B2B SEO Content – How to Approach Strategically

Today's post is an excerpt from The MFS Guide to B2B SEO: How to Integrate SEO into a Broader B2B Marketing Strategy.

B2B SEO content is the final SEO pillar we have laid out. This area requires a good deal of strategic consideration. On the one hand you want to create content that will rank for your target keywords, on the other, you want to rank in such a way that does not betray your company’s focus, value proposition, or messaging. There are certain SEO pages you can create that will do little for communicating your value proposition while there are others that will perfectly encapsulate your value proposition but may not come with any SEO or ranking capacity.

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In our view, SEO content represents something of a balancing act between strategic considerations and tactical SEO execution. Before delving into the various SEO content tactics B2B companies can leverage, let us first ponder the question of how SEO content should be approached.

B2B SEO Content - Questions to Consider

As you weigh up your SEO content strategy, you should first ask yourself a number of questions.

What exactly do you want to achieve?
Are you happy to boost website visitors with the goal of spreading awareness of your product or do you envisage more targeted visitors engaging with your site that are further along in their decision-making process?
How do you want to achieve your SEO goals?
If you are focused on general awareness, are you happy to embark on a production-heavy content schedule or would you prefer a situation where you produce less content but it is more tailored to your target buyer persona?
Where specifically do you see your SEO content fitting into your sales cycle?
What are your short term, medium term, and long term SEO goals and how do they fit in with your broader GTM strategy?

B2B SEO Content - Routes Forward

With these questions answered, the way you want to approach your SEO content program will start to become a lot clearer. In general, we have found that there are a number of possible routes forward and each has their own merits. Depending on the particulars of your unique situation, the following are possible SEO content routes forward.

1. B2B SEO Content - Basic Route

Some companies do not want to concern themselves with a SEO content arms race and instead focus on optimizing their core site. This approach would mean getting all those off-page, on-page, and technical SEO aspects up to scratch. With this approach, SEO content would be limited to the core website pages and would not include a blog or additional website sections.

This approach is relatively straightforward and does have a number of things going for it:

Quick to implement.
Does not require an expensive outlay on content production.

In terms of drawbacks, there are some however:

By focusing only on the basics, companies who adopt this approach miss out on potential keyword targeting opportunities.
There is limited scope for growing website visitors once the tasks around technical, on-page, and off-page SEO have been completed.

In general, this approach will suit companies who operate in a very specific niche where the most important keywords will naturally be targeted by the homepage and other main site pages. Similarly, companies who have not yet figured out their future direction might adopt this approach to SEO initially while they are figuring out their value proposition and ideal customer profile.

2. B2B SEO Content - Awareness Route

Putting together SEO content to drive awareness of your company or product is a tried and true policy that has generated impressive results for many. HubSpot might be one of the finest examples here. The company that brought you inbound marketing software have themselves demonstrated the ultimate example of SEO content and its role in inbound marketing and awareness.

The general course of action here is to identify keyword terms that your buyer persona is likely to search for. The next step is building the website content necessary to rank for this term, and the final step is converting this visitor to a lead once they visit this page on your site. In theory - and in practice for 10 years+ it must be said - this route does bring results.

However, it is a route that is not suitable for every company, and, in the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changing. Content today is produced more rapidly than ever before meaning it is now harder to rank for terms than it once was. Google continues to update the search results page - with more and more key real estate being devoted to paid results. And, most recently, the introduction into search results of AI summaries means that organic web traffic across the board is in decline.

If you are adopting a content-heavy strategy that builds awareness content, then you might need to reconsider that policy. Organic traffic can still be targeted but you will not see the increases in traffic that this approach would have garnered even as recently as a year ago.

3. B2B SEO Content - Targeted Route

Adopting a very targeted approach to SEO content is an increasingly popular route. Given the issues outlined above associated with awareness content, it is starting to make sense for companies to focus their SEO content efforts on highly targeted content that might come with visitors who are lower in number but higher in buying intent. The type of keywords targeted here would typically be longer-tail keywords - a phrase or combination of keywords that is specifically related to a company’s buyer persona.

The other factor influencing a transition towards a more targeted approach to SEO content is the changes in B2B buyer behavior. The modern buyer is now on average much further along in the decision-making process than they were previously. In the past, buyers would come to a website early in their decision-making process and companies would aim to convert the buyer into a lead and hand it over to a business development or sales rep to take it from there. Now, buyers come to a website more informed than ever and are using more specific search queries signaling a more in-depth knowledge of both their problem and the various solutions available. It is now more important for companies to get their value proposition across on their site in a way that speaks directly to the buyer’s situation and needs.

The other aspect to consider here is web visitors today are also less likely to fill in their contact information on a form than they previously were - which means web pages will have to do their bit to move buyers through the sales cycle in a way that was previously managed by a sales rep.

