B2B SEO – Setting up the Fundamentals

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

Whether your company is B2B or B2C, SEO fundamentals stay the same - or at least mostly the same. Search engine optimization or SEO is defined as the process and set of activities involved in increasing a website’s visibility on the search engine results page (SERP).

ACCESS THE MFS GUIDE TO B2B SEO HERE →

B2B SEO Fundamentals

Within SEO there are four main fundamentals to consider:

On-Page SEO - On page SEO refers to the various components of a web page and how they can be optimized to boost search rankings. The most important components of on-page SEO include page content, keywords, metadata, HTML tags, URL structure, internal linking, image optimization, and user experience.
SEO Content - SEO content more broadly refers to the content companies and individuals create specifically to rank for certain target keywords. The process here typically involves companies doing some keyword research on terms and topics related to their business and sizing up factors like competition, keyword search volume, and user search intent. The next step would be developing the specific SEO content necessary to rank for said keyword terms.
Off-Page SEO - Traditional off-page SEO referred to backlinks specifically but has been expanded over the years to include other factors such as social signal (likes, shares, etc. from social media sites), media coverage, and general trustworthiness - which ties in with Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) framework.
Technical SEO - Technical SEO is focused on the technical setup of your website - in particular, how easy it is for search engines like Google to crawl and index your site. Other factors come into play here such as sitemaps, site speed, mobile friendliness, site architecture, HTTPS, and more.

Building Your SEO Foundations

For a B2B company looking to improve their SEO, the question to consider here becomes about where to start. Our advice to companies embarking on an SEO project would be to follow this course of action:

1. Work on Technical SEO

Start as you mean to go on. If you are starting a new company website, then you should keep all the technical SEO best practices in mind as you build. If you already have an existing site, then you can either reach out to an SEO company to do a technical site audit or use an in-house resource or SEO platform to run the audit for you. We will delve into more detail on the technical SEO foundations later in this guide, but the main goal at this point is to get your website into a position where there are no technical reasons holding you back from traffic growth.

The other factor to keep in mind here is that, for the most part, this technical step can be performed once early on in your SEO project and it will leave you in a good position to build out your SEO strategy. You can not however totally ignore technical SEO as you move forward, and you should run regular or semi regular site audits to ensure your site is performing well from a technical standpoint. Any issues that emerge can and should be quickly addressed to help you maintain SEO progress. The SEO best practice here is for the bulk of this technical work to be completed during the initial setup phase before moving to what essentially amounts to an upkeep phase afterwards.

2. Set Up On-Page Basics

There is some crossover between technical SEO and on-page SEO. By following technical SEO best practices, many of the on-page best practices will already be in place. There are some general guidelines about on-page SEO however that you should still keep in mind. We will delve into some on-page specifics later in this guide, but, for now, the key thing to keep in mind here is that you do not want any components of your web page templates to contain issues that will halt your progress.

Issues around title tags, meta descriptions, image optimization, and page speed, can compound very quickly if - as is the case with many websites - you are using a template-based approach which will see the same on-page SEO errors replicated across your site if you are not careful. On-page SEO will be an ongoing take, but you can get the fundamentals in place early on in your SEO project so that you will end up in a position where on-page best practices end up being replicated all across your site as you develop more content.

3. Set Up Off-Page Basics

Off-page SEO and specifically the area of generating backlinks for your website is an SEO activity that should be done on an ongoing basis. However, there are some basic steps you can complete that will leave your company and website in a solid position from which you can build out your SEO program. In terms of basics, you should set up some or all of the following:

Social Media Sites - Admittedly, these links will be nofollow and will not pass on any SEO juice, but they will help you generate some referral traffic and won’t do any harm. You can also share new content on your socials as it is created - giving you another channel to potentially get in front of relevant prospects.
Local SEO Listings - Local SEO plays an increasingly important part in Google’s algorithm. If your business is reliant on local customers, then this step is particularly important. You should create a Google Business account for your company. Here you can add a link to your website and company address. Also, be sure to add your address or addresses to the footer or somewhere else suitable on your website.
Online Directories - Set up accounts for your company on all relevant directory websites. Here you can generate some targeted referral traffic and will also be able to get a valuable link to your site for a relatively small time investment.

Backlining and Off-Page SEO will be an ongoing strategy and later on in this guide we will delve into further depth here - but, initially anyway, you want to set up the basics mentioned above by going foraging for some of that famous low hanging fruit we hear so much about.

4. Set Your SEO Content Goals

Keywords and content are a key part of SEO. Typically, the process would go something along the lines of researching keywords you want to rank for on Google and then developing the necessary content to rank for those terms. As you plan out your SEO content strategy however it is important not to overlook strategy. SEO is a marketing activity - and it should be used as an important part of your marketing strategy. It should not overtake strategic concerns.

One of the most common SEO mistakes we see in B2B today is companies embarking on expensive SEO initiatives that increase website traffic, but have little or no impact on the bottom line. In fact, it is this very reason that we have decided to put together this resource - a guide that addresses SEO and its role within a greater B2B marketing strategy.

We will do some in-depth analysis on SEO and content later in this guide, covering some of the most effective tactics, best practices, general tips, and, specifically, how SEO can be balanced with core positioning concerns like value proposition and messaging. But, as you start out on your SEO initiative and build up your foundations - the first step in terms of SEO content that we would recommend would be to set out the exact goals you want to achieve. SEO, in our opinion, should be linked to revenue goals.

The SEO content you develop should serve a real purpose - in the past, companies have successfully put together content that would be considered top of the funnel content - helping to generate awareness and bring prospects that are at an early stage in their decision-making process to the company website. Other companies might target more focused or longer-tail keywords that will generate less site visits, but will have much more intent. Setting out your SEO content goals at this early point will help you develop an approach to SEO that is best suited to your business.

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.