Semalt B2B SEO And SEO In Marketing: What Do The Companies Have To Consider?
The goal of any company that owns a website is visibility. As we all know, the visibility starts with a good SEO of your site. But how does SEO work-especially in the B2B field? And how should you proceed to get your website targeted on Google? And that is the main objective of Semalt to support the companies to have a good visibility and to achieve better results; we considered it necessary to give a clear answer to these deferent questions. So, in this article, we will clarify the most important basics, technical terms, procedures and tactics for B2B SEO.
How do B2B companies manage to get hold of a suitable placement on the search engines giant's SERP?
First of all, it is important to understand how your target audience searches on Google (or other search engines).
Because the searchers usually know their own problem - but usually they do not yet know the solution to it and certainly the providers of those solutions. That means, in order to do really a good SEO with content, you have to know the problems of your target group
You have to optimize your content for these problems. And in your content, you also have to answer all the relevant questions from your users.
But most of all: google your keyword and look at the search results. In this way you can also determine the search intention of the users and know how to structure your content. In addition, you can read in well-ranking articles which related keywords, phrases and topics you also need to cover in your content. In the past, Google's Keyword Planner was often recommended as a free alternative. Today we can no longer do that with a clear conscience. The results that Google Ads gives out are just too vague. If you want to do SEO sustainably and successfully, you cannot avoid investing in an SEO tool. But the tools are not enough to achieve better results. So, the best is to entrust the SEO to a professional agency that will take care of you to quickly achieve the desired objectives.
SEO tools, are they worth it?
For example, we use two SEO tools: Sistrix and Semrush. For my personal experience here Sistrix has a very good overview of the general visibility and the fluctuations in the individual rankings:
Sistrix clearly shows the history of the URLs that rank as well as the history of the keywords that are placed in the Google search results. This way you can constantly check how the rankings are doing and whether the SEO strategy is paying off in the long term.
With Semrush, however, you can do extremely good and detailed keyword research using the Keyword Magic Tool:
Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool is ideal for the keyword research. For example, it shows suitable W-questions for the keyword, similar and related search queries as well as the search volume, competition and the keyword difficulty as well as competition density.
How do you place your content on Google with the meaningful keywords?
The search queries and the keywords have often the very low search volumes per month, especially for B2B and the niche topics in general. 100-500 search queries per month are already a lot for B2B topics. The companies deal often with the topics that are googled and have an average of 30-50 times per month.
So even if you can place your content on the first place of the SERP and achieve a click rate of 80% - that would be a very little traffic that you will get through Google to your website.
But you can remedy this: Terminology in B2B is not always uniform, the synonyms are often used and the word combinations are changed or rearranged. The trick is to let your content rank for all the topic-related to the search queries. And you can do this if you create the holistic content that covers the focus keywords, their synonyms and related or the other terms related to the topic.
Especially at the beginning of your search engine optimization, do not make the mistake of ignoring the keywords with a low search volume and immediately optimize it for the search queries that have around 5000 queries a month. As a rule here, you won't be able to place yourself in the top Google positions.
So concentrate on an entire set of the keywords: To do this, you first need to do a detailed topic and keyword research. This works particularly well with the ahrefs tool.
With the Keywords Explorer, you can find out how often the respective keyword is googled, which pages are currently ranking for it and how difficult it is to place yourself on the SERP for this keyword.
In addition, the related search queries as well as the questions and the keywords for which the articles also rank on the SERP are shown.
This gives you the first clues about which topics your content needs to cover, which questions in your content need to be answered and which keywords you need to dedicate a separate paragraph in your content.
How do you know when you can rank a post for multiple keywords and when you might need two or more posts to cover the topic holistically?
That depends primarily on the search intention behind the respective keyword. The search terms B2B lead generation and B2B lead generation have the same search intent and if you google both keywords, you will find that the SERPs are virtually identical.
Just take the test here: If you are not sure whether one post is enough to rank for two or three keywords, then compare the respective search results pages. If more than 60% (e.g. 6 out of 10) results match or if there are only the slight differences in the positions - then a piece of content - I mean a URL - is sufficient for you if you fully meet the search intention. However, if the results of the SERPs vary greatly, you will usually need the different pieces of content.
User experience and signals: important metric for SEO
"User experience" is often a foreign word in the B2B area. The term describes whether the users of the websites have a satisfactory surfing experience, for example quickly finding information they are looking for. Google has made the user experience, or rather the measurable signals from the users themselves, one of the most important ranking factors for Google.
Google has never stated exactly which factors these are and where the signals come from - that makes the B2B search engines optimization a little more difficult in terms of fulfilling the search intention. The key figures such as bounce rate, time on site and the number of the visited subpages should play a role. Google probably collects the signals through various channels: This includes the behavior on the search results page, but also the data from the widely used Chrome browser and from Google Analytics.
One example is the so-called "short click". If you call up a result on Google and then click on the browser's "back button" (without having made an interaction such as a click on the page), this is a negative user signal. Google now notes that the result does not match the search intention and tries to make up this with the "other searches also for ..."
How to maintain the user on the page?
The search result is penalized after too many short clicks and loses its good ranking. However, Google keeps the exact data for this to itself. For the content marketers, this means the following: It is not enough to optimize the snippet for the click; the user must also be kept on the page.
When you design a page and populate it with content, you should therefore always have an action or a path in mind that a visitor should take or follow in order to find the information they want. For example, give the click incentives in the first visible area instead of placing the extravagant advertising texts, work with the clear headings and lots of well-linked sub-pages instead of the cluttered pages.
Also, consider: if someone is not convinced enough to click, what information could pull him deeper into your website? Place this information in the next section of the page to encourage scrolling.
The visual delimitation of the individual sections is also important. Especially technical target groups jump with their eyes from anchor point to anchor point - make it easy for you. The same applies to longer texts, for example in the corporate blog. These should be well structured and accompanied by the thematically appropriate calls to action.
Important for content and technical search engines optimization: links in the content
One point that can change your rankings significantly is the links in your content. This is not about the backlinks that you get from other sites, but about the links that you set yourself. Both internal links and links to other websites.
The links are still a ranking factor that is checked by Google and can also be easily evaluated by the bot. You can remember that a structured internal link means that the search engine understands that you are dealing holistically with a certain topic. In addition, each internal link pushes the respective linked post and can help with a good Google ranking for the right search phrase.
External links, that means the links to other domains that you set yourself. However, you have to prove that your content is technically correct. If you set the links that underpin your content, for example studies and other contributions on this topic, you back up your statements with the sources and thus make your content trustworthy.
Make sure, that you always link to the pages of high quality in terms of subject matter and content and not to dubious the content, just because there may be what you want to express yourself. External links in B2B behave similarly to the source reference in the academic papers or whitepapers. The correctness should be checked.
Another elementary factor for good rankings is the B2B link building.
Tips for technical B2B search engines optimization
The technical SEO includes all the topics that happen on your website but have nothing to do with its content. Background: One of Google's goals is not just to improve the searchability, but also the Internet experience itself. That's why Google doesn't just force the webmasters to provide useful and easy-to-find information. If you want to be at the top of the ranking, you should also ensure that your website is a perfectly oiled machine "under the hood".
This concerns the structure of the online presence, the quality of the source code, the correct technical labeling of the content elements, the loading time, the server setup and much more. All sounds very technical to the common marketer. But do not worry: We do not go deep into the technical implementation at this point, especially since the websites are usually developed by the internal or external service providers. Rather, we give the keywords that the respective service provider should absolutely observe in order to do justice to all the aspects of the B2B search engines optimization.
Now comes mobile only
Optimization for mobile devices
The websites have been penalized in the rankings since 2015 if these sites are not optimized for display on the tablets and the smartphones. The development of a website should therefore always also consider the mobile presentation.
Because only a few months ago Google abolished the desktop index, which means that the rankings are only assigned according to the mobile index. Mobile first became mobile only.