A typical example of a more targeted piece of SEO content would be a competitor comparison or alternative page. This page would target someone who is searching for alternatives to your competitor. Unless there is widespread dissatisfaction with your competitor, then this page will not get you a huge increase in website visitors. It might not even get you 10 visitors a month - but, it will get you a small number of highly qualified potential buyers. Typical SEO metrics around traffic, impressions, etc. go out the window here - but the one metric you might see an increase in is the most important metric of them all - revenue!

4. B2B SEO Content - Mixed Route

Finally, the other possible route for companies to take is a mix of both awareness and targeted SEO content. Awareness content still has its place and may be used by companies that are in the startup phase, launching a new product, or testing out a potential foray into a new area. Similarly, companies who have a very quick sales cycle or self-sign up solution may put a lot of resources into SEO awareness content as an increase in visitors can quickly impact their bottom line. For others, a mix of both targeted and awareness SEO content will help them build up different areas of their sales pipeline and both routes will bring value.

B2B SEO Content - Types of Content

There are any number of content types you can use on your SEO journey - below are some of the content types we have seen used most effectively to drive traffic.

Infographics - Everyone loves a nice graphic. Infographics have a lot of shareability and have been used successfully by companies to generate backlinks.

Group Interviews - Another tactic B2B companies use is to create group interviews that target a keyword. These group interviews can take a bit of work to create in that they require outreach and communication to gather the participants - but, they tend to be widely shared by the participants. Group interviews are a way to leverage the existing audiences of the participants to share a post on your own website.

Best of Lists - These lists have been used successfully by many companies over the years to rank for target keywords. Possibly, the value of these types of posts has dwindled over the years such is their widespread popularity.

Research Content - Publishing proprietary research can be very effective from an SEO perspective as there is a high likelihood of many others linking to your research if you can identify some data that would be of interest to others in your industry. Research content would not typically be used to rank for a particular keyword, instead it would be used primarily as a way to build up some backlinks to your website.

Definitive Guides - We’ve all seen them and we’ve probably all learned something from the many definitive guides on the internet today. These posts are lengthy and will take a bit of work to complete - usually covering areas like best practices, tips, common mistakes, etc. While these posts might be suffering from a little bit of over-exposure, they may still have some value - particularly if you are targeting a niche that is not already inundated with definitive guide search results.

Definition and Best Practice Posts - These basic awareness types of pages are probably two that have suffered the most with the AI overviews that now sit on top of the search results page.

Podcasts - Podcasts can come with a surprising amount of SEO value. For a start, you can generate some shareability with guests who will share the podcast episodes with their own existing audience or network. Another tip here would be to take a transcript of the podcast and re-use it as a blog post - helping you to target some keywords in a very natural and organic way.

Guest Posts - We have already mentioned guest posts earlier in the guide as a possible off-page SEO tactic. While not as effective as they once were, there is still some value here in terms of backlink and are worth at least considering adding to your SEO content mix.

B2B SEO Content - Best Practices

As you develop your SEO content, you should keep the following best practices in mind.

Quality Over Quantity - Even before AI-generated content came into play, the rate at which content was being produced was in overdrive. Such is the state of the modern content environment that it makes little sense for B2B companies to engage in a kind of content arms race where rapid production is the goal. Instead, B2B companies are better served focusing on quality over content and develop SEO content that is highly targeted and linked with the company's strategic goals.

Your Value Proposition is Sacrosanct - Your core website should follow best practices around on-page and technical SEO, but your messaging should not be cheapened by opportunistic use of keywords etc. As you target new keywords, you should create a separate section on your website to do so - be it a blog or something from left field.

Hone in on High Value Terms - We do not mean high value in terms of PPC. What we mean here is high value terms as terms from which you can plot out a clear path to revenue growth. These are terms that will most likely be long-tail keywords, with a lower but highly qualified number of visitors.

Test with PPC Campaigns - One of the drawbacks you will hear about PPC is that there is no lasting value once you switch off a campaign. This drawback is also an advantage however as PPC can give you a way to test out your hypotheses before you build up some pages to rank organically. If your test PPC campaign does not generate the sales opportunities that you had initially envisaged, then you can simply switch it off and save yourself the workload that would have been required to build the pages you would have needed to rank organically.

Use Conversion Tactics with Care - Depending on the nature of your company and sales cycle, then conversion tactics should be carefully considered before they are introduced. A typical example would be the exit intent popover you see on many sites. These popovers can be effective, but they can also be annoying - so you will need to weigh up the possible trade offs here. Is an early stage lead valuable enough to you that you need to try and convert them with bold tactics like a popover or are you happy to accept that visitors leaving your site is all part of the buyer’s journey and simply getting in front of them is a good first step?

This post is an excerpt from the MFS Guide to B2B SEO: How to Integrate SEO into a Broader B2B Marketing Strategy. If you would like to read more you can access the guide in full here. If you have a marketing challenge you are looking for support with, you are welcome to set up a no obligation initial strategy consultation with our team.