authoritative backlinks from other websites in your field to establish trust with Google and rank higher. 
7. Don’t forget to optimize your technical SEO to ensure your efforts pay off! 

Following the steps outlined here isn’t easy, but they will help you increase your Google rankings and drive more prospects to your landing pages.

If you need help creating and implementing a search strategy for your business, check out our fully managed service, HOTH X, to enjoy simple SEO success!