You can see in Google Analytics whether your website's visitors come to your site more mobile or via desktop. Depending on the division, you should prioritize your attention. But keep in mind that the mobile viewing is extremely important to Google. And thanks to voice search and AI, the websites will be accessed much more frequently from the mobile devices in the future.
Tip: A decent CMS (Content Management System) offers you the topics that are already optimized for the mobile use. If that doesn't work 100 percent, various plugins can help.
These measures and specifications are particularly important, thanks to mobile only:
- Fast page loading time: The page MUST be loaded in less than 3 seconds, especially online
- Graphic optimization: Images, graphics, videos, etc. must also be accessible on the go
- Navigation, banners and disturbers: minimize these in the mobile view. Mobile content is often no longer legible due to the banners and the like
Clean code
Let your developer explain to you what measures he is considering for a clean code. You will only understand a quarter of this, but make sure that he really puts work into this point.
Also important in terms of code and B2B search engines optimization: using the right HTML designation for the right purpose. A heading defined as <H1> should only be used once on a subpage. The CSS stylings should be created globally as classes and should not be changed too often by hand for each individual HTML element. There are also the special formats that, for example, make a telephone number easily recognizable as such for the search engines.
Meta elements (Meta tags)
The classics of the search engines optimization, collectively known as a snippet: Meta Title (the linked heading of a hit on the search results page), Meta Description (the small teaser text under the heading) and Meta Keywords, a list of the keywords that can be created manually and which contain the content of a website - however, the latter have no longer any effect on your rankings. So it makes no difference whether you set the Meta keywords for your page or not.
The Meta elements used to be very important for the ranking. Today these elements mainly serve to boost the click rate on the search results pages. The calls to action in the Meta title are helpful for this, as are the clear arguments about the benefits in the Meta description.
So you should be very straight to the point in your snippet. Because even if Google tests your content, thanks to the optimization on the first search results page (SERP), the search engine will refer you back to the lower ranks if you do not generate any clicks or only short clicks.
Tips on the Meta elements
Meta Title: The keyword should ideally be at the beginning, it has to occur in any case. Now you should get to the heart of the page content and make it clear why your content is essential.
Meta Description: As I said, it does not have a direct impact on the ranking, but it influences whether your post is clicked. Explain how the searcher will benefit from clicking your post. Activating words like "now", "free", "benefit", "immediately" and "success" can make all the difference.
Test several versions and change your snippets regularly, because Google is also constantly changing its settings and ranking factors.
Make sure you adhere to Google's length specifications in order to produce a tidy image on the search results page. Here you will find all the tips for an optimized website in industrial marketing.
You can completely ignore the Meta keywords today.
Crawl optimization
The search engines' crawlbots are constantly on the move to find new or updated content. These robots do not stay on one page forever, which is why it's important to make its work as easy as possible. This happens, for example, with a correctly filled and inserted "Robots.txt" as well as the use of an XML sitemap, which is ideally entered via the Google Webmaster Tools. In addition, you should only index the pages that should actually rank.
Loading time optimization
People today run out of time and want to save data volume on the go. That is why Google prefers the websites that offer a slim and fast loading online presence. On the one hand, this requires the aforementioned code optimization, on the other hand, embedded media such as images should be kept as small as possible in terms of the file size. Test your Pagespeed with the free Google tool "Pagespeed Insights".
Conclusion B2B search engine optimization: These are the most important points
The most important point to keep in mind when it comes to SEO: If your website users are satisfied, so is Google. Because in the past the SEO texts were stuffed with keywords and the backlinks were shot onto the site from all the possible sources, Google is now going in a completely different direction. The search engine wants to satisfy its users. This means that the SEO must be done by an expert for the performance of your website and for your content to get better rankings. But for that, you don't have to worry about anything. Because with the Semalt AutoSEO pack, which is a real "full house", your online company will get:
- Better visibility of the website
- Page optimization
- Link building
- Search for keywords
- Web Analytics Reports.