Blog / How to build an effective SEO strategy during challenging times

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art and science of persuading search engines like Google to recommend your content as the best matched solution to an online search.

The main benefit offered by SEO is that it will drive more traffic to your website, optimise leads and sales either organically (free) or paid for through online advertising (SEM).

According to Entrepreneur magazine, It’s hard to understate the value of SEO. More than 68 percent of all internet traffic starts with a search engine meaning if your web pages are properly optimised, you have a good chance of attracting relevant traffic without breaking the bank on paid ads. In these challenging times – that’s great news!

As a B2B business, you might want to pay an SEO agency to undertake your SEO requirements but there are no payments to the companies behind the search engines like Google.

This is what sets SEO apart from Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which refers to paid listings. While SEO can take time to deliver results, SEM can increase product visibility more quickly.

How to implement SEO for B2B?

In simple terms, building an SEO strategy has 3 basic steps:

-Find keywords (related to what you’re selling) that your target customers are searching for on Google

-Create search-optimised pages that best answer those searches

-Build links to those pages

Who needs SEO services?

All ambitious businesses that want to grow! In this era of digital commerce, every website needs the SEO treatment for better visibility and ranking. From multinational to fast growth SMEs, the expertise of an SEO agency can play a vital role in any competitive landscape. Websites that sell similar goods or services will have difficulty in outranking other sites that are well optimised.

What is SEO for B2B?

B2B focused SEO is the practice of using various techniques – like keyword research and a page’s metadata to reach the individual decision-makers of a company.

A successful strategy means that someone actively researching the product or service that you’re offering reaches your company’s website quicker and more readily than other service websites.

What are keywords in SEO?

Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called “search queries.”

What are negative keywords in SEO?

Identifying and implementing the right negative keywords to your paid campaigns will ensure your budget goes where you intend.

There are a few different elements to B2B SEO and each one has a function in your overall strategy.

Technical SEO: This is the work done ‘behind the scenes’ that make up the core and fundamental functionality of a website. It covers areas like your XML sitemap, load speed and design. Read more about technical SEO here

Content SEO: This is the practice for using research on user needs and search intent to create content. SEO will significantly increase the value of your website content and will help your buyers build trust and confidence in your business.

For B2B specifically, your buyers want to know that the businesses they work with understand their challenges, are trusted providers and can implement the right solutions.

In order to curate the best content, go through the steps of research, ideation, content creation and promotion. Read more about content for SEO here

On-page SEO: This is about increasing visibility for the web content. On a page or blog post, it includes the meta description and title tag, alt text on images and structuring the content so information is relevant to both the user and findable by search engines.

Off-page SEO: Otherwise known as backlinks. This is about having well ranked website pages link to your website which in turn drive further credibility and engagement

How does SEO help my B2B business?

The quick answer? SEO helps a business create fast, robust, user-friendly and visible websites that rank higher in search engines.

SEO helps deliver business authority and credibility by driving valuable backlinks through third party media endorsement. Comprehensive, strategically built SEO services are guaranteed to bring more qualified customers.

Why are SEO services so important?

SEO is one of the most important growth tactics for B2B companies. Having strong organic visibility across all stages of the buying cycle is a proven way to accelerate growth.

Whether B2B or B2C, SEO services are a valuable part of digital marketing and growth for businesses of all sizes. The online commercial revolution is on fast forward and any business in a competitive marketplace needs to harness all the available tools to enhance their visibility. But which digital marketing tools to select? This is where an expert SEO agency can deliver that business consultancy with high quality search results and traffic to your website.

What is the SEO process for business?

Our team of SEO experts take a systemic approach to developing a strategic SEO plan for your business. This includes:

1. A technical website audit. In essence, a 360 degree health check and rapid remedy of any website issues such as loading speed, site maps and broken links.

2. Customer understanding. This is about deep diving your customer profiles or ‘personas’ and researching their needs and behaviour intent. Serving content that will match what your customers looking for will their purchase triggers will help curate the best type of engagement.

3. A comprehensive keyword audit. This phase includes thorough keyword/search query research. We look at the ratio between popular keyword costs and ranking as well as your competitive landscape, ensuring language and descriptions are relevant for search, market nuances and most importantly your customer’s persona.

4. Off site optimisation. Google loves credible backlinks and so do we! Never more than now is Google putting value on authority third parties and media that endorse your business and its website. Equally, Google will penalise any toxic backlinks. Our SEO consultancy takes full account of your content, removing bad links, recommending good ones and offering a comprehensive content calendar that builds traffic to your website.

5. Content marketing. In best practice, content marketing and SEO need to work together. As a new brand, you should create content with search engine requirements in mind. As a brand with an existing library of content, it is worth reviewing your content to ensure it benefits your search engine.

6. Keeping focused is the key to developing successful content. For example, if you are offering separate online courses for languages and personal finance, avoid putting both types of courses on the same page. Instead, create a separate language course page and another personal finance page. You may even want to break down the language courses into individual languages.

7. Performance reporting. Once the strategy is drawn, it’s time to take action. Somebody Digital’s team of SEO experts are renowned for their agility and rapid responsiveness. We are data takers! Constantly evaluating performance success and swiftly adapting campaign activity and nuances for maximum effect.

What is the difference between paid and organic SEO?

Quite simply – the cost! While organic search focuses on unpaid rankings in search results, paid search focuses on paid rankings. With organic search, companies use SEO to optimise their site’s visibility or rankings in search results.

A rule of thumb is that if you’re looking for the quickest results, paid search is better but if you’re looking for the most cost-effective results, the answer becomes less clear cut. In general, organic search is more cost-effective in the long run.

Another great benefit of organic search is that it helps to attract a greater number of relevant users to your website. While paid search tactics let you target very specific audiences, focusing on organic methods can help you to bring in many different groups of users at once.

What is included in SEO for B2B services?

Our SEO services cover a range of activity from technical site SEO audits to keyword mapping, high quality content, backlinks and SEO strategy. Our team of SEO experts are methodical and systematic, integrating SEO with multiple digital marketing services to customise the best approach for your business